Reasons for disillusionment of Italian people after the WWI

1. Disappointment at Italy's gains from the Versailles settlement

• promises of some territory gains were unfulfilled (part of Dalmatia, Adalia, Aegean islands, protectorate over Albania)

• they were awarded to other states, mainly Yugoslavia, Albania became an independent state

• Italians felt cheated in view of their valiant efforts during the war and loss of 700K

• failure to get Fiume (given to Yugoslavia) which was not even areas which was promised them

2. The economic effects of the war

• the government had borrowed heavily, especially from the USA, and these debts now had to be repaid

• the lira declined in value (from 5 to the dollar in 1914 to 28 in 1921)

• the cost of living increased accordingly by at least five times

• there was massive unemployment as heavy industry cut back its wartime production levels

• 2.5 million ex-servicemen had difficulty finding jobs

3. Growing contempt for the parlianientary system

• votes for all men and proportional representation introduced for the 1919 elections, caused a large number of parties in parliament

• after the election of May 1921, for example, there were at least 9 parties represented, including liberals, nationalists, socialists, communists, the Catholic popular party and fascists.

• this made it difficult for any one party to gain an overall majority, and coalition governments were inevitable

• no consistent policy was possible as 5 different cabinets with shaky majorities came and went

• there was growing impatience with a system that seemed designed to prevent decisive government

4. The war made Italy more politically divided (extra)

• many of the 5 million men that served in its army were politicized, resenting the liberal government for their mismanagement of the war

• many also resented the PSI's antiwar stance

• the workforce was mobilized to fight a "total" war, which meant that the number of industrial workers grew

• in turn, this led to an increased membership of trade unions and the PSI, and both were
  increasingly militant by the end of the war

The most important characteristics of Fascism

A stable and authoritarian government

• would arouse and mobilize the great mass of ordinary people

• would control as many aspects of people's lives as possible, with strong discipline

• the 'corporate state' - a way of promoting efficiency by setting up a separate organization of workers and employers for each branch of the economy. Each 'corporation' had a government official attached to it. In practice it was a good way of controlling the workforce.

Extreme nationalism

• building up the greatness and prestige of the state, with the implication that one's own nation is superior to all others.

• cult of state

• cult of force

• an emphasis on the rebirth of the nation after a period of decline

A one-party state was essential

• no place for democratic debate, which would made decisive government impossible and held up progress

• only fascism could provide the necessary dynamic action to guarantee Italy a great future

• the cult of the great charismatic leader who would guide and inspire thenation to great things - il Duce ('the leader')

Economic self-sufficiency (autarky)

• great nation must not be dependent on any other nations for vital commodities like raw materials and food supplies

• reducing import

• thought to be essential for a 'warrior-nation'

Great use was made of all the latest modern forms of propaganda

• uniforms,marches, songs and displays:

  • to demonstrate that fascists were a completely new and dynamic alternative to the boring old-fashioned traditional parties

  • to mobilize mass support behind the heroic leader

• keeping close control over the press, radio, theatre and cinema

• Strict press censorship: Anti - fascist newspapers were banned and their editors replaced by Fascists.

• Establishing of Ministry of Culture (Propaganda ministry)

  • Cult of Mussolini: the hero of nation ("Mussolini is always right") and man of action

  • Constant reminder of ancient military glory

• School and Youth organisations

Military strength and violence

• n domestic affairs they were prepared to use extreme violence against opponents

• Mussolini himself also gave the impression that they would pursue an aggressive
  foreign policy

• he once remarked: 'Peace is absurd: fascism does not believe in it.'

• paramilitary groups - drużyny strzeleckie, brygady do ochrony kościołów, black shirts, brown shirts

Characterisctics of Mussolini’s racial policy

Policy towards Jews

1. for much of his time in power Mussolini showed little interest in “problems with race” (no signs of antisemityzm)

2. He had even encouraged Zionism (supporting Jews), because he thought it would embarass British

3. Many leading members of fascist party were Jews

4. In September 1937 he said Jews were no problem (70K in Italy)

5. In summer of 1939 he announced the indroduction of anti-Jewish laws, since he was pushed into an alliance with Hitler

6. In July 1938 Charter of Race was published

   1. it claimed that Arabs, Africans and Jews were all inferior races

7. He began by urging people not to emplot Jews and fire those in jobs

8. press were told to report that Jews had managed to get themselves into important and influential positions and must be ousted before they sent Italy into decline

