The
March on Rome (
Marcia su Roma) was a
march by which Italian dictator
Benito
Mussolini's National Fascist
Party (
Partito Nazionale Fascista, or PNF) came to
power in the
Kingdom of Italy
(
Regno d'Italia). The march took place from
October 27 to
October
29,
1922.
Context
In
March 1919,
Benito Mussolini founded the first "Italian
Combat League" (
Fasci Italiani di
Combattimento) at the beginning of the "two red years"
(
biennio rosso). He suffered
a defeat in the
the
election of November 1919. But, by the
election of 1921, Mussolini
gained entrance to Parliament.
Out of his "
Fascist" party the "
Blackshirts" (
Squadristi) were formed.
In August 1920, the Blackshirts were
used to break the general strike
which had started at the Alfa Romeo
factory in Milan
.
In
November 1920, after
the assassination of Giordana (a right-wing municipal counsellor in
Bologna
), the Blackshirts were used as a repression tool by
the state to crush the socialist movement
(which included a strong anarcho-syndicalist component),
especially in the Po
Valley
.
Trade unions were dissolved while left-wing mayors resigned. The
fascists, included on
Giovanni
Giolitti's "National Union" lists at the May 1921 elections,
then won 36 seats. Mussolini then withdrew his support to Giolitti
and attempted to work out a temporary truce with the
socialists by signing a
"Pacification Pact" in summer 1921. This provoked a conflict with
the most fanatized part of the movement, the "
Squadristi" and their leaders the
"
Ras." In July
1921, Giolitti attempted without success to dissolve the
squadristi. The contract with the socialists was then
broken at its turn in November 1921, Mussolini adopted a
nationalist and
conservative program and founded the
National Fascist Party, which boasted
700,000 members in July 1922 . In August, an
anti-fascist general strike was triggered, but
failed to rally the Italian People's Party (
Partito Popolare
Italiano) and was repressed by the fascists. A few days
before the march, Mussolini consulted with the U.S. Ambassador
Richard Washburn Child,
whether the U.S. government would object to a Fascist participation
in a future Italian governemt. Child encouraged him to go ahead.
When Mussolini learned that Prime Minister
Luigi Facta had given
Gabriele d'Annunzio the mission to
organize a large demonstration on
November
4,
1922 to celebrate the national victory
during the war, he decided on the March to accelerate the process
and sidestep any possible competition.
March

Fascists travelling towards
Rome.
The
quadrumvirs leading the
Fascist Party, General
Emilio De
Bono,
Italo Balbo (one of the most
famous
ras),
Michele
Bianchi and
Cesare Maria de
Vecchi, organized the March while the
Duce stayed behind for most of the march, though
he allowed pictures to be taken of him marching along with the
Fascist marchers. Generals Gustavo Fara and Sante Ceccherini
assisted to the preparations of the March of October 18. Others
militaries who organized the march included the Marquis
Dino Perrone Compagni and Ulisse
Igliori.
On
October 24, 1922,
Mussolini declared before 60,000 people at the Fascist Congress in
Naples
: "Our program is simple: we want to rule
Italy." Meanwhile, the
Blackshirts, who had occupied the Po plain, took
all strategic points of the country. On
October 26, former prime minister
Antonio Salandra warned current
Prime Minister Luigi
Facta that Mussolini was demanding his resignation and that he
was preparing to march on Rome. However, Facta did not believe
Salandra and thought that Mussolini would govern quietly at his
side. To meet the threat posed by the bands of fascist troops now
gathering outside Rome, Luigi Facta (who had resigned but continued
to hold power) ordered a
state of
siege for Rome. However,
King Victor Emmanuel III
refused to sign the military order. On
October 28, the King handed power to Mussolini,
who was supported by the military, the business class, and the
right-wing.
The march itself was composed of fewer than 30,000 men, but the
king in part feared a
civil war since the
squadristi had already taken control of the Po plain and
most of the country, while Fascism was no longer seen as a threat
to the establishment. Mussolini was asked to form his cabinet on
October 29,
1922,
while some 25,000 Blackshirts were parading in Rome. Mussolini thus
legally reached power, in accordance with the
Statuto Albertino, the Italian
Constitution. The March on Rome was not the conquest of power which
Fascism later celebrated but rather
a transfer of power within the framework of the constitution. This
transition was made possible by the surrender of public authorities
in the face of fascist intimidation. Many business and financial
leaders believed it would be possible to manipulate Mussolini,
whose early speeches and policies emphasized the
free market and
laissez
faire economics. He also feigned to be ready to take a
subalternate ministry in a Giolitti or
Salandra cabinet, but then demanded the
presidency of the Council. Fearing a conflict with the fascists,
the ruling class thus handed power to Mussolini, who went on to
install the
dictatorship after the
June 10,
1924
assassination of
Giacomo
Matteotti, who had finished writing
The Fascist Exposed: A
Year of Fascist Domination, by
Amerigo Dumini and others agents of the
Ceka secret police created by
Mussolini.
Other participants
See also
Notes
References
- Carsten, Francis Ludwig. The Rise of Fascism. University of California
Press, 1982.
- Cassells, Alan. Fascist Italy. Arlington Heights, IL:
H. Davidson, 1985.
- Gallo, Max. Mussolini's Italy: Twenty Years of the Fascist
Era. New York: Macmillan, 1973.
- Leeds, Christpher. Italy under Mussolini. Hove, East
Sussex: Wayland, 1988 (1972).
External links