Although Italy had fought on the side of the Allies during the World War 1, she was not happy at the peace settlement.
During the actual negotiations the people of Italy overthrew Orlando and Sonnino and substituted Nitti and Tittoni for them.
In spite of that, Italy did not get what had been promised to her by the Treaty of London of 1915.
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The interests of Italy and Yugoslavia conflicted and as the Allies favoured Yugoslavia, Italy was discontented. In September 1919, D’Annunzio captured Fiume with a number of Italian soldiers and induced the occupying French and British troops to leave at short notice. D’Annunzio held the town as an independent free-lance and the Italian Government, whom he condemned, had not the courage to take action against him.
The Government was neither strong nor bold enough to subdue him. There was chaos in Italian politics. There was no morality among the politicians of Italy. They changed sides unmindful of the consequences to the country.
Rioting and street fighting were of daily occurrence in large towns and strikes were numerous and violent. The Socialists and Fascists fought with each other in all the big towns. The Ministers allowed these disturbances to go on unchecked and nothing was done to punish the instigators. It was this negligence on the part of the Government which gave the Fascists their opportunity.
Their better organisation and leadership enabled them to triumph over the Socialists and encouraged them to capture power. The Ministers were impotent and timid. Bold leadership could have saved the situation, but that was not forthcoming. Giolitti, who, had resigned in June 1921, hoped that the Socialists and Fascists would destroy one another and he would be able to step in and dictate peace.
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A foreign traveler in Italy at that time observed that the combinations of politicians in Italy were so delicate and so carefully adjusted that the existing Premier had already arranged not only who was to succeed him, but who was to succeed his successor.
Giolitti was the brain behind these arrangements and he hoped to be the next Prime Minister but one. J.H. Jackson says, “Italians felt themselves disgraced in the eyes of the world, swindled by their own politicians. War had cost Italy dear draining her of money, saddling her with a budget deficit of over 12,000 million Lire, forcing up the cost of living. The political party in power in 1919 was pacifist, its leaders old and cynical. It is little wonder that Italians turned to violence.”
At the end of September 1922, Mussolini declared that he favoured a constitutional monarchy. On 24 October 1922, while addressing a gathering of the Fascists at Naples, he made far-reaching demands of the Government.
Facta, Prime Minister of Italy, resigned on 27 October 1922. Mussolini decided to march on Rome with his followers. He met with practically, no resistance on the way and arrived at Rome on 30 October 1932. He was appointed the Prime Minister by the King of Italy. Mussolini secured the army by giving the War Office to General Diaz.
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The existing political situation in Italy had excited the contempt of most of the serious Italians and they all agreed that radical changes were necessary. It is not correct to say that the people of Italy welcomed the advent of Mussolini to power. But there seemed to be no other alternative. The attitude of the people towards Mussolini can be expressed in these words. “He is not all that we wish, they (those whom he had expelled) are all that we hate.”
Mussolini had a varied career. At different times he had been a teacher, a soldier, a pacifist, a journalist and a socialist agitator. Soon after the War, he gave up his socialism and formed in Milan the Fascist Party, recruited from ex-soldiers, students and many people of the middle class. The Fascists claimed to be not a party, but an organisation.
They were supported by the people who were sick of the industrial disorder on the one hand and gross profiteering on the other. They earned reputation by intervening in strikes and putting them down by force. They grew in numbers in Milan and gradually spread to other towns in the north of Italy. They wore black shirts and carried sticks. Mussolini was ambitious, vain and self-centered.
He believed that he was giving to his countrymen what they needed most. He restored law and order in the country. He gave them glory. The people supported him and he continued to remain in power till his death in 1945.
It is true that constitutionally speaking, he was merely the Prime Minister of Italy, but actually he was a dictator. Sumner Wells says, “The members of what was politely termed the Italian Government were no more than Mussolini’s lackeys. The will of the Duce however perverse, however ignorant and however blindly mistaken the Fascist leaders knew him to be, was law. For no one in Italy, from the King to his Ministers, from the generals to the industrial magnates, dared to oppose him.”