9. This policy was unpopular in general public

10. Pope was protested strongly and press was told to post the justification and ignore him

11. When IIWW got under way, Mussolini and Giovanni Prezioso (appointed to supervise racial policy) agreed that all Jews must be expelled from Europe

12. They ordered thousands of Italian Jews to be deported to Germany (they knew what Hitler was doing with them)

13. Again this policy was extremely unpopular and
    some officials either sabotaged orders or simply refused to carry them out

Italians as Aryans

1. He had also claimed that certain races were supierior to others - Italian belong to the Aryan race which was superior to Spaniards, Greeks, Africans (Italian Abyssinia and Libya)

2. he orried about ‘Levantines’ - slaves brought during the Roman Empire

Why do particular groups of the society support Mussolini?

wealthy industrialists and landowners

• Mussolini came out as a defender of private enterprsie and property

• Fascists offered not only ideological opposition but were also prepared to confront Socialists and Communists physically

Property-owners

• they saw him asa guarantee of law and order

• as an protector of the property (especially after the Communist Party in January 1921)

Catolic Church

• Pope Pius XI saw him as a good anti-communist weapon

• he saw the Fascists as a means of improving the position of the Church and
  cementing church-state relations.

King

when Mussolini announced that he had dropped the republican part of his programme

The nature of the Italian political system – historian’s view !!!!

1 - temporary aberration

• It was a temporary aberration (a departure from normal development) in Italian
  history, the work solely of Mussolini

• historian A. Cassels calls it 'a gigantic confidence trick perpetrated on the Italian nation by Benito Mussolini - an artificial creation of Mussolini'.

2 - grew naturally from Italian history

• Fascism grew naturally from Italian history

• the environment and the circumstances shaped the rise and success of fascism, not the reverse

• the roots of fascism lay in traditional Italian society and that the movement grew to fruition in the circumstances after the First World War

The Italian historian Renzo de Felice

• argued that fascism was primarily a movement of 'an emerging middle class', which was keen to challenge the traditional, liberal, ruling class for power

• he claimed the movement achieved a great deal - especially the modernizing of Italy's economy, which was very backward in 1918

British historian Martin Blinkhorn

• he does not accept this claim about the economy and argues that de Felice has not paid enough attention to 'the negative and brutal side of Fascism'

Changes in education introduced and the way they contributed to strengthen Mussolini’s power

• education in schools and universities was closely supervised

• teachers had to wear uniforms and take an oath of loyalty to the regime

• children were encouraged to criticize any teachers who lacked enthusiasm for the party

• new textbooks were written to glorify the fascist system

• children and young people were encouraged to join government youth organizations

  • Gioventu ltaliana del Littorio (GIL) - for both boys and girls aged 6-21 and organized sports and military parades

  • ‘Sons of the Wolf’ - special organization for young boys aged 6-8 known, which also tried to indoctrinate them with the brilliance of the Duce and the glories of war

• from 1937 membership of one of these organizations was compulsory

• Introduced changes provided no space for critical thinking; indoctrination with the brilliance of the Duce and glories of war aimed to total obedience to authority. ‘Believe, Obey, Fight!

Dopolavoro !!!!

• the 'after-work' organization

• provided the Italian people with things to do in their leisure time.

• cheap holidays, tours and cruises

• dopolavoro controlled theatres, dramatic societies, libraries, orchestras, brassbands and sporting organizations

• mobile cinemas were provided which wereuseful for putting out propaganda.

• very poor families could get welfare support from it

• all this was partly to appease the workers for the loss of their trade unions and the right to strike

• it was genuinely popular.

