Kingdom of Italy

The Kingdom of Italy (Italian: Regno d'Italia, Italian: [ˈreɲɲo

diˈtaːlja]) was a state that existed from 17 March 1861, when
Kingdom of Italy
Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, Regno d'Italia (Italian)
until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy was abolished, 1861–1946
following civil discontent that led to an institutional
referendum on 2 June 1946. This resulted in a modern Italian
Republic. The kingdom was established through the
unification of several states over a decades-long process, called
the Risorgimento. That process was influenced by the Savoy-
led Kingdom of Sardinia, which was one of Italy's legal
predecessor states.
Flag Greater coat of
arms
In 1866, Italy declared war on Austria in alliance with Prussia
(1890–1929; 1943–
and, upon its victory, received the region of Veneto. Italian 1946)
troops entered Rome in 1870, ending more than one thousand
Motto: FERT
years of Papal temporal power. In the last two decades of the
(Motto for the House of Savoy)
19th century, Italy developed into a colonial power, and in
1882 it entered into a Triple Alliance with the German Empire Anthem:
(1861–1943; 1944–1946)
and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, following strong Marcia Reale d'Ordinanza
disagreements with France about their respective colonial ("Royal March of Ordinance")
expansions. Although relations with Berlin became very
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friendly, the alliance with Vienna remained purely formal, due
in part to Italy's desire to acquire Trentino and Trieste from
(1924–1943)
Austria-Hungary. As a result, Italy accepted the British
Giovinezza
invitation to join the Allied Powers during World War I, as the ("Youth")
western powers promised territorial compensation (at the
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expense of Austria-Hungary) for participation that was more
generous than Vienna's offer in exchange for Italian neutrality.
Victory in the war gave Italy a permanent seat in the Council (1943–1944)
La Leggenda del Piave
of the League of Nations, but it did not receive all the ("The Legend of Piave")
territories it was promised.
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In 1922, Benito Mussolini became prime minister of Italy,
ushering in an era of National Fascist Party government
known as "Fascist Italy". Totalitarian rule was enforced,
crushing all political opposition while promoting economic
modernization, traditional values, and territorial expansion. In
1929, the Italian government reconciled with the Roman
Catholic Church through the Lateran Treaties, which granted
independence to the Vatican City. The following decade
presided over an aggressive foreign policy, with Italy
launching successful military operations against Ethiopia in
1935, Spain in 1937, and Albania in 1939. This led to
economic sanctions, departure from the League of Nations,
growing economic autarky, and the signing of military
alliances with Germany and Japan.

Fascist Italy entered World War II as a leading member of the

Axis Powers in 1940 and despite initial success, was defeated
in North Africa and the Soviet Union. Allied landings in Sicily
led to the fall of the Fascist regime and the new government
surrendered to the Allies in September 1943. German forces
occupied northern and central Italy, established the Italian
Social Republic, and reappointed Mussolini as dictator.
Consequentially, Italy descended into civil war, with the Italian
Co-belligerent Army and resistance movement contending
with the Social Republic's forces and its German allies. Shortly
after the surrender of all fascist forces in Italy, civil discontent
prompted an institutional referendum, which established a
republic and abolished the monarchy in 1946.

Overview

Territory

The Kingdom of Italy in 1924

The Kingdom of Italy covered and at times exceeded the land

area of present-day Italy. The Kingdom gradually extended its
area through the Italian unification until 1870. In 1919 it
annexed Trieste and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The Triple
Entente promised to grant to Italy – if the state joined the Allies
in World War I – several regions, including former Austrian
Littoral, western parts of former Duchy of Carniola, Northern
Dalmatia and notably Zara, Šibenik and most of the Dalmatian
islands (except Krk and Rab), according to the secret London
Pact of 1915.[2]

After the refusal by President Woodrow Wilson to

acknowledge the London Pact and the signing of the Treaty of
Versailles in 1919, with the Treaty of Rapallo in 1920 Italian
claims on Northern Dalmatia were abandoned. During World
War II, the Kingdom gained additional territory in Slovenia
(province of Lubiana) and Dalmatia (Governatorate of
Dalmatia) from Yugoslavia after its breakup in 1941.[3]

The Kingdom established and maintained until the end of

World War II colonies, protectorates, military occupations and
puppet states beyond its borders. These included Eritrea,
Italian Somaliland, Libya, Ethiopia (annexed by Italy from
1936 to 1941), Albania (an italian protectorate since 1939),
British Somaliland, part of Greece, Corsica, southern France Colonies and territories held by the
with Monaco, Tunisia, Kosovo and Montenegro (all territories Italian Empire in 1939
occupied in World War II) Croatia (Italian and German client Capital Turin (1861–
state in World War II), and a 46-hectare concession from 1865)
China in Tianjin (see Italian concession in Tianjin).[4] These Florence (1865–
foreign colonies and lands came under Italian control at 1871)
different times and remained so over different periods. Rome (1871–
1946)
Brindisi (de
Government facto) (1943–
1944)
The Kingdom of Italy was a constitutional monarchy. Largest city Rome
Executive power belonged to the monarch, who governed
through appointed ministers. The legislative branch was a Official languages Italian
bicameral Parliament comprising an appointive Senate and an Religion 96% Roman
elective Chamber of Deputies. The kingdom maintained as its Catholicism
(state religion)
constitution the Statuto Albertino, the governing document of
the Kingdom of Sardinia. In theory, ministers were responsible Demonym(s) Italian
solely to the king. However, by this time, a king couldn't Government Unitary
appoint a government of his choosing or keep it in office constitutional
against the express will of Parliament. monarchy

under a
Members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected through a fascist
plurality voting system in single-member districts. A candidate totalitarian
needed the support of 50% of votes and 25% of all enrolled dictatorship
voters to be elected in the first round of ballots. Seats not (1922–1943)

