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In the same way that Hitler determined his policy by employing Darwinism, so his contemporary and ally Benito Mussolini made use of Darwinist claims and concepts to set Italy on imperialist and Fascist foundations.
Mussolini was a thorough Darwinist, who believed that violence had been a propelling force in history and that war led to revolution. For him, "the reluctance of England to engage in war only proved the evolutionary decadence of the British Empire."61
At the head of the magazine The People of Italy (Il Popolo d'Italia), which he founded with financial assistance from the French government, he put the phrase, "He who has iron will also have bread." In other words he was telling the people that in order to be able to fill their stomachs they needed the power to wage war. Mussolini chose the axe as the symbol of Fascism and the Fascist Party. Because the axe was the symbol of war, violence, death, and massacre.
Mussolini's conduct, aggressive and prone to violence like every Fascist, is described in Denis Mack Smith's book. In his book, Smith stated that one of Mussolini's unchanging beliefs was aggression and his fundamental instinct was to resort to violence.62
Like the other Darwinist-Fascists, Mussolini's warlike, aggressive and oppressive policies led to many people being massacred, being left without home and family, and to the country's being left in ruins. Violence and oppression were practised, by means of the Blackshirts, not only in his own country, but in others too. In 1935 he occupied Ethiopia, and by 1941 had had 15,000 people wiped out. He did not delay in backing and justifying his occupation of Ethiopia with Darwinism's racialist views. According to Mussolini the Ethiopians were inferior because they were of the black race, and being governed by a superior race like the Italians should have been an honour for them.
On the other hand he continued the oppression of the Muslims which had begun with Italy's occupation of Libya on Oct. 3, 1911, and actually increased the attacks aimed against Muslims. The occupation only came to an end with Mussolini's death in an agreement made on Feb. 10, 1947. During that period 1.5 million Muslims were martyred and hundreds of thousands wounded.
Mussolini, who has gone down in history for his ruthlessness and oppression, described the Fascism which he supported and put into practice in a speech:
Fascism is no longer liberation but tyranny, no longer the safeguard of the nation but the defense of private interests.63
As we have seen in the examples from Hitler and Mussolini, Fascism, where the strong and cruel were right and superior and where the only way to success and development was brute force, aggression, violence, and war, was an implementation of Darwin's claims that "The strong live, the weak die," and led to suffering for millions.