Battle for Wheat (Grain) - launch in 1925

• propaganda campaign

• aim of gaining self-sufficiency in wheat production and freeing Italy from the "slavery of foreign bread"

• encouraged farmers to concentrate on wheat production

• raised tariffs (import duties) on imported wheat as part of the drive for self-sufficiency

• this had mixed results:

  • by 1935, wheat imports had been cut by 75 per cent

  • Italy was close to achieving self-sufficiency in wheat production

• This policy was popular with the wealthy cereal-growing farmers of the north

• it was achieved only at the expense of dairy and arablefarming, whose output fell ( the climate was not good for growing wheat)

• agriculture remained inefficient and farm labourers the poorest class in the country

• it had caused an unpopular shortage of consumer goods and had greatly increased Italy's national debt

Battle for Births - launch in 1927

• campaign to increase birth rate

• target was to double birth rate and raise the popualtion to 60 mln by 1950 (40 mln then)

• to be achieved by:

  • taxing unmarried men heavily

  • giving tax relief and promotion work for men with large families

  • paying genrous family allowances

• there were severe penalties for abortions

• 12 children as an ideal number

• it was a complete faliure

• young married couples didn’t find it attractive and the birth rate actually fell

National State Voluntary Militia - Blackshirts

• commonly called the Blackshirts or squadristi (singular: squadrista)

• originally the paramilitary wing of the National Fascist Party

• after 1923 an all-volunteer militia of the Kingdom of Italy under Fascist rule (similar to the SA)

• Its members were distinguished by their black uniforms

• their loyalty to Benito Mussolini, the Duce (leader) of Fascism, to whom they swore an oath

• The founders of the paramilitary groups were nationalist intellectuals, former army officers and young landowners opposing peasants' and country labourers' unions

• their methods became harsher as Mussolini's power grew, and they used violence and intimidation against Mussolini's opponents

• In 1943, following the fall of the Fascist regime, the MVSN was integrated into the Royal Italian Army and disbanded

Corporationism

• is a collectivist political ideology which advocates the organization of society by corporate groups

• One of the key elements of the Facist system

• promoted cooperation between workers and employers in order to end disruption between classes

• Facist worker unions and corporations made of employers were expected to work together to settle disputes over pay

• strikes were not allowed

• each corporation had a government official amongst them, and a minister was in charge of the entire system (for a period of time this role was taken by Mussolini)

• this system was meant to even out the economic situation, and in compensation for their freedom Mussolini promised the workers benefits, such as free Sundays and social security

Giacomo Matteotti

• the socialist leader in the Italian parliament

• In May 1924 (after election) he made a speech in parliament complaining about the fraud and violence of fascists, and demanding that the election be declared invalid

• Mussolini was furious, and there can be little doubt that he was responsible for having Matteotti killed

• He was murdered (was stabbed to death) 11 days later

count Galeazzo Ciano

• Mussolini’s son-in-law

• In 1936 was appointed Minister to Foreign Affairs, and was it till 1943

• earlier Minister of Press and Propaganda

• Ciano had initially supported closer links with Germany

• However, Ciano then became disillusioned with Hitler and argued against the Pact of Steel, signed in May 1939

• Ciano advised Mussolini to create a buffer zone in the Balkans against Germany

• he supported the invasion of Albania

• Ciano lost favour with Mussolini for his anti-German stance when Hitler swept victoriously across Europe

• Ciano ultimately relented and supported Italy joining the war with Germany in June 1940

• when voting on Mussolini's ousting and subsequent arrest, he was for it

• he the fled to Germany and was arrested and killed by Mussolini’s powers

Pope Pius XI !!!!

• pope in year 1922-1939

• he had been sympathetic towards Mussolini in 1922

• he backed Mussolini as he saw the Fascists as a means of improving the position of the Church and cementing church-state relations

• he disapproved of the increasing totalitarianism of fascist government (the fascist youth organizations, for example, clashed with the Catholic scouts)

• he also saw Mussolini as a good anti-communist weapon

• he signed the Lateran Treaty of 1929

March on Rome - October 1922

• was an organized mass demonstration, which resulted in Benito Mussolini ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy (becoming prime minister)

• Mussolini demanded the resignation of the government, so the new Facist party could take  over the control of the country

• Armed Black Shirts had surrounded Rome and threatened the government to take over the city using force, if they failed to meet Mussolini’s orders

• about 50 000 blackshirts converged on the capital, while others occupied important towns in the north

• the prime minister, Luigi Facta, was prepared to resist, but King Victor Emmanuel III refused to declare a state of emergency and instead, invited Mussolini to form a new government

Acerbo Law - November 1923 !!!!

• changed the rules of general election

• party that won most votes in an election, automatically would be given 2/3 of seats in parliament to make a strong government possible

• in the next election (April 1924) the fascists and their supporters came out with 404 seats while the opposition parties could manage only 107

Lateran Treaties - February 1929

• agreement between the Kingdom of Italy unde and the Holy See

• Vatican was recognized as a soverign state.

