Administrative, military and political activities, and their documentation, were split between those managed by the government of Rome, by the Italian Social Republic, by the partisan forces and by the armies in the field.

[1][2][3] After the landing of the Allies in Sicily, the Armistice of Cassibile, its announcement on 8 September and the flight of the king from Rome, the Badoglio Government, established in Brindisi, maintained the constitutional structure of the Kingdom of Italy, trying to reconstruct the state administration, since almost all the officials and ministerial employees had remained trapped in the capital.

[4] On the evening of 10 September, King Victor Emmanuel III announced, in a recorded message broadcast by Radio Bari, the reasons that had prompted him to leave Rome:[5][6] "For the supreme good of the fatherland, which has always been my first thought and the purpose of my life, and with the intent of avoiding more serious suffering and greater sacrifices, I have authorized the request for an armistice.

King Victor Emmanuel III on Radio Bari, 10 September 1943For the Allies, it was necessary that in liberated Italy there was a government capable of exercising a legitimate power to counter that of the Italian Social Republic established in Salò.

Umberto took office at the Quirinale and, on the proposal of the CLN, entrusted the task of forming the new government to Ivanoe Bonomi, an elderly political leader who had been Prime Minister before the advent of fascism.

In the historiographical field, the expression is used to identify in an extensive way also the period that reaches 1945 and the end of the war, that is, until when Italy was still divided and the Italian government, which had re-established itself in Rome, did not have full control of the territory and of the local, police and military bodies.

In this situation, the administrative, military, and political acts and the related documentation were divided between those managed by the government of Rome, by the Italian Social Republic, by the partisan forces, and by the armies in the field.

Furthermore, the action undertaken by the government and the officials established in Brindisi is also seen as an attempt to return to the pre-fascist political and constitutional situation, with reference to the liberal parliamentary monarchy regime which ended with the March on Rome in 1922.