Under Mussolini, the efficiency in administration increased. Colonies were planted in what had been malarial swamps. Industry made progress and trade increased. Vast public works were undertaken. New roads were constructed.
The Pontine Marshes were drained and buildings were erected. Wages and hours of work were regulated. A scheme of national insurance was started. Attention was given to education and the number of illiterates in the country fell. Brigandage in Naples and Sicily was suppressed. Although strikes were banned, no solution was found of agricultural and industrial unrest. Little was done to solve the problem of distribution of land.
There was also the dark side of the picture. There was no freedom of opinion in the country. Parliamentary Government disappeared. The Fascist Party became the state and all opposition parties were destroyed. The result was that in 1929, the Parliament contained only Fascist members. The people were subjected to the rule of the corrupt officials and there was no scope for any relief so long as the Fascist regime lasted.
The most notable achievement of Mussolini was the reconciliation of the Kingdom of Italy with the Roman Catholic Church. On 11 February 1929, a solemn Concord was signed between the Pope’s representatives and Mussolini. Before 1870, the Pope was the Vicar of Christ and as such, the earthly head of the Roman Catholic Church.
He was also the sovereign, prince of the Papal States. After the entry of Victor Emmanuel into Rome in October 1870, the things underwent a violent change. Victor Emmanuel’s decree of 9 October 1870 declared Rome and the Roman Provinces to be an integral part of the Kingdom of Italy.
Thus, the King deprived the Pope of his power as a temporal sovereign, although he left him in unmolested possession of the Vatican. Bismarck recognised the Pope as an arbitrator in territorial disputes. However The Hague Conference refused to admit his representatives in 1889 and the League of Nations declined to accept the Pope as a member.
There was a great increase in the prestige of the Pope during and after the World War I. His appeal for peace was considered seriously by the parties to the war.
In 1928, France established a regular Legation to the Holy See. Negotiations took place between Mussolini and the highly placed officials of the Vatican and those resulted in the Lateran Treaty of 1929. Italy recognised the Vatican as a state with access to the sea and the Pope as an international person. Considerable rights and privileges were granted to the Church throughout Italy. The Pope got reconciled to the Kingdom of Italy.
It is maintained that the survival of Mussolini’s dictatorship for more than 21 years was due partly to his reconciliation with the Pope. Mussolini is said to have observed, “One could finally be both a good Italian which is synonymous with Fascist and a good Catholic.”
Mussolini put before his countrymen a new programme which included the protection of private property, exaltation of the state and the acquisition of new territories by a vigorous foreign policy. Mussolini followed an aggressive foreign policy.
That was partly due to the fact that he was determined to raise the prestige of Italy in the eyes of other powers and that was possible only if he was able to show that Italy had strength enough not only to protect herself, but also to conquer other territories.
Mussolini glorified in the past of Italy and would like to revive the glories of the Roman Empire. Being himself a dictator, he would like to divert the attention of the people from home politics and that was possible only if he kept his country busy in one foreign adventure or the other.
The people of Italy had not forgotten their defeat by the Abyssinians at Adowa in 1896. They also had not forgotten the humiliations to which they were subjected after the World War I.
Italy was in need of colonies to provide an outlet for hundreds of thousands of her children deprived of work in the fatherland and no longer able to emigrate abroad on account of the limitations imposed on immigration by foreign countries.
To quote Mussolini, “We are hungry for land because we are prolific and intend to remain so.” Again, “We are becoming and shall become so increasingly because this is our desire—a military nation. A militarist nation, I will add, since we are not afraid of words—the whole life of the nation, political, economic and spiritual, must be systematically directed towards our military requirements. War has been described as the court of appeal between nations.”
To begin with, Mussolini had to concentrate in south-east Europe. That was due to the fact that while on the West there were national states which had taken definitive form that was not the case with Eastern Europe.
