The Duce Myth: Why Mussolini Was Not A Good Leader

when we discuss dictators today regardless of their political beliefs our conversations often revolve around their iron fisted rule their harsh suppression of descent their disregard for freedom of speech and the countries they invaded among other things we mostly like to focus on those things first and foremost although these facets of their governance are undeniably significant there's another aspect of the rule that often gets overlooked their actual administrative policies Beyond silencing opposition and wielding total power it's worth considering whether they effectively manage to govern their countries for instance did they create more employment opportunities enhance the

economy or introduce essential reforms these points I believe are seldom discussed in these conversations and a prime example of this oversight is none other than the figure often mentioned in such discussions our Infamous bald Italian man Benito musolini off the top of your head the criticisms are clear his role as a fascist dictator his aggression and pension for war his ruthless suppression of descent through violence and that is it really when discussing Bonito musolini and his fascist regime the mainstream conversation tends to emphasize this authoritarian Rule and expansionist policy but rarely delves into the specifics

of how he governed Italy as a result apart from the previously mentioned aspects many view him as a relatively effective leader many modern fascists idealize melini's era in Italy portraying it as a time of prosperity they highlight the introduction of welfare and pensions musolini providing homes for Italians his defense of justice and his efforts to boost the economy among other achievements these CL are often echoed in circles that idolize musolini and you may have come across such assertions I refer to this narrative as the musolini myth it suggests that despite his dictatorship and other negative

aspects melini's era was a time of prosperity for Italy that musolini and the fascist significantly improved various facets of Italian Society portraying them as a Force for good this is where I come into play I've been delving into melini's regime for for a considerable period and now feel prepared to tackle this myth contrary to what some narratives suggest the DU and his fascist were far from having a pristine record I plan to examine six aspects of melini's Italy the fascist welfare system the draining of the marshes the fascist approach to Law And Justice the economy

under Fascism musolini statesmanship and the notion of musolini as a sort of humanitarian dictator as you might guess from the the length of this video we will be going into a lot of details on this matter which I find important to shatter many of these myths and sayings about Bonito musolini and the Italian fascist and I will not be holding back any punches either before we officially begin I would really like to give a huge thanks to Franchesco Philippi and his book on musolini which I will use as the main source for this video everything

I will talk about here you can find in his book and if you want to learn more more about fascist Italy I highly recommend getting this book because Franchesco goes into many other myths and details I will not address here without him and his research this video would not be possible with that out of the way it is time to finally start dismantling the myths and lies one of the most prevalent beliefs about musolini and the fascist today is their supposed establishment of the Italian welfare system including old age pensions through a modern Social Security

framework moreover it's claimed that the fascist regime introduced various other wellfare initiatives such as granting workers additional holiday pay thus the fascist allegedly gave Italians workplace security and the right to old age pensions or did they now I am going to instantly burst this bubble musolini was not the one who introduced old age pensions in Italy it was actually the government of franches crispy that first adopted a guaranteed pension system in the country back in 1895 Royal Decree number 70 dated February 21st provided public sector white colar workers and servicemen with social security protection upon

reaching retirement age 3 years following that under the government of Luigi paloo the system was broadened with law number 350 extending insurance coverage to a range of professional workers initially this system was voluntary and included State incentives for companies that participated however due to the persistent efforts of Italian trade unions it quickly expanded to Encompass many of the country's Key Blue Collar professions when musolini and the fascist seized power they swiftly took control of the social security system by 1923 the Senior Management of the National Insurance Fund was replaced with melini's cronies and representatives from

fascist trade unions musolini main goal was to politicize the welfare system and bring it under the control of his party he sought to consolidate all forms of Social Security into a single entity the fascist National Insurance Institute or infps adding fascist to its name was a propagandistic move to claim ownership over an existing system musolini didn't create the welfare system he simply co-opted it the situation became problematic as Beyond serving as a propaganda tool to suggest the fascist had established a new welfare system the politicization of the infps meant benefits were skewed towards certain individuals

