History of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)

The Italian Fascists imposed totalitarian rule and crushed the political and intellectual opposition while promoting economic modernization, traditional social values, and a rapprochement with the Roman Catholic Church through the Lateran Treaties which created the Vatican City as a rump sovereign replacement for the Papal States.

For this reason, historians sometimes describe the unification period as continuing past 1871, including activities during the late 19th century and the First World War (1915–1918), and reaching completion only with the Armistice of Villa Giusti on 4 November 1918.

Italy's political arena was sharply divided between broad camps of left and right which created frequent deadlock and attempts to preserve governments, which led to instances such as conservative Prime Minister Marco Minghetti enacting economic reforms to appease the opposition such as the nationalization of railways.

Depretis put through authoritarian measures, such as banning public meetings, placing "dangerous" individuals in internal exile on remote penal islands across Italy, and adopting militarist policies.

This system brought almost no advantages, illiteracy remained the same in 1912 as before the unification era, and backward economic policies, combined with poor sanitary conditions, continued to prevent the country's rural areas from improving.

Peasants without stable income were forced to live off meager food supplies, disease was spreading rapidly, plagues were reported, including a major cholera epidemic which killed at least 55,000 people.

On 29 July 1900, at Monza, King Umberto I was assassinated by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci who claimed he had come directly from America to avenge the victims of the repression, and the offense given by the decoration awarded to General Bava Beccaris.

Critics from the political left called him ministro della malavita ("Minister of the Underworld"), a term coined by the historian Gaetano Salvemini, accusing him of winning elections with the support of criminals.

Italy's recent success in occupying Libya as a result of the Italo-Turkish War had sparked tension with its Triple Alliance allies, Germany and Austria-Hungary, because both countries had been seeking closer relations with the Ottoman Empire.

[72] The protests that ensued became known as "Red Week" as leftists rioted and various acts of civil disobedience occurred in major cities and small towns such as seizing railway stations, cutting telephone wires and burning tax-registers.

For the liberals, the war presented Italy a long-awaited opportunity to use an alliance with the Entente to gain certain Italian-populated and other territories from Austria-Hungary, which had long been part of Italian patriotic aims since unification.

Today, while Italy still wavers before the necessity imposed by history, the name of Garibaldi, resanctified by blood, rises again to warn her that she will not be able to defeat the revolution save by fighting and winning her national war.– Luigi Federzoni, 1915[74]Mussolini used his new newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia and his strong oratorical skills to urge a broad political audience – ranging from right-wing nationalists to patriotic revolutionary leftists – to support Italy's entry into the war to gain back Italian-populated territories from Austria-Hungary, by saying "enough of Libya, and on to Trento and Trieste".

The pact ensured Italy the right to attain all Italian-populated lands it wanted from Austria-Hungary, as well as concessions in the Balkan Peninsula and suitable compensation for any territory gained by the United Kingdom and France from Germany in Africa.

The Italian government was infuriated by the Fourteen Points of Woodrow Wilson, the President of the United States, as advocating national self-determination which meant that Italy would not gain Dalmatia as had been promised in the Treaty of London.

Before World War I, Mussolini had opposed military conscription, protested against Italy's occupation of Libya and was the editor of the Socialist Party's official newspaper, Avanti!, but over time he simply called for revolution without mentioning class struggle.

[123] In 1914, Mussolini's nationalism enabled him to raise funds from Ansaldo (an armaments firm) and other companies to create his newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia, which at first attempted to convince socialists and revolutionaries to support the war.

This early Fascist movement had a platform more inclined to the left, promising social revolution, proportional representation in elections, women's suffrage (partly realized in 1925) and dividing rural private property held by estates.

Christopher Duggan, using private diaries and letters, and secret police files, argues that Mussolini enjoyed a strong, wide base of popular support among ordinary people across Italy.

[157] Another organization the Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB) was widely popular and provided young people with access to clubs, dances, sports facilities, radios, concerts, plays, circuses and outdoor hikes at little or no cost.

[207] Adolf Hitler decided that the increased British intervention in the conflict represented a threat to Germany's rear, while German build-up in the Balkans accelerated after Bulgaria joined the Axis on 1 March 1941.

The Independent State of Croatia considered the ceding of the Adriatic Sea islands to be a minimal loss, as in exchange for those cessions, they were allowed to annex all of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, which led to the persecution of the Serb population there.

