The Mussolini Black Shirts, also known as the Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza was an Italian army that was founded by Benito Mussolini in March 1919 to support the National Fascist Party. Other titles that can be used to describe them include “ Camicia Nera ” or “ Camicie Nere (Britannica, 2002).” The name “Black Shirts” was ascribed to them due to the fact that its members wore black shirts together with their uniforms, since it was the most obvious part of their uniform (Infoplease, 2012). The group was mainly founded to solve two solutions, to remove power from the ringleaders by ensuring that it was well spread throughout the provinces of Italy and to form a national institution out of the fascist party (Crociani & Battisteli, n.d.). The members of the army were situated in all provinces in Italy, and were subdivided into cohorts and centuries, which made them more efficient to perform their duties when called upon. They violently attacked other groups of people as a show of their support for law and order, contrary to their initial role of the Black shirts before they were absorbed by Mussolini and who worked with local police forces and authorities without the use of force. They attacked and tortured the communists, socialists, republicans, trade unionists, Catholics and any other radical groups and people who were thought to be in cooperatives so as to bring the National Fascist Party into power, with Benito Mussolini as their leader (Britannica, 2002; Infoplease, 2012).
Looking at the history of the founder of the Mussolini Black Shirts, Benito Mussolini was born in July 1883 in northern Central Italy to a blacksmith father (BBC, n.d.). With the inability to get employment, Mussolini went to Switzerland in 1902 where he joined the socialist politics there. He later went back to Italy in 1904 and joined the Socialist press as a journalist. In 1915, Mussolini was recruited to join the Italian army so that he would fight in the Firsts World War. When he returned from the world war in 1919, Mussolini established the Fascists Party and gathered the war veterans that were unsatisfied and unemployed and placed them into squads and armed them. He also gathered young people who believed in fascism and were led by fascist leaders known as Ras , which means ‘ring leaders’. The roots of this paramilitary organization was in the legions found in ancient Rome and in the Arditi, defined as Italian assault (Crociani & Battisteli, n.d.). This was the beginning of the terror group that went around terrorizing political opponents. The main reason for the formation of Mussolini black shirts was to intimidate the supporters of Socialism by beating them up and forcing them to leave the areas where they had settled so that they could establish Fascist states in the these areas. This was because the socialists had failed to acknowledge that the Austro-Hungary conflict had arisen as a result of loyalty and national identity rather than class distinction and hence socialism had failed. The Mussolini terror group employed the use of intimidation and violence (Ebner, 2017). According to the founder, these acts of terror against socialists were similar to assaults that were acts of heroism. In his own words he declared “This is heroism… this is the violence of which I approve and which I exalt. This is the violence of Fascism” (Ebner, 2017). He formed the National Fascist Party and in 1921, the coalition government allowed the party to join and become a part of the other political parties. The Fascist party, called Fasci di Combattimento or “Fighting Bands” was created to advocate for nationalism in Italy and this they did this through acts of terrorism against other radical groups who they considered their opponents and opponents of nationalism (History.com, n.d.). It was this party that was responsible for his rise to power.
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In 1922, the Black shirts under the leadership of Mussolini, marched to Rome, in a coup d’état called ‘the March on Rome” where they met with King Victor Emmanuel III. Seeing as political chaos had become quite rampant in Italy by this time, they hoped that the King would help to restore order in the political regime of Italy. The chaos was as a result of attacks by other Fascists who had spread out in the hamlets and cities, and were fighting the Socialists in retaliation against the attack on their national pride in the post-World War I era (Ebner, 2017). The King asked Mussolini to establish a new government since he did not believe in the current parliamentary government that was ruling Italy (History.com, n.d.). Mussolini and his black shirts army went back to Italy and tore down the institutions that had been set up by the democratic government so as to establish a dictatorial regime which would be known as the Italian Empire. In 1925, he took over as the dictator of Italy after the killing of Matteotti and took the title “II Deuce” which meant “The Leader” (BBC, n.d.). He established the black shirts as an official national militia and were known as the Voluntary Fascist Militia for National Security (Britannica, 2002). They were charged with the duty of carrying out civil orders from the government such as restoring national pride and imposing order. This ensured that their activities were funded by the government. The black shirts trend was then worn by the supporters of fascism and other Fascists as a show of patriotism.
