The Impact of Fascism on Italian Foreign Policy: The Origins

1. The Impact of Fascism on Italian Foreign Policy: The Origins 1870-1933

2. “Action and mood, not doctrine.” Mussolini on Fascism

3. Background • Italy had only unified in 1861 • Previously independent stated • Prime Minister of Piedmont Sardinia Cavour and patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi integral • Joined by Rome and the Papal States in 1870 • Still key divisions • Weakened the government • Exacerbated by WWI • Led to Mussolini’s rise in 1922

4. Influences on Mussolini • Italy’s geographic position and limited economic resources • The failures at Versailles • Nationalism and the view of Italy as destined to be a great power • Earlier foreign policy humiliations • The changing international system • Fascist ideology

5. Long-Term Weaknesses of Liberal Italy 1870-1923 • Lack of national identity • Piedmont’s laws imposed on the other states • Regionalism a strong force, most Italians feeling loyalty only to their home towns and cities, particularly in the south • Rome had little support as the capital • Economic and political differences • South was much more agricultural and impoverished

6. Long-Term Weaknesses of Liberal Italy 1870-1923 • The Catholic Church • Breakdown in relations between the Church and State • Deep ties to Catholicism • Liberal Italy was anti-clerical • The Vatican was anti-State, urging Catholics not to participate in the system up to 1914

7. Long-Term Weaknesses of Liberal Italy 1870-1923 • Working-class Protest • Middle and upper classes dominated the system • Only in 1930 that all men over 30 were given the right to vote • Liberal government had a reputation for corruption • General strike in 1914 • Italian Socialist Party (PSI) founded in 1892 • Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti (1903-05, 1906-09, 1911-14) supported reforms in favor of the socialists and the Church • Undermined by a recession and Italian-Turkish War of 1911-12 • PSI appalled by imperialism • By WWI, population is moving hard left (PSI) or hard right (Catholic Party or PPI)

8. Long-Term Weaknesses of Liberal Italy 1870-1923 • Nationalist opposition • Italian Nationalist Association founded in 1910 • Similar arrival of the Futurist Movement • Glorified war and criticized the weakness of liberal governments for not becoming a “great power” • Believed that unification was unfinished without Trentino and Trieste • “Unredeemed lands” • Limited foreign policy successes • Minor gains in Eritrea (1885) and Somaliland (1889) • Failed in Abyssinia at the Battle of Adowa (1896)

9. Impact of WWI • Italy had been a member of the Triple Alliance • Politicians deeply divided in what became the Intervention Crisis • Right-wing liberals hoped joining the Entente would grant them Italian-speaking Austro-Hungarian territories • Entered the war in April, 1915

10. Impact of WWI • Intervention crisis • Entry Supported by the Nationalists and Futurists • Division on the left • PSI said it was an “imperialist’s war”, but factions developed • Mussolini argued in favor of intervention and became a part of the group which was expelled from the PSI and his role with its newspaper, Avanti! • Moderate-left liberals and the Church did not support the war

11. Impact of WWI • Suffered huge losses at the Battle of Caporetto • Only a minor victory at Vittorio Veneto • Lost 600,00 men and hundreds of thousands wounded • Soldiers became politicized, resented the liberal government and the PSI’s anti-war stance • Number of industrial workers had grown meaning that trade unions and the PSI grew in strength and were more militant

12. Fascism • No clear founding doctrine, manifested differently around the world • Derived from Fascio or “group” • A single rod is easily broken, while the bundle is much stronger • First fascist squads under Mussolini in March 1919

14. Mussolini “Between us and the communists there are no political affinities but there are intellectual ones. Like you [communists], we consider necessary a centralized unitary state which imposes iron discipline and all persons, with this difference, that you reached this conclusion by way of the concept of class, and we by the way of the concept of nation.”

15. Choose whether the following best represents democracy, fascism or communism.

16. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it...

17. In this sense the theory...may be summed up in the single sentence: abolition of private property.

18. Calls for the creation of a militia with specifically response to domestic opposition responsibilities.

19. Advocates sequestration of 85 percent of all war profits by the state.

20. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants.

21. We hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friend.

22. Armaments factories are to be nationalized for the growth of the empire

23. Expropriation of the property of religious congregations – religion is allowed if it is tied to national tradition

24. Let the ruling class tremble at our revolution. The revolutionaries have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.