specifically those in positions of favor with the fascist party theps actually scaled back welfare offering invalidity and old age coverage only to certain professional categories as it assumed control over an increasingly large portion of insurance schemes it wasn't until the fall of fascism in 1969 that the fund was depoliticized and the Italian government passed law number 153 this law among other Provisions offered economic support to everyone age 65 and over regardless of their political affiliation or whether they had made contributions to the system as for additional benefits for workers such as the extra holiday pay

there's a common belief that musolini was instrumental in establishing the Trad chesa or the year and bonus for employees benefiting millions of Italians annually however a closer examination of fascist legislation reveals that this claim is not only overstated but also incorrect the so-called 13th monthly wage also known as the Christmas bonus was indeed mentioned in Article 13 of the national Collective labor agreement for employees but this legislation did not Grant its benefit to all workers instead as you might have guessed it was primarily white collar workers affiliated with the party who received this bonus Factory

workers despite promises were left without this extra pay if anything the agreement actually made it worse for the workers by tightening Up Overtime work according to article 8 of the agreement quote for personnel with this continuous duties the working hours will normally envisage a maximum of 10 hours a day the number of of hours may be increased to 12 a day for certain duties if expressly determined in supplementary agreements within the limits Allowed by the law no clerical worker May refuse to perform overtime night and holiday work borrowing Justified reasons of impediment the imposition of

extended working hours 10 to 12 hours a day instead of the standard 8 was a strategy to tether workers rights closely to the demands of the industry effectively curbing their freedoms the broad extension of benefits including the year end bonus of the majority of factory workers both unskilled and skilled did not occur until after the war it was in late 1946 that the Italian government expanded this benefit to all Factory workers without distinction by a decree from the president in 1960 the protocol for workers pay was further extended to all workers establishing it as an

official right in summary the fascists did not create the welfare system they co-opted and politicized an existing one to benefit only those associated with a fascist party the fascist approach to Social Security served two main purposes firstly to strengthen the party's grip on social sectors by adapting social welfare to be more easily controlled and secondly to transform the state's extensive administrative Machinery into an instrument of fascism for all intents and purposes musolini did not advocate for the welfare of all Italians but strictly used it as a tool of his party to extend control and only

benefit the members of it this is an aspect of mulini rule that is rarely mentioned in non-italian circles but Italians have certainly heard this one before under musolini regime there was an ambitious project to drain numerous marshlands across Italy this in itive made the lands available for Italian Farmers to settle and cultivate standing out as a significant achievement attributed to Mussolini's leadership but again how accurate is this claim it's crucial to recognize that the concept of draining marshlands didn't originate with musolini nor was he the Pioneer in unified Italy to embark on such Endeavors the

idea of a systematic Reclamation dates back to the 15th century initiated by the papacy and the first comprehensive legislation aimed at Marshland Reclamation was enacted in 1878 by the unified Kingdom of Italy a deeper dive into the legislative efforts of that era reveals a significant focus on marshan Reclamation well before mulini rise to power specifically in the year 1922 just before the march on Rome approximately 20 Royal decrees were issued to intensify state-backed Reclamation projects okay but still the draining of the marshes definitely wasn't melini's idea but you still can't deny the fact that was

he who managed to reclaim the marshes right to answer this question we need to analyze whether fascist measures for land reclamation were more effective than those of the previous governments upon initiating their Reclamation projects the fascist government encountered a familiar obstacle that had also challenged previous regimes large landowners ERS the marshlands were owned by numerous individuals who were reluctant to relinquish their property without compensation this resistance led to the suspension of several of melini's ambitious Reclamation plans and resulted in the resignation of arigo serpieri The Economist responsible for crafting their relevant legislation from the outset

it became clear that the fascist Administration was not experiencing any more success in Marsh and Reclamation than the liberal governments that came before it in an effort to overcome these hurdles the fascist government sought investment from the private sector but the industrialists lacked confidence in melini's commitment to the Reclamation efforts consequently the financial burden of the project fell entirely upon the state's budget despite facing numerous challenges musolini was determined to see the land reclamation project through going so far as to attach his own name to the official law and integral Reclamation passed in 19 19

