The Kingdom of Italy:Unity or Disparity,

1861-1945

Part VI: Fascism, War, and Peace

1922-1945

Party Ideology Leader Pct Seats

Italian Socialist

Party (PSI)

Socialism, Revolutionary

socialismGiovanni Bacci

24.7% 123

-33

Italian People's

Party (PPI)

Christian

democracy, PopularismDon Luigi Sturzo

20.4 108

+8

National Blocs (NB)Italian nationalism, anti-

socialism

Giovanni Giolitti 19.1 105

35

new

Democratic Liberal Party

(PDL)Liberalism, radicalism Francesco Saverio Nitti

10.4 68

-28

Italian Liberal Party

(PLI)Liberalism, centrism Luigi Facta

7.1 43

+2

Italian Social Democratic

Party (PDSI

Social

liberalism, Radicalism

Giovanni Antonio

Colonna

4.7 29

-31

Communist Party of Italy Communism Amedeo Bordiga4.6 15

new

Italian Republican

Party (PRI)Republicanism, Radicalism Eugenio Chiesa

1.9 6

-3

Reformist Democratic

Party (PDR)

Social

democracy, Reformismseveral

1.8 11

new

Combatants' Party (PdC)Nationalism, Veteran

interestsseveral

1.7 10

-10

Lists of Slavs and

GermansSeparatist and ethnic issues several

1.3 9

new

Economic Party (PE) Conservatism, Liberism Ferdinando Bocca0.8 5

-2

Independent Socialists socialism0.6 1

Dissident Populars Clericalism, monarchism0.4 0

new

Italian Fasces of Combat Fascism, nationalism 0.4 2

new

Election of 1921

November 1921

• Partito Nazionale Fascista formally created

• 2200 fasci di

combattimento

throughout Italy

• 320,000 active members

• Milizia volontaria per

la Sicurezza Nazionale

Camince Nere

Michele Bianchi, Emilio de Bono; Mussolini; Cesare de Vecchi; Italo Balbo

With 300,000 young men, armed to the teeth, ready for anything and almost mystically prompt to obey any order of mine, I could have punished all those who have slandered and thrown mud at Fascism. I could have made a bivouac of this gloomy grey hall; I could have shut up Parliament and formed a Government exclusively of Fascists; I could have done so, but I did not wish to do so, at least not at this moment.

I have formed a Coalition Government, not with the intention of obtaining a Parliamentary majority, with which at the moment I can perfectly well do without, but in order to gather together in support of the suffering Nation all those who, over and above questions of party and section, wish to save her.

Mussolini in his first speech to Parliamentas Prime Minister

Party Votes % Seats +/−

National List 4,653,488 64.94 374 +250

Italian People's Party (left-wing) (Alcide de Gaspari) 645,789 9.01 39 −69

Unitary Socialist Party (Giacomo Matteotti) 422,957 5.90 24 New

Italian Socialist Party 360,694 5.03 22 −101

Communist Party of Italy 268,191 3.74 19 +4

Italian Liberal Party 233,521 3.27 15 −28

Democratic Liberal Party 157,932 2.20 14 −54

Italian Republican Party 133,714 1.87 7 +1

Italian Social Democratic Party 111,035 1.55 10 −19

Peasants' Party of Italy 73,569 1.03 4 New

Lists of Slavs and Germans 62,491 0.87 4 −5

Sardinian Action Party 24,059 0.34 2 New

National Fasces 18,062 0.25 1 New

Il delitto Matteotti

La secession dell’Aventino Aventine secession

Il Duce ha sempre ragione.

Le leggi fascistissime the ultra-fascist laws

National government organization

• Prime minister becomes “capo del governo” with increased power including a veto on any act of the council of ministers

• Council of ministers given executive and legislative power (parliament irrelevant)

• Grand Council of Fascism becomes supreme organ of state

Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contra dello Stato.

Local government

• Local and provincial councils dissolved; replaced by

podestà

• Prefects became local eyes and ears of Fascist government

Law enforcement and Justice

• Increased power to police; creation of a secret political police (OVRA)

• Creation of a Tribunale speciale per la difesa dello Stato

• Increased partiality and severity in ordinary courts

• Enactment of laws defining specific political crimes

• Reintroduction of the death penalty

Restrictions

• Dissolution of all political parties except Fascists

• Dissolution of all political, labor, youth, cultural and other organizations considered subversive

• Control and strict censorship of the press

• Control and censorship of art and culture

• Measures against “fuoriusciti”

Nello and Carlo Roselli

Making Fascists—education and socialization

Giovanni Gentile

Giuseppe Bottai

Opera Nazionale Balilla – Gioventù Italiana del Littorio

Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro

Economic Programs and Policies

Battaglia del grano Battle for grain

L’Italia, per contare qualcosa, deve affacciarsi sulla soglia della seconda metà di questo secolo con una popolazione non inferiore di 60 milioni di abitanti . Tutte le Nazioni e tutti gli imperi hanno sentito il morso della loro decadenza, quando hanno visto diminuire il numero delle nascite

(B. Mussolini, Discorso dell’Ascensione, 26 maggio 1927)

Italy, to count for something, must appear on the threshold of

the second half of this century with a population of no less than

60 million inhabitants. All nations and empires have felt the

sting of their decline when they have seen the number of births

decrease

(B. Mussolini, Ascension Day Speech, May 26, 1927)

Incentives

• Tax bachelors heavily

• Lower age for legal marriage from late 20s down to early 20s

• Provide loans for marriage ceremonies, the amount of the loan to be repaid lowered by having children

• Lower taxes on fathers; tax exemption for fathers of 6 or more

• Special awards for those with large families

Religious and ethnic policies

• Treatment of German and Slavic minorities

• Racial Laws

• Lateran Pact

Mussolini and Cardinal Pietro Gasparri signing the Lateran Pact

Foreign Policy

Two major goals

• To make Italy a recognized and feared Great Power

• To recreate the Roman Empire and make the Mediterranean Sea Mare Nostrum

One driving force

• Revenge for humiliation at Adwa

1924—Acquisition of Fiume and a land bridge connecting the city to the rest of Italy from the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes through military threat.

Second Italo-Ethiopian War 1935-17

General Rodolfo Graziani in Addis Ababa

Italian aircraft in Spanish Civil War

Hitler and Mussoini at the time of the creation of the Rome-Berlin Axis, October 1936

Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, GaleazzoCiano (Mussolini’s foreign minister and son-in-law)at Munich Conference, September 1938

Italian troops disembarking in Albania, April 1939

Hitler presenting Ciano with the Pact of Steel, May 22, 1939

Italian soldiers during the invasion of Greece

Italian POWs after Second Battle of El Alamein

Italian Soldiers (largely comprised of the Alpini Mountain Corps) in retreat from Stalingrad, January 1943

Comitato Liberazione Nazionale

Germans occupy Rome, Sept. 9-10