adjudicated on the first ballot, were filled through a runoff held King
shortly after the first ballots. In addition to this, there was a • 1861–1878 Victor Emmanuel
Council of State, which had consultative powers and decided II
• 1878–1900 Umberto I
on conflicts of jurisdiction between administrative authorities
 and courts, as well as • 1900–1946 Victor Emmanuel
on disputes between III
• 1946 Umberto II
the state and its
Prime Minister
creditors. It consisted
• 1861 (first) Count of Cavour
of a president, three
• 1922–1943 Benito
section presidents, 24 Mussolini[a]
councilors of state and • 1945–1946 (last) Alcide De
the service staff, and Gasperi[b]
was appointed by the Legislature Parliament
king on the proposal (1861–1943)
of the Council of National Council
Ministers. (1945–1946)
• Upper house Senate
• Lower house Chamber of
Deputies (1861–
1939)
Chamber of
Fasces and
Corporations
(1939–1943)
Notice of the proclamation of the
History
Statuto Albertino in 1848 by King
Charles Albert of Sardinia • Proclamation 17 March 1861
• Treaty of Vienna 3 October 1866
• Capture of Rome 20 September
There was brief experimentation in 1882 with multi-member 1870
districts, and after World War I proportional representation was • Triple Alliance 20 May 1882
introduced with large, regional, multi-seat electoral • Treaty of London 26 April 1915
constituencies. The Socialists became the major party, but • March on Rome 28 October 1922
were unable to form a government in a parliament split among • Pact of Steel 22 May 1939
the three factions of Socialists, Christian populists, and • Tripartite Pact 27 September
1940
classical liberals. Elections took place in 1919, 1921 and 1924:
• Fall of Fascism 25 July 1943
on this last occasion, Mussolini abolished proportional
• Republic 10 June 1946
representation, replacing it with the Acerbo Law, by which the
party that won the largest share of votes got two-thirds of the Area
seats, which gave the Fascist Party an absolute majority of the 1861[1] 250,320 km2
(96,650 sq mi)
Chamber seats.
1936[1] 310,190 km2
(119,770 sq mi)
Between 1925 and 1943, Italy was a quasi-de jure Fascist
dictatorship, as the constitution formally remained in effect Population
without alteration while the monarchy formally accepted • 1861[1] 21,777,334
Fascist policies and institutions. In 1928 the Grand Council of • 1936[1] 42,993,602
Fascism took control of government administration, and in GDP (PPP) 1939 estimate
1939 the Chamber of Fasces and Corporations replaced the • Total 151 billion
Chamber of Deputies. (2.82 trillion in
2019)
The highest state administration was divided into the following
Currency Lira (₤)
ministries, with their headquarters in Rome:
 Ministry of Foreign Affairs (with the Council for
Diplomatic Disputes) Preceded by Succeeded by

Ministry of the Interior (with the Supreme Health 1861: 1929:

Council) Kingdom Vatican
of City
Ministry of Mercy, Justice and Religious Affairs Sardinia 1943:
Ministry of Finance and Treasury 1945: Italian
Ministry of War (the committees for the General Staff, Italian Social
the Line Arms, the Royal Carabiniers, for Artillery Social Republic
and Engineering, for Military Health and the Republic 1946:
Supreme War and Naval Tribunal are subordinate to Italian
it) Republic
Ministry of the Navy (with the Supreme Navy Free
Council) Territory of
Trieste
Ministry of Public Education (with the Higher SFR
Education Council) Yugoslavia
Ministry of Public Works (with the Higher Council for France
Public Works and the Railway Council)
Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Trade (with the
Mining Council and the Central Statistical Giunta) a. Duce from 1925.
Ministry of Colonies (since 1937 Ministry for Italian b. While the Kingdom of Italy ended in
Africa) 1946, De Gasperi continued as
Prime Minister of the Republic until
Ministry for the Liberated Territories (for the 1953.
territories occupied and annexed after the First
World War)
Ministry of Transport
Ministry of Aviation
Ministry of Education
Ministry of Post and Telegraph
Ministry of Labour
Ministry of Agriculture
Due to the war, a number of other short-lived ministries were
Civil Flag
created during the First and Second World War.

The Court of Auditors of the Kingdom had an independent status.

Military structure
King of Italy – supreme commander of the Italian Royal Army, Navy and later Air Force from
1861 to 1938 and 1943 to 1946
First Marshal of the Empire – supreme commander of the Italian Royal Army, Air Force, Navy
and the Voluntary Militia for National Security from 1938 to 1943 during the Fascist era, held
by both Victor Emmanuel III and Benito Mussolini
Regio Esercito (Royal Italian Army)
Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy)
Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force)
 Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale (Voluntary Militia for National Security also
known as the "MVSN" or "Blackshirts") – militia loyal to Mussolini during the Fascist era,
abolished in 1943.

Monarchs
The King of Italy was formally the holder of state power, but he
could only exercise the right of legislation in conjunction with the
national parliament, and the government was de facto responsible to
parliament. According to the Salic Law, the throne was inherited in
the male line of the royal House of Savoy. The king and his house
professed allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church. He came of
age at the age of 18 and, upon assuming power, took an oath to the
The Iron Crown of Lombardy, for
constitution in the presence of both chambers. According to the law
centuries a symbol of the kings of
of March 17, 1861, his title was: "By the grace of God and by the
Italy
will of the nation, King of Italy and King of Albania (only from
1939 to 1943) and Emperor of Ethiopia (only from 1936 to 1943)".
He awarded the five Orders of Knighthood of Savoy and exercised constitutional sovereign rights. He
commanded the land, sea and air power; he declared wars, concluded peace, alliance, trade and other
treaties, of which only those that entailed a burden on finances or a change in territory required the approval
of the chambers to be effective. The king appointed to all state offices, sanctioned and promulgated the
laws, which as well as the government acts had to be countersigned by the responsible ministers, and issued
the decrees and regulations necessary for the execution of the laws. Justice was administered in his name,
and he alone had the pardon and mitigation of punishment.
 Monarchs of the Kingdom of Italy

Name Period of rule

# Image Monogram Coats of arms
(Dates) Begin End

Victor
Emmanuel II
March 17 January 9
1 Father of the
1861 1878
Fatherland
(1820–1878)

Umberto I
January 9 July 29
2 the Good
1878 1900
(1844–1900)

Victor
Emmanuel III July 29 May 9
3
the Soldier King 1900 1946
(1869–1947)

Umberto II
May 9 June 12
4 the May King
1946 1946
(1904–1983)

State symbols
The first state coat of arms of the kingdom was adopted from Sardinia-Piedmont. It included the coat of
arms of the House of Savoy in the middle and four Italian flags dating from 1848.

