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Why did Benito Mussolini organize the March on Rome in 1922?

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Benito Mussolini organized the March on Rome in October 1922 as an insurrectionary display of force intended to secure his appointment as prime minister of Italy.21

The march was driven by widespread social discontent following World War I, characterized by middle-class fears of a socialist revolution and national disappointment regarding Italy's post-war territorial gains. Mussolini leveraged this instability, using a Fascist Party convention in Naples as a pretext to concentrate armed Blackshirts from across the country.213

While the government of Luigi Facta attempted to declare a state of siege to stop the fascist squads, King Victor Emmanuel III refused to authorize the military to intervene. This surrender of public authority allowed Mussolini to demand control of the government, leading the king to invite him to form a cabinet on October 29, 1922. Rather than a military conquest, the event was a transfer of power facilitated by fascist intimidation.21