Benito Mussolini 5

 At rallies, surrounded by supporters wearing black shirts, Mussolini caught the imagination of the crowds. His physique was impressive, and his style of oratory staccato and repetitive was superb. His attitudes were highly theatrical, his opinions were contradictory, his facts were often wrong, and his attacks were frequently malicious and misdirected, but his words were so dramatic, his metaphors so apt and striking, and his vigorous, repetitive gestures so extraordinarily effective, that he rarely failed to impose his mood.

Fascist squads, militias inspired by Mussolini but often created by local leaders, swept through the countryside of the Po Valley and the Puglian plains, rounding up socialists, burning down union and party offices, and terrorizing the local population. Hundreds of radicals were humiliated, beaten, or killed. In late 1920, the Blackshirt squads, often with the direct help of landowners, began to attack local government institutions and prevent left-wing administrations from taking power.