March on Rome

Mussolini's power grab

The March on Rome was Benito Mussolini's 1922 seizure of power in Italy, when tens of thousands of Fascist blackshirts converged on the capital.

King Victor Emmanuel III, rather than ordering the army to resist, invited Mussolini to form a government—effectively handing power to the Fascists without significant bloodshed.

The event became a founding myth for Italian Fascism and a model for other authoritarian movements seeking to cloak coups in popular legitimacy.

Related

Benito Mussolini · Adolf Hitler · Joseph Stalin · Bolshevik Revolution · Spanish Civil War · squadrismo · fascist Italy · Winston Churchill · French Revolution · American Civil War · Cuban Revolution · paramilitary · coup d'état

Opposites
method of gaining power

March on Romepopular vote

Total of citizen votes

ballot box · plebiscite · abdication

political direction/ideology

March on RomeOctober Revolution

Soviet founding coup

Russian Revolution · Velvet Revolution · Prague Spring · Carnation Revolution

outcome for existing order

March on Romeliberation

Release from constraint

V-E Day · Nuremberg Trials

Family

march, Rome, marched, marches, marching, marcher, marchers, Roman, Romans

Familiarity
Top 1,000,000
Profile
Used worldwide · Timeless · Concrete · Negative · Rated PG