The march on Rome: How did Mussolini seize power in Italy?

After the armistice of 1918, Italy experienced social and economic breakdown on a scale that was very rare in its modern history.

Approximately 650,000 men had died in the war, and over one million returned wounded.

Over a million demobilised soldiers had come back to find little housing and no employment programmes, under a government that often could not deliver on promises made during mobilisation.

Factories that once lived on military contracts had closed rapidly, and wages had fallen sharply for many workers as inflation rose sharply across the working-class districts of northern cities.

By early 1919, the lira had suffered a major loss of value, and the cost of living had risen past the reach of ordinary families.

A kilogram of bread cost more than triple its pre-war price. Strikes erupted across Turin and Milan, as trade unions called for wage increases and for conditions that were better in many workplaces.

Meanwhile, rural unrest grew worse, as landless peasants were encouraged by radical organisers to occupy large estates and to claim them as overdue rewards for wartime sacrifice.

Agricultural elites responded by arming private security forces, and local violence became widespread across southern and central Italy.

At the same time, national pride had suffered a blow. Although Italy emerged from the war as one of the victors, it failed to secure Fiume and Dalmatia, along with other territories promised by the Treaty of London.

As a result, many veterans and nationalists labelled the result a “mutilated victory” and blamed liberal politicians who had accepted a humiliating peace.

Their anger helped fuel political extremism and weakened public faith in the parliamentary system, which now appeared directionless and weak. 

Soon, strikes and occupations grew into something more aggressive. The Biennio Rosso, Italy’s “Two Red Years”, began in 1919 and saw mass factory occupations and the rise of workers’ councils, along with open calls for revolution.

In September 1920, approximately 400,000 workers seized control of hundreds of factories, including the massive Fiat plant in Turin.

Leaders of industry and landlords together as a group came to believe that Italy might face an uprising similar to the Bolshevik Revolution.

Since they lacked faith in the government’s ability to restore order, they turned toward paramilitary groups that were willing to act quickly and brutally.

Before he founded fascism, Benito Mussolini had built his career inside the revolutionary left.

Born in 1883 in the town of Predappio, he grew up in a home where his father praised anarchists and socialists.

His early schooling was uneven, why the young Benito had regular disciplinary problems and frequent expulsions, but he later trained as a schoolteacher and supported himself briefly with teaching and writing jobs.

After he moved to Switzerland in 1902 to avoid conscription, Mussolini engaged with socialist movements and began publishing radical articles.

When he returned to Italy, he joined the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and rose quickly due to his confrontational style.

By 1912, he had become editor of Avanti!, the party’s official newspaper, and had used its pages to call for mass strikes, direct action, and a socialist future.

Soon after, his views began to shift. In 1914, as Europe moved toward war, Mussolini stunned his comrades by endorsing Italian intervention.

He claimed that the conflict could speed up the collapse of monarchies and give birth to a new society, but many suspected his motives had turned nationalist.

The PSI expelled him, and he responded by founding Il Popolo d’Italia, a newspaper that soon won support from pro-war industrialists and reportedly from French and British officials who supported intervention.

He joined the army in 1915 but saw limited service after a training accident in 1917 ended his military career.

Upon his return to civilian life, Mussolini no longer identified as a socialist. Instead, he embraced nationalism and the need for strong leadership.

These themes became the foundation of his political thought after 1918. 

On 23 March 1919, Mussolini gathered a small group of veterans, trade unionists and nationalists, along with disappointed socialists, in Milan’s Piazza San Sepolcro.

From that meeting, the Fasci di Combattimento was born. Its members adopted black shirts as their uniform and chose the Roman fasces as their symbol. 

At first, the movement promised land reform and an eight-hour workday, as well as universal suffrage, while also calling for a strong state and military expansion.

Mussolini's message reached rural elites and veterans first, together with many small-business owners who felt threatened by socialism and alienated by liberal government.

Meanwhile, armed groups of Blackshirts attacked socialist meeting halls and destroyed union printing presses, then broke strikes with coordinated beatings.

Notably, in November 1920, fascists stormed the town hall in Bologna during a socialist council’s inauguration, which killed several people and made local unrest worse.

Their actions often received protection from local authorities, who either sympathised with fascist goals or feared leftist retaliation.

In several provinces, fascist squads even replaced local administrations and, in practice, ran unofficial local governments.

Over time, the movement gained significant financial backing from industrialists and landowners, who saw Mussolini’s fascists as a protection against revolution and willingly paid for their growth.