28 musolini was putting a lot of stakes on his own image to make this project work at this point it was a point of no return and if the fascists failed it would be a huge propaganda loss for them however the legislation itself did not introduce groundbreaking solutions to the prevailing issues its primary feature was a series of long-term Financial commitments leading to a steady increase in the Project's budget from 13.5 5 million lay in 1930 the budget swell to 257 million lay by 1943 musini strategy was clear he was just throwing money at the

problem hoping it would go away the law incentivized land reclamation by promising substantial Financial rewards to those who participated yet the strategy was fundamentally flawed from the outset as the government initially lacked the necessary funds to finance such an ambitious project this led to a r on future budgets to cover the escalating costs musolini ambitiously proclaimed that 8 million hectar of land would be reclaimed under his directive a figure that was highly unrealistic given that Italy encompasses only 27 million hectares of land in total as the Reclamation project concluded the fascist regime announced the establishment

of numerous towns claiming that 4 million hectar of land were prepared for cultivation while while this achievement fell short of the initial 8 million hectar goal the reported 4 million hectars was still a considerable accomplishment however a closer scrutiny revealed that only 2 million hectars were actually ready for farming moreover of this land 1 and a half million hectars had been previously reclaimed under the liberal governments so during the 10 years of reclamation the fascists only managed to claim 500,000 hectars so what the hell happened well as it turns out the fascists never had all

the money for land reclamation as they made it seem with their budget instead it was only made to look like it for propaganda purposes in fact very few projects were completed as the economic historian Ral Petri wrote quote many Reclamation consortia announc the commencement of work but often only formally melini's Declaration of reclaiming 8 million hectars was not just overly ambitious but practically impossible however the stakes were high not just for musolini personally but for the fascist party's credibility to maintain their reputation musolini orchestrated a perception that the Reclamation efforts were proceeding successfully despite the

fact that very little actual work had commenced this creation of a myth surrounding the swamp Reclamation was so effectively executed that it remains one of the most enduring and infrequently challenged pieces of misinformation associated with melini's Legacy Renzo de feliche one of Italy's leading historians on fascism had this to say in regards to land reclamation quote overall the results of integral land reclamation were inferior not only to those scheduled in his original plan by serpieri but also to the expectations raised in the country by the massive propaganda campaign and were eventually disproportionate to the magnitude

of the economic efforts sustained another big myth about fascism in Italy is that despite the inherent corruption and abuses of power typical of totalitarian regimes musolini was a paragon of honesty and morality within Italian politics upholding Justice and law law yet historical evidence to support this claim is scarce from the outset adherence to strict rules was hardly the norm for musolini and his followers the fascist paramilitaries frequently resorted to Violent beatings and vigilante justice with musolini and the party largely ignoring these actions but let's give them the benefit of the doubt here that this was

all necessary to put Italy on a righteous path The end justifies the means if you will but we also run into another problem that of corruption one of the core messages championed by the fascists was the imperative to liberate the country from the corrupt dishonest and parasitic political system of liberal Italy which had been mared by scandals revealing corruption and misuse of public funds the fascists claim to be Crusaders against corruption intent on cleansing Italy of its malactor and imprisoning them well ladies and gentlemen in this case I would like to introduce you all to

a man called kakom motti from the start motti was a thorn in the side of musolini and his party due to the fact that he was an Incorruptible defender of the rule of law and that he was also an expert on budget policies and economic Affairs an Italian journalist Carlos sylvestri would recall that quote matot was a man who read the government budget as I would read a novel and from his Reading matodi had come to the hair raising conclusions about some of the expenditure items the slip shot accounting and so on in early 1924

as a member of the Chamber of deputies budget committee matot had pointed out the disorder of accounts and the fact that the figures have been deliberately altered by the government stating openly quote from the figures anticipated by the premiere it transpired that the balanced budget that the government officially submitted to Parliament and The Sovereign on the occasion of the opening of the legislature was a fake whereas the real one which envisaged a deficit of 2 billion ler was the one the government was trying to have passed by the general budget committee the threat that gaka

