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Narratives : Italy during the Interbellum http://www.zum.de/whkmla/sat/texts/narribit.html |
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Italy had unified, and since been a constitutional monarchy. In the decades prior to WW I, a literacy clause was used
to bar the vast majority of the urban and rural poor from voting, thus disciminating against the Italian Socialist Party.
The popes, blaming the liberal state for the annexation of the Papal State in 1861/1870, regarded liberal democracy an
invention of the devil and forbade practicing Catholics to accept employment by the liberal state, to run for office and
even to vote. Thus, politics in Italy traditionally was determined by liberal and conservative parties. Following World War I, the literacy clause was abolished, and Pope Benedict XV. permitted the formation of a Catholic party, the Partito Popolare Italiane, in 1919. Thus, the political parties hitherto determining Italy's policy suddenly found themselves representing only a minority of the opulation, having to deal with political parties the leaders of which lacked experience in government. Italy entered World War I with great expectations; with a population roughly matching that of France respectively the United Kingdom, it was expected that Italy's entry into the war would deal a significant blow to the Central Powers, whose forces already were stretched. Instead, Austria's forces occupied most of the Veneto; only in the final month of the war were Italian forces able to push the Austrians out of Italy. Italy was among the victorious powers in World War I, gained the Trentino and South Tyrol, Gorizia, Istria and parts of Dalmatia. Yet, many Italians felt like having been betrayed; the Treaty of London 1915 had promised Northern Dalmatia to Italy, most of which became part of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Northern Italy in 1919-1920 experienced the Red Biennum - revolutions on local level, the formation of workers- and soldiers' councils (Soviets), the red flag waving over a number of town/city halls and factories. On the other hand, conservative thinking veteran soldiers returning from the trenches, believing in the cause they had fought for, regarded the revolutionaries traitors. They formed organizations called Fasci di Combattimento (local militias) and fought the revolutionaries, ending the Red Biennium by force. The Fascist Party was founded (PNF), with Benito Mussolini as chairman. The years 1918-1922 were characterised by frequently changing, short lived coalition cabinets which proved incapable of solving the post-war economic crisis, marked by a combination of rising prices (wartime price regulations were cancelled, causing inflation), high unemployment and political insecurity (revolution). In 1922, the Fascist Party organized a concerted March on Rome, with the aim of forcing the government to resign, organized in such a way that the marchers would arrive in Rome simultaneously. The government ordered the army to stop the marchers; when the army refused, the cabinet resigned. King Victor Emmanuel III. asked Benito Mussolini to form a new government. Benito Mussolini formed a coalition cabinet lead by his Fascist Party. He introduced state-financed employment programs which reduced the numbers of unemployed. The Acerbo Law of 1923 foresaw that Italy's largest party would get 50 % + 1 of the seats in parliament - and at the next elections, the PNF gained more votes than any other party. Ever since the Red Biennium, the Fasci di Combattimento pursued a small-scale war with the Communists; concentration camps were established in remote areas. Communist Giacomo Matteotti in 1924 was assassinated, 3 of the murderers were sentenced, but granted amnesty after only two months - the PNF and her militia could violate the law, as long as political outsiders such as Communists or ethnic minorities were concerned, without the organs of the state interfering. Pope Benedict XV. in 1923 ordered the PPI (Catholic Party) to dissolve; by 1925, Mussolini turned Italy into a one-party state, the other parties dissolving themselves or being banned. Fascist economic policies included state-financed employment programs which constructed a network of autostradas (highways), hydroelectric dams, drained swamps (Pontine Marches) etc. Italy saw the emergence of the Corporate State (employers' organizations and Labour Unions joining to form Syndicates, within which labour conflicts had to be resolved peacefully). In effect this meant that the labour unions, deprived of their right to strike, were placed at a disadvantage. Mussolini wanted to achieve autarchy, an economic utopia in which Italy would produce all it needed and thus would not be dependent on imports. A major propaganda battle was launched in order to achieve self-sufficiency in grain production, the Battle for Grain. The Pontine Marches were drained and turned into wheat fields, but also vinyards were cut down to make place for wheat fields. Self-sufficiency was not achieved, and the conversion of vnyards into wheat fields harmed Italy's economy, as wine is a higher quality product. Italy pursued a High Lira policy, as Mussolini regarded the exchange rate of the Lira reflecting the nation's prestige. The policy negatively affected Italy's exports. The Great Depression did affect Italy; yet the PNF policy of state-run employment programs did not permit to have unemployment run out of control. The average living standard decreased in the early 1930es. The PNF made wide use of