It was this fact which enabled Mussolini to have some gains for his country there. In 1920, Italy had surrendered the Dodacanese Islands to Greece but she got them back by the Treaty of Laussane in 1923.
In the same year, the Italians bombarded the Island of Corfii. Mussolini also made peace with Yugoslavia by the Treaty of Rome signed on 27 January 1924. Fiume was divided between Italy and Yugoslavia. Fiume proper was given to Italy while the neighbouring town of Porto Baros was given to Yugoslavia. In 1926, Mussolini concluded the Treaty of Tirana with Albania. By that Treaty, Albania became practically a dependency of Italy.
It was in 1939 that Albania was annexed to Italy. An internal revolt was planned against Zogu’s regime by the distribution of money among the leaders of the opposition. Count Ciano himself supervised the military preparations for the enterprise.
There was not much of opposition. In 1928, Great Britain, France and Spain invited Italy to have a share in the international government of the Free City of Tangier on the west coast of Morocco.
At the London Naval Conference held in 1930, Mussolini demanded naval parity with France and got the same. In 1931, he advocated the revision of the Peace Treaties. It is obvious that Mussolini was successful “in strengthening Italian hold on the Adriatic, in increasing her prestige in the Mediterranean and in expanding her diplomatic and commercial influence in South-Eastern Europe.”
1. Conquest of Abyssinia:
Many factors were responsible for the conquest of Abyssinia by Italy. The population of Italy was on the increase and there was the necessity of acquiring some territory for the surplus population. Italy wanted raw materials for her industries and markets for finished products. The dictatorship of Mussolini in Italy deprived the people of their liberties and it was necessary that they must be given some compensation. It was also necessary to divert the attention of the people from their miserable economic condition at home.
It is true that economic depression had affected every state of Europe, but the condition of Italy was most unhappy. The Italian currency had depreciated. Unemployment had increased and the wages of those employed were cut down.
It was found difficult to adjust the budget. Italy had an adverse balance of trade. A war against Abyssinia could arouse the patriotic spirit of the Italians, who had been defeated and humiliated by Abyssinia in 1896. The conquest of Abyssinia would put minerals into the hands of Italy.
Abyssinia was also of great strategic value to Italy. It could link the Italian possessions in Somaliland, Eritrea and South-East Africa. From Abyssinia, Italy could afford to attack the British position in the Sudan. It could also help Italy to make the Mediterranean an Italian lake. Mussolini started the Abyssinian war at a time which he considered to be the most appropriate.
From the attitude of the League of Nations and the Great Powers towards the conquest of Manchuria by Japan, Mussolini had come to the conclusion that in spite of the principle of collective security, nobody was going to stop him from conquering Abyssinia. Resolutions might be passed condemning his action, but no solid help would be given to the ruler and the people of Abyssinia.
Moreover, the world had not yet recovered from the effects of economic depression. The economic problems were giving a headache to all the statesmen of Europe.
The rise of Hitler to power in Germany and the pursuit of an aggressive policy by him, were occupying the attention of the European statesmen. As Italy was considered to be a lesser evil, it was possible that the other powers may not like to interfere while she was busy conquering Abyssinia. They may care more to maintain the peace of Europe than to prevent Italy from conquering Abyssinia.
Mussolini took a lot of time to make preparations for an attack on Abyssinia. In 1932, a high- ranking Italian official was sent to Abyssinia to spy out the land and report on the possible chances of success.
His report was that “the political conditions in Abyssinia are deplorable and it should not be a difficult task to effect the disintegration of the Empire if we work it on political lines and it could be regarded as certain after a military victory on our part.” A lot of money was spent by Italy to create dissensions among the people of Abyssinia and preparations for the war.
Italy merely wanted an excuse to start the war against Abyssinia and that came in December 1934, when there was a clash between the troops of Abyssinia and Italy near the village of Walwal in which a few Italians were killed.
