Nationalism and racialism[edit]

Italian Fascism is based upon Italian nationalism, and in particular seeks to co

mplete what it considers as the incomplete project of Risorgimento by incorporat
ing Italia Irredenta ("unredeemed Italy") into the state of Italy.[1][9] The Nat
ional Fascist Party (PNF) founded in 1921, declared that the party was to serve
as "a revolutionary militia placed at the service of the nation. It follows a po
licy based on three principles: order, discipline, hierarchy".[9]
It identifies modern Italy as the heir to the Roman Empire and Italy during the
Renaissance, and promotes the cultural identity of Romanitas ("Roman-ness").[9]
Italian Fascism historically sought to forge a strong Italian Empire as a "Third
Rome", identifying ancient Rome as the "First Rome", and Renaissance-era Italy
as the "Second Rome".[9] Italian Fascism has emulated ancient Rome, and Benito M
ussolini in particular emulated ancient Roman leaders, such as Julius Caesar as
a model for the Fascists' rise to power, and Augustus as a model for empire-buil
ding.[10] Italian Fascism has directly promoted imperialism, such as within the
Doctrine of Fascism (1932) ghostwritten by Giovanni Gentile on behalf of Mussoli
ni, declared:
The Fascist state is a will to power and empire. The Roman tradition is here a p
owerful force. According to the Doctrine of Fascism, empire is not only territor
ial or military or mercantile concept, but a spiritual and moral one. One can th
ink of an empire, that is, a nation, which directly or indirectly guides other n
ations, without the need to conquer a single square kilometre of territory.
Benito Mussolini, Giovanni Gentile, Doctrine of Fascism (1932).
Irredentism and expansionism[edit]
Fascism emphasized the need for the restoration of the Mazzinian Risorgimento tr
adition that pursued the unification of Italy, that the Fascists claimed had bee
n left incomplete and abandoned in the Giolittian-era Italy.[11] Fascism sought
the incorporation of claimed "unredeemed" territories to Italy.
To the east of Italy, the Fascists claimed that Dalmatia was a land of Italian c
ulture whose Italians, including those of Italianized South Slavic descent, had
been driven out of Dalmatia and into exile in Italy, and supported the return of
Italians of Dalmatian heritage.[12] Mussolini identified Dalmatia as having str
ong Italian cultural roots for centuries via the Roman Empire and the Republic o
f Venice.[13] The Fascists especially focused their claims based on the Venetian
cultural heritage of Dalmatia, claiming that Venetian rule had been beneficial
for all Dalmatians and had been accepted by the Dalmatian population.[13] The Fa
scists were outraged after World War I, when the agreement between Italy and the
Entente Allies in the Treaty of London of 1915 to have Dalmatia join Italy, was
revoked in 1919.[13] The Fascist regime supported annexation of Yugoslavia's re
gion of Slovenia into Italy that already held a portion of the Slovene populatio
n, whereby Slovenia would become an Italian province,[14] resulting in a quarter
of Slovene ethnic territory and approximately 327,000 out of total population o
f 1.3[15] million Slovenes being subjected to forced Italianization.[16][17] The
Fascist regime supported annexation of Albania, claimed that Albanians were eth
nically linked to Italians through links with the prehistoric Italiotes, Illyria
n and Roman populations, and that the major influence exerted by the Roman and V
enetian empires over Albania justified Italy's right to possess it.[18] The Fasc
ist regime also justified the annexation of Albania on the basis that, because s
everal hundred thousand people of Albanian descent had been absorbed into societ
y in southern Italy already, the incorporation of Albania was a reasonable measu
re that would unite people of Albanian descent into one state.[19] The Fascist r
egime endorsed Albanian irredentism, directed against the predominantly Albanian
-populated Kosovo and Epirus - particularly in Chameria inhabited by a substanti
al number of Albanians.[20] After Italy annexed Albania in 1939, the Fascist reg
ime endorsed assimilating Albanians into Italians and colonizing Albania with It
alian settlers from the Italian Peninsula to gradually transform it into an Ital
ian land.[21] The Fascist regime claimed the Ionian Islands as Italian territory
, on the basis that the islands had belonged to the Venetian Republic from the m
id-14th until the 18th century.[22]
To the west of Italy, the Fascists claimed that the territories of Corsica, Nice
, and Savoy held by France, were Italian lands.[23][24] During the period of Ita
lian unification in 1860 to 1861, Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, Camillo B
enso, Count of Cavour who was leading the unification effort, faced opposition f
rom French Emperor Napoleon III who indicated that France would oppose Italian u
nification unless France was given Nice and Savoy that were held by Piedmont Sar
dinia, as France did not want a powerful state having control of all the passage
s of the Alps.[25] As a result, Piedmont-Sardinia was pressured to concede Nice
and Savoy to France in exchange for France accepting the unification of Italy.[2
6] The Fascist regime produced literature on Corsica that presented evidence of
the Italianit of the island.[27] The Fascist regime produced literature on Nice t
hat justified that Nice was an Italian land based on historic, ethnic, and lingu
istic grounds.[27] The Fascists quoted Medieval Italian scholar Petrarch who sai
d "The border of Italy is the Var; consequently Nice is a part of Italy".[27] Th
e Fascists quoted Italian national hero Giuseppe Garibaldi who said: "Corsica an
d Nice must not belong to France; there will come the day when an Italy mindful