In 1921, the movement reformed itself as the National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF), and Mussolini won a seat in the Chamber of Deputies after forming an electoral alliance with conservative forces.

The transformation from street movement to political actor had begun.

By the middle of 1922, Italy’s parliamentary system had all but collapsed under the strain of economic crisis.

The ruling class failed to maintain control, and successive prime ministers found it impossible to hold together weak coalitions.

Strikes returned and fascist violence intensified, and rural provinces in turn descended into lawlessness.

Several prefects resigned in protest, claiming they lacked the tools to enforce central authority. 

However, Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti believed he could control Mussolini by drawing him into regular politics and included the fascists in the National Bloc during the 1921 elections.

That decision backfired. Instead of becoming milder, the fascists used their new status to increase violence and push rivals out of local governments.

By the end of 1922, fascist influence had spread across dozens of towns and cities, especially in Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, and Lombardy.

Soon after, the PSI split into reformist and communist factions. Nevertheless, trade unions shrank under constant attack, and many in the working class lost confidence in their ability to resist.

State institutions provided no protection, and most ministers prioritised short-term survival over coordinated opposition.

As Mussolini’s influence grew, liberal deputies debated legal procedures and refused to act.

By early October, it had become clear that Mussolini intended to force a showdown. F

ascist newspapers called for an end to liberal rule, and Blackshirt commanders began to issue orders for mobilisation.

Still, Mussolini waited until he was certain the monarchy would hesitate.

On 24 October 1922, Mussolini addressed thousands of supporters in Naples and declared, "Our programme is simple: we want to govern Italy."

Meanwhile, fascist squads gathered in northern and central Italy and prepared to converge on Rome in four columns.

They seized train stations and post offices, along with telegraph lines along the way, but avoided open battles with military units.

The March itself began on 28 October, which had been timed to apply maximum pressure on the monarchy.

At this stage, Mussolini remained in Milan and judged that the king would yield if he showed resolve without causing a civil war.

Prime Minister Luigi Facta requested the declaration of martial law to defend the capital, and the king initially authorised it.

However, Victor Emmanuel III soon changed his decision and refused to enforce it.

Instead of ordering a violent crackdown, he dismissed Facta and opened talks with fascist go-betweens.

Royal advisers argued that the army might refuse to fire on fellow Italians and warned that open conflict could lead to left-wing revolution.

The next day, the king invited Mussolini to form a government. 

Mussolini travelled to Rome by overnight train and arrived on the morning of 30 October.

He wore a black overcoat and carried a cane as he entered the Quirinal Palace and accepted the king’s appointment as Prime Minister of Italy.

Mussolini took office legally, but he had no intention of preserving liberal government.

His cabinet included conservatives and generals, alongside Catholic politicians, which gave the appearance of balance.

Yet within weeks, he requested and received emergency powers to address Italy’s “crisis of stability.”

Those powers allowed him to bypass parliament and issue decrees with the force of law.

Soon after, he created the Voluntary Militia for National Security (Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale), which brought the fascist squads into a legal paramilitary force under state control.

He expanded censorship and banned strikes, then increased surveillance of left-wing parties.

Then, in November 1923, parliament passed the Acerbo Law, engineered by Giacomo Acerbo, which changed the electoral system so that the largest party receiving at least 25 percent of the vote would gain two-thirds of seats in parliament.

The 1924 elections were marred by intimidation and fraud and had given Mussolini the majority he needed.

On 10 June 1924, Socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti was kidnapped after accusing the regime of corruption, and his body was discovered two months later.

The opposition’s reaction was known as the Aventine Secession, which failed to challenge the regime effectively.

But rather than step down, Mussolini declared in January 1925 that he would assume full responsibility and rule by decree. 

Opposition parties were banned, local governments dissolved, and Mussolini transformed Italy into a dictatorship before the end of the year.

Mussolini’s appointment as Prime Minister began a period of fascist authoritarianism in Europe.

His regime introduced a new political model built on propaganda and violence, together with the destruction of representative institutions.

Fascist youth programmes replaced independent education in many schools, censorship largely silenced public debate, and law increasingly became a tool that governments used for political control.

Internationally, his success encouraged other right-wing movements, and later dictators studied his tactics.

Mnay of them mimicked his use of legal appointments and large public displays, combined with the suppression of dissent under an appearance of order.

Domestically, fascist ideology became firmly fixed in public life and promoted militarism and racial exclusion, alongside imperial conquest.