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Fascism’s Unplanned Birth
- Fascism emerged in post‑WWI Italy as a new, improvised political phenomenon rather than a fixed ideology.
- It fused war veterans, syndicalists and futurist artists into a violent, ritualistic movement.
Mussolini’s Milan Meeting
- Mussolini formed the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento in Milan on 23 March 1919, blending veteran fraternities and futurist artists.
- The movement celebrated the ‘brotherhood of war’ and the ‘fraternity of violence’ as central virtues.
Intellectual Roots And War As Catalyst
- Fascism drew on Rousseauian mysticism, crowd psychology and Sorelian myth to valorize collective will and violence.
- The First World War supplied the veterans, trauma and propaganda technologies that ignited these ideas.