Mussolini's Policies Againstethnic Minorities
Mussolini in Power
Treatment of Religious groups in Italy
Religion was a vital part of Italian society in the earlier 20th Century, Mussolini himself said that the Pope “represented 400 million people scattered (throughout) the world”. This meant that the pope and religion posed a massive influence on Mussolini’s rule and exercised a lot of power on all classes. Mussolini himself was atheist like his father and believed that science was made to prove religion wrong and that Jesus was a madman who had been mistakenly taken for a prophet, however publicly he relied on his image as a deeply religious man who prayed several times a day and who had a Catholic marriage and sent three of his children to communion. Over all Mussolini used religion as a political tool to ensure that he remained in power by appeasing to the population while also using it to appease to Italy’s allies by its racial policy.
After Mussolini took over power in 1922 he started suppressing most of the ethic minorities and political opponents, also using religion as an excuse to get the latter out of the way. People not from the Italian ethnic group were forced out of the Country, further people with foreign first or last names had to change their names into Italian ones to fit the idea of the Roman race that held together. If people were speaking another language than Italian they were forced to speak Italian or an Italian dialect in public. After Mussolini started an alliance with Hitler and Nazi Germany he adopted several laws against Jews. Jews were not allowed to have certain professions (e.g. Professors, Doctors and Lawyers) nor were they allowed to marry anyone else than Jews. Jews were further discriminated often excluded from work or insulted verbally, but rules were never enforced with violence by Italian authorities. This however changed after Germany invaded Italy in 1943: Nazi Germany applied the same regulations as in Germany; Jews were forced to wear stars in public and
Treatment of Religious groups in Italy
Religion was a vital part of Italian society in the earlier 20th Century, Mussolini himself said that the Pope “represented 400 million people scattered (throughout) the world”. This meant that the pope and religion posed a massive influence on Mussolini’s rule and exercised a lot of power on all classes. Mussolini himself was atheist like his father and believed that science was made to prove religion wrong and that Jesus was a madman who had been mistakenly taken for a prophet, however publicly he relied on his image as a deeply religious man who prayed several times a day and who had a Catholic marriage and sent three of his children to communion. Over all Mussolini used religion as a political tool to ensure that he remained in power by appeasing to the population while also using it to appease to Italy’s allies by its racial policy.
After Mussolini took over power in 1922 he started suppressing most of the ethic minorities and political opponents, also using religion as an excuse to get the latter out of the way. People not from the Italian ethnic group were forced out of the Country, further people with foreign first or last names had to change their names into Italian ones to fit the idea of the Roman race that held together. If people were speaking another language than Italian they were forced to speak Italian or an Italian dialect in public. After Mussolini started an alliance with Hitler and Nazi Germany he adopted several laws against Jews. Jews were not allowed to have certain professions (e.g. Professors, Doctors and Lawyers) nor were they allowed to marry anyone else than Jews. Jews were further discriminated often excluded from work or insulted verbally, but rules were never enforced with violence by Italian authorities. This however changed after Germany invaded Italy in 1943: Nazi Germany applied the same regulations as in Germany; Jews were forced to wear stars in public and