www.explaininghistory.

com 18 March 2016

ITALIAN FASCISM
A Divided Nation | War | The Communist Threat

Italian unification
Italy was unified as a nation
state in 1870 after nearly half a
century of revolutionary wars
and nationalist struggle
against the Austrian Empire.
The most significant player in
the unification was the
northern Italian state of
Piedmont-Sardinia.

North South Divide

Piedmont and the north of Italy
was industrialised with railways
and manufacturing and had
more in common with modern
countries like France and
Austria. The south and Sicily
were backward and
predominantly peasant
agricultural societies, meaning
that Italy was only politically
unified, not socially or
economically.
Making Italians
Many of the leading thinkers of
the pre 1914 era in Italy
believed that war would unify
the nation and make the
population stop thinking so
locally and parochially. Instead,
a crusade against an external
enemy would forge national
identity and create ‘Italians’.
The Legacy of the First
World War
When war broke out in 1914 Italy was allied to Germany and
Austria, but did not declare war on Britain and France.
Instead the country’s Liberal government waited and opted
for a policy of neutrality. Extreme nationalist voices on the
right, including the former socialist and journalist Benito
Mussolini, demanded that Italy join the war. They believed
that the war would be a national crusade that would bind the
chaotic and disparate country together. They also hoped that
at the peace conference at the end of the war, Italy would be
given new colonies in Africa and the Middle East.
The mutilated peace
The war took an horrific toll on Italy. Most of the war was
spent fighting Austria in the Italian Alps. Conscripted men
fought in dismal conditions with out of touch generals who
needlessly sacrificed their lives. In 1916 the Italian Army all
but collapsed following the Battle of Caporetto and it was
only the intervention of Britain and France the prevented a
full rout. Italian soldiers returning from the front found that

www.explaininghistory.com 1
www.explaininghistory.com
The Mutilated Peace
Initially Italy had high hopes of
the Paris Peace Conference, but
before the talks had concluded,
the Italian delegation stormed
out in outrage. Italy’s initial
demands were set out in 1915
when she agreed to join the
allies.
• Italy wanted control territory to
her north east, including the
Austrian province of Tyrol
• Italy also demanded the now
Yugoslav territory of Dalmatia,
including the port of Fiume
• Italy wanted the Albanian city
of Vlore, numerous Adriatic
Islands and parts of the
conquered Ottoman Empire
Britain and France believed, with
some justification, that Italy’s
contribution to victory had been
minimal. Woodrow Wilson of the
USA also said that the Treaty of
London was invalid as America
had not signed it and would not
recognise secret treaties. As a
result, Italy was offered a strip of
territory from Trentino to the
Brenner Pass, the Dalmatian Port
of Zara and some of the
Dalmatian Islands. The Italian
delegates, Orlando and Sonnino,
left in outrage.
www.explaininghistory.com
18 March 2016
instead of the anticipated social unity in towns and cities, the
inflation the war caused had led to strikes and unrest. Many
soldiers therefore interpreted the socialist and communist
parties in Italy as being disloyal and treacherous. By 1918, The
Italian Army was finally able to win resounding victories
against the collapsing Austro-Hungarian enemy and the
country’s wartime government believed that this would be
sufficient to secure it a place at the post war peace
conference, where the defeated power’s empires would be
handed out (for more on this, see the sidebar, on the
‘mutilated peace’).
The outcome of the Paris Peace Conference was seen as a
national humiliation and in September 1919, the Italian
nationalist and war hero Gabriele D’Annunzio decided he
would take direct action to salvage Italy’s honour. At the
conference the Italian delegation demanded the city of Fiume
on the Dalmatian Coast, but it was handed to the new state
of Yugoslavia instead. Fiume had a large Italian population
and D’Annunzio used this as a pretext to seize it, along with
2,000 nationalist volunteers. The seizure caused a major
international incident and eventually the Italian army and
navy ejected him, under pressure from the British and French.
Throughout the incident, D’Annunzio was far more popular
than the government, who were seen to be attacking a
popular patriotic figure.
One individual who paid close attention to the marches, the
cult of leadership and the salutes that defined D’Annunzio’s
reign in Fiume was Mussolini. Mussolini had left the socialist
movement, believing that nation and national identity were
more important than social class and revolution. Instead of
the workers taking over, he believed that a vanguard of
dynamic and powerful individuals who could inspire the
masses. In 1917 British counter intelligence (MI5) paid
Mussolini a wage to establish anti socialist publications (the
British were keen to keep Italy in the war and prevent any left
wing attempts to create a separate peace with Germany). On
the 23rd of March 1919 he established the first Fascio di
Combattimento (fighting squad) in Milan. The first fascists
were an odd assortment of former soldiers, nationalists,
anarchists, poets, intellectuals and others. They had few real
core ideas, other than a general notion that Italy was
surrounded by enemies and that intellectualism and
conventional politics had failed. Only inspired leadership and
violent action would now save the nation.
2