of its true worth will reclaim its provinces now so shamefully languishing under
foreign domination".[27] Mussolini initially pursued promoting annexation of Co
rsica through political and diplomatic means, believing that Corsica could be an
nexed to Italy through first encouraging the existing autonomist tendencies in C
orsica and then independence of Corsica from France, that would be followed by a
nnexation of Corsica into Italy.[28]
To the north of Italy, the Fascist regime in the 1930s had designs on the largel
y Italian-populated region of Ticino and the Romansch-populated region of Graubnd
en in Switzerland (the Romansch are a people with a Latin-based language).[29] I
n November 1938, Mussolini declared to the Grand Fascist Council: "We shall brin
g our border to the Gotthard Pass".[30] The Fascist regime accused the Swiss gov
ernment of oppressing the Romansch people in Graubnden.[29] Mussolini argued that
Romansch was an Italian dialect and thus Graubnden should be incorporated into I
taly.[31] Ticino was also claimed because the region had belonged to the Duchy o
f Milan from the mid-fourteenth century until 1515.[32] Claim was also raised on
the basis that areas now part of Graubnden in the Mesolcina valley and Hinterrhe
in were held by the Milanese Trivulzio family, who ruled from the Mesocco Castle
in the late 15th century.[33] Also, during the summer of 1940, Galeazzo Ciano m
et with Hitler and Ribbentrop, and proposed to them the dissection of Switzerlan
d along the central chain of the Western Alps, which would have left Italy also
with the canton of Valais in addition to the claims raised earlier.[34]To the so
uth, the regime claimed the archipelago of Malta, which had been held by the Bri
tish since 1800.[35] Mussolini claimed that the Maltese language was a dialect o
f Italian, and theories about Malta being the cradle of the Latin civilization w
ere promoted.[35][36] Italian had been widely used in Malta in the literary, sci
entific and legal fields, and it was one of Malta's official languages until 193
7, when its status was abolished by the British as a response to Italy's invasio
n of Ethiopia.[37] Italian irredentists had claimed that territories on the coas
t of North Africa were Italy's Fourth Shore and used the historical Roman rule i
n North Africa as a precedent to justify the incorporation of such territories t
o Italian jurisdiction as being a "return" of Italy to North Africa.[38] In Janu
ary 1939, Italy annexed territories in Libya that it considered within Italy's F
ourth Shore, with Libya's four coastal provinces of Tripoli, Misurata, Benghazi,
and Derna becoming an integral part of metropolitan Italy.[39] At the same time
indigenous Libyans were given the ability to apply for "Special Italian Citizen
ship" which required such people to be literate in the Italian language and conf
ined this type of citizenship to be valid in Libya only.[39] Tunisia that had be
en taken by France as a protectorate in 1881, had the highest concentration of I
talians in North Africa, and its seizure by France had been viewed as an injury
to national honour in Italy at what they perceived as a "loss" of Tunisia from I
talian plans to incorporate it.[40] Upon entering World War II, Italy declared i
ts intention to seize Tunisia as well as the province of Constantine of Algeria
from France.[41]
To the south, the Fascist regime held interest in expanding Italy's African colo
nial possessions. In the 1920s, Italy regarded Portugal as a weak country that w
as unbecoming of a colonial power due to its weak hold on its colonies and misma
nagement of them, and, as such, Italy desired to annex Portugal's colonies.[42]
Italy's relations with Portugal were influenced by the rise to power of the auth
oritarian conservative nationalist regime of Salazar, which borrowed fascist met
hods; though Salazar upheld Portugal's traditional alliance with Britain.[42]
Racial theories[edit]
Further information: Italian Fascism and racism
In a 1921 speech in Bologna, Mussolini stated that "Fascism was born... out of a
profound, perennial need of this our Aryan and Mediterranean race".[43][44] In
this speech Mussolini was referring to Italians as being the Mediterranean branc
h of the Aryan Race, Aryan in the meaning of people of an Indo-European language
and culture.[45] Italian Fascism emphasized that race was bound by spiritual an
d cultural foundations, and identified a racial hierarchy based on spiritual and
cultural factors.[45] While Italian Fascism based its conception of race on spi
ritual and cultural factors, Mussolini explicitly rejected notions that biologic
ally "pure" races were still considered a relevant factor in racial classificati
on.[46] He claimed that Italianit had assimilatory capacity.[46] It used spiritua
l and cultural conceptions of race to make land claims on Istria, Slovenian terr
itory, Dalmatia and to justify an Italian sphere of influence in the Balkans bas
ed on then-present and historical Italian cultural influence in the Balkans.[47]
the Fascist regime imposed mandatory Italianization upon the German and South S
lav populations living within Italy's borders.[48] The Fascist regime abolished
the teaching of minority German and Slavic languages in schools, German and Slav
ic language newspapers were shut down, and geographical and family names in area
s of German or Slavic languages were to be Italianized and even inscriptions on
tombstones changed. They set fire to all Slovenian cultural homes.[48] This resu
lted in significant violence against South Slavs deemed to be resisting Italiani
zation.[48] The Fascist regime justified colonialism in Africa by claiming that
the spiritual and cultural superiority of Italians as part of the white race, ju
stified the right for Italy and other powers of the white race to rule over the
