Benito Mussolini, born into a poor blacksmith's family, was so named by his radically socialist father (his mother was a devout Catholic schoolteacher) after the executioner of a Mexican emperor. Shortly after becoming qualified as a teacher, Mussolini taught in a small school. Mussolini was a far-left socialist and advocated a violent revolution to overthrow the parliamentary monarchy within Italy and denounced nationalism. When World War I broke out in 1914, however, he broke with his party comrades when he celebrated the entry of his nation into the war – even though he had dodged the draft. Throughout the Great War, he fought earnestly to keep Italy involved, and, financed by large arms manufacturers and the British and French governments, operated a small, pro-war newspaper. When the war came to an end in 1919, Mussolini was quick to recognize the dissatisfaction of many of the homebound soldiers and countrymen concerning the Treaty of Versailles. In an effort to persuade Italy to enter the war on their side, the Allied Powers promised Italy significant territorial gains at the expense of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The final settlement, however, was less favorable to Italian interests than that originally promised, and resulted in widespread malcontent regarding the post-war government.
In March of 1919, Mussolini created a radically nationalist and anti-communist party – Fasci Italiani di Combattimento. Mussolini, who loved the splendor and extravagance of Ancient Rome, adopted a Roman symbol of authority, the fascio (an axe wrapped in whipping rods) for his group of devotees. As inflation and economic decline spread throughout Europe and Italy following the war, factory workers began to go on strikes in northern Italy. In 1920, Mussolini’s group’s numbers were bolstered by ex-soldiers willing to break up these strikes. Mussolini marched 50,000 Fascist supporters (known as Blackshirts for their attire) in squads against the strikers and left-wing newspapers. The Blackshirts garnered their support from the financial contributions of industrialists and large landowners, who shared their anti-communist sentiments, but also believed that they could control the excesses of the Fascist party. The police often refused to stop the squads, allowing the Blackshirts freedom to inflict whatever damage they wished.
The widespread destabilization of the previous social orders throughout Europe due to economic uncertainty in the aftermath of the war and the successful establishment of the Soviet Union as a socialist state led many to believe that democracy was weak and ineffectual, while monarchy was discredited as an oppressive and unresponsive system. A command economy was thought to be a progressive and scientific method of social organization. Fascism incorporated the futuristic and populist elements of Communist ideology, but also identified itself strongly with the nationalism that had created the modern European nation-states in the late 19th Century.