Mussolini tried to appeal to former allies of Italy, and these were mostly Western European countries. In 1935, the black shirts invaded Ethiopia as directed by their leader and this caused all former western allies of Italy to cut off any alliances they had with the fascist country. In 1936, Mussolini black shirts joined forces with Adolf Hitler who was the Nazi leader. Mussolini and his army of black shirts wanted to take part in the Spanish Civil War by showing support of Francisco Franco’s Nationalist Forces which wanted to overthrow the Second Republic that had been elected into power democratically (History.com, n.d.). The support by the Mussolini black shirts for the Spanish Civil War could possibly have been out of spite and hatred for socialism. Mussolini signed a secret treaty with Spanish Nationalists and this enabled Mussolini black shirts to set up camp in Spain in preparation for war with France (Spartacus Educational, n.d.). The Mussolini black shirts then went to Spain in 1936 to fight in the civil war, and were situated in Madrid. More black shirts kept joining the war and by 1937, there 20,000 black shirts in Spain. It was this same year that the Black shirts also contributed to the fall of Malaga in February. Afterwards, the Black shirts went to fight in the Republican army in Guadalajara, where many were killed and wounded, making their numbers decrease significantly. This caused Francisco Franco to ban them from fighting alongside the Spanish independent unit (Spartacus Educational, n.d.).
The Republican army had significantly weakened the Black shirts. However, Mussolini declared war against France and Britain when he passed a legislation that made Italy an anti-Jewish state. This caused the Black shirts to go into war in 1940 and were defeated due to their weakness in numbers and were ultimately defeated after the war (BBC, n.d.). In July 1943, former colleagues of the Fascist government landed their troops in Sicily and tried to overthrow the Mussolini dictatorial regime, which they succeeded. Mussolini was then imprisoned and his fall also led to the fall of the Mussolini black shirts (Britannica, 2002).
Before their fall, the Mussolini black shirts were a terror group in Italy which promoted political violence and gave rise to fascism in the state. They coerced people to support fascism, failure to which they were murdered and others tortured. Their overall attack pattern was active in regions that had many supporters of Socialists and other radical groups since they were formed to act as political perpetrators of violence (START, n.d.). They were primarily motivated by nationalism, but this changed once they started mobilizing other people to join the group and commit brutal violence against people of other radical groups. Their impact on terrorism is in the way they meted out terror on their victims since this has helped to define other terrorist groups in the world. They also shaped terrorism by providing motive for their inhumane acts. Looking at other terrorist groups in the world, with focus being on ISIS and other similar groups, these terrorist groups punish their opponents through inhumane acts such as flogging, beheading, amputation and crucifixion as these opponents are considered infidels (Jacobs, 2014). This could be the reason as to why radical groups are formed. They are formed to fight for what they stand for and believe in. The Mussolini black shirts showed a political stand by supporting fascism in Italy and were thus a part of the National Fascists Party. They also helped to promote nationalism in the state among communities, villages, hamlets and towns.
Another impact of the Mussolini black shirts on the subject matter terrorism revolves around the scope of their operations. The Mussolini black shirts were initially supporters of the nationalist party but they soon expanded their territory of operation to be nationwide. Later, they were involved in international wars as they intended to spread nationalism in Spain during the Spanish Civil War where they fought against the Republicans. The formation of international terror groups that are formed for radical reasons can be attributed to this terror group. An example is ISIS which is an international radical group among Islamic States. The terror group operates in the states of Iraq, Syria and the Levant (Jacobs, 2014). The Levant comprises of territories that extend from Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan and Palestinian regions. The purpose of this terrorist organization is to promote radical Islam among members of these states, just like Mussolini Black shirts who intended to promote nationalism among other states.
Another impact of the Mussolini black shirts on terrorism concerns the characteristic trait of the members involved in a terrorist group. Mussolini black shirt members were recruited from war veterans who were not satisfied with the reaction of the government with reference to the war and thus were against socialism. Other members who were recruited into the terrorist group were also supporters of fascism and thus fought against those who opposed them. They thus influenced the recruitment of people in terror groups. Only people of common belief are to be recruited in the group so as to effect change since recruiting opponents will only result in failure of the group.
Mussolini’s terror group also impacted terrorism by ensuring that there was effective change in their state. They ensured that a fascist government was formed under their leader, Benito Mussolini who promoted nationalism in their country, which was the course they stood for and even fought for. This ensured that other terrorist groups formed after them also worked towards achieving success through every means.
