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Mussolini's Seizure Of Power And The Rise Of Fascism In Italy

        On the 23 March 1919 after a series of Communist
demonstrations, the almost forgotten Mussolini decided to attempt to
revive his Fasci movement. A meeting was held in a hall in a Milan and
was attended by some fifty malcontents. From this seemingly small and
insignificant event the Fascio di Combattimento' (Combat Group) was
born. Initially, it would seem that the Fasci were destined for
failure with none of their candidates (including Mussolini) winning a
single seat in the 1919 elections. How was it that a party with no
clear programme, save a belief in action of some sort, became a ruling
dictatorship little more than ten years later? By the end of 1919,
Mussolini possessed hardly more than 2% of the vote in Milan, less
than 5000 votes against 170,000 for the Socialists. Was this a
complete disaster? At the time it seemed so; the Socialists were so
confident of their success that they staged a mock funeral in Milan
stopping outside Mussolini's house to invite him to attend the burial
of his party. Incredibly, by 1921 the membership of this previously
tiny group was to rival the size of the Socialists. How was this
achieved? It was certainly by no easy means; Mussolini's skill and
luck played a vital role, but he was also helped by the seemingly
blind incompetence of his opponents. Mussolini's path towards the top
of Italian Government was hindered by many forms of opposition.
However, most of his opposition came from the Government and the rival
Socialist (PSI) party. Soon after the summer of 1920 the Fascists and
their opposition inevitably clashed. The fact that Gioletti's
government was faced with million workers sitting in in factories
showed that Italy was a far from stable country in 1920. Did an
opportunity present itself for Mussolini to gain ground over the
Socialist opposition? If it did, Mussolini certainly did not take it.
He was still recovering from his party's humiliating election...