Although the Italians put forward unreasonable claims for indemnity, they refused to submit the dispute to arbitration. After having made preparations in 1935, the Italian troops crossed the frontier and entered Abyssinia in October 1935.
The matter was taken to the League of Nations by the Emperor of Abyssinia. The Italian delegate in the League opposed the discussion on the Walwal incident on the ground that he “did not regard it as likely to affect the peaceful relations between the two countries.” The Council of the League agreed to postpone the matter as the Italian delegate offered to settle the dispute by peaceful means.
In spite of the pledge, the Italian Government did not appoint an arbitrator. When Abyssinia protested again, the Italian representative informed the League that Italy was ready to proceed with the work of arbitration. The arbitrators were appointed and their unanimous decision was that neither Abyssinia nor Italy was responsible for the Walwal incident.
Great Britain was anxious to avoid a clash and a formal proposal was made to Mussolini according to which Great Britain was to give the Port of Zeila to Abyssinia who was to give the southern province of Ogaden to Italy.
The offer was rejected by Mussolini. Delegates of Great Britain, France and Italy met in Paris in August 1935 and it was decided that Abyssinia should be invited to apply to the League for collaboration in promoting “the economic development and administrative reorganisation of the country.”
This offer was also rejected by Mussolini. In September 1935 Sir Samuel Hoare declared in the League that Great Britain was willing to carry out her obligations under the Covenant of the League. The League was busy with the proposals for the adjustment of boundaries between Italy and Abyssinia, but, at that stage, the Italian invasion of Abyssinia started in October 1935.
This forced the League to move in the matter. On 7 October 1935, the Council of the League declared that Italy had “resorted to war in disregard of its covenants under Article 12 of the Covenant.” Two days after, the Assembly of the League recommended the appointment of a Committee for the purpose of coordinating the work. The Coordination Committee asked the members of the League to prohibit all loans or credits to Italy and place an embargo on exports to Italy.
Excepting Austria, Hungary and Albania, those measures were backed by the other European states. Economic sanctions were enforced in November 1935 but France was not happy on account of her fear that Mussolini might not plunge the whole of Europe into a war. In the words of Laval, “Sanctions were imposed in order not to break with Great Britain and the League of Nations and they were applied in moderation in order not to break with Italy and to prevent war.”
The people of Abyssinia could not stand against the Italian troops who were thoroughly mechanised and fully equipped in every way. The Abyssinians had practically no modem weapons of warfare. Their resources were scanty. The result was that the Italian armies penetrated far into Abyssinia.
Sir Samuel Hoare and Laval conferred with each other and offered to Mussolini more territory in Abyssinia than what Italy was occupying at that time. However, the proposals leaked out and nothing came out of them. Sir Samuel Hoare was forced to resign. After the failure of the Hoare-Laval Plan, Italy took in earnest the conquest of Abyssinia and before the end of April 1936 the Italian army was near the capital of Abyssinia. The Emperor of Abyssinia left his country on 1 May 1936 and with him all resistance ended. Abyssinia was occupied and the King of Italy was proclaimed the Emperor of Abyssinia.
The conquest of Abyssinia by Italy was a flagrant violation of the Covenant of the League of Nations and the League was completely discredited. Hitler got encouragement in his aggressive designs. He was fully convinced that the League of Nations was an impotent institution and its members were not prepared to risk a war to save any state from any aggressor. The League was practically dead and after 1936 continued to exist merely in name.
The view of G.M. Gathome Hardy is that the conquest of Abyssinia “Marks a crucial turning point in post-war history. The triumph of Italian aggression naked and unashamed, affected the whole world with fundamental consequences.
To England it meant the virtual destruction of the institution which successive governments of different parties had proclaimed to be the keystone of their foreign policy. To France…it meant that the enemy or whom she stood most in terror was encouraged to fresh audacity and rescued from his previous isolation and finally to the Italian transgressor by an act of poetic justice, it was destined to mean the extinction of his influence on the Danube, and the arrival of German forces on the Brenner.”