On May 4, 1870, by royal decree, two lions in gold, which now carried the shield, a crowned knight's
helmet, which bore the Military Order of Savoy, the Order of the Crown of Italy, the Order of Saints
Maurice and Lazarus and the Order of the Annunciation around its collar, were added. The motto FERT
was deleted. The lions carried lances that held the national flag. From the helmet fell a royal cloak, which
was supposed to protect the nation. Above the coat of arms was the star of Italy (Italian Stella d’Italia).
The newly adopted national coat of arms of 1 January 1890 removed the fur coat and the lances and the
crown on the helmet was replaced by the Iron Crown of the Lombards. The whole group stood under a
canopy, crowned with the Italian royal crown, above which was the banner of Italy. The flagpole was
carried by a golden crowned eagle.

On 11 April 1929, Mussolini replaced the two Savoy lions with lictor's bundles. Only after his dismissal in
1944 was the old coat of arms from 1890 restored.

History

Unification process (1848–1870)

The birth of the Kingdom of Italy was the result of efforts by Italian
nationalists and monarchists loyal to the House of Savoy to
establish a united kingdom encompassing the entire Italian
Peninsula. Following the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the political
and social Italian unification movement, or Risorgimento, emerged
to unite Italy consolidating the different states of the peninsula and
liberate it from foreign control. A prominent radical figure was the
patriotic journalist Giuseppe Mazzini, member of the secret
revolutionary society of Carbonari and founder of the influential
political movement Young Italy in the early 1830s. Mazzini
favoured a unitary republic and advocated a broad nationalist
movement. His prolific output of propaganda helped to spread the Animated map of the Italian
unification from 1829 to 1871
unification movement.

The most famous member of Young Italy was the revolutionary and
general Giuseppe Garibaldi, renowned for his extremely loyal followers,[5] who led the Italian republican
drive for unification in Southern Italy. However, the Northern Italy monarchy of the House of Savoy in the
Kingdom of Sardinia, whose government was led by Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, also had ambitions
of establishing a united Italian state. In the context of the 1848 liberal revolutions that swept through
Europe, an unsuccessful First Italian War of Independence, led by King Charles Albert of Sardinia, was
declared on Austria. In 1855, the Kingdom of Sardinia became an ally of Britain and France in the Crimean
War, giving Cavour's diplomacy legitimacy in the eyes of the great powers.[6][7] The Kingdom of Sardinia
again attacked the Austrian Empire in the Second Italian War of Independence of 1859, with the aid of
France, resulting in liberating Lombardy. On the basis of the Plombières Agreement, the Kingdom of
Sardinia ceded Savoy and Nice to France, an event that caused the Niçard exodus, that was the emigration
of a quarter of the Niçard Italians to Italy.[8]

In 1860–1861, Garibaldi led the drive for unification in Naples and Sicily (the Expedition of the
Thousand),[11] while the House of Savoy troops occupied the central territories of the Italian peninsula,
except Rome and part of Papal States. Teano was the site of the famous meeting of 26 October 1860
between Giuseppe Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II, last King of Sardinia, in which Garibaldi shook
Victor Emanuel's hand and hailed him as King of Italy; thus, Garibaldi sacrificed republican hopes for the
sake of Italian unity under a monarchy. Cavour agreed to include Garibaldi's Southern Italy allowing it to
join the union with the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860. This allowed the Sardinian government to declare a
 Giuseppe Mazzini (left), highly influential leader of the Italian revolutionary movement; and Giuseppe Garibaldi
(right), celebrated as one of the greatest generals of modern times[9] and as the "Hero of the Two Worlds",[10]
who commanded and fought in many military campaigns that led to Italian unification

united Italian kingdom on 17 March 1861.[12] Victor Emmanuel II then became the first king of a united
Italy, and the capital was moved from Turin to Florence. The title of "King of Italy" had been out of use
since the abdication of Napoleon I of France on 6 April 1814.

Victor Emmanuel II (left) and Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour (right), leading figures in the Italian unification,
became respectively the first king and first Prime Minister of unified Italy.

Following the unification of most of Italy, tensions between the royalists and republicans erupted. In April
1861, Garibaldi entered the Italian parliament and challenged Cavour's leadership, accusing him of dividing
Italy, and threatened a civil war between the Kingdom in the North and his forces in the South. On 6 June
1861, the Kingdom's strongman Cavour died. During the ensuing political instability, Garibaldi and the
republicans became increasingly revolutionary in tone. Garibaldi's arrest in 1862 set off worldwide
controversy.[13]

In 1866, Otto von Bismarck, Minister President of Prussia, offered Victor Emmanuel II an alliance with the
Kingdom of Prussia in the Austro-Prussian War. In exchange, Prussia would allow Italy to annex Austria-
controlled Veneto. King Emmanuel agreed to the alliance, and the Third Italian War of Independence
began. Italy fared poorly in the war with a badly-organized military against Austria, but Prussia's victory
allowed Italy to annex Veneto. At this point, one major obstacle to Italian unity remained: Rome.

In 1870, Prussia went to war with France, igniting the Franco-Prussian War. To keep the large Prussian
Army at bay, France abandoned its positions in Rome – which protected the remnants of the Papal States
and Pius IX – to fight the Prussians. Italy benefited from Prussia's victory against France by taking over the
Papal States from French authority. The Kingdom of Italy captured Rome after several battles and guerrilla-
like warfare by Papal Zouaves and official troops of the Holy See against the Italian invaders. Italy's
unification was completed and its capital moved to Rome. Victor Emmanuel, Garibaldi, Cavour, and
Mazzini are remembered as Italy's Four Fathers of the Fatherland.[9]

Garibaldi was elected in 1871 in his home city of Nice to the

French National Assembly, where he tried to promote the cession of
the city from France to the newborn Italian unitary state. He was
prevented from speaking,[14] which led the Garibaldini to riots
called the "Niçard Vespers".[15][16] Fifteen of the Nice rebels were
tried and sentenced.[17]
The Altare della Patria in Rome, a
Economic conditions in united Italy were poor.[18] The country
national symbol of Italy celebrating
lacked industry and transportation facilities, and suffered from
King Victor Emmanuel II, and resting
extreme poverty (especially in the Mezzogiorno) and high illiteracy. place of the Italian Unknown Soldier
Only a small wealthy elite had the right to vote. The unification since the end of World War I. It was
movement relied largely on foreign powers' support and continued inaugurated in 1911, on the occasion
to do so afterwards. Following the capture of Rome in 1870 from of the 50th Anniversary of the
French forces of Napoleon III, Papal troops, and Zouaves, relations Unification of Italy.

between Italy and the Vatican remained sour for the next sixty
years, with the Popes declaring themselves to be prisoners in the
Vatican. The Roman Catholic Church frequently protested the anti-clerical actions of the secular Italian
governments, refused to meet with envoys from the King, and urged Roman Catholics not to vote in Italian
elections.[19] Not until 1929 was the Roman question resolved and positive relations restored between the
Kingdom of Italy and the Vatican, after the signing of the Lateran Pacts.