• Papacy recognized the Kingdom of Italy and promised not to interfere with its matters

• Pope got the money as compensation for all his losses

• Catholic faith became the official state religion of Italy

• Catholic instructions became mandatory for all schools in Italy

• Mussolini left the Church free to continue its spiritual mission without interference from the government

Four Power Pact - 15 July 1933 !!!!

• It was signed on in Rome

• Signed by Italy, Germany, Great Britain and France (French parliament never ratified it)

• It indicated that smaller nations should have less say in "Great Power" relations, unlike in the League of Nations, in which each nation had equal power (officially of course🙃)

• It basically said that those four countries would rule/had power in the Europe

• Agreed to strongly support the League's covenant, the Locarno Treaties and the Kellogg-Briand Pact

• allowed for further " Great Power" cooperation

• in reality this pact had little meaning and was dismissed by the other powers, but in Italy it was prised as Mussolini’succes

Stresa Front (Agreement) - 14 April 1935

• By 1935 Hitler’s rearmament (violation of Treaty of Versailles and threating moves over Austria) was alarming for the rest of Europe, so Italy started to be perceived as guarantee of status quo in Europe

• so Italy, Britain and France (prime ministers and foreign ministers), met on a conference in Stresa in April 1935

• The "Final Declaration of the Stresa Conference", signed on 14 April 1935 , aimed to reaffirmthe Locarno Treaties and to confirm the independence of Austria

• three powers also agreed to resist further attempts to breach the Treaty of Versailles

• together, they protested against Hitler's violation of the Treaty of Versailles

• This "Stresa Front" agreed to work to prevent any future changes to the European settlement.

Invasion of Abbyssinia - 3 October 1935 !!!!

• Italy invades Abyssinia full-scale (03.10.)

• Just three days after the invasion (06.10) the city of Adowa was claimed by Italy

• Italy continued its war and, on 6 April 1936, the Abyssinian army was defeated at Lake Ashangi

• Italian forces finally took the capital, Addis Ababa, on 5 May 1936

• Emperor Haile Selassie fled to Britain

• On 9 May, Abyssinia was formerly annexed by Italy

• It became part of Italian East Africa with Eritrea and Somaliland

Reasons

• Italian nationalist's ambitions to build an empire and to become a great imperial power like Britain and France

• Consolidate Mussolini's position as Il Duce

• Rally support for Fascist Ideal

• Get revenge for the battle of Adowa (1896)

• Mussolini would be able to empower his own military forces by drawing on colonial troops

• The celebration (approval) of war was part of Fascist ideology

• economic reasons - divert attention from the failings of the corporate state and the impact of the Great Depression

• A new living space and market for Italians

• to gain territory for emigration and to provide an export market for Italian goods

• Mussolini also hoped to find oil

Consequences

• this action was condemned by the League of Nations

• limited sanctions put by the League of Nations were lifted (steel and oil vital to war left) → high economic price for Italy → shifting trade to Germany

• Italy moved away from good relations with France and Britain and closer to Germany.

• led to a surge of nationalist feeling and this in turn encouraged Mussolini to further acts of aggression

• Hoare – Laval  Pact - The French and British came up with a plan to end the conflict and the tension it caused. Hoare – Laval Pact sought to pacify Mussolini by giving him most of Abyssinia. Laval and Hoare resigned because of public opinion demanding support for the League’s policy.

• Italy had won the war

• Mussolini’s Italian East African empire was successfully created

• Initiation of a ,,Mediterranean scare”, which caused tension between Britain and Italy

• Economical benefits of the war got outgrow by the costs of maintaining the army and sanctions imposed by the League

• The budget deficit had risen from 2.5 to 16 billion lire during the war

• Reputation for great brutality

• Exposure of the weakness of the League, which had been ineffective in its response to Italian aggression

Intervention in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)!!!!

Causes

1. taking military action was in line with Fascist ideals regarding the central role of war and society.