black race, while asserting that racial segregation of whites and blacks in its
colonies.[49] It claimed that Fascism's colonial goals were to civilize the infe
rior races and defend the purity of Western civilization from racial miscegenati
on that it claimed would harm the intellectual qualities of the white race.[49]
It claimed that the white race needed to increase its natality in order to avoid
being overtaken by the black and yellow races that were multiplying at a faster
rate than whites.[50]
Within Italy, the Italian Empire, and territory identified as spazio vitale for
Italy, a cultural-racial hierarchy that ranked the peoples in terms of value who
lived there, was clearly defined by 1940 during which plans for Italy's spazio
vitale were being formalized by the regime.[51] The Fascist regime considered It
alians to be superior to other Mediterranean peoples - including Latin, Slavic a
nd Hellenic peoples - because only Italians had achieved racial unity and full p
olitical consciousness via the Fascist regime.[51] Latin, Slavic, and Hellenic p
eoples were regarded as superior to Turkic, Semitic, and Hamitic peoples.[51] Am
ongst indigenous peoples of Africa, the racial hierarchy regarded indigenous Nor
th Africans as superior superior to indigenous people in Italian East Africa.[51
]
Italian Fascism strongly rejected the common Nordicist conception of the Aryan R
ace that idealized "pure" Aryans as having certain physical traits that were def
ined as Nordic such as blond hair and blue eyes.[52] Nordicism was divisive beca
use Italians - and especially southern Italians had faced discrimination from No
rdicist proponents in countries like the United States out of the view that non-
Nordic southern Europeans were inferior to Nordics.[53] In Italy, the influence
of Nordicism had a divisive effect in which the influence resulted in Northern I
talians regarding themselves to be part of the Nordic race and thus through thei
r racial heritage a civilized people while negatively regarding southern Italian
s as being biologically destined to commit evil deeds.[54] Mussolini and other F
ascists held antipathy to Nordicism because of what they viewed as an inferiorit
y complex of people of Mediterranean racial heritage that they claimed had been
instilled into Mediterraneans by the propagation of such theories by German and
Anglo-Saxon Nordicists who viewed Mediterranean peoples as racially degenerate a
nd thus in their view inferior.[52] However traditional Nordicist claims of Medi
terraneans being degenerate due to having a darker colour of skin than Nordics h
ad long been rebuked in anthropology through the depigmentation theory that clai
med that lighter skinned peoples had been dipigmented from a darker skin, this t
heory has since become a widely accepted view in anthropology.[55] Anthropologis
t Carleton S. Coon in his work The races of Europe (1939) subscribed to depigmen
tation theory that claimed that Nordic race's light-coloured skin was the result
of depigmentation from their ancestors of the Mediterranean race.[56] Mussolini
refused to allow Italy to return again to this inferiority complex, initially r
ejecting Nordicism.[52]
In the early 1930s, with the rise to power of the Nazi Party in Germany with Fhre
r Adolf Hitler's emphasis on a Nordicist conception of the Aryan Race, strong te
nsions arose between the Fascists and the Nazis over racial issues. In 1934, in
the aftermath of Austrian Nazis killing Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss,
an ally of Italy, Mussolini became enraged and responded by angrily denouncing N
azism. Mussolini rebuked Nazism's Nordicism, claiming that the Nazis' emphasizin
g of a common Nordic "Germanic race" was absurd, saying "a Germanic race does no
t exist. ... We repeat. Does not exist. Scientists say so. Hitler says so."[57]
The fact that Germans were not purely Nordic was indeed acknowledged by prominen
t Nazi racial theorist Hans F. K. Gnther in his book Rassenkunde des deutschen Vo
lkes (1922) ("Racial Science of the German People"), where Gnther recognized Germ
ans as being composed of five Aryan subtype races: Nordic, Mediterranean, Dinari
c, Alpine, and East Baltic while asserting that the Nordics were the highest in
a racial hierarchy of the five subtypes.[58]
By 1936, the tensions between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany reduced and relatio
ns became more amicable. In 1936, Mussolini decided to launch a racial program i
n Italy, and was interested in the racial studies being conducted by Giulio Cogn
i.[59] Cogni was a Nordicist but did not equate Nordic identity with Germanic id
entity as was commonly done by German Nordicists.[60] Cogni had travelled to Ger
many where he had become impressed by Nazi racial theory and sought to create hi
s own version of racial theory.[61] On 11 September 1936, Cogni sent Mussolini a
copy of his newly published book Il Razzismo (1936).[59] Cogni declared the rac
ial affinity of the Mediterranean and Nordic racial subtypes of the Aryan race a
nd claimed that the intermixing of Nordic Aryans and Mediterranean Aryans in Ita
ly produced a superior synthesis of Aryan Italians.[60] Cogni addressed the issu
e of racial differences between northern and southern Italians, declaring southe
rn Italians were mixed between Aryan and non-Aryan races, that he claimed was mo
st likely due to infiltration by Asiatic peoples in Roman times and later Arab i
nvasions.[59] As such, Cogni viewed Southern Italian Mediterraneans as being pol
luted with orientalizing tendencies.[59] Initially Mussolini was not impressed w
ith Cogni's work, however Cogni's ideas later entered into the official Fascist
racial policy several years later.[59]
In 1938 Mussolini was concerned that if Italian Fascism did not recognize Nordic
heritage within Italians, that the Mediterranean inferiority complex would retu