Some of the states that had been targeted for unification (terre irredente), Trentino-Alto Adige and the Julian
March, did not join the Kingdom of Italy until 1918 after Italy defeated Austria-Hungary in the First World
War. 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. This more expansive view of the unification is
presented at the Central Museum of the Risorgimento.[20][21]

Unifying multiple bureaucracies

A major challenge for the prime ministers of the new Kingdom of Italy was integrating the political and
administrative systems of the seven different major components under a unified set of policies. The different
regions were proud of their traditions and could not easily be fitted into the Sardinian model. Cavour started
planning for integration, but died before it was fully developed – indeed, the challenge is thought to have
hastened his death. The regional administrative bureaucracies followed the Napoleonic precedent, so their
harmonization was relatively straightforward. The next challenge was to develop a parliamentary legislative
system. Cavour and most liberals up and down the peninsula highly admired the British system, which
became the model for Italy.

Harmonizing the Army and Navy was much more complex, chiefly because the systems of recruiting
soldiers and selecting and promoting officers were so different and grandfathered exceptions to the general
system persisted for decades. The disorganization helps explain the dismal performance of the Italian navy
in the 1866 war.
Uniformizing the diverse education systems also proved
complicated. Shortly before his death, Cavour appointed Francesco
De Sanctis as minister of education, an eminent scholar from the
University of Naples who proved an able and patient administrator.
The addition of Veneto in 1866 and Rome in 1870 further
complicated the challenges of bureaucratic coordination.[22]

Economy
Italy has a long history of
different coinage types.
Italian unification
highlighted the confusion of
the pre-unification Italian Map of the Kingdom of Italy at its
greatest extent in 1943, during World
monetary system which was
Golden 20 lire coin with the effigy of War II, with the annexation of
King Victor Emmanuel II of 1873.
mostly based on silver
territories from France and
Minted in Milan (M BN); other mints monometallism and Yugoslavia. The territories annexed
included Rome (R) and Turin (T BN). therefore in contrast with by the latter are the area constituting
the gold monometallism in the province of Ljubljana, the area
force in the Kingdom of merged with the province of Fiume
Sardinia and in the major European nations. [23] To reconcile the and the areas making up the
Governorate of Dalmatia.
various monetary systems it was decided to opt for bimetallism,
taking inspiration from the French franc model, from which the
dimensions of the coins and the exchange rate of 1 to 15.50 between gold and silver were taken. The Italian
monetary system, however, differed from the French one in two aspects: silver coins could be exchanged in
unlimited quantities with the State, but limited quantities between private individuals and it was decided to
mint coins that nominally had 900‰ fine silver, but which in fact they contained 835‰ so as to approach
the real exchange rate between gold and silver which was approximately 1 to 14.38.[24] Exactly four
months after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, the government introduced the new national
currency, the Italian lira. The legal tender of the new currency was established by the Royal Decree of 17
July 1861 which specified the exchange of pre-unification coins into lire and the fact that local coins
continued to be legal tender in their respective provinces of origin.[25]

In the entire period from 1861 to 1940, Italy experienced considerable economic growth despite several
economic crises and the First World War. Unlike most modern nations, where industrialization was
undertaken by large corporations, industrial growth in Italy was mostly due to small and medium-sized
family businesses.

Political unification did not automatically bring about economic integration, because of the sharp contrasts
in culture, politics, and economic practices among the various regions. Italy managed to industrialize in
several steps, although the country remained the most backward economy among the great powers (except
for the Russian Empire) and was very dependent on foreign trade, especially the international markets
through which it imported coal and exported grain.

After unification, Italy had a predominantly agricultural society, with 60 percent of the labor force employed
in agriculture. Advances in technology increased export opportunities for Italian agricultural produce after a
period of crisis in the 1880s. With industrialization, the proportion employed in agriculture fell below 50%
around the turn of the century. However, not everyone benefited Rail network in Italy 1861–1870
from these developments, as southern agriculture in particular
suffered from the hot arid climate, while in the north malaria
hampered cultivation of low-lying areas on the Adriatic coast.

The government's focus on foreign and military policy in the

early years of the state led to the neglect of agriculture, which
declined after 1873. The Italian parliament initiated an
investigation in 1877, which lasted eight years and blamed the Network as of 17 Network as of 20
lack of mechanization and modern farming techniques, and the March 1861 September 1870
failure of landowners to develop their lands. In addition, most
farm laborers were temporary inexperienced short-term workers
(braccianti). Farmers without a steady income were forced to subsist on meager food. Disease spread
rapidly and a major cholera epidemic killed at least 55,000 people. Government action was blocked by
strong political and economic opposition from the large landowners. Another commission of inquiry in
1910 found similar problems.

Around 1890 there was also an overproduction crisis in the Italian wine industry, almost the only successful
sector in agriculture. In the 1870s and 1880s, viticulture in France suffered from a crop failure caused by
insects, and Italy became the largest wine exporter in Europe. After France's recovery in 1888, Italian wine
exports collapsed, causing a wave of unemployment and bankruptcies.

From the 1860s, Italy invested heavily in the development of railways, with its rail network more than
tripling between 1861 and 1872, then doubling again by 1890. Gio. Ansaldo & C. from the former
Kingdom of Sardinia provided the first Italian built locomotives with the FS Class 113 and the later FS
Class 650. The first railway section on the island of Sicily was inaugurated on 28 April 1863 with the
Palermo–Bagheria line. By 1914 the Italian railway had around 17,000 km of railways.

During the Fascist dictatorship, enormous sums were invested in new technological achievements,
especially in military technology. But large sums of money were also spent on prestige projects such as the
construction of the new Italian ocean liner SS Rex, which set a transatlantic sea voyage record of four days
in 1933, and the development of the seaplane Macchi-Castoldi M.C.72, which was the world's fastest
seaplane in 1933. In 1933, Italo Balbo completed a flight across the Atlantic in a seaplane to the World's
Fair in Chicago. The flight symbolized the power of the Fascist leadership and the industrial and
technological progress the state had made under the Fascists.