2. hoped to gain naval bases in the Baleraric Islands from General Franco (token for gratitude)

3. Mussolini had aspirations to re-establish the Mediterranean Roman Empire

4. ideology → fight with against liberal democracy and socialism

5. stop communismspread in Spain and prevent communists from attaining a strategically
   important position at the mouth of the Mediterranean

6. wanted to weaken France, since France had links with the left Popular Front Government that Franco was attempting to overthrow → that would led to strategic position in Mediterranean

7. have other facist state in Europe as an ally

8. Mussolini saw in the Spanish War an opportunity to fashion the "new Italy " and "the new Italian ". "There is only one way to create a warlike people ",

Consequences

1. High economic cost - the lira was devalued, the total cost amounted to around 14 billion lire and led to increase of trade with Germany

2. One third of Italy’s arms stocks were consumed by war - military weaknesses had been exposed to the world. Italian forces were defeated by the International Brigades fighting for the Republic at the Battle of Guadalajara in March 1937

3. Increased tension between Italy and France and Britain due to the Italian submarine attacks on supply ships

4. Spain did not become an Italian satellite state

5. Italy drew closer to Germany

Axis agreement - 1936+1940

Rome-Berlin Axis

• Coalition formed in 1936 between Italy and Germany

• with the two powers claiming that the world would henceforth rotate on the Rome-Berlin axis

• by Italy’s foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano

• informally linking the two fascist countries was reached on October 25, 1936

• it was formalized by the Pact of Steel in 1939

• The term Axis Powers came to include Japan as well

Tripartite Pact

• 27 September 1940 in Berlin

• Japan, Italy, Germany

• Ribbentrop, Ciano and Kurusu

• defensive military alliance that was eventually joined by other countries

• The Tripartite Pact was, together with the Anti-Comintern Pact and the Pact of Steel, one of a number of agreements between Germany, Japan, Italy, and other countries of the Axis Powers governing their relationship

Invasion of Albania - 7 April 1939

On 7 April Italy invaded Albania with a force of 1 00,000 men and 600 aircraft. The Albanian army that
faced them had only 15,000 badly equipped troops which had been trained by the Italians. King Zog had hoped to fight a war of resistance in the mountains, but Italian agents sabotaged the Albanians' limited equipment. By the afternoon of the very first day of fighting, all ports were in Italian hands. The King and his family fled to Greece.

On 8 April, Italian forces entered Tirana and seized control of all government buildings.

Then, on 12 April, the Albanian parliament deposed King Zog in absentia and voted to unite with Italy in "personal union".

Albania withdrew from the League of Nations on 15 April 1939.

The Italians then set up a Fascist government under Shefqet Verlaci. TheAlbanian foreign office was merged with the Italian foreign ministry and the Albanian army was put under Italian command. Mussolini declared the official creation of the Italian Empire and King Victor Emmanuel,
already Emperor of Ethiopia, was crowned King of Albania.

Invasion of Egypt - 9 September 1940

Invasion of Greece - 28 October 1940

Why was Mussolini overthrown?

Entry into the Second World War on Germany's side was a disastrous mistake

• majority of Italians were against it

• they disaproved when Mussolini began to sack Jews from important jobs

• they felt that Italy was becoming a German satellite

• Mussolini failed to modernize the economy to be able to support a prolonged war

• Italy was incapable of waging a major war

• the army was equiped with obsolete rifles and artillery, no heavy tanks and only 1K planes

• The declaration of war on the USA, horrified many of Mussolini’s right wing supporters, who didn’t want economic controls which wartime brought

• He also failed to convert general public to his aims of war and conquest

The general public suffered hardships (trudny czas)

• taxes were increased to pay for the war

• food rationing

• masive infaltion

• 30% fall in real wages

• after 11.1942 British were bombing raids on major cities

• By March 1943, unrest caused strikes in Milan in Turin (first since 1922)

Italians suffered a string of defeats

• after a few early successes, they started to lose culiminating in the surrender of all Italian troops in North Africa

Mussolini seemed to have lost his touch

• he was suffering from a stomach ulcer and nervous strain

• all he could think of was to sack some of ministers who critized him

• When Allied capture the Sicily (07.1943) many of fascist leaders realized that continug the war had no sense

• but Mussolini refused to make peace, because it would ment deserting Hitler

• The Fascist Grand Council turned against Mussolini and the king dismmissed him

• Nobody tried to save him and fascism disappeared

In what aspects was Italy an authoritarian state? !!!!

• authoritarian government

• propaganda

• corporationism, couldn’t strike

• controlled production

• militarism

• nationalism

• one person who is in power