motti posed the fascist was very clear his ability to uncover and expose Financial corruption within the government made him a significant enemy he diligently worked to reveal government counting frauds and hold officials accountable for their deceit and failures more importantly matot aimed to demonstrate that melini's party was no better than its predecessors arguably it was even worse despite its claims of eradicating corruption what were the consequences of his actions on the eve of a critical speech he was scheduled to deliver in the chamber of deputies about the provisional budget matot was abducted by fascist operatives

he was tor tortured and eventually killed according to Petron neni former Italian politician there was a good reason why he was murdered the day before that session quote matot intended to attack the policy of desani and draw the country's attention to the characters who had got rich too quick in the shadow of Palazo chigi and The Palazo Del viminale and a level of corruption identical to the one that had characterized the second French Empire so not only had the fascist been caught misusing public funds and trying to cover it up an act of corruption they

seemingly vowed to fight against but they also murdered and tortured the man who was going to expose them even further yeah it ain't looking too good for the fascists for now more specifically mot's case seemed to also contain information on the American Sinclair Oil Corporation bribing local fascist leaders for the right to exploit potential oil reserves in some areas of Italy among these figures involved melini's own brother aralo musolini appear to be involved as well as Italian historian Mao tanali writes quote Aldo gielli the corer Italiano accountant let sleep a number of serious indiscretions which

were pounced on by the communist Deputy Ezio ribaldi gielli had confided to acquaintances of his that he knew for a fact that motti had been kidnapped because he was was believed to be in possession of a document regarding the Sinclair agreement that proved it was reached on the condition of the payment of six Hefty bribes to as many leading members of the fascist government to be completely Fair here in January 1925 musolini himself in a famous speech in Parliament assumed quote political moral and historical responsibility for all that has happened while this may seem like

the DU acting responsibly in my opinion this this was just an act to save face the motti case together with the Sinclair Scandal was too big for musolini to just ignore as Italian historian again Renzo de feliche wrote quote judging from the way musolini talked his moral in transigence was absolute but in reality he applied the rule only to the small fry when condemnation of minor cases was unlikely to provoke Scandal and indeed when he thought punishing the culprits might even benefit the regime his behavior was entirely different in more serious cases involving figures in

the public eye that would provoke Scandal here is a prime example the case of Roberto Farinacci a senator and fascist party leader in Crona as historian Paul Corner wrote about him quote despite his dubious professional credentials as a lawyer Roberto farach was able to demand and receive six figure fees for interventions in in legal cases in which he used his political Cloud to fix sentences this is obviously an act of corruption and illegal but musolini himself was aware of this but he turned a blind eye to it because the Scandal has not broken out into

the public opinion yet over time corruption and the misuse of public funds escalated dramatically the fascist depleted public coffers strengthening their party and maintaining power through extensive bribes and embezzlement ironically one of the reasons the Italian Army was so poorly prepared for World War II was that a substantial portion of the funds was diverted to bribe officers and other military figures the OV the fascist secret police played a critical role in the system of control one of their primary responsibilities was to monitor local fascist Party leaders and those close to musolini reporting any illicit or

suspicious activities in fact the OVR immense archive which musolini kept in his private study managed to survive the war and be recovered the content of these archives is quite depressing revealing extensive details about the misappropriation of public funds personal misconduct and the extensive ways melini's Associates exploited their positions for personal gain this wasn't a matter of musolini being aware of isolated incidents of corruption he was fully aware of the entire network of criminal activity and kept detailed records of these reports in his study okay I can already see the makavelian counter arguments power should have

been taken by any means in order to really change things it was merely a matter of adopting any method available whether lawful or unlawful to reach the sky and Lead The Rebirth of the country well considering that in 1926 after a filled assassination attempt musolini did his own RTO fire decree Banning all political parties and other organizations opposed to Fascism from that point onward the fascist party was the only one in legislature so already this rise the power was achieved but yet the corruption still very much continued if not intensified okay the fascist party may

