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Having fought in WW1, Italty attended the Paris Peace Conference. Italy was promised land and resources, but when their representative arrived, they found out the other countries wouldn't grant Italy any land. This created early tension between the major European nations.
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Newspaper journalist Benito Mussolini creates the National Fascist Party. A growing sense of nationalism in Italy led to the parties birth. The initial idea was to create a party the supported the socialist platform, and to increase workers rights.
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This established Mussolini and the Fascist Party as the most important and feared political party in Italy. He led 25,000 Fascist Blackshirts into Rome to show their power and dominance.
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Mussolini destroyed all of his political opposition through his secret police and outlawing labor strikes. Mussolini and his fascist followers enforced their power through laws that transformed the nation into a one-party dictatorship. Mussolini renamed the Mediterranean Sea to Mare Nostrum, which means "Our Sea." He suppressed the press and established a state-controlled economy. He got rid of Italy's debt from the Great Depression.
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Mussolini's government passed the Acerbo Law, which moved Italy into being a single national constituency. This gave Mussolini's fascit party the majority of deputies in parliment. The Acerbo Law stated that the party gaining the largest share of the votes gained two-thirds of the seats in parliament.
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Mussolini orders that Italy invade Abyssinia. Italy had an army of 100,000 men, they used new weapons such tanks, flame-throwers, and chemical warefare. By May 1936, Italy had conquered Abyssinia. A total of 775,000 people died.
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Italy, Germany, and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, which was an anti-communist agreement.
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The Pact of Steel was intended to be a military alliance between Japan, Italy, and Germany. Japan wanted the pact to be aimed at Russia, while Italy and Germany wanted it aimed at Britain and France. Because of this disagreement, the agreement was signed without Japan and was between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. This was an open demonstration of continuing trust and cooperation between Germany and Italy.
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