It is in the nature of fascism, with its strong emphasis on national character and national destiny,

that the ideology is exclusively for one's own country and for one's own people.

As Mussolini put it in 1928 during a speech to the Italian Chamber of Deputies,

fascism is not an article for export.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music Episode 2902. Episode 292, an article for export.

October 1932 marked the 10th anniversary of Benito Mussolini's appointment as Prime Minister of Italy.

By any measure, it was a good 10 years for Ilducci personally. For the Italian people,

eh, not so much. Clementine Churchill's observation that it was easier to admire Mussolini

and the Italian fascist government from afar than it was to live under it, certainly rings true.

But in fact, many foreigners did admire Mussolini, politicians, celebrities, and journalists from around the world trekked to Rome for an audience with a man who was not merely a politician

or a ruler, but an international celebrity, as much a must-see tourist destination for visitors to Rome

as were the Colosseum or the Trayvy Fountain.

What made Mussolini a prominent figure and admired celebrity statesman was not only that he led the government of a major nation,

but that he had devised an entirely new political party and ideology, fascism.

When Mussolini praised fascism as the ideology of the 20th century,

come to supplant the worn-out ideas of earlier ages, people listened.

And despite Mussolini's declaration that I quoted at the top of the episode,

he and other fascist leaders in Italy certainly believed that at least some aspects of Italian fascism were indeed

suitable for transplant to other countries. Right-wing nationalist movements from across Europe agreed

and looked to Mussolini's Italy for inspiration, and sometimes for more than that. After Spain became a republic in 1931, dissident nationalists,

especially in the military, came to Rome to seek help in overthrowing the new left-leaning republic.

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