2. Italy and Austria:
Mussolini was opposed to the union of Austria with Germany. That was due to the fact that such a thing would bring the military frontier of the Reich to the Brenner Pass and the hinterland of Trieste and might also prove the preface to the construction of a Mittel-Europe which would automatically put a stop to Italian influence in Europe. In 1931 Chancellor Bruning had tried to achieve an Austro-German tariff union, but the same was opposed by Mussolini.
In 1934, the Nazis revolted in Austria, occupied the federal Chancery and fatally wounded the Austrian Chancellor. Mussolini ordered Italian mobilisation to help Austria against Germany and thus Austria was saved from annexation by Germany. However, things changed after the conquest of Abyssinia by Italy.
Hitler recognised Italian sovereignty over Abyssinia while the democratic countries were criticising Italy on the issue of Abyssinia. That changed the attitude of Mussolini towards Hitler. The result was that when Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, there was no protest from Mussolini.
3. Italy and France:
Italian interests demanded the destruction of French political influence in the Danubian area by the dissolution of Little Entente and substitution of a combination directed from Rome. Mussolini joined Germany against French plans for reconstruction in the Danubian region.
In the matter of disarmament, Italy supported Germany against France. The view of Mussolini was that parity between Germany and France would give to the Italian army the balance of power on the continent.
When Germany rearmed herself to the French level, Italian expectations were realised and Italy was able to defy Great Britain and France on the issue of Abyssinia. In June 1934 Hitler and Mussolini met at Venice. The two dictators found that their points of view were different and it was practically impossible to agree for the time being.
When the Nazis intervened in Austria, Mussolini gave up hopes of cooperation from Germany, and he decided to win over France. On 7 January 1935 was signed the Rome Pact by which France met the main demands of Italy in Africa in return for concessions by Italy in Central and Eastern Europe. Both the countries agreed to consult each other in case of a future threat to Austrian independence.
It was agreed that there was the necessity of a multilateral understanding in which Germany, Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia should undertake to respect their mutual frontiers and abstain from meddling in the internal affairs of each other. Both Italy and France agreed to oppose any unilateral revision of the treaty.
France gave to Italy 44,500 sq. miles of territory bordering on the Anglo-Egyptian, Sudan and a strip of French Somaliland giving Eritrea an outlet to the Gulf of Aden. France recognised Italian sovereignty over the Island of Doumerrah in the Red Sea. France gave to Italy a share in the ownership and management of the Addis-Ababa-Jibuti Railway in Abyssinia. France agreed to continue for 30 years the old concessions enjoyed by a lac of Italians living in the French protectorate of Tunisia.
She also granted some new concessions for a long period. France agreed to give Italy a free hand in Ethiopia. She also agreed to press Great Britain and the League to do the same. However as France participated in the economic sanctions enforced against Italy, the friendly relations between France and Italy disappeared. Mussolini declared that so long as the French Government maintained towards Italy the present attitude, the Italians were bound to do the same.
4. Italy and Britain:
Mussolini had to make a choice between Great Britain and Germany and the choice was not an easy one. Great Britain was a Mediterranean power and it was difficult for Italy to be on unfriendly terms with her. Her long coast-line exposed her to an attack from the sea at any moment. At the Stresa Conference in 1934, Italy had aligned herself with France and Great Britain against Germany. Vigorous efforts were also made by Great Britain to remove the points of dispute between the two countries.
However, the progress of the negotiations was not satisfactory. In January, 1937, both Great Britain and Italy issued a joint declaration that they agreed to preserve the status quo in the Mediterranean. The utility of such a declaration became negative on account of Italian help to Franco’s Governments in Spain. Another agreement was made in April 1938 between Great Britain and Italy.
It resolved a number of issues in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern area connected with Italy’s conquest of Abyssinia. Great Britain recognised Italy’s African Empire and Mussolini agreed to withdraw a substantial number of volunteers from Spain. In January 1939, Prime Minister Chamberlain and Foreign Minister Halifax went to Rome but the mission was not a success.