have been corrupt to some extent but the DU himself despite turning a blind eye to it was a good and honest man who would have never engaged in corruption personally right right okay Jokes Aside there really isn't any concrete proof that melimi was personally involved in any corrupt act it is true that musolini never cashed his salary as head of state donating it instead to charity that is one thing we can definitely give him credit for although he never spent his salary due to him being head of state he was at the same time perfectly

willing to accept pretty big gifts in 1936 for example the Senate decided to donate musolini a sum of the celebration of the foundation of the Empire without recording the amount in its books which is definitely a bit suspicious another time in 1938 the Senate made him a second donation this time amounting to 1 million L keep in mind that the total amount spent on the salaries of every Senator combined amounted to 932 th000 L which means that the some mus received was a pretty hefty one obviously I can't call these acts of corruption the Italian

Senate at least until 1939 was not subject to any real fascist influence so these donations came from their own volition still one can't help but maybe raise an eyebrow to it you could maybe argue that musolini should not be held responsible for all the corruption that was happening despite him turning a blind eye to it but finally enough the big man himself in the same speech where he took responsibility for the motti case begs to differ quote if fascism has been a criminal Association the responsibility for this is mine here is where things are going

to start to get spicy the Italian economy is often brought up when discussing Bonito musolini people often claim that under his leadership Italians were wealthier than they are today and that his economic policies pulled Italy out of the Great Depression but how much truth is there to these assertions to understand this let's first examine the state of the Italian economy before muslin rule for a meaningful comparison after World War I the economy was in serious trouble due to the war's heavy expenses public debt soared from just 15,000 l in 1914 to a staggering 92 million

after the war by 1920 the depth to G p ratio had risen to 125% many credit musolini for rescuing Italy from this economic crisis something the previous liberal government failed to accomplish but in 1922 even before the march on Rome the Liberals were already introducing decent measures to combat the debt and it even began to fall as the historian ganos salamini wrote quote in 1922 hence before the march on Rome AC situation was achieved in which it was possible to half and pair down the growth of public debt saying the liberal party was completely incompetent

in handling the economy isn't entirely accurate yet some beli that musolini and the fascist sped up Italy's recovery right the reality is that when musolini took over his government didn't actually improve the situation throughout the 1920s fascist Italy's GDP never quite caught up with the glob Global recovery while France and the UK were already stabilizing their economies but I can hear some of you saying in 1925 Italy actually managed to turn out a balanced budget after so many harsh years of debt and deficit in Just 2 years musolini was able to declare the state budget

to be balanced and this is true and musolini was quick to capitalize on this issue and take credit for it however the interesting part is that this one wasn't due to his economic policies if you look into the archives you'll find that it was the repayment of major war debts that led to the balanced budget the repayments were funded partly by War operations from Germany not by fascist policies to add to this Italian economist gorgio mortara pointed out in 1922 that if musolini hadn't implemented any of its policies and the previous liberal strategy had continued

the budget deficit would have resolved itself by 1924 without the war debts so instead of speeding up recovery melini's policies may have actually delayed it future Italian president Luigi AI already an internationally acclaimed Economist in the early 1920s was of the opinion that the budget had already been balanced quote in short I say that the budget inherited from the war and after the war has already been balanced for two fiscal years and if there is to be a deficit then it will be a novelty with new causes that will have nothing to do with previous

and present rulers musolini appointed Alberto dafani as Minister of Finance one of the earliest adopters of fascism however that Stefani didn't really bring anything new to the economy he mainly continued the liberal party's policy of austerity but when he attempted more explicitly fascist policies it triggered a stock market crash and a financial Cris Isis that rippled throughout the entire banking system all right the first few years were turbulent but as musini rolled out his policies things started to stabilize and improve right not quite many of melini's initiatives yielded disappointing results and a notable example was

his so-called quota 90 monetary Revolution musolini wanted to stabilize Italy's currency the L by setting it at a fixed rate of 90 L to British pound this approach had significant consequences because the British pound was a stable currency tied to the value of gold by pegging the L to the pound the currency couldn't change with Italy's economic conditions or its relationship to other Global currencies to strengthen the L one of the measures taken involved reducing wages for nearly the entire Italian Workforce in 1927 when the exchange rate was set at 88 L for for one