rn to Italian society.[52] Therefore in summer 1938, the Fascist government offi
cially recognized Italians as having Nordic heritage and being of Nordic-Mediter
ranean descent and in a meeting with PNF members, and in June 1938 in a meeting
with PNF members, Mussolini identified himself as Nordic and declared that previ
ous policy of focus on Mediterraneanism was to be replaced by a focus on Aryanis
m.[52]
The Fascist regime began publication of the racialist magazine La Difesa della R
aza in 1938.[62] The Nordicist racial theorist Guido Landra took a major role in
the early work of La Difesa, and published the Manifesto of Racial Scientists i
n the magazine in 1938.[63] The Manifesto received substantial criticism, includ
ing its assertion of Italians being a "pure race", as it was viewed as absurd.[6
3] La Difesa published other theories that described long-term Nordic Aryan amon
gst Italians, such as the theory that in the Eneolithic age Nordic Aryans arrive
d to Italy.[64] Many of the writers took up the traditional Nordicist claim that
the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was due to the arrival of Semitic immi
grants.[64] La Difesa's writers were divided on their claims that described how
Italians extricated themselves from Semitic influence.[63]
The Nordicist direction of Fascist racial policy was challenged in 1938 by a res
urgence of the Mediterraneanist faction in the PNF.[65] By 1939, the Mediterrane
anists advocated a nativist racial theory which rejected ascribing the achieveme
nts of the Italian people to Nordic peoples.[65] This nativist racial policy was
prominently promoted by Ugo Rellini.[65] Rellini rejected the notion of large s
cale invasions of Italy by Nordic Aryans in the Eneolithic age, and claimed that
Italians were an indigenous people descended from the Cro-Magnons.[66] Rellini
claimed that Mediterranean and later Nordic peoples arrived and peacefully inter
mixed in small numbers with the indigenous Italian population.[66]
In 1941 the PNF's Mediterraneanists through the influence of Giacomo Acerbo put
forward a comprehensive definition of the Italian race.[67] However these effort
s were challenged by Mussolini's endorsement of Nordicist figures with the appoi
ntment of staunch spiritual Nordicist Alberto Luchini as head of Italy's Racial
Office in May 1941, as well as with Mussolini becoming interested with Julius Ev
ola's spiritual Nordicism in late 1941.[67] Acerbo and the Mediterraneanists in
his High Council on Demography and Race sought to bring the regime back to suppo
rting Mediterraneanism by thoroughly denouncing the pro-Nordicist Manifesto of t
he Racial Scientists.[67] The Council recognized Aryans as being a linguistic-ba
sed group, and condemned the Manifesto for denying the influence of pre-Aryan ci
vilization on modern Italy, saying that the Manifesto "constitutes an unjustifia
ble and undemonstrable negation of the anthropological, ethnological, and archae
ological discoveries that have occurred and are occurring in our country".[67] F
urthermore the Council denounced the Manifesto for "implicitly" crediting German
ic invaders of Italy in the guise of the Lombards for having a "a formative infl
uence on the Italian race in a disproportional degree to the number of invaders
and to their biological predominance".[67] The Council claimed that the obvious
superiority of the ancient Greeks and Romans in comparison with the ancient Germ
anic tribes made it inconceivable that Italian culture owed a debt to ancient Ar
yan Germans.[67] The Council denounced the Manifesto's Nordicist supremacist att
itude towards Mediterraneans that it claimed was "considering them as slaves" an
d was "a repudiation of the entire Italian civilization".[67]
In his early years as Fascist leader, while Mussolini harboured negative stereot
ypes of Jews he did not hold a firm stance on Jews, and his official stances osc
illated and shifted to meet the political demands of the various factions of the
Fascist movement, rather than having any concrete stance.[68] Mussolini had hel
d anti-Semitic beliefs prior to becoming a Fascist, such as in a 1908 essay on t
he topic of Nietzsche's bermensch, in which Mussolini condemned "pallid Judeans"
for "wrecking" the Roman Empire; and in 1913 as editor of the Italian Socialist
Party's (PSI) Avanti! newspaper again wrote about the Jews having caused havoc i
n ancient Rome.[69] Although Mussolini held these negative attitudes, he was awa
re that Italian Jews were a deeply integrated and small community in Italy whom
were by in large perceived favourably in Italy for fighting valiantly for Italy
in World War I.[70] Of the 117 original members of the Fasci Italiani di Combatt
imento, founded on 23 March 1919, five were Jewish.[71] Since the movement's ear
ly years, there were a small number of prominent openly anti-Semitic Fascists su
ch as Roberto Farinacci.[72] There were also prominent Fascists who completely r
ejected anti-Semitism, such as Italo Balbo who lived in Ferrara that had a subst
antial Jewish community that was accepted and anti-Semitic incidents were rare i
n the city.[73]
In response to his observation of large numbers of Jews amongst the Bolsheviks,
and claims (that were later confirmed to be true) that the Bolsheviks and German
y (that Italy was fighting in World War I) were politically connected, Mussolini
said anti-Semitic statements involving the Bolshevik-German connection as being
an "unholy alliance between Hindenburg and the synagogue".[74] Mussolini came t
o believe rumours that Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin was of Jewish descent.[74
] In an article in Il Popolo d'Italia in June 1919, Mussolini wrote a highly ant
i-Semitic analysis on the situation in Europe involving Bolshevism following the
