Fascism refers primarily to the political movement founded by Mussolini in Milan in 1919 and to the regime which held power in Italy from 1922 to 1943. It is a political credo which mixed elements of socialism with fervent nationalism and commitment to a strong state. Hostile to democracy, liberalism and, despite Mussolini’s political origins, to socialism and communism, it promoted militarism, authoritarianism and ethnocentrism. Historians have debated whether Italian fascism, Nazism and other forms of ultra-nationalism were distinct phenomena with specific characteristics or fundamentally similar. In recent years the idea of ‘generic fascism’, according to which all such movements share a common commitment to national mobilisation and rebirth, has gained ground.