Under Italian army commander Mario Roatta's watch, the violence against the Slovene civil population in the Province of Ljubljana easily matched that of the Germans[209] with summary executions, hostage-taking and hostage killing, reprisals, internments to Rab and Gonars concentration camps and the burning of houses and whole villages.

On 5 August 1943, Monsignor Joze Srebnic, Bishop of Veglia (Krk island), reported to Pope Pius XII that "witnesses, who took part in the burials, state unequivocally that the number of the dead totals at least 3,500".

[221] Although other European countries such as Norway, the Netherlands, and France also had partisan movements and collaborationist governments with Nazi Germany, armed confrontation between compatriots was most intense in Italy, making the Italian case unique.

But Italy itself proved anything but a soft target: the mountainous terrain gave Axis forces excellent defensive positions, and it also partly negated the Allied advantage in motorized and mechanized units.

[246] The Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGL) and the PSI refused to officially recognize the anti-fascist militia and maintained a non-violent, legalist strategy, while the Communist Party of Italy (PCd'I) ordered its members to quit the organization.

Many Italian anti-fascists participated in the Spanish Civil War with the hope of setting an example of armed resistance to Franco's dictatorship against Mussolini's regime; hence their motto: "Today in Spain, tomorrow in Italy".

[262] Much like Japan and Germany, the aftermath of World War II left Italy with a destroyed economy, a divided society, and anger against the monarchy for its endorsement of the Fascist regime for the previous twenty years.

Umberto II decided to leave Italy on 13 June to avoid the clashes between monarchists and republicans, already manifested in bloody events in various Italian cities, for fear they could extend throughout the country.

Fears of a possible Communist takeover proved crucial for the first universal suffrage electoral outcome on 18 April 1948, when the Christian Democrats, under the leadership of Alcide De Gasperi, obtained a landslide victory.

