Topic 1

Born in 1883 Son of a blacksmith Before WWI: professional revolutionary, left wing socialist, and radical journalist

School master by Arrested in 1903 for stirring up controversy in Switzerland. Inspired by the writing of Sorel and Nietzsche.

 Abandoned Socialism in December  During the war he became an intense nationalist.  He demanded the conquest of Italia irredenta (Italian territory inside of Austrian borders)

 March 1919  Fasci Italiani di Combattimento  What is fascism?

 The Blackshirts  The March on Rome  Mussolini becomes Prime Minister  The Totalitarian State  Il Duce

 The Acerbo Law  Reasons for the law  The assassination of the socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti

 Taking over ministries  The MVSN (Blackshirts)  OVRA (Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti- Fascism)  The Christmas Eve Law (1925)

 Public Construction Programs  The “Battle for Wheat”  Mussolinia  The “Battle for Land”  “Gold for the Fatherland”

 Propaganda  Replacing liberalism and democracy  The role of teachers and professors  “Free Press”

 “reorganizing the youth from a moral and physical point of view”  “fascist education is moral, physical, social, and military: it aims to create a complete harmoniously developed human, a fascist one according to our views”

 Building an Italian Empire  Avenging past defeats  Battle of Adowa (March 1896)  “A Place in the Sun”

 The new fort at Wal Wal  The Wal Wal Incident  Border Clashes  Response of The league of Nations (Great Britain and France)

 Emperor Haile Selassie  The Abyssinian Army  Types of Equipment  The Imperial Guard

 October 1935  The Hoare-Laval Pact (December 1935)  The Christmas Offensive  Chemical Warfare  “the terrible rain that burned and killed”

 Selassie flees Abyssinia  The New Emperor of Abyssinia  Mussolini’s moment of glory  Italy gains its empire  Selassie’s speech  “It is us today. It will be you tomorrow.”

 Effects of the Abyssinian Crisis  Collective Security?  The Rome-Berlin Axis  Whose to blame for the failure?