The Italian people wanted to combine religion and politics. “When the nation-state of Italy was created in 1870, the highest aim of Risorgimento patriots was the civil and moral renewal of the Italian people. (pp.1)” The Risorgimento was a movement during the 19th century in hopes of forming Italy into a country instead of remaining a set of different independent states. It is sometimes called the Italian revolt because it was a time for awakening and allowing the Italian people to gain independence as a country. They wanted Italy to be transformed into a free people that was educated in faith and national religion. Since Nationalism is based on nationalism, they believed that modern nationalism was the caused because of the religion of the nation. During this time, the Roman Catholic Church was a large part in people’s lives and the fascist leader, Benito Mussolini was forced to decide if he wanted to work with or against the Catholic Church. He knew that it would be much easier to work with them than against them because the Church had so much power. He wanted to prove that he could be trusted by doing things that helped him gain the Church’s favor such as: baptizing children, closing wine shops, and making swearing in public a crime. Just like any relationship, there were things each party did that the other did not agree with. For example, The Catholic Church was against Mussolini having …show more content…
In 1919, Mussolini started an organization called The League of Combat. The purpose of the organization was to handle attacks from people against the fascist movement. They often used violence to take control of situations whether they were stopping people from writing articles bashing the movement or stopping riots in the streets hoping to end the movement. The League of Combats eventually lead to Mussolini becoming the newest prime minister of Italy by participating in the March of Rome. The March of Rome was an event that led 30,000 participates of the League of Combats to protest that King Victor Emmanuel III make Mussolini the head of the government (League). King Victor was aware that people wanted Mussolini and was scared of the outcomes he would face if he did not allow Mussolini to be in charge, so in 1922, Mussolini became the prime minister of Italy. Because Mussolini was a fascist leader and believed the government should be in control of the citizens likes, he banded any parties against him and his fascist form of government. Fascists were