Economic measures of the Kingdom of Italy, by year[26][27]

Measure 1861 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1945

GDP in
billion US 37.995 41.814 46.690 52.863 60.114 85.285 96.757 119.014 155.424 114.422
dollars

Industrialization
During the 1860s and 1870s, Italian manufacturing was backward and small-scale, while the oversized
agrarian sector was the backbone of the national economy. The country lacked large coal and iron
deposits.[28] In the 1880s, a severe farm crisis led to the introduction of more modern farming techniques in
the Po Valley,[29] while from 1878 to 1887 protectionist policies
were introduced with the aim of establishing a base of heavy
industry.[30]

In the 1880s industrialisation moved into high gear, which lasted

until 1912/13 and reached its peak under Giolitti. Industrial plants
soon clustered around areas of hydropower energy.[31] Between
1887 and 1911 hydroelectricity became the main source of energy,
with over sixty plants constructed.[32] From 1881 to 1887, Italy's
textile, mechanical, steel, iron, and chemical industries grew by an
average 4.6 percent annually.[33] The backbone of the industrial
boom was, next to the labor force, institutions of higher learning
such as the Politecnico founded in Milan in 1863 by Francesco
Brioschi and the Technical School for Engineers in Turin
Index of industrialization of the
established four years earlier.
Italian provinces in 1871 (the national
average is 1.0). Source: Bank of
Steelworks were established with state and private capital, notably
Italy.
from the Credito Mobiliare: in 1884 in Terni and in 1897 in
Over 1.4
Piombino using iron-ore from Elba. The relative backwardness of
From 1.1 to 1.4
the south continued to be a central problem for the state. Various
From 0.9 to 1.1
solutions were proposed for the so-called "Southern question" by Up to 0.9
Francesco Saverio Nitti, Gaetano Salvemini and Sidney Sonnino,
but the government only acted in special problem areas such as
Naples.[34] The ILVA group of Genoa, with the political and
financial backing of the Italian state, built the Bagnoli steel plant as
part of the 1904 law for the development of Naples, prepared by
economist and later prime minister Nitti. In 1898, in order to make
the steel-industry completely independent from foreign coal
imports, the Neapolitan engineer Ernesto Stassano invented the
Stassano furnace, the first indirect-arc electric furnace. By 1917,
Italian iron and steel plants operated 88 indirect-arc furnaces,
manufactured by Stassano, Bassanese and Angelini.[35] A machinery exposition in Turin, set
in 1898, during the period of
In 1899 the automobile industry commenced when Giovanni industrialization, National Exhibition
Agnelli bought the designs and patents of the Ceirano brothers and of Turin, 1898
founded the Fiat automobile works. In 1906 another automobile
factory was built in the Portello district of Milan for the French
entrepreneur Alexandre Darracq and the headquarters of his Italian branch Società Anonima Italiana
Darracq. In 1910, the company brought the first successful model onto the market with the 24 HP and the
brand name ALFA on the radiator grille. While automobiles were only affordable by few its popularity and
fascination rose rapidly, and one of the first sports car racing events in the world, the Targa Florio, held
annually in the mountains of Sicily was established in 1906.

In the financial sector, Prime Minister Giolitti was mainly concerned with increasing pensions and
restructuring the state budget, though proceeding with great caution. The government secured the support of
large companies and banks. Most criticism the project came from conservatives, with a majority of the
public supporting the soundness of public finances. The state budget, which from 1900 had an annual
income of around 50 million lire, was to be additionally strengthened by the nationalization of the railways.

In March 1905, after serious labor unrest among railroad workers, Giolitti resigned due to illness, and
suggested his fellow party member Alessandro Fortis to the king as his successor. On March 28, Victor
Emmanuel III appointed Fortis as the new prime minister, making him the first Jewish head of government
worldwide. With Law 137 of April 22, 1905, he sanctioned the nationalization of the railways through a
public recruitment process under the control of the Court of Audit and the supervision of the Ministries of
Public Works and Finance. At the same time, the telephone system was nationalized.[36] The Fortis
government remained in office until the beginning of 1906. It was followed from February 8 to May 29 by
a brief government under Sidney Sonnino. Finally, Giolitti entered his third term. In this he dealt mainly
with the economic situation in southern Italy, due both to long-term demographic and economic factors, as
well as natural disasters such as the eruption of Vesuvius in 1906 and the earthquake in Messina, Calabria,
and Palmi in 1908. Entire villages were depopulated and centuries-old regional cultures disappeared.[36]
Nevertheless, there was a slight economic upswing in the south afterwards. The government, which had
initially discouraged emigration to avoid labor shortages, now gave its approval to the emigration of
hundreds of thousands of Italians from the south. This was motivated by fear of increasing social tensions
and monetary instability.

In 1906 the government lowered the national interest tax rate from 5% to 3.75%. This move eased the
burden on the state's required finances, reduced the fears of state bondholders, and encouraged the growth
of heavy industry. The subsequent budget surplus made it possible to finance major government work
projects which massively reduced unemployment, such as the completion of the Simplon Tunnel in 1906.
Shortly after the railway began its triumphal march through Switzerland, each region wanted its own north-
south connection and with the construction of the railway tunnels on the Gotthard 14,998 km (1872–1880),
Simplon 19,803 km (1898–1906) and Lötschberg 14,612 km (1907–1913), three major Alpine crossings
were realized that were important for Switzerland and neighboring European countries. The workforce of
these monumental projects were largely Italians: at the Gotthard tunnel 90% of miners came from northern
Italy, while at the Lötschberg tunnel 97% were Italian, chiefly from the south.

In addition to the now completed nationalization of the railways, the planned nationalization of insurance
was tackled and thetrade war with France, which had lasted since 1887, ended. Giolitti thereby interrupted
Crispi's pro-German foreign policy and thus enabled the export of fruit, vegetables and wine to France. He
also boosted the cultivation of sugar beets and their processing in the Po Valley and encouraged heavy
industry to gain a foothold in the south as well. However, the latter was not very successful. In 1908, some
laws limiting working hours for women and children up to 12 hours were passed with the support of the
Socialist MPs.[36] Special laws for the disadvantaged regions of the south followed. However, their
implementation mostly failed due to the resistance of the large landowners. Nevertheless, there was a
significant improvement in the economic situation of smallholders.