October Revolution, the Russian Civil War, and war in Hungary involving the Hun
garian Soviet Republic.[75]
If Petrograd (Pietrograd) does not yet fall, if [General] Denikin is not moving
forward, then this is what the great Jewish bankers of London and New York have
decreed. These bankers are bound by ties of blood to those Jews who in Moscow as
in Budapest are taking their revenge on the Aryan race that has condemned them
to dispersion for so many centuries. In Russia, 80 percent of the managers of th
e Soviets are Jews, in Budapest 17 out of 22 people's commissars are Jews. Might
it not be that bolshevism is the vendetta of Judaism against Christianity?? It
is certainly worth pondering. It is entirely possible that bolshevism will drown
in the blood of a pogrom of catastrophic proportions. World finance is in the h
ands of the Jews. Whoever owns the strongboxes of the peoples is in control of t
heir political systems. Behind the puppets (making peace) in Paris, there are th
e Rothschilds, the Warburgs, the Schiffs, the Guggenheims who are of the same bl
ood who are conquering Petrograd and Budapest. Race does not betray race....Bols
hevism is a defense of the international plutocracy. This is the basic truth of
the matter. The international plutocracy dominated and controlled by Jews has a
supreme interest in all of Russian life accelerating its process of disintegrati
on to the point of paroxysm. A Russia that is paralyzed, disorganized, starved,
will be a place where tomorrow the bourgeoisie, yes the bourgeoisie, o proletari
ans will celebrate its spectacular feast of plenty.
Benito Mussolini, Il Popolo d'Italia, June 1919.[75]
This statement by Mussolini on a Jewish-Bolshevik-plutocratic connection and con
spiracy was met with opposition in the Fascist movement, resulting in Mussolini
responding to this opposition amongst his supporters by abandoning this stance s
hortly afterwards in 1919.[74] Upon abandoning this stance due to opposition to
it, Mussolini no longer said his previous assertion that Bolshevism was Jewish,
but warned that due to the large numbers of Jews in the Bolshevik movement, the
rise of Bolshevism in Russia would result in a ferocious wave of anti-Semitism i
n Russia.[74] He then claimed that "anti-Semitism is foreign to the Italian peop
le" but warned Zionists that they should be careful not to stir up anti-Semitism
in "the only country where it has not existed".[74]
Early on there were prominent Jewish Italian Fascists such as Aldo Finzi[76] Fin
zi was born of a mixed marriage of a Jewish and Christian Italian, he was baptiz
ed as a Catholic.[77] Margherita Sarfatti was an influential Jewish member of th
e PNF whom Mussolini had known since he and her had been members of the Italian
Socialist Party (PSI) and she had been his mistress, she helped write Dux (1926)
, a biography of Mussolini.[78] One of the Jewish financial supporters of the Fa
scist movement, was Toeplitz, whom Mussolini had earlier accused of being a trai
tor during World War I.[76] Another prominent Jewish Italian Fascist was Ettore
Ovazza who was a staunch Italian nationalist and an opponent of Zionism in Italy
.[79] 230 Italian Jews took part in the Fascists' March on Rome in 1922.[71] Mus
solini in the early 1920s was cautious on topics of Italian Jewish financiers, t
hat arose from time to time from anti-Semitic elements in the Fascist movement;
while he regarded them as untrustworthy he believed that he could draw them to h
is side.[70] In 1932, Mussolini made his private attitude about Jews known to th
e Austrian ambassador when discussing the issue, saying: "I have no love for the
Jews, but they have great influence everywhere. It is better to leave them alon
e. Hitler's anti-Semitism has already brought him more enemies than is necessary
".[74]
The Fascist regime publicly maintained an ambivalent relationship towards Jews e
specially related to the issues of Zionism and the Catholic Church from the 1920
s to the 1930s.[80] On the eve of the March on Rome, the leadership of the PNF d
eclared "a Jewish question does not exist in our country and let us hope that th
ere never shall be one, at least not until Zionism poses Italian Jews with the d
ilemma of choosing between their Italian homeland and another homeland".[81] The
relations between the regime and Jews as in those practicing the religion of Ju
daism was affected by the Fascists' accommodation of the Catholic Church beginni
ng in the early 1920s in which it sought to remove previous provisions of equali
ty of faiths and impose state support of the supremacy of Catholicism.[82] In 19
29 Catholicism was made "the sole religion of the State", and by 1930, religions
other than Catholicism were allowed to exist in diminished status on the judgem
ent of the state regarding them to be "permissible in the Kingdom".[82] In 1928
frustration arose in the regime over Zionism, in which Mussolini responded to th
e Italian Zionist Congress by publicly declaring a question to Italy's Jews on t
heir self-identity, "Are you a religion or are you a nation?", Zionist and anti-
Zionist Jews responded, the anti-Zionist Jews professed they were religious Jews
as part of the Italian nation while Zionist Jews declared that there was no dis
pute between Zionism and said that all Italian Jews held patriotic respect for I
taly.[82] Upon these responses arriving, Mussolini declared that these revealed
that a Jewish problem existed in terms of Jewish identity in Italy as a result o
f conflicting national loyalties amongst Zionist Jews, saying:
My intention was to seek a clarification among Italian Jews and to open the eyes
of Christian Italians. [...] This goal has been achieved. The problem exists, a
nd it is no longer confined to that shadowy sphere where it had been constituted a
stutely by the former, ingeniously by the latter.