propaganda (posters). Mussolini, generally addressed as "the Duce" was portrayed as a master in all fields - the Duce as race car driver, as a pilot etc. etc. Mussolini believed Italians had poorly performed in World War I, because they were effeminate, unprepared. He promoted sports in education so that the next generation of Italian soldiers would be ready for military action. He called on Italy's families to have more children; mothers of 4 or more sons were awarded a medal. Families with many children were given preferential treatment, when state-subsidized housing lots were allocated. Mussolini deprived the Italians of their political rights, having turned a multiparty democracy into a one-party state. In order to destract them, he offered them spectator sports (which were supported by the state). One of the most famous race cars of the time was the Bugatti, made in Italy. Italy's soccer team won the World Cups of 1934 and 1938. Within the League of Nations, Italy held the position of one of 4 veto powers, holding a permanent seat on the security council. Yet Mussolini used the dissatisfaction of the Italians in the Dalmatian question to raise his country's misgivings on international level. In 1925, both Britain and France attempted to appease Mussolini by redrawing colonial borders in Africa in Italy's favour. In 1929, Mussolini and Pope Pius XI signed the concordat, in which Italy recognized the sovereignty of Vatican City. Pope Pius XI. has later been criticized for his pro-Fascist attitude. Mussolini dreamt of the restoration of the Roman Empire, of acquisition of territory on the Balkans peninsula and in Asia Minor. Temporarily, Austria and Albania depended on Italian protection. In 1935, Italian forces invaded Ethiopia, then a member of the League of Nations; the League called on her members to join an embargo against Italy. France, the largest recipient of Italian exports and the largest provider of Italian imports, joined the embargo; Hitler-Germany offered Italy the assistance it needed. Mussolini originally had despised Hitler as that midget imitator of his; now Italy became dependent on trade with Germany. When Britain lifted the embargo in 1936, it was too late; Fascist Italy now was a close ally of Nazi Germany. For foreign policy of later Fascist Italy (1938-1945) see the chapter Appeasement and World War II. Postscript : Later Fascism, 1940-1945 . Italy entered World War II in June 1940, launching her own invasions of Greece (from Albania) and Egypt (from Libya). With Italy facing defeat, in both situations the Germans came to the rescue. By May 1943 the war in Africa was over; in July 1943 the Allies landed in Sicily, in August on the Italian mainland. The economic situation of Italy had deteriorated; in June 1943 Mussolini had lost the support of his own party. He was deposed and arrested, a new government formed, which negotiated an armistice with the Allies. The Germans took control of Rome and much of the Italian peninsula; Mussolini was liberated. Now Italy had two governments - one in control of the South, which turned into a partner of the Allies, and a new Fascist state, the Republic of Salo, with Mussolini as a mere figurehead. The Republic of Salo was a German satellite; in her territory, the country's Jews were subjected to the Holocaust. The Republican administration was brutal in the implementation of her policies. On the other hand, it faced an active resistance movement, the partisans. In the liberated parts of Italy, the (old) Fascist Party dissolved itself and the traditional political parties reemerged. When northern Italy was liberated, the representatives of the Republic of Salo were dealt with by Italians. Mussolini and his consort were arrested at a partisan road block and executed (April 29th 1945). Postscript : Mussolini as a Role Model . Mussolini and his Fascist policies lead Italy out of a political and economic chaos. At his time, Mussolini's state-financed employment programs contradicted all established economic theories. Only in 1936 did John Maynard Keynes evaluate such policies, if of a limited nature, as justified; Roosevelt's New Deal was an adaptation of Mussolini's policies. Mussolini found admirers elsewhere, Hitler in Germany, Franco in Spain, Getulio Vargas in Brasil, Juan Peron in Argentina and others; while Hitler and Franco implemented a wide range of Fascist policies, many others were selective in their application. While Mussolini ultimately failed in Italy and the Fascist Party was dissolved in 1943/1945, he was one of the most influential political figures of the century, with an impact felt far beyond his native Italy. While Fascist Italy was the role model after which Hitler shaped Nazi Germany, a few differences have to be pointed at. While Hitler, from 1934 on, held both the chancellorship and the presidency, Mussolini in Italy was only prime minister, could be dismissed by the king any time (and he was, in June 1943). In Fascist Italy, human rights were violated, but the hold the PNF had of Italy was less strong than that of in which the Nazis held Germany; the political atmosphere in Fascist Italy 1925 to 1943 was less unfree. And Fascist Italy was not as obsessedly anti-Semitic as Nazi Germany was; while, upon German pressure, race laws were introduced in Italy in 1938, the Holocaust was only implemented in Italy in the German-dominated Republic of Salo. Following Allied victory in WW II, no war crimes tribunals were held in Italy. Click here for a more detailed history of Italy. |
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