In 1911, 55.4% of the Italian population worked in agriculture and 26.9% in industry.[37]
 The Terni steel plant Hydroelectric plant on An advertisement for Monument in memory
est. 1884 (picture of the Adda river built in the 4HP automobile of the workers that
1912) 1906 by FIAT in 1899 died mining the
Simplon Tunnel, next
to the Iselle di
Trasquera railway
station, dated 29 May
1905

Social changes and mass emigration

Strong social tensions came to light, Italy's social legislation took
last place in Europe,[38] the socialists were opposed not only to
social policy but also to colonial expansion. Prime Minister
Francesco Crispi financed the colonial policy with tax increases and
austerity measures. The internal political differences culminated in
the Bava Beccaris massacre in Milan. There, on May 7, 1898, there
were mass demonstrations against rising bread prices. General The Fourth Estate by Giuseppe
Fiorenzo Bava-Beccaris, after the state of siege was declared, fired Pellizza, ca. 1898–1901
artillery and rifles at the crowd. [39] Depending on the information,
between 82 and 300 people were killed.[40][41] King Umberto I
congratulated the general in a telegram and awarded him a medal. This made him enemies, and in 1900 he,
who had been king for 22 years, was shot in Monza by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci.

His successor was Victor Emmanuel III politically dominant however was Giolitti, who was initially
Minister of the Interior from 1901 to 1903, then prime minister from 1903 with interruptions until 1914 (and
often also Minister of the Interior at the same time). He dominated or shaped Italian politics to such an
extent that one speaks of the Giolitti era. He was willing to make concessions to the reformist and
revolutionary movements and promoted industrialization. It is true that state subsidies for private health
insurance were introduced in 1886 and the first compulsory accident insurance was introduced in 1898,[42]
but it was Giolitti that introduced state social insurance in 1912 based on the German model. He also
reformed the right to vote so that there were no more property limits and the number of eligible voters rose
to 8 million men. Unemployment insurance came into being as early as 1919, eight years before
Germany.[43]

In the 1880s there were serious industrial disputes, and around 1889 repression against the Partito Operaio
(Labour Party) began, so that the aim was to unite all socialist organizations in the country in one party. The
Fasci Siciliani, short for "Fasci siciliani dei lavoratori", Italian Sicilian Workers' Union was perceived as the
"first act of Italian socialism". The movement, led by Prime Minister Crispi, was crushed after harsh military
operations. The industrial workers managed to organize in 1892 in the Partito dei Lavoratori Italiani (Italian
Workers' Party), which in 1893 was renamed Partito Socialista Italiano (Italian Socialist Party). Prime
Minister Francesco Crispi pushed through exceptional laws against the Socialists from 1894, but they were
ultimately unsuccessful. In 1901 his successor Giovanni Giolitti tried to integrate the party, which had won
32 seats in the elections, into the government, but the latter refused. But from 1908 to 1912 there was
cooperation with the bourgeois left until radical syndicalism prevailed. In 1912 the Partito Socialista
Riformista Italiano split off, which for patriotic reasons agreed to the War against the Ottomans. In 1917, the
majority of socialist deputies became pro-war, but the party leadership continued to oppose the war.

Population development of the Kingdom of Italy, by year (1861–1946)[44]

Measure 1861 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1946

Population in
22.182 25.766 28.437 30.947 32.475 34.565 37.837 40.703 43.787 45.380
millions

The state reaction to the drastic social changes came very late, because the social elites, landowners in the
south and industrialists in the north, refused for a long time and often relied on the work of the church,
which had dominated the social systems since the Middle Ages. However, it was no longer supported by an
adequate municipal or guild system. The population of Italy increased from 18.3 million in 1800 to 24.7 in
1850, finally to 33.8 in 1900.[45] Nevertheless, Italy's share of the population of Europe continued to fall.
On the one hand, this was due to its developmental deficit and, on the other hand, to the fact that from about
1852 there was a large-scale mass emigration. By 1985, around 29 million people had been recorded. From
1876 to around 1890, most came from the north, especially from Venetia (17.9%), Friuli-Venezia Giulia
(16.1%) and Piedmont (12.5%). After that, Italians from the south increasingly emigrated. From 1876 to
1915, more than 14 million people emigrated chiefly for south and north America, of which 8.3 million
came from the northern half, including 2.7 million alone from the northeast and from the southern half 5.6
million emigrated.[46] The main destinations were the United States of America, in which the descendants
of the Italians (Italian Americans) today represent the third largest European immigrant group after Germans
and Irish with a population share of 6%, along with Argentina (Italian Argentines), Brazil (Italian
Brazilians) and Uruguay (Italian Uruguayans). Many also emigrated to Canada, Australia and other Latin
American countries.

The main reason for emigration was widespread poverty, especially among the rural population. Up until
the 1950s, parts of Italy remained a rural, agrarian, and pre-modern society, with agricultural conditions not
suitable for keeping farmers in the country, particularly in the northeast and south.[47] The extent of
emigration can be explained on the one hand by the decline of agriculture and the sharp conflicts, which
were exacerbated by the preservation of old structures and the lack of capital as well as by large landowners
and half-tenancy. At the same time, the hesitant industrialization in the fast-growing cities hardly offered
enough jobs. In addition, domestic consumption was low, especially since the fiscalism that was believed to
be necessary to expand infrastructure continued to weigh on incomes. After all, the companies were
equipped with only little capital compared to the foreign ones. Therefore, the government set up high tariff
barriers from 1878 to 1887 and pursued a protectionist policy intended to protect the still weak textile and
heavy industry in the development phase. France in turn responded to the protective tariff policy with
corresponding counter-tariffs.

