Italy after ww1
Problems Italian government faced
Foreign policy
The government was faced with many new problems after the First World War. The first one was the Italian dissatisfaction with the territorial settlement made at the Paris Peace Conference. Most of the Italians had expected big territorial gains when they entered the war. According to the Treaty of London, Italy was promised Trentino, Trieste, Southern Tyrol, Istria, Dalmatia, the coastal districts of Albania, a share in the division of the Ottoman Empire and of the German colonies in Africa. Although the Italians fought bravely and lost 600,000 men, the territories ceded to Italy in the Paris Peace Conference were not as many as she had originally been promised. Italy was given Trentino, Trieste, Tyrol and Istria, but she did not get any former German colonies nor any land in Asia Minor, Albania and Dalmatia. There was much resentment against the weak and unsuccessful foreign policy of the Italian government.
Red is belonging to Italy after WW1
Green is regions with Italian populations that Italians desired to acquire
Economic
The second problem was general economic distress. Italy was a poor nation. She could only support her war effort by obtaining foreign loans. Immediately after the war, as Europe was exhausted by the war, the Italian tourist trade and export trade came to a standstill and there was large-scale unemployment throughout the country. The problem of unemployment was aggravated by the return of millions of ex-soldiers to Italy and a new immigration law of the U.S. government which restricted entry of immigrants. Moreover, runaway inflation added to the sufferings of the Italians. The lira had only one-fifth of its pre-war value. Encouraged by the success of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the unemployed workers and peasants stirred up riots and strikes throughout the country.
Red menace
As the government became increasingly unpopular, many Italians turned to support the Socialist Party and the Catholic Popular Party in the elections of 1919. The Socialist Party won more than one-third of all votes and became the largest single party in the Chamber of Deputies. They were followed at a distance by the Popular Party which won one-fifth of all votes on a platform of social reform. The ruling parties (the Liberals and Democrats) lost heavily.
Encouraged by the success of the general election, the Socialists were prepared to make more strikes. Socialist agitation reached its climax in September 1920 when the General Confederation of Labour called for a general strike. During the strike the workers took over more than six hundred factories and established soviets on the Russian model to rule a number of industrial towns in northern Italy.
Although the Socialists had established their control over a number of towns in the North, they failed to seize power in Italy. There were two reasons which might explain their failure to seize power: (1) The leaders of the General Confederation of Labour were chiefly interested in the improvement of workers' livelihood. When the Italian government promised a 20% wage increase to the workers, the Confederation was satisfied and decided to call off the strike. (2) The Socialists lacked the support of the peasants because they proclaimed socialization of all land. Early in 1921 the Socialist threat was over. The Socialist Party also split into several factions. About one-third of the members withdrew to form a Communist Party.
Mussolini and his fascists
Red Menace alarmed the industrialists, landlords and other property holders, while many Italians were discontented with the government which drove D'Annunzio from Fiume. The fear of revolution and the desire for national glory were manipulated to the advantage of a new political group, the Fascists, led by Benito Mussolini.
The turning-point for the growth of the Fascist movement came by the end of 1920. Three important events were chiefly responsible for bringing new strength to the Fascist movement. The first event was that after D'Annunzio and his followers were driven from Fiume by the end of 1920, many Italian nationalists took Mussolini as their leader for he had always advocated a strong foreign policy and the annexation of Fiume and Dalmatia. The second event was that during 1919-1920, governments in Italy changed rapidly and yet all of them failed to find effective solutions to the most urgent problems of the day—the problems of economic inflation and social unrest. The third event was that after the General Strike in 1920, as stated earlier, the property class became haunted by the spectre of a Communist revolution and wanted a strong government to restore law and order in the country.
With some support from the property class, Mussolini formed the National Fascist Party in 1921. In the elections of May 1921, Fascists were able to gain 35 seats out of 355 - a tremendous gain in contrast to their total failure only 18 months ago.
From May 1921 to 1922, Mussolini changed his tactics to suit the different circumstances with the aim of seizing political power as soon as possible.
After his initial success, Mussolini became more violently anti-Bolshevik than ever in order to win more support from the property class. He stopped attacking the monarchy, the Catholics and capitalists. He promised a strong government which could suppress the socialists' disturbances and a strong foreign policy which could bring national glory to Italy. Economically, he championed economic liberalism and an improvement in the conditions of the workers.
he March on Rome (Italian: Marcia su Roma) was a march by which Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista, or PNF) came to power in the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia). The march was a planned insurrection by fascist leaders on Oct. 24, 1922 to take place on October 28.
Blackshirts occupied the Po plain and took all strategic points of the country. Bands of fascist troops gathered outside Rome marched over Rome. It was the precipitating force behind a transfer of power within the framework of the constitution after the surrender of public authorities in the face of fascist intimidation.
The current prime minister, Luigi Facta ordered a state of siege for Rome, but the king refused. The next day, the king declared Mussolini the Prime Minister without any fighting on October 29, 1922.