British pound musolini celebrated the success of his plan this situation helped big companies close to his government because they could buy raw materials from other countries more cheaply and reduce their workers wages by nearly 20% however this meant that most Italian workers ended up earning less money and couldn't save as much the first fascist intervention in the economy thus made Italians not richer but poorer in terms of spending power by an average of 15% and worst of all the prices of consumer goods did not change as historian salvator La Franchesca pointed out quote wages and

salaries were cut by 10 to 20% in a situation that deprived workers of the right to strike and access to authentic Trade union representation with retail prices staying relatively stable this trend was to continue in the years that followed okay what about the elephant in the room here the Great Depression musolini is widely credited to have saved Italy from the Great Depression making Italy recover faster than other Western Nations but again how much water does this actually hold let's compare Italy's recovery with that of Britain and France while Italy was less impacted by the financial

crash in 1929 it was partly because its economic system was less developed than those of other nations to measure the impact let's take it Italian income in 1929 as 100 and see how it changed in the following years between 1930 and 1931 income didn't drop significantly and it saw slight growth in 1937 however from then until World War II the Italian economy essentially stagnated in contrast Britain and France recovered much more robustly despite experiencing a harsher impact from the crash with France's income reaching a minimum of 153 in 193 38 Italy's industrial production only returned

to pre-depression levels after 1937 and real salaries didn't get back to 1928 levels until after 1938 this data provides a clear answer to whether the fascist elevated Italy's economy to new heights the answer is a definite no however it wasn't just poor decisionmaking that impacted the Italian economy the fascist expansionist policies also played a role these included included the occupation of Libya the war in Ethiopia Mass participation in the Spanish Civil War the invasion of Albania and eventually World War II a study on public debt by the treasury Ministry revealed that the cost of these

military Expeditions was around 5.2 billion leray roughly 2/3 more than the cost of World War I the data shows that musolini aggressive foreign policies didn't significantly increase Italy's public debt which remained around 9 % of GDP until World War II started this might seem like good news because it looks like the government kept depth under control however the real reason is that Italy had trouble borrowing money from other countries because melini's government was often in conflict with countries like Great Britain which dominated the Global Lending Market Italy found it hard to get loans this lack

of access to International loans made musini look for money elsewhere he asked Italians to save more which made it more expensive for the government to manage its debt he stopped trying to balance the budget and used risky economic strategies he reduced public services that improve people's lives like welfare he increased taxes and he even used Italy's gold reserves which are supposed to protect the country's economic stability for regular spending galaz oano the Minister of Foreign Affairs and son-in-law to musini wrote in his diary that musolini was confident in gold reserves but quote but the DUI

does not add that during that time we consumed 12 billions in foreign Securities and 5 billions in gold now our reserves have been reduced to 1.4 miserable billions and when these are gone we shall have only our eyes to weep with so if anything the fascist period was a difficult one for the Italian economy on account of both the international economic situation and of the national systems age old structural problems and worst of all almost all the initiatives undertaken during this period only helped to make things worse setting aside other issues let's examine whether musolini

truly made Italy great and respected particularly by reforming the Italian Army and instilling the fascist spirit in the hearts of Italians some argue that Italy's underperformance during World War II was mainly due to royalist generals and fascist officials who lacked the skill to manage War over time fascist propaganda created a myth surrounding musolini presenting him as both a military and political leader through elaborate uniforms and Theatrical parades but was musolini actually a capable military leader to address this we need to explore the Dynamics between musolini and the military when the fascist took power after the