Benito Mussolini, 1928.
The Fascists at this time were not wholly opposed to Zionism, but took an instru
mental approach to it, they were hostile to it when it caused conflict in Italy
with the country's Catholic community and when such Zionists were seen as associ
ated with British interests; they were favourable to Zionists who opposed the Br
itish and sought Italy's support as their protector.[83] In the early 1930s, Mus
solini held discussions with Zionist leadership figures over proposals to encour
age the emigration of Italian Jews to the mandate of Palestine, as Mussolini hop
ed that the presence of pro-Italian Jews in the region would weaken pro-British
sentiment and potentially overturn the British mandate.[84]
At the 1934 Montreux Fascist conference chaired by the Italian-led Comitati d'Az
ione per l'Universalita di Roma (CAUR), that sought to found a Fascist Internati
onal, the issue of antisemitism was debated amongst various fascist parties, wit
h some more favourable to it, and others less favourable. Two final compromises
were adopted, creating the official stance of the Fascist International:
[T]he Jewish question cannot be converted into a universal campaign of hatred ag
ainst the Jews [...] Considering that in many places certain groups of Jews are
installed in conquered countries, exercising in an open and occult manner an inf
luence injurious to the material and moral interests of the country which harbor
s them, constituting a sort of state within a state, profiting by all benefits a
nd refusing all duties, considering that they have furnished and are inclined to
furnish, elements conducive to international revolution which would be destruct
ive to the idea of patriotism and Christian civilization, the Conference denounc
es the nefarious action of these elements and is ready to combat them."
CAUR, 1934.[85]
In a discussion with President of the World Zionist Organization Chaim Weizmann
over requests for Italy to provide refuge for Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, Mussoli
ni agreed that he would accept Jewish refugees but warned Weizmann about consequ
ences if such Jews harmed Italy, saying:[86]
... I dont hide from you that the collusion of the Jewish world with the plutocra
cy and international left is ever more evident, and our politico-military situat
ion doesnt permit us to keep in our bosom eventual saboteurs of the effort that t
he Italian people are making.
Benito Mussolini, mid-1930s in conversation with Chaim Weizmann[86]
Italian Fascism's attitudes towards Zionism and Jews in general underwent a shif
t in response to the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. At the outset of the war, Musso
lini sought to gain favourable support for Italy's intervention in Ethiopia, and
appealed to Zionists by offering them a solution to the Jewish question, in whi
ch Italy would set aside a certain amount of territory from conquered Ethiopia t
o be a homeland for Jews.[87] Mussolini claimed that territory from conquered Et
hiopia would make an ideal homeland for the Jews, noting that there were large n
umbers of Falasha already living there who identified as Jews.[87] However Zioni
st leaders rejected this proposal, saying that they would only live in the Holy
Land in the Levant.[87] Mussolini viewed this as an offensive snub, and responde
d in frustration saying "If Ethiopia is good enough for my Italians why isn't it
good enough for you Jews?".[87] Afterwards Mussolini's relations with the Zioni
st movement cooled.[87] Mussolini became aggravated with his observation that ma
ny Jews opposed the Italo-Ethiopian War, to which he responded:[88]
World Jewry is doing a bad business in aligning itself with the anti-Fascist san
ctions campaign against the one European country which, at least until now, has
neither practiced nor preached anti-Semitism.
