If there was such a thing as a German mentality, one can understand how and why Germans took to the Fuhrer. But the Italians brought up on the humanistic history of the Renaissance, their becoming Fascists defied logic.

It is hard to understand why and how the Italians also gave up their identities on behalf of their Duce. The two leaders must have convinced their people that power was to be had not through the worthiness of the single individual but through the centralized power of a single state. On. Hitler did it in Germany, Mussolini followed suit in Italy. Among his first orders, he disarmed the people.

Mussolini was clever in advancing his Fascist goals in a nation whose government was a monarchy headed by King Victor Emmanuel III, and whose people were catholic with the Pope holding sway over them. Mussolini had to reconcile with both. He succeeded through his black-shirts in powering himself into the government. Then he negotiated with the Papacy through the Lateran Treaty.