Chapter 478: Marching into Rome

After the countries broke up with the Genoa Conference because of the foreign debt problem of Soviet Russia, Eder's eyes were still focused on it. Because the current situation in Italy is extremely chaotic, all of this is caused by the war.

Before World War I, Italy had a good economy, and its fiscal revenue and national income were higher than those of Austria-Hungary (and a lot of information was found here). However, in terms of coal, iron and grain, which show the strength of the country, Italy shows its original form. Its steel production is 1.42 million tons, compared to 5 million tons in Austria-Hungary, which is one place above him. Not to mention coal, the output of 700,000 tons laughs off the big teeth, and Japan, which lacks coal locally, has 14 million tons, not to mention the output of tens of millions or hundreds of millions of tons in other countries. As for grain, Italy remains at the bottom with 8.1 million tonnes.

More importantly, Italy's performance in the war was so bad. The fight for the backstab of Austria-Hungary left Italy in the mountains north with a bang, and even needed rescue from Britain and France. The navy fared slightly better, but only to blockade the Austro-Hungarian fleet.

Poor performance on the battlefield was ultimately reflected in the post-war results.

Originally, Britain and France granted Italy Tyrol, Trieste, Istria, part of the Dalmatian coast and the Dodecanese Islands, inhabited by the Greeks. Italy was also allowed to expand its colonies in Africa and participate in the partition of the Ottoman Empire.

However, the end result was only given to Trieste and South Tyrol, and the rest were none. In particular, the Istrian Peninsula and the Dalmatian coast, which are most coveted by Italy, have not been obtained. If it gets two places, Italy will basically monopolize the Adriatic Sea. However, these two areas have already been assigned to Serbia (which is one of the reasons why relations between Italy and Yugoslavia were tense before World War II).

The Italian nationals, who had not benefited enough and had suffered heavy losses from the war, quit and ousted the negotiating Prime Minister of Orlando. So from 1919 to Mussolini's coming to power, Italy changed five prime ministers in just three years, which was a manifestation of the violent turmoil in Italian politics.

Of course, the chaos in the political arena also affects other aspects, and the most obvious thing for the people is the economy and law and order. After the end of the war, the Italian economy never returned to its pre-war level. In terms of law and order, the world-famous mafia is also wreaking havoc in various parts of Italy, and their kidnappings, extortion, vendettas and other acts have made the people miserable. The chaos in the political arena made these mafias more and more arrogant, and this is when a war correspondent broke into the political arena.

Benito Mussolini was born in the Italian province of Ferrara in a small town called Predapio, where he spent three years in primary school before being sent to a Salesian-run boarding school and expelled for fighting with his classmates.

Mussolini continued his studies at the Certère Normale School in Forlimpopoli, where he obtained his diploma in 1901 with good grades. In 1902 he began to live in exile all over the world, working as a substitute teacher, working part-time jobs, living without a fixed place to live, and without enough to eat.

In 1905, Mussolini joined the Socialist Party. In 1912, he became editor-in-chief of the Socialist Party organ, the Advance Newspaper. In 1914 he left the Socialist Party and founded the Italian newspaper Le Volvoico. From 1915 to 1917, he was drafted into the army. In June 1917, Mussolini was discharged from the army due to injury and was again editor-in-chief of the Italian newspaper Le Volvoico.

During this period, Mussolini was deeply influenced by Nietzsche's voluntarism, he praised the subjective fighting spirit, emphasized that the purpose of life is to exert power, and believed that the "superman" was the creator of history. Mussolini also studied Pareto's writings and was therefore opposed to popular politics.

He said: "Equality and the rule of the people are the wrong ideas of human beings. When it is practiced, the development of personality will be limited. He also studied the philosophies of Nietzsche and Sorel, which had a great influence on his later thinking.

And the chaos in the political arena gave Mussolini a considerable boost, and he used his newspaper to vigorously promote his own *** theory. He believes that a great country must centralize power in order to ensure development and allow its people to live and work in peace and contentment. For this reason, he also gave a lot of examples, from the ancient Caesar to the modern Napoleon, and even the Romanian Eder, who was also mentioned (flattered) by him.

With great eloquence and propaganda, Mussolini founded the National *** Party in 1922. A large number of people who were disillusioned with the government joined them, and he was also called "leader" by the party's members.

The formation of the national party of the first Monsonili soon ushered in a major opportunity. In 1922, a massive strike broke out in Italy because of the increase in the cost of living and the growing dissatisfaction of workers with their meagre wages.

Mussonili, on the other hand, had no prejudices about the striking workers, but as a politician, he knew his opportunity had come.

The reason is simple: the only government can stop the strike, but the current chaos in Italian politics has made the government's blocking behavior an empty talk. And at this time, as long as the *** party can quell this strike, it will greatly increase the prestige of its party and himself. This is a very tempting move for the party.

And even more secretly, if he can solve the problem of the strike, then he can get the rich factory owners to give generously. To put it bluntly, politics is a money-burning game, and the *** party sees this very clearly.

So he commanded his own *** party personnel and carried out sabotage of the strike action. And the result was also to his satisfaction, and the strike boom in various places was quelled by the *** party.

At this time, public opinion praised the actions of the party, and at the same time called Mussolini the savior of Italy, and he also had greater ambitions in the praise. Since he is known as the savior of Italy, why can't he solve the current chaos in Italian politics?

With this idea, Mussonili immediately set out to realize his ambitions. Years of chaos in the political arena made him feel that there were too many uncertainties to rely on elections, so he thought of seizing power by force.

And if you want to seize power, then you must ensure that the army does not object. So he expressed goodwill to the Army. In the newspapers, he openly proclaimed that he had special respect for Vittori Avinais's army, and took the opportunity to win over the army's top brass.

At the same time, he also organized the *** party members into a more militarized black shirt. These were the youngest, strongest and most fanatical members of the party, who only needed a command from the leader to march towards Rome and tear apart the noisy MPs.

When he felt that he was almost ready, Mussolini ordered the national mobilization of the party at the headquarters and formed the Supreme Command. Subsequently, the Supreme Command issued a message to the whole country, announcing the march on Rome. At the same time, the military and police were advised not to fight them, saying that their aim was only to overthrow the rotten ruling class, to persuade the propertied class not to be afraid, and to declare the protection of the legitimate rights of the workers and peasants. Moreover, he threatened that the *** party would be loyal to the royal family, with the intention of winning over the royalists in Italy in an attempt to reduce the resistance to the seizure of power.

When everything was ready, Mussolini issued the "Manifesto of the Revolution", and then the black army of 100,000 people set out for Rome.

During the march to Rome, most of the government army and police along the road were strictly neutral. Only a small number of people led by the Communist Party resisted and opposed this, but due to the excessive disparity in strength, they were also suppressed by the *** party.

After *** issued a declaration of battle, almost all political parties were frightened, some obediently surrendered, and some wagged their tails and begged for mercy, demanding mercy from ***'s subordinates. Some of them are like rats, secretly hiding. Even a group of congressmen came to the Milan newspaper to ask to see Mussolini, who wanted to exchange the central government for an armistice or truce.

Faced with the suture of this group of cowardly politicians, Mussolini, of course, would not agree. He was still waiting for news that the king would agree.

He did not have to wait long, and a day later, General Siddadeni, the king's aide-de-camp, asked Mussolini to arrive in Rome as soon as possible, and the king wanted to put the task of forming a cabinet on him. Mussolini's gamble was won, and at the same time, the *** party became the ruling party of the country from a newly formed party in just over a year. And his way of seizing power has also attracted the attention and learning of many people.