ITALY FROM WWI TO WW2

1. ITALY FROM WWI TO WW2

2. Before WW1…. • Italy was unified in 1861-70. She was barely powerful enough to be counted as a great power. Her parliamentary system was corrupt and inefficient. Her industrial progress was slow. • However, Italy had great territorial ambitions. She wanted Tunis and Tripoli in northern Africa. • Italy also wanted Trieste, Trento and Tyrol. Although the majority of the people in these places were Italians, they were kept under the rule of Austria-Hungary. Thus Italy came into serious conflicts with its erstwhile ally.

3. Starting on one foot…. • Two years after Germany and Austria-Hungary concluded the Dual Alliance agreement, Italy was brought into the fold with the signing of the Triple Alliance in 1881.  • Under the provisions of this treaty, Germany and Austria-Hungary promised to assist Italy if she were attacked by France, and vice versa: Italy was bound to lend aid to Germany or Austria-Hungary if France declared war against either. • Additionally, should any signatory find itself at war with two powers (or more), the other two were to provide military assistance.  • Finally, should any of the three determine to launch a 'preventative' war), the others would remain neutral. • One of the chief aims of the Triple Alliance was to prevent Italy from declaring war against Austria-Hungary, over the territories still under its control

4. …ending on the other. • The Triple Alliance was essentially meaningless, for Italy subsequently negotiated a secret treaty with France, under which Italy would remain neutral should Germany attack France - which transpired! • In 1914 Italy declared that Germany's war against France was an 'aggressive' one and so entitled Italy to claim neutrality.  • In 1915, Italy signed the secret Treaty of London. In this treaty Britain had offered Italy large sections of territory in the Adriatic Sea region – Tyrol, Dalmatia and Istria. • Such an offer was too tempting for Italy to refuse. • Britain and France wanted Italy to join in on their side so that a new front could open up t the south of the Western Front. • A year later, in 1915, Italy did enter the First World War, as an ally of Britain, France and Russia.

6. Military Humiliation • By the start of 1916, however, Italy found itself engaged in a protracted total war placing undreamed of social and economic strains on the nation. • Between 1915 and 1917, Italian troops only got 10 miles inside Austrian territory. • In October 1917 came the disaster of Caporetto. • In this series of battles, the Italians had to fight the whole Austrian Army and 7 divisions of German troops. • The Italian Army lost 300,000 men, and engaged in a massive retreat. • Though the Italians had a victory at Vittorio Veneto in 1918, the psychological impact of Caporetto was huge. The retreat brought shame and humiliation to Italy.

7. The Costs of War • By the end of the war in 1918, 600,000 Italians were dead, 950,000 were wounded and 250,000 were crippled for life. • The war cost more than the government had spent in the previous 50 years – and Italy had only been in the war three years. • By 1918, the country was hit by very high inflation and unemployment was high. • But at least Italy had been on the winning side and could expect her just rewards at Versailles.........

8. Disillusionment… • In fact, Italy got very little at Versailles. The Italian public believed that her leaders there had been humiliated as the "Big Three" (USA, British Empire and France) all but ignored the Italian delegation who were seen as secondary figures at Versailles. This heaped further humiliation on the government. • The Italians did not get what they felt had been promised at the Treaty of London. • The government came over as weak and lacking pride in Italy. For nationalists, the failure of the government to stand up to the "Big Three" at Versailles was unforgivable, and eventually fed the fascist movement.

9. What is fascism? • A system of government with centralized authority under a dictator. • Usually involves terror, censorship, nationalism, and racism.

10. A Definition of Fascism Fascism is the totalitarian philosophy of government that glorifies the state and nation and assigns to the state control over every aspect of national life. The State not only is authority which governs and molds individual will with laws and values of spiritual life, but it is also power which makes its will prevail abroad….For the Fascist, everything is within the State and…neither individuals nor groups are outside the State...For Fascism, the State is an absolute, before which individuals or groups are only relative….Liberalism denied the State in the name of the individual; Fascism reasserts the rights of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual. -- Enciclopedia Italiana, 1932

11. The Fasces Symbol • Comes from the Latin word fasces. • In ancient Rome, the fasces were cylindrical bundles of wooden rods, tied tightly together around an axe. • They symbolize unity and power.

12. Cult of State Worship • The individual had no significance except as a member of the state. • The fascists were taught: • Credere! [to believe] • Obbedire! [to obey] • Combattere! [to fight]

13. Rampant Sexism • Almost exclusively male-dominated. • Traditional gender roles are made more rigid. • Divorce, abortion & homosexuality are suppressed. • The state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

14. Identification of Enemies or Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause • The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe. • This foe could be racial, ethnic, a religious minority, liberals, communists, etc.

15. Politics • Benito Mussolini, 29 July 1883 –28 April 1945 • Fascism came from sources such as Plato, Georges Sorel, and Nietzsche. • And promoted the idea of unity regardless of social status.

16. Immediate Post-WW I Italy • In 1920 the Italian Socialist Party organized militant strikes in Turin and other northern Italian industrial cities. • Economic chaos in the north could spread to the rest of Italy! • Hundreds of new fascist groups developed throughout Italy in response  “Black Shirts” [paramilitary squadriste] violently attacked the Socialists.

17. Mussolini Comes to Power • 1921 election  Fascists included in the political coalition bloc of P. M. Giovanni Giolitti’s government [they win 35 seats]. • October, 1922  Mussolini threatened a coup d’etat. • “March on Rome”  25,000 Black Shirts staged demonstrations throughout the capital.

18. March on Rome, 1922

19. The Fascists Consolidate Power(1925-1931) • New laws passed to create the legal basis for Italy’s official transformation into a single-party state: • Independent political parties & trade unions were abolished. • Freedom of the press was curbed. • Special courts created to persecute any political opposition. • National police force created [with a secret police component].

20. The Lateran Accords (1929) • This settled a long-running dispute over the Catholic Church’s role in Italian politics  this was the 1st time in Italian history that the Church and the government agreed on their respective roles! • Terms: • The Papacy was granted temporal sovereignty over Vatican City. • The Papacy was guaranteed the free exercise of Roman Catholicism as the sole state religion throughout Italy. • The Papacy accepted Italian sovereignty over the former Papal States.

21. Education • The first sentence pronounced by children at school was Let us salute the flag in the Roman fashion; hail to Italy; hail to Mussolini.

22. Mussolini Was Hitler’s Role Model

23. Mussolini and Hitler Hitler and Mussolini had a close relationship. In October 1936 they signed a non-military alliance. Mussolini signed a full defensive alliance with Nazi Germany in the Pact of Steel. Mussolini and Hitler