Editing Fascist Italy (section)

==Enter Il Duce==
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Into that environment stepped Benito Mussolini. 

He rallied a collection of nationalist army-vet toughs, named them the Fascists (from ''Fasces'', an axe tied into a bundle of rods, an old Roman symbol of law and order), beat up a bunch of communists and socialists and projected an image of strength and certainty that won people over. Soon enough his gang of schlubs marched on Rome as a show of strength. King Victor Emmanuel III and the old-school conservatives saw him and his black-shirted thugs as a solution to their communist/socialist/anti-monarchist liberal problems and made him prime minister. He further secured his position by negotiating a treaty between the Vatican and the Kingdom of Italy, defusing the decades-long conflict between the two parties and gaining the church's tacit approval of the fascist regime, basically setting up the situation today. At the same time, his Fascist party embedded itself into the government, fed their message to the masses (which included the need for discipline, nationalism, hierarchy and a belief that war was a good thing in its own right), cracked down on their political enemies, and entrenched themselves into Italian society. By rolling several sixes and being in the right place at the right time, Mussolini became the champion of the European far right, boasting about how he'd rebuild the Roman Empire and inspiring copycats across the continent. At least until Hitler stole his thunder in the late '30s.

Now, although the nature of Germany's sudden wealth and power after the Nazi takeover is explored in depth on their own [[Nazi|page]], the overall point is that Hitler acquired resources, public support, finances, and a highly trained, well-equipped fighting force before deciding to start invading places. This wasn't just in regards to the army, but using propaganda and public works to win the public over to his side. While he had many issues in regards to actually fighting a war, something Hitler understood was that you need a strong nation (even if it was temporary) in order to support a strong armed force. Il Duce on the other hand, while also mimicking Hitler's giant Ponzi scheme, used his cash flow to support the economy in total, rather than specifically focusing on infrastructure and industry. Italy was an agrarian state with very few exploitable natural resources or material stockpiles compared to Germany, which sat on considerable reserves and could support autarky if it tightened its belt for a while. Worse still, after the economic and human disaster that was World War I, very few people had knowledge and experience in anything other than farming. While Germany was experimenting with tanks, Italy was struggling to scrape enough metal together to even make even one! Ultimately, Italy's weapons were often of First World War vintage (especially their rifles, which were still using ROUND HEADED BULLETS) with new weapons that had horrifically bad issues (their light machine guns being the best example) being manufactured to the very end of the war because they lacked the resources to develop anything new. 

On top of all that, Mussolini never had much actual support. While somewhat popular, he was nowhere near as beloved as Adolf and his party was when they took over Germany (as limited as that popularity was electorally). Making matters worse was the Vatican. While they never outright denounced Benito for obvious reasons, and the Fascists weren't running around executing nuns and priests like the Communists, the church took a very anti-fascist stance and supported resistance movements behind the scenes.

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Now, the Italian Fascist Party was not devoted in any way to German National Socialism. That is, they are '''NOT''' Nazis. Nazi racial theory had a mixed reception down south. Mussolini himself had several Jewish mistresses and Italo Balbo, one of the left-leaning members of the Fascist Council, focused on Fascist outreach to Jews, Muslims, and Africans, while many Italian Jews supported the Fascist Party in its early years. Additionally, Nazi racial theory held Mediterranean races, like the Italians, in lower regard than the superior Nordic stock, so it couldn't be expected that Italian Fascists would embrace such a self-degrading ideology. That said, the Fascists were ''definitely not nice people''; they freely used what are now recognized as WMDs against North African Berbers and Ethiopians when they resisted, and even used [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rab_concentration_camp proto-concentration camps to anyone rebelling], the only silver lining being that those who cooperated were seen as equals. But [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_fascism_and_racism such racism as Italy professed -haphazardly with German pressure no less-] was the kind of [[China|cultural bigotry against "barbaric" enemies]] which had existed since Roman times. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T_98uT1IZs| Not all fascism is Nazism, but all Nazism is fascism.] What mainly sets Italian Fascism apart from other contemporary authoritarian ideologies (and frustrates the hell out of historians and political scientists to this day) was that it was barely backed up by any coherent ideology and underwent several shifts along the way, mainly driven by Mussolinis political opportunism. If anything, the most comparable ideological system would probably be Putinism, both characterized by aggressive nationalism and a hodge podge of policies meant to appease a largely depolitized populace in the sole service of the leader of the country staying in power. Nazism on the other hand was a clear-cut ideology with tenets and goals. 

Interestingly enough, ''unlike'' their totalitarian colleagues, Fascist Italy was much more tolerant to the so-called "degenerate" and "bourgeois" futurism (at least before 1938, when this form of art was banned as one of the conditions for their alliance with Germany). In fact, many futurists initially supported Mussolini, including Phillipo Marinetti, Father of Futurism (although he and his comrades left politics after Il Duce started leaning into the traditionalist side of fascism more than revolutionary one). Modern academics generally don't appreciate why this happened, believing it may have been simple pragmatism on the part of Il Duce, but for European intelligentsia fascism offered all the appeal of progressivism without the waywardness and lack of discipline seen in the United States and the sheer destructive terror of communism. This perception that Italian fascism offered the path to a shining industrial future accounted for its strong support among the educated classes in its early years and even into World War II, and was mirrored by the international respect garnered by Il Duce pre-Munich. As a result, the propaganda of Fascist Italy is more memorable and eye-catching than its contemporaries.

Mussolini's decision to try and destroy organized crime in Italy had an unintentional ripple effect which has left its mark on modern society. Many crime bosses fled to the New World and established new crime families and organizations, creating the American Mafia and ultimately kicking off a cultural fascination that has resulted in popular media like ''The Godfather'' and ''The Sopranos'', among other things.