While industrialization was promoted and infrastructure expanded in the north, the government in the south
supported the latifundia, whereby in both cases the protagonists of heavy industry and agriculture were able
to assert their influence in the north and south. In central Italy there was a different system for the peasants.
Land could be leased here and they could keep a relatively large amount, so there was less migration from
this part of the country than from other parts. There was less
migration from large cities, but there was a major exception to this.
Naples was the capital of the Kingdom of Naples and later of the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies for six hundred years and in 1861
became simply a city in the united Italy. As a result, many
bureaucratic jobs were lost and there was a lot of unemployment.
Due to a cholera epidemic in the 1880s, many people also decided
to leave the city. In the south the unification abolished the feudal
system that had survived since the middle ages. However, this did
not mean that the farmers now got their own land that they could
work on. Many remained without property and plots became
smaller and smaller and thus more unproductive after lands were
divided among heirs. Another reason was the overpopulation,
especially in the south (Mezzogiorno). After unification southern
Italy established access to running water and medical care in
hospitals for the first time. This reduced infant mortality and,
together with what had been the highest birth rate in Europe for a
long time, led to an increase in population, which in turn forced
many young southern Italians to emigrate at the beginning of the
20th century. Italian immigrants arriving at Ellis
Island in 1905
Currency policy caused major problems, because during the
Franco-Prussian War Italy also suspended free convertibility. Now
the gold standard prevailed, which ensured that banknotes could only be issued in a fixed proportion to the
gold reserves. It was expected that this would stabilize currency relations through the gold automatism,
whereby the respective central banks had to adhere to strict rules. If a currency became weaker, this led to a
gold outflow in the direction of the stronger currency, with the result that the banknote issue had to be
reduced in line with the reduced gold reserves. This raised interest rates and lowered prices. In contrast, in
the country where gold was flocking, this created more paper money in circulation, lowering interest rates
and raising prices. At a certain point, the flow of gold reversed, the balance of payments settled, and the
currency stabilized. Even if the central banks often did not comply with the guidelines, the system was
successful because people trusted that money and gold could be exchanged at any time. By linking the
Latin Monetary Union, founded in 1865 and based on bimetallism, i.e. gold and silver coins, and thus the
lira to gold, the government was able to create so much trust that foreign investment capital after Italy came.
Treasury Secretary Sidney Sonnino also tried to put a strain on large fortunes in the same way as
consumption was put under pressure, but he failed due to conservative opposition. With the overcoming of
the economic crisis from 1896, it was nevertheless possible to achieve a balanced budget.
 Italian emigration per Map of the Italian
region from 1876 to diaspora in the world
1900 and from 1901 to
1915

Southern question and Italian diaspora

Italy's population remained severely divided between wealthy elites
and impoverished workers, especially in the South. An 1881 census
found that over 1 million southern day-laborers were chronically
under-employed and likely to become seasonal emigrants to sustain
themselves economically.[48] Southern peasants, as well as small
landowners and tenants, often were in a state of conflict and revolt
throughout the late 19th century.[49] There were exceptions to the
generally poor economic condition of agricultural workers of the
South, as some regions near cities such as Naples and Palermo as
well as along the Tyrrhenian Sea coast.[48] From the 1870s onward,
intellectuals, scholars and politicians examined the economic and
social conditions of southern Italy (Il Mezzogiorno), a movement
known as Meridionalismo ("Meridionalism"). For example, the
Some Lucanian brigands: Caruso,
1910 Commission of Inquiry into the South indicated that the Italian
Cafo, Lamacchia and Tinna
government thus far had failed to ameliorate the severe economic
differences. The limited voting rights only to those with sufficient
property allowed rich landowners to exploit the poor.[50] This situation of persistent backwardness in the
socioeconomic development of the regions of southern Italy compared to the other regions of the country,
especially the northern ones, is called Southern question.

The transition from a peninsula divided into several states to a unified Italy was not smooth for the south
(the Mezzogiorno). The path to unification and modernization created a divide between Northern and
Southern Italy. People condemned the South for being "backwards" and barbaric, when in truth, compared
to Northern Italy, "where there was backwardness, the lag, never excessive, was always more or less
compensated by other elements".[51] Of course, there had to be some basis for singling out the South like
Italy did. The entire region south of Naples was afflicted with numerous deep economic and social
liabilities.[52] However, many of the South's political problems and its reputation of being "passive" or lazy
(politically speaking) was due to the new government (that was born out of Italy's want for development)
that alienated the South and prevented the people of the South from any say in important matters. However,
on the other hand, transportation was difficult, soil fertility was low with extensive erosion, deforestation
was severe, many businesses could stay open only because of high protective tariffs, large estates were
often poorly managed, most peasants had only very small plots, and there was chronic unemployment and
high crime rates.[53]

Cavour decided the basic problem was poor government, and believed that could be remedied by strict
application of the Piedmonese legal system. The main result was an upsurge in brigandage, which turned
into a bloody civil war that lasted almost ten years. The insurrection reached its peak mainly in Basilicata
and northern Apulia, headed by the brigands Carmine Crocco and Michele Caruso.[54] With the end of the
southern riots, there was a heavy outflow of millions of peasants in the Italian diaspora, especially to the
United States and South America. Others relocated to the northern industrial cities such as Genoa, Milan
and Turin, and sent money home.[53]

The first Italian diaspora began around 1880, two decades after the Unification of Italy, and ended in the
1920s to the early 1940s with the rise of Fascist Italy.[55] Poverty was the main reason for emigration,
specifically the lack of land as mezzadria sharecropping flourished in Italy, especially in the South, and
property became subdivided over generations. Especially in Southern Italy, conditions were harsh.[55] Until
the 1860s to 1950s, most of Italy was a rural society with many small towns and cities and almost no
modern industry in which land management practices, especially in the South and the northeast, did not
easily convince farmers to stay on the land and to work the soil.[47]

Another factor was related to the overpopulation of Southern Italy as a result of the improvements in
socioeconomic conditions after Unification.[56] That created a demographic boom and forced the new
generations to emigrate en masse in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, mostly to the
Americas.[57] The new migration of capital created millions of unskilled jobs around the world and was
responsible for the simultaneous mass migration of Italians searching for "work and bread" (Italian: pane e
lavoro, Italian: [ˈpaːne e llaˈvoːro]).[58]

The Unification of Italy broke down the feudal land system, which had survived in the south since the
Middle Ages, especially where land had been the inalienable property of aristocrats, religious bodies or the
king. The breakdown of feudalism, however, and redistribution of land did not necessarily lead to small
farmers in the south winding up with land of their own or land they could work and make profit from.
Many remained landless, and plots grew smaller and smaller and so less and less productive, as land was
subdivided amongst heirs.[47]