25. Impact of WWI • Post-war crisis • Liberal governments fared badly in 1919 elections • None of the political parties were able to form a coherent coalition • Result was ineffective, short-term governments • Support declined further when PM Vittorio Orlando failed to secure Dalmatia and Fiume as was previously promised • Italians had suffered at higher rates than even at Britain • Called a “mutilated victory” • Fascism received the biggest boost • 1921, 35 seats to the Fascists, 108 to the PPI and 138 to the Socialists and Communists

27. Impact of the D’Annunzio and Fiume Affair • Sept. 1919, Gabriele D’Annunzio led 2,000 ex-soldiers to occupy Fiume in protest of Orlando handing the port to Yugoslavia • Was not solved until Giolitti returned as Prime Minister • Undermined the credibility of the democratic system

28. Impact of Economics • Post-war economy a boost to Fascism • Inflation and unemployment • U.S. restrictions on immigration • Bolshevik revolution meant widespread fear of communism • 1919-1920 Biennio Rosso“Two Red Years” • Extensive unrest, violence • Fascists gained support of the wealthy industrialists and landowners as they were willing to confront the left physically • Were not restrained by the police • Backed by the Church and Pope Pius XI • By 1922, total loss of faith in state institutions

29. Events of 1922 • Fascists believed their time had come • PM Luigi Facta unable to control the increasing violence • Aug. 1922, Communists and Socialists called a general strike • Middle classes now believed only Mussolini could restore order • Mussolini wanted to explore legal means, but under pressure from regional bosses, Ras, to seize power • Oct. 1922, talks beginning to create a government including the Fascists • Mussolini would not accept anything less than a major role

30. March on Rome • Oct. 24, Black Shirts declared their intention to march on Rome as Garibaldi had • 10,000 began to assembe at three places, each 20 miles outside of Rome • Oct. 27, seized government buildings in north and central Italy • Local officials sent reports back to Rome • Fact asked the Victor Emmanuel III to declare martial law, refused • Oct. 30, Mussolini, leader of a violent party with only 35 members of parliament, offered the post of Prime Minister

31. Consolidation of Power • 1922, new government won a vote of confidence and was given emergency powers • 1923, Nationalists merged with the Fascist Party; Acerbo Law provided that the party that won the most votes in an election would automatically be given two-thirds of the seats • 1924, Fascists intimidate opponents to withdrawals, increase representation from 7% to 66%; liberal GiacomoMatteo gives a speech condemning violence and is murdered 11 days later • 1925, Mussolini now called Il Duce; Parties and Trade Unions banned, elections replaced by appointments; press now under state control • 1926, New secret police force (OVRA), powers of arrest increased, trial without jury and capital punishment imposed

32. Foreign Policy Goals • Increase national pride and consolidate domestic report • Revise Versailles settlements • Dominate the Balkans and Mediterranean • Build an Empire Spazio Vitale and expand into Africa • Spread fascism

33. Economics and Expansion • Sought to make Italy self-sufficient • Difficult with limited raw materials and backwards south/untrained population • Promoted “productivism” • Heavy industry and high taxation • “Corporate State” • Middle way between capitalism and socialism • Working together for national good • Top-down model of state pressure on corporations, allowed for profit once the national needs were satisfied • Three other key, failed initiatives • Battle for Grain • Re-value of the Lira • Mussolini Law (Land Reform)

34. Ambitions in the Balkans • Corfu Incident taught Mussolini he could only bully smaller states • Following military intervention in 1924 the Pact of Rome gave him the port of Fiume • Funded ethnic groups such as the Croats to de-stabilize Yugoslavia • Backed the Albanian nationalist Ahmed Zog in 1924 leading to a treaty in 1926 in which Albania became an Italian protectorate

35. Relations with Western European Powers • Hostile to France • Claims over the territories of Corsica, Nice and Sardinia • Jealous of North Africa • Aiming to replace French influence in the Balkans • Mussolini still worked inside the world system • Influential at the Locarno Conference and its subsequent optimism; Kellogg-Briand Pact

36. Relations with Western European Powers • Did have more cynical goals • Funded the Nationalists in Germany and trained that nations pilots • Supported independence movements in French Morocco • Brutally crushed a revolt in Libya from 1922-28, leading to war and mass execution • Treaty with Abyssinia in 1928, only to invade six years later • Expanded the air force past agreements • Claimed the future lay with new states such as Germany, not the only, decadent British and French • Worked with the Soviet Union