5. Italy and Germany:
If the attitude of Italy towards Great Britain and France was one of hesitation and receive, her advance towards friendship with Germany at this stage seemed to be smooth and steady. Germany was quick in recognising Italy’s African Empire, In October 1936, Count Ciano, son-in- law of Mussolini and Foreign Minister of Italy, visited Germany and met Hitler. On 1 November 1936, Mussolini coined the famous phrase that the Berlin-Rome line represented “an Axis”. Both Germany and Italy acted together in the London Non-intervention Committee.
A large number of Nazis visited Italy. In September 1937, Mussolini went to Germany and Hitler paid a return visit to Rome in May 1938. Mussolini acquiesced in the Nazi annexation of Austria in March 1938. In 1936, the Anti-Comintern Pact was signed between Germany and Japan. In 1937, Italy joined the pact, and thus the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis came into being. Hitler referred to the Axis as a “great world political triangle” which “consists not of three powerless images, but of three states which are prepared and determined to protect decisively their rights and vital interests”.
In the spring of 1936, Spanish military Generals made several visits to Rome and Berlin and placed before Mussolini and Hitler their plans for a revolt. Their plans were approved and they revolted in July 1936. General Franco started and organised the war against the Democratic Republican Government of Spain. A large number of volunteers were sent by Mussolini to Spain to help General Franco and his Government was recognised in November 1936. The success of Italian intervention in Spain in spite of opposition from the Soviet Union, brought prestige to Mussolini.
The view of Wiskemann is that superficially the Munich agreement of September 1938 might be counted as a triumph of Mussolini. He had shown that he did not fear war and he had proved to be a saviour of peace. He returned to Italy perhaps more popular than he had ever been before. The King paid a tribute to his success.
He came from his estate to meet him at Florence on the journey back to Rome. For two years, the Italians had felt themselves slipping down a slope into the sea of vassalage to Hitler. But now it seemed that Mussolini alone in the world could stop the war. The British recognition of Victor Emmanuel as Emperor of Ethiopia on 16 November 1938 crowned Mussolini’s success at Munich in September 1938.
Count Ciano did not like the attitude of Germany with regard to her determination to attack Poland at any cost and it took him a lot of time to win over Mussolini to his point of view that Italy must not join the war at once when Germany attacked Poland. The result was that when the World War II started in September 1939, Italy remained neutral. She decided “to attack when the Allies were almost exhausted by the ravages of war, but had not yet capitulated, for that would save Italy from the destruction of war and would entitle her to a share in the spoils of victory”.
Such an hour came in June 1940, when France was on the point of collapse. It was then that Italy declared war on Great Britain and France on 10 June 1940. When Roosevelt heard of it, he observed, “The hand that held the dagger had struck it into the back of its neighbour”. France fell and she signed an armistice with Germany on 22 June 1940 and with Italy on 24 June 1940. On 27 September 1940, Mussolini joined the Triple Alliance with Germany and Japan. Italy opened war with Great Britain by invading Greece, Egypt, Somaliland, the Sudan and Kenya.
The Italian troops made some progress and were able to occupy British Somaliland. However, the British troops recovered their position and inflicted crushing defeats upon the Italians on almost every front. In June 1941, Italy declared war against Soviet Russia and in December 1941 against the United States. When the Allied Forces invaded Sicily in 1943,King Victor Emmanuel dismissed Mussolini and ordered his arrest. Mussolini was imprisoned and Marshal Badoglio was appointed the Prime Minister.
The new Prime Minister followed a double policy. On the one hand, he declared that war would go on and asked Germany to defend the whole of Italy and on the other started negotiations with the United Nations for an Armistice. The Germans were able to recover their position in Italy. They released Mussolini from jail and put him in power.
The King and Badoglio ran away to the South. Victor Emmanuel and Badoglio declared war on Germany in October 1943 and were declared as co-belligerants by the United Nations. Mussolini was captured and murdered by Italian partisans.