Keisha Libbrecht Period 5 The Rise of Single Party States SG The First World War led to wartime debt and depression and unemployment in Italy. Social unrest spread. Land seizures took place and peasants refused to pay rent; they burned down crops and destroyed livestock. In the cities great strikes broke down, workers refused to leave plants, demands were raised for worker control over the factories. During these months the government refrained from any bold action, and respect for the Italian parliamentary system sunk. In 1921 new election were held. Mussolini’s Fascist movement won only 35 of the 500 odd seats. However, the Fascist ranks were nonetheless swelling outside the regular cannels of electoral politics. People found comfort in the Fascist movement and were willing to lend it financial support. The blackshirts proceeded to administer beating to Communists and alleged Communists, to Socialists and Christian Socialists and to anyone who did not support them. Vigilante fascist squadrons, the squadristi, broke up strikes, demolished labor union headquarters, and drove from office fully elected Socialist and Communist mayors and town officials. In October 1922 the “March on Rome” took place. The Blackshirts mobilized for a threatened coup and began to converge from various directions on the capital. Mussolini gained the title of premier. He forced through parliament a law providing that any party securing the largest number in votes in an election should automatically receive two-thirds of the seats in the legislature. The First World War continued and advanced the process of Totalitarianism because states depended on nationalism. It was believed that valid ideas could only be those of a group as a whole, of the people or nation. Everything had to put the regime in good light, including all art such as music, painting, poetry, fiction, architecture, and...