Glencoe World History © 2008

Chapter 24: The West Between the Wars

Web Activity Lesson Plans

Fascism

Introduction

After World War I, European democracy was under threat. France and Britain remained democratic, but a new kind of dictatorship emerged in Italy with Mussolini’s Fascist state. In this activity, students will learn more about the characteristics of fascism, and how it arose in Italy.

Lesson Description
Students will go to a Web site about fascism. Students will read the information and answer four questions about what they have read. Students will then create a graphic organizer in the form of propaganda that summarizes the methods Mussolini used to create a Fascist dictatorship.

Instructional Objectives
The learner will be able to analyze characteristics of fascism.
The learners will be able to summarize Mussolini’s methods of creating a Fascist dictatorship.

Student Web Activity Answers

1. It is based on a heightened sense of national belonging or ethnic identity. It rejects liberal ideas such as freedom and individual rights, and often presses for the destruction of elections, legislatures, and other elements of democracy.



2. The three common features are anticonservatism, a myth of ethnic or national renewal, and a conception of a nation in crisis.



3. In addition to rejecting conservatism, fascist movements also oppose such doctrines as liberalism, individualism, materialism, and communism.



4. The huge rallies and other “political rituals” were used to generate mass support.



5. Students' posters should list the tactics used by Mussolini, such as publishing pro-Fascist newspapers, organizing veterans’ and artists’ groups, spurring the formation of the Blackshirts to attack Socialists and other political groups, passing new laws that provided a legal basis for Italy's official transformation into a single-party state; curbing freedom of the press, creating a special court and police force to suppress anti-Fascism, creating mass organizations to regiment the nation's youth as well as adult leisure time, and staging huge rallies for support.