The Mussolini black shirts, on account of their outright brutality, also made an impact on law. This is because the result of their actions went far beyond deaths and destruction since they also affected the economic and political situation of Italy. However, they ensured that a dictatorial regime was formed under the leadership of Mussolini and thus their main impact on law was the promotion of fascism through a fascist government. This suppressed the freedom of association and expression of the people since they lacked the ability to form political parties in Italy unless they were fascists’ political parties (Weebly, n.d.). They went around killing people who were in support of socialism or liberal democracy, and even killed Catholic supporters. This was the way Mussolini and the Black shirts could shut down those who tried to criticize their actions. The totalitarian system that was established alongside the dictatorial regime ensured that every aspect of the people’s lives was controlled by the government through the Black shirts since those who did not abide by the requirements of the government were tortured by the government militia. The centralized institution ensured that people completely lacked rights of their own since it was no longer democratic. The law was scraped off since they were not allowed to vote, seeing that Mussolini appointed himself their leader without their consent. They lacked freedom since teachers were also forced to teach students on the glories of fascism and the fascist party. The terror group also foresaw that students were enrolled in a program that would teach them the positive effects of the war (Weebly, n.d.). They thus imposed unnecessary laws on the people of Italy without allowing them to express their contempt for the totalitarian system in their country which infringed upon most of their rights.
Despite having been formed for the purpose of promoting nationalism and law and order, the Mussolini black shirts were the perpetrators of crime, and they committed various acts that were considerably criminal. They terrorized people and saw this as a way of promoting peace since people would fully support fascism, and this changed the law of Italy of what was perceived to be right or wrong. The Black shirts felt entitled and superior to others and thus threatened the rest of the civilians. Acts of terror on people were supported by the fascist government as it was considered to be right provided it was in support of the government. The perception of the law was changed as it did not consider human rights but rather paid more attention on ensuring that the government and their dictator was pleased, regardless of the murders and destruction of property that the people were subjected to. The new laws that they established supported the abuse of power. This is evident in the way the Mussolini black shirts carried out orders by the government to promote civil law and order. The abuse of power was also because they were political allies to the leader of Italy, Benito Mussolini. This way, they were considered to be above the law since the dictator made and approved of the new laws in Italy.
As a result of their willingness to spread fascism through violence against their opponents, the Mussolini Black shirts also promoted and supported discrimination based on the radicalization that they promoted. Since they were strict supporters of fascism, their intentions were to differentiate between supporters of fascism and supporters of other radical groups and impose violence on those who were not supporters of fascism. They also recruited members from fascist supporters and thus created social division. They ensured that people who did not support fascism were subjected to violence by those who supported fascism. The government formed by Benito Mussolini also ensured that those who did not support fascism were subjected to violence and terror attacks so as to coerce them to change their loyalty. The fascist government also provided reason for them to selectively torture people they did not like, such as the socialists and Jews. The law at the time did not punish wrong doers, but rather focused on people that the government did not like in order to execute punishment through acts of terror. This ensured that it was not effective in promoting justice and fairness since the actual wrong doers were set free to do as they pleased provided it was done in the name of the government.
The law also changed since it ensured that the fascist were above the law. This is evident in how Mussolini and his terrorist group carried out their activities. This saw to it that they spent most of the country’s revenue on military defense rather than on development. Since the government was responsible for funding the unnecessary activities that the Black shirts undertook, it is evident that most of that money was wasted. The fact that they were above the law is seen in the way that the people were afraid to speak against them for fear that they would be persecutes for expressing the wrong opinion with regards to the government. This is evident since no one was willing to persecute them for attempting to overthrow the government after the March to Rome. Evidently, this group brought about change in Italy since they adopted fascism even after Mussolini was captured and his terror group defeated.
References
Britannica. (2002). Blackshirt Italian History. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Blackshirt
Crociani, P & Battisteli, P. P. (N.d.). Italian Blackshirt 1935-45. Retrieved from http://www.ratoathcollegehistory.com/uploads/2/5/7/9/25795305/italy_under_fascism.pdf
Ebner, M. R. (2017). Fascism: “This is the Violence of Which I Approve”. A Slate Academy. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fascism/2017/01/how_italian_fascists_succeeded_in_taking_over_italy.html
History.com. (N.d.). Mussolini Founds the Fascist Party- 1919. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mussolini-founds-the-fascist-party
Jacobs, S. (2014). 8 ISIS You Absolutely Need to Know. Scout. Retrieved from http://www.scout.com/military/warrior/story/1461461-8-isis-facts-you-absolutely-need-to-know
Spartacus Educational. (N.d.). Italy and the Spanish Civil War. Retrieved from http://spartacus-educational.com/SPitaly.htm
Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. (START). (N.d.). Distinctive Characteristics of Terrorist Groups. University of Maryland. Retrieved from http://www.start.umd.edu/research-projects/distinctive-characteristics-terrorist-groups
Weebly. (N.d.). Benito Mussolini. Retrieved from http://benmusso.weebly.com/negative-effects-.html
