Video: '31st October 1922: The cabinet of Benito Mussolini formally comes to power'

(Tuesday, October 31, 1922) — Fascism came to Italy today as the cabinet of Prime Minister Benito Mussolini took the oath of office and formally assumed control of the government.

Mussolini’s skill as an orator, the intimidating power of his Blackshirts, and the relative weaknesses of the existing liberal government all contributed to the speed at which the Fascists gained influence.

On Oct. 24, 1922, Mussolini went on stage at the Fascist Congress in Naples to declare his willingness to use the power of the fascist movement to overthrow the government of liberal Prime Minister Luigi Facta.

Four days later on Oct. 28, 1922, approximately 30,000 Blackshirts, the paramilitary wing of the National Fascist Party, known as the Squadrismo, from around the country gathered in the capital in an event known as the March on Rome (Oct. 27-30, 1922).

Video: 'Crowds Acclaim Mussolini - Rome 1922 (1922)'

As they filled the streets and occupied public buildings, they called for Facta’s resignation.

The Prime Minister chose to oppose the attempted revolution, but King Victor Emmanuel III refused his request to declare martial law. Stunned by the King’s rejection of military action, Facta offered his resignation which was immediately accepted.

Victor Emmanuel later invited Mussolini, 39, to form a government, whose cabinet was sworn in on Oct. 31, 1922, in front of the King himself. The establishment of Mussolini’s government was greeted by a victory march by tens of thousands of Blackshirts.

In time, the March on Rome would achieve a mythical status among fascists as a revolutionary seizure of power, but the reality is that Mussolini was granted power by the King.

Within a few years, however, he would transform the country into a dictatorship.