Benito Mussolini, 1936[88]
In 1936, the Fascist regime began to promote racial anti-Semitism, Mussolini cla
imed that international Jewry had sided with Britain against Italy during Italy'
s war with Ethiopia.[89] Historian Renzo De Felice believed that the Fascist reg
ime's pursuit of alliance with Nazi Germany that began in 1936, explains the ado
ption of anti-Semitism as a pragmatic component of pursuit of that alliance.[89]
De Felice's interpretation has been challenged by H. Stuart Hughes who has clai
med that direct Nazi pressure to adopt anti-Semitic policy had little or no impa
ct on Mussolini's decision.[89] Hughes notes that the Fascist version of anti-Se
mitism was based on spiritualist considerations while eschewing anthropological
or biological arguments unlike the Nazi version of anti-Semitism.[89] Italian Fa
scism adopted antisemitism in the late 1930s, and Mussolini personally returned
to invoke antisemitic statements as he had done earlier.[90] The Fascist regime
used antisemitic propaganda for the Spanish Civil War from 1937 to 1938 that emp
hasized that Italy was supporting Spain's Nationalist forces against a "Jewish I
nternational".[90] The Fascist regime's adoption of official antisemitic racial
doctrine in 1938 met opposition from Fascist members including Balbo, who regard
ed antisemitism as having nothing to do with Fascism and staunchly opposed the a
ntisemitic laws.[73]
Totalitarianism[edit]
In 1925, the PNF declared that Italy's Fascist state was to be a totalitarian st
ate.[9] The term "totalitarian" had initially been used as a pejorative accusati
on by Italy's liberal opposition, that denounced the Fascist movement for seekin
g to create a total dictatorship.[9] However the Fascists responded by accepting
that they were totalitarian, but presented totalitarianism from a positive view
point.[9] Mussolini described totalitarianism as seeking to forge an authoritari
an national state that would be capable of completing Risorgimento of the Italia
Irredenta, forge a powerful modern Italy, and create a new kind of citizen poli
tically active Fascist Italians.[9]
The Doctrine of Fascism (1932) described the nature of Italian Fascism's totalit
arianism, stating the following:
Fascism is for the only liberty which can be a serious thing, the liberty of the
state and of the individual in the state. Therefore for the fascist, everything
is in the state, and no human or spiritual thing exists, or has any sort of val
ue, outside the state. In this sense fascism is totalitarian, and the fascist st
ate which is the synthesis and unity of every value, interprets, develops and st
rengthens the entire life of the people.
Benito Mussolini, Giovanni Gentile, Doctrine of Fascism (1932)
American journalist H. R. Knickerbocker wrote in 1941 "Mussolini's Fascist state
is the least terroristic of the three totalitarian states. The terror is so mil
d in comparison with the Soviet or Nazi varieties, that it almost fails to quali
fy as terroristic at all." As example he described an Italian journalist friend
who refused to become a Fascist. He was fired from his newspaper and put under 2
4-hour surveillance, but otherwise not harassed; his employment contract was set
tled for a lump sum and he was allowed to work for the foreign press. Knickerboc
ker contrasted his treatment with the inevitable torture and execution under Sta
lin or Hitler, and stated "you have a fair idea of the comparative mildness of t
he Italian kind of totalitarianism."[91]
However since World War II, historians have noted that in Italy's colonies, Ital
ian Fascism displayed extreme levels of violence, such as the fact the deaths of
one-tenth of the population of the Italian colony of Libya during the Fascist e
ra, including from the use of gassings, concentration camps, starvation, and dis
ease; and in Ethiopia during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and afterwards, by 1
938 a quarter of a million Ethiopians had died.[92]
Corporatist economics[edit]
Italian Fascism promotes a corporatist economic system.[3] The economy involves
employer and employee syndicates being linked together in corporative associatio
ns to collectively represent the nation's economic producers and work alongside
the state to set national economic policy.[3] Mussolini declared such economics
as a "Third Alternative" to capitalism and Marxism that Italian Fascism regarded
as "obsolete doctrines".[93] It supports criminalization of strikes by employee
s and lockouts by employers as illegal acts it deems these acts as prejudicial t
o the national community as a whole.[94]
Age and gender roles[edit]
The Italian Fascists' political anthem was called Giovinezza ("The Youth").[95]
Fascism identifies the physical age period of youth as a critical time for the m
oral development of people that will affect society.[96]
Italian Fascism pursued what it called "moral hygiene" of youth, particularly re
garding sexuality.[97] Fascist Italy promoted what it considered normal sexual b
ehaviour in youth while denouncing what it considered deviant sexual behaviour.[
97] It condemned pornography, most forms of birth control and contraceptive devi
ces (with the exception of the condom), homosexuality, and prostitution as devia
nt sexual behaviour.[97] Fascist Italy regarded the promotion of male sexual exc
itation before puberty as the cause of criminality amongst male youth.[97] Fasci
st Italy reflected the belief of most Italians that homosexuality was wrong. Ins
tead of the traditional Catholic teaching that it was a sin, however, a new appr
oach was taken based on then-modern psychoanalysis that it was a social disease.
[97] Fascist Italy pursued an aggressive campaign to reduce prostitution of youn
g women.[97]
Mussolini perceived women's primary role to be childbearers, while men were warr
iors, once saying, "war is to man what maternity is to the woman".[98] In an eff
ort to increase birthrates, the Italian Fascist government gave financial incent
ives to women who raised large families, and initiated policies designed to redu
ce the number of women employed.[99] Italian Fascism called for women to be hono
ured as "reproducers of the nation", and the Italian Fascist government held rit
ual ceremonies to honour women's role within the Italian nation.[100] In 1934, M
ussolini declared that employment of women was a "major aspect of the thorny pro
blem of unemployment" and that for women, working was "incompatible with childbe
aring". Mussolini went on to say that the solution to unemployment for men was t
he "exodus of women from the work force".[101]
Tradition[edit]
Italian Fascism believed that the success of Italian nationalism required a clea
r sense of a shared past amongst the Italian people, along with a commitment to
a modernized Italy.[8] Mussolini in a famous speech in 1926, called for Fascist
art that was "traditionalist and at the same time modern, that looks to the past
and at the same time to the future".[8]
Traditional symbols of Roman civilization were utilized by the Fascists, particu
larly the fasces that symbolized unity, authority, and the exercise of power.[10
2] Other traditional symbols of ancient Rome used by the Fascists included the s
he-wolf of Rome.[102] The fasces and the she-wolf symbolized the shared Roman he
ritage of all the regions that constituted the Italian nation.[102] In 1926, the
fasces was adopted by the Fascist government of Italy as a symbol of the state.