March on Rome their primary goal as outlined by the fascist ideology was to completely transform society and give birth to a new fascist man Italian historian Angelo debola described what this new man was actually supposed to be quote for musolini the new Italian meant above all a new Soldier more tenacious more aggressive and even more cruel who worthily befitted the myth of the Roman spirit and made people forget the mediocre or dire showings of itala over the years for two decades the fascist regime aimed to mold the Italian people according to principles of force and

militaristic masculinity a harsh militarism that sometimes surpassed even that of the German Empire to instill this mindset children were taught from a young age how to handle rifles and March information laying the groundwork for the new Italian man as they grew older while some might view this approach as positive it had a significant downside the requirement for the fascist man to be aggressive and ferocious LED certain parts of the army especially the colonial Administration to adopt these extreme principles a notable example is the pacification of Somalia a territory controlled by Italy since the late 19th

century compared to other colonies Somali had been relatively stable with local populations generally tolerating the Italian authorities however this changed when Cesar deichi a fascist party leader became Governor to gain glory and align with fascist ideals dichi waged a brutal Guerilla campaign against a small local resistance alienating the population which resulted in increased Rebellion similarly during the war with Ethiopia many local fascist leaders went to the front to gain Prestige among them Bruno and Victoria musolini the sons of The Duce the brutal tactics employed by these fascist principles were evident in in the pacification of

Ethiopia where Marshall rodulfo graziani used Terror to subdue the local population to suppress International criticism and prevent aid from reaching the Ethiopians the Italian military even bombed the Red Cross marking the first time in history this organization was targeted in this way when World War II began it's no surprise that with a stagnating economy and Scattered armed forces in Africa musolini declared that Italy wasn't ready for war and initially refused to enter it yet when Italy officially joined the conflict the military remained largely unprepared many poor decisions had been made regarding the armed forces the

Italian Navy for example consumed a significant portion of the military budget with musolini focusing on building massive battleships as propaganda symbols of military power these ships were impressive but outdated in a period when Naval Warfare was shifting towards a superiority by 1940 airplanes were crucial to Naval battles but musolini stuck to 19th century Naval theories and continued to build battleships these vessels were costly in both construction and operation they consumed vast amounts of oil making them impractical for active use and they were considered too valuable to risk in combat as a result these battleships were

mainly used to escort Supply ships to Libya during World War II and another significant problem within the Armed Forces was the emphasis on loyalty to the fascist party the fascist aimed to reshape Society including the military when it came to appointing officers or generals loyalty to Fascism often outweighs skill or competence this approach meant that if there were two candidates one with excellent skills but no allegiance to Fascism and another with average skills but complete loyalty the lad was almost always chosen you don't need to be an expert in military strategy to understand that allowing

politics to infiltrate military and even enforcing it can lead to disastrous outcomes when people in power are chosen solely for their blind loyalty to an ideology it means that key positions are likely filled with individuals who are either incompetent or at best inexperienced this might work when fighting African tribes armed with bows and Spears or terrorizing civilians but when faced with a professional Army the Italian military was often humiliated the chain of command was riddled with political cronyism middle level officers were confused and the soldiers were demotivated and poorly equipped for example when Italy declared

war on France it failed to break through the seavoy front suffering 1,258 dead while the French only lost 20 similarly when musine decided to open the Balkan front to demonstrate Italian military PR prow by attacking Greece his forces were completely humiliated and pushed back into Albania 20 years of fascism hadn't created a new Warrior Spirit within the Italian people when the time came for them to prove themselves they couldn't match the military tradition that For Better or Worse had been victorious in World War I how much of this responsibility falls upon musolini in my opinion

quite a lot most of these issues stem from melini's vision of transforming Italian Society into a fascist one especially by promoting the violent virtues of the new fascist man furthermore appointing inept military commanders based on ideological loyalty was probably the most damaging move one of the most common misconceptions about musolini is that his regime represented totalitarianism with a human face this perception paints him as different from the Nazis and Adolf Hitler suggesting that ital Ian fascism wasn't inherently racist as power Civic nationalism and at the 1938 racial laws were imposed on Italy rather than willingly

adopted but let's get to the core question was musolini a racist the answer is a straightforward yes his regime targeted various ethnic groups based on their Origins albe it less systematically than Adolf Hitler's regime in Germany consider the treatment of Germans in South theole who had the protection of the furer a plan was devised to deport them but slaves like croats and slovenians faced much harsher Fates during World War II Italy opened concentration camps in preparation for Mass extermination the ARB concentration camp alone held around 35,000 slovenians and given the Region's population of 330,000 about

