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March 23, 1919 –

Bonito Mussolini, a publisher of a socialist newspaper, and a World War One veteran, establishes the National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF). Mussolini believed that Italians were ‘left behind’ from becoming a Great Power. Italy had joined the Allied Powers in World War One, and he felt that Italy had been shorted during the Treaty of St. Germain en Laye, despite gaining several ceded territories from Austria-Hungary (Trento, Trieste, and some islands.)

War reparations were to be made by Austria to Italy, but cash payments never came. This is mostly due to Austria’s inability to join any existing power’s economic or governmental situation without approval from the League of Nations. Austria began paying livestock to the Italian government immediately, but comparably the land masses ceded to other countries made Italy’s land gains seem inconsequencial.

In the Piazza San Sepolcro, in the middle of Milan, Mussolini founded the Fasci di Combattimento di Milano (Milon Fighting Fascists) at a rally held there. This would be the official headquarters from the party later on. The facist party wouldn’t come to full power for a couple of years, when the King of Italy would ask Mussolini to establish a new government, in which he proclaims himself a dictator. Mussili would rule Italian life and society until his death in 1943.