[103] In that year the Fascist government attempted to have the Italian national
flag redesigned to incorporate the fasces on it.[103] However this attempt to i
ncorporate the fasces on the flag, was stopped by strong opposition to the propo
sal by Italian monarchists.[103] Afterwards the Fascist government in public cer
emonies rose the national tricolour flag along with a Fascist black flag.[104] H
owever years later, after Mussolini was forced from power by the King in 1943 an
d later rescued by German forces, the Italian Social Republic founded by Mussoli
ni and the Fascists, did incorporate the fasces on the state's war flag, which w
as a variant of the Italian tricolour national flag.
The issue of the rule of monarchy or republic in Italy was an issue that changed
several times through the development of Italian Fascism. Initially Italian Fas
cism was republican and denounced the Savoy monarchy.[105] However Mussolini tac
tically abandoned republicanism in 1922 and recognized that the acceptance of th
e monarchy was a necessary compromise to gain the support of the establishment t
o challenge the liberal constitutional order that also supported the monarchy.[1
05] King Victor Emmanuel III had become a popular ruler in the aftermath of Ital
y's gains after World War I and the army held close loyalty to the King, thus an
y idea of overthrowing the monarchy was discarded as foolhardy by the Fascists a
t this point.[105] Importantly, Fascism's recognition of monarchy provided Fasci
sm with a sense of historical continuity and legitimacy.[105] The Fascists publi
cly identified King Victor Emmanuel II - the first King of a reunited Italy who
had initiated the Risorgimento - along with other historic Italian figures such
as Gaius Marius, Julius Caesar, Giuseppe Mazzini, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour
, Giuseppe Garibaldi, and others, for being within a tradition of dictatorship i
n Italy, that the Fascists declared that they emulated.[106] However this compro
mise with the monarchy did not yield a cordial relationship between the King and
Mussolini.[105] Although Mussolini had formally accepted the monarchy, he pursu
ed and largely achieved reducing the power of the King to that of a figurehead.[
107] Initially the King held complete nominal legal authority over the military
through the Statuto Albertino, but this was ended during the Fascist regime when
Mussolini created the position of First Marshal of the Empire in 1938, a two-pe
rson position of control over the military held by both the King and the head of
government, that had the effect of eliminating the King's previously exclusive
legal authority over the military by giving Mussolini equal legal authority to t
he King over the military.[108] In the 1930s, Mussolini became aggravated by the
monarchy's continued existence, due to envy of the fact that his counterpart in
Germany, Adolf Hitler was both head of state and head of government of a republ
ic; and Mussolini in private denounced the monarchy and indicated that he had pl
ans to dismantle the monarchy and create a republic with himself as head of stat
e of Italy upon an Italian success in the then-anticipated major war about to er
upt in Europe.[105]
After being removed from office and placed under arrest by the King in 1943, and
the Kingdom of Italy's new non-fascist government switching sides from the Axis
to the Allies, Italian Fascism returned to republicanism and condemnation of th
e monarchy.[109] On 18 September 1943, Mussolini made his first public address t
o the Italian people since his rescue from arrest by allied German forces, in wh
ich he commended the loyalty of Hitler as an ally while condemning King Victor E
mmanuel III of the Kingdom of Italy for betraying Italian Fascism.[109] Mussolin
i on the topic of the monarchy removing him from power and dismantling the Fasci
st regime, stated "It is not the regime that has betrayed the monarchy, it is th
e monarchy that has betrayed the regime" and that "When a monarchy fails in its
duties, it loses every reason for being...The state we want to establish will be
national and social in the highest sense of the word; that is, it will be Fasci
st, thus returning to our origins."[109] The Fascists at this point did not deno
unce the House of Savoy in the entirety of its history, and credited Victor Emma
nuel II for his rejection of "scornfully dishonourable pacts" and denounced Vict
or Emmanuel III for betraying Victor Emmanuel II by entering a dishonourable pac
t with the Allies.[110]
The relationship between Italian Fascism and the Catholic Church was mixed. Orig
inally it was highly anti-clerical and hostile to Catholicism, however from the
mid to late 1920s, anti-clericalism lost ground in the movement, as Mussolini in
power sought to seek accord with the Church as the Church held major influence
in Italian society with most Italians being Catholic.[111] In 1929, the Italian
government signed the Lateran Treaty with the Holy See, a concordat between Ital
y and the Catholic Church that allowed for the creation of a small enclave known
as Vatican City as a sovereign state representing the papacy. This ended years
of perceived alienation between the Church and the Italian government after Ital
y annexed the Papal States in 1870. Italian Fascism justified its adoption of an
tisemitic laws in 1938 by claiming that Italy was fulfilling the Christian relig
ious mandate of the Catholic Church that had been initiated by Pope Innocent III
in the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, whereby the Pope issued strict regulatio
n of the life of Jews in C