8% of all slovenians were intended to be exterminated in this camp in short if you were an ethnic or racial minority in musolini Italy you were at best treated as a second class citizen in fact musolini was never shy about using genocidal statements in regards to Slaves quote when dealing with such a race as Slavic inferior and Barbarian we must not pursue the carrot but the stick policy we should not be afraid of new victims the Italian border should run across the brener PA montoso and the dineric Alps I would say we can easily sacrifice

500,000 barbaric slaves for 50,000 Italians the claim that musolini never cared about race or that Italian fascism had never been rooted in the concept of race is an outright lie race was a central theme in melini's Visions for Italy as the historian Emilio Gentile points out quote musolini believed that race is a fact as hard as Granite as he wrote in February 1st 1921 and this fact rendered internationalism an absurd fairy tale because the Deep masses do not and cannot override and this is a great Fortune the irrepressible fact of race and Nation there are

plenty of instances where musolini has very clearly laid out his racial Ambitions according to claretta Pachi one of melini's Mistresses she would write in her diary that musolini told her quote I have been a racist since 1921 I don't know how they can think I'm imitating Hitler we must give Italians a sense of a race in a 1921 speech in the city of triesta the duer would say quote how then was this fascism born it was bored of the profound and perennial need of our Mediterranean and Aryan race we feel those bonds of Race To

Be Alive and vital which bind us not only to the Italians of Zara Ragusa and kataro but also to those of the Canton tono and Corsica to those beyond the oceans to all that great family of 50 million men whom wished to be United in the same pride of race in early 1938 the grand Council of fascism would release an official statement after a few fascist intellectuals released a Manifesto of race the council would State quote following the conquest of the Empire The Grand Council of fascism declares the Urgent interest of racial problems and and

the need for a racial conscience it points out that for 16 years fascism played and is still playing a positive role in the quantitative and qualitative Improvement of the Italian race an improvement that might be Gravely compromised with incalculable political consequences by cross breathing and bastardization it's very clear that musolini always had an interest in race and race was definitely a feature of Italian fascism to say that musolini believed in Civic nationalism is something to laugh at he had every intention of making Italy pure by any means necessary and as we have seen in the

case of the Slavs he was willing to go as far as systematic extermination so what is my conclusion here that musolini was completely evil and that he did absolutely nothing good of course not the fascist regime had in fact introduced a lot of beneficial legislation for the Italian population to say that musolini really did nothing good would be completely dishonest yet I would say that the negatives vastly outweigh the positives as I have shown in detail here it's undeniable that there is a lot of mystification floating around here in regards to musolini especially on the

internet the first big reason for that is as I have mentioned in the very beginning that the mainstream has this belief that a dictator is inherently bad and for that reason musolini is instantly labeled as evil just because of that that without actually going into the details of his Reign and secondly Italy's lack of a formal def fascisti process also played a role in shaping its post-war identity the idea of admitting that 20 years of fascism had been a catastrophic mistake causing so much suffering and destruction was too difficult for many Italians to accept this

was particularly true for those who had grown up during the fascist era after the warst tragedies these individuals wanted to start fresh rebuilding not just their Nation but also their sense of community and belonging confronting the darker aspects of fascism and acknowledging its profound impact on Italian History wasn't part of their path to Renewal and it is when you finally tear down this enormous mystical curtain that the true results of fascism in Italy become clear if anything it has managed to make several aspects of Italian Society worse and The Duce for the most part gets

to have a pass as just a DE decent or good leader who cannot be compared to that of his German counterpart but in reality he could be held responsible for several of these degradations in Italian society and the only thing I can say is Mor Al fascismo aluche Viva IL re