Animated map of the Italian unification from 1829 to 1871
Giuseppe Garibaldi , celebrated as one of the greatest generals of modern times [ 3 ] and as the "Hero of the Two Worlds", [ 4 ] who commanded and fought in many military campaigns that led to Italian unification
Giuseppe Mazzini , highly influential leader of the Italian revolutionary movement
Holographic copy of 1847 of Il Canto degli Italiani , the Italian national anthem since 1946
Map of the Kingdom of Italy at its greatest extent in 1943, during World War II , with the annexation of territories from France and Yugoslavia . The territories annexed by the latter are the area constituting the province of Ljubljana , the area merged with the province of Fiume and the areas making up the Governorate of Dalmatia
Map of the Italian diaspora in the world
Emigration of Italians from 1876-1915
One of the two braziers that burn perpetually on the sides of the tomb of the Italian Unknown Soldier at Altare della Patria in Rome . At their base there is a plaque bearing the inscription Gli italiani all'estero alla Madre Patria ("Italians abroad to the Motherland")
A cartoon about Depretis, accusing him of being a chameleonic politician
1899 FIAT advertisement
Crispi during his last years
Postcard from Italian Eritrea
The Victor Emmanuel II Monument in Rome, a national symbol of Italy celebrating the first king of the unified country, and resting place of the Italian Unknown Soldier since the end of World War I. It was inaugurated in 1911, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the unification of Italy
Ottorino Gentiloni . When the Pope lifted the ban on Catholic participation in politics in 1913, and the electorate was expanded, he collaborated with Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti in the Gentiloni pact .
Postcard of the Italo-Turkish War .
Italy and its colonial possessions at the time of the outbreak of WWI. The area between British Egypt and the firmly held Italian territories is the region of southern Cyrenaica which was under dispute of ownership between Italy and the UK, and was officially conquered by Italy in 1931
Number of soldiers mobilized and killed in World War I
Gabriele D'Annunzio , national poet ( vate ) of Italy and a prominent nationalist revolutionary who was a supporter of Italy joining the action in World War I
Territories promised to Italy by the Treaty of London (1915) , i.e. Trentino-Alto Adige , Julian March and Dalmatia (tan), and the Snežnik Plateau area (green). Dalmatia, after the WWI, however, was not assigned to Italy but to Yugoslavia
A pro-war demonstration in Bologna , 1914
The Battle of Caporetto , fought in October and November 1917, the greatest defeat in Italian military history. [ 86 ] Generalissimo Luigi Cadorna was forced to resign after the defeat, being replaced by Armando Diaz as Chief of Staff of the Italian Army [ 87 ]
Italian propaganda poster depicting the Battle of the Piave River , fought in June 1918. This battle, won by Italy, was the beginning of the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire . [ 89 ]
Members of the Arditi corps in 1918. More than 650,000 Italian soldiers died on the battlefields of World War I .
Armando Diaz , Chief of Staff of the Italian Army since November 1917, halted the Austro-Hungarian advance along the Piave River and launched counter-offensives which led to a decisive victory on the Italian Front. He is celebrated as one of the greatest generals of World War I. [ 99 ]
Italian troops landing in Trieste , 3 November 1918, after the Battle of Vittorio Veneto . The Italian victory in this battle [ 103 ] [ 104 ] [ 105 ] marked the end of the war on the Italian Front , secured the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and contributed to the end of the World War I just one week later. [ 106 ]
Italian cavalry in Trento on 3 November 1918, after the victorious Battle of Vittorio Veneto
The Redipuglia War Memorial of Redipuglia , with the tomb of Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta in the foreground, nicknamed the Undefeated Duke for having reported numerous victories in the First World War without ever being defeated on the battlefield. [ 116 ] This War Memorial is the resting place of 100,187 Italian soldiers killed between 1915 and 1917 in the eleven battles fought on the Karst and Isonzo front . [ 117 ]
Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando (2nd from left) at the World War I peace negotiations in Versailles with David Lloyd George , Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson (from left)
Residents of Fiume cheering the arrival of Gabriele D'Annunzio and his Legionari in September 1919, when Fiume had 22,488 (62% of the population) Italians in a total population of 35,839 inhabitants
Armed workers occupying factories in Milan, September 1920, during the Biennio Rosso
Benito Mussolini (second from left) and his Fascist Blackshirts in 1920
Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti was murdered a few days after he openly denounced Fascist violence during the 1924 elections
Italian languages before 1939 according to Clemente Merlo and Carlo Tagliavini. The solid black line is the pre-war political border (1939)
Burning of Narodni dom
Vatican and Italian delegations prior to signing the Lateran Treaty
Group of the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (OND) visiting Littoria in 1933
Mussolini in Milan , 1930
Italian ethnic regions claimed by the Italian irredentism in the 1930s: * Green: Nice , Ticino and Dalmatia * Red: Malta * Violet: Corsica * Savoy and Corfu were later claimed
Ambitions of fascist Italy in Europe in 1936.
Legend:
Metropolitan Italy and dependent territories;
Claimed territories to be annexed;
Territories to be transformed into client states.
Albania , which was a client state, was considered a territory to be annexed.
Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Italian Foreign Minister Count Ciano, as they prepared to sign the Munich Agreement
From left to right, Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini and Italian Foreign Minister Count Ciano at the signing of Munich Agreement .
Mussolini and Hitler in June 1940.
Front page of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on 11 November 1938: " Le leggi per la difesa della razza approvate dal Consiglio dei ministri " (English: "The laws for the defense of race approved by the Council of Ministers " ).
Antisemitic cartoon published in the Fascist periodical La Difesa della Razza , after the promulgation of the Racial Laws (15 November 1938).
The three occupation zones of Greece after its invasion by the Axis powers .
Italian German annexed by Bulgaria .
The Italian zone was taken over by the Germans in September 1943.
Division of Yugoslavia after its invasion by the Axis powers .
Areas annexed by Italy: the area constituting the province of Ljubljana , the area merged with the province of Fiume and the areas making up the Governorate of Dalmatia
Area occupied by Nazi Germany
Areas occupied by Kingdom of Hungary
Italian mass arrests of civilians in Ljubljana in 1942, many of whom were sent to concentration camps or shot as hostages
An Italian AB 41 armored car in Egypt
Mussolini rescued by German troops from his prison in Campo Imperatore on 12 September 1943.
Insurgents celebrating the liberation of Naples, after the Four days of Naples (27–30 September 1943)
The head of the Italian Social Republic , Benito Mussolini , with a soldier in 1944
The dead body of Benito Mussolini , Claretta Petacci and other executed fascists on display in Milan on 29 April 1945.
Flag of Arditi del Popolo , an axe cutting a fasces . Arditi del Popolo was a militant anti-fascist group founded in 1921
1931 badge of a member of Concentrazione Antifascista Italiana
Flag of Giustizia e Libertà , anti-fascist movement active from 1929 to 1945
Results of the 1946 referendum