Between 1860 and World War I, 9 million Italians left permanently of a total of 16 million who emigrated,
most travelling to North or South America.[59] The numbers may have even been higher; 14 million from
1876 to 1914, according to another study. Annual emigration averaged almost 220,000 in the period 1876
to 1900, and almost 650,000 from 1901 through 1915. Prior to 1900 the majority of Italian immigrants were
from northern and central Italy. Two-thirds of the migrants who left Italy between 1870 and 1914 were men
with traditional skills. Peasants were half of all migrants before 1896.[57]

The bond of the emigrants with their mother country continued to be very strong even after their departure.
Many Italian emigrants made donations to the construction of the Altare della Patria (1885–1935), a part of
the monument dedicated to King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, and in memory of that, the inscription of the
plaque on the two burning braziers perpetually at the Altare della Patria next to the tomb of the Italian
Unknown Soldier, reads Gli italiani all'estero alla Madre Patria ("Italians abroad to the Motherland").[60]
The allegorical meaning of the flames that burn perpetually is linked to their symbolism, which is centuries
old, since it has its origins in classical antiquity, especially in the cult of the dead.[61] A fire that burns
eternally symbolizes that the memory, in this case of the sacrifice of the
Unknown Soldier and the bond of the country of origin, is perpetually alive
in Italians, even in those who are far from their country, and will never
fade.[61]

Education
In Italy a state school system or education system has existed since 1859,
when the Legge Casati (Casati Act) mandated educational responsibilities
for the forthcoming Italian state (Italian unification took place in 1861).

The Casati Act made primary education (scuola elementare) compulsory,

One of the two braziers that
and had the goal of increasing literacy. This law gave control of primary
burn perpetually on the
education to the single towns, of secondary education to the provinces, and sides of the tomb of the
the universities were managed by the State. Even with the Casati Act and Italian Unknown Soldier at
compulsory education, in rural (and southern) areas children often were not Altare della Patria in Rome.
sent to school (the rate of children enrolled in primary education would At their base there is a
reach 90% only after 70 years) and the illiteracy rate (which was nearly plaque bearing the
80% in 1861) took more than 50 years to halve. inscription Gli italiani
all'estero alla Madre Patria
The next important law concerning the Italian education system was the ("Italians abroad to the
Motherland").
Legge Gentile. This act was issued in 1923, thus when Benito Mussolini
and his National Fascist Party were in power. In fact,
Giovanni Gentile was appointed the task of creating an
education system deemed fit for the fascist system. The
compulsory age of education was raised to 14 years, and was
somewhat based on a ladder system: after the first five years
of primary education, one could choose the scuola media,
which would give further access to the liceo and other
secondary education, or the 'avviamento al lavoro' (work
training), which was intended to give a quick entry into the
low strates of the workforce. The reform enhanced the role of
the Liceo Classico, created by the Casati Act in 1859 (and
intended during the Fascist era as the peak of secondary
education, with the goal of forming the future upper classes),
and created the Technical, Commercial and Industrial
institutes and the Liceo Scientifico. The influence of Gentile's
Italian idealism was great,[62] and he considered the Catholic
religion to be the "foundation and crowning" of education.
Literacy rates in Italy in 1861, shortly after
the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy.
Liberal era of politics (1870–1914) Italy lacks Lazio and the Triveneto, which
were subsequently annexed.
After unification, Italy's politics favored liberalism:[a] the liberal-
conservative right (destra storica or Historical Right) was
regionally fragmented[b] and liberal-conservative prime minister
Marco Minghetti only held on to power by enacting revolutionary
and left-leaning policies (such as the nationalization of railways) to
appease the opposition.
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan
Agostino Depretis was an architectural work created by
Giuseppe Mengoni between 1865
In 1876, Minghetti was ousted and replaced by liberal Agostino and 1877 and named after the first
Depretis, who began the long Liberal Period. The Liberal Period king of unified Italy, Victor
was marked by corruption, government instability, continued Emmanuel II.
poverty in Southern Italy and the use of authoritarian measures by
the Italian government.

Depretis began his term as prime minister by initiating an experimental political

notion known as trasformismo ("transformism"). The theory of trasformismo
was that a cabinet should select a variety of moderates and capable politicians
from a non-partisan perspective. In practice, trasformismo was authoritarian
and corrupt as Depretis pressured districts to vote for his candidates if they
wished to gain favourable concessions from Depretis when in power. The
results of the Italian general election of 1876 resulted in only four
representatives from the right being elected, allowing the government to be
dominated by Depretis. Despotic and corrupt actions are believed to be the key
Agostino Depretis
means by which Depretis managed to keep support in Southern Italy. 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. Depretis enacted controversial legislation for the time, such as abolishing
arrest for debt and making elementary education free and compulsory while ending compulsory religious
teaching in elementary schools.[63]

In 1887, Francesco Crispi became prime minister

and began focusing government efforts on foreign
policy. Crispi worked to build Italy as a great
world power through increased military
expenditures, advocacy of expansionism[64] and
trying to win the favor of Germany. Italy joined
the Triple Alliance, which included both Germany
and Austria-Hungary in 1882 and which remained
officially intact until 1915. While helping Italy
develop strategically, he continued trasformismo
and became authoritarian, once suggesting the use
of martial law to ban opposition parties.[65] The Triple Alliance in 1913, shown in red
Despite being authoritarian, Crispi put through liberal policies such as the Public Health Act of 1888 and
established tribunals for redress against abuses by the government.[66]

Francesco Crispi
Francesco Crispi was prime minister for a total of six years, from 1887 until 1891 and again from 1893 until
1896. Historian R. J. B. Bosworth says of his foreign policy:

Crispi pursued policies whose openly aggressive character would not be equaled until the days of
the Fascist regime. Crispi increased military expenditure, talked cheerfully of a European
conflagration, and alarmed his German or British friends with signs of preventative attacks on his
enemies. His policies were ruinous for Italy's trade with France and, more humiliatingly, for
colonial ambitions in Eastern Africa. Crispi's lust for territory there was thwarted when on 1
March 1896, the armies of Ethiopian Emperor Menelik routed Italian forces at Adowa [...] an
unparalleled disaster for a modern army. Crispi, whose private life (he was perhaps a trigamist)
and personal finances [...] were objects of perennial scandal, went into dishonorable
retirement.[67]

Crispi greatly admired the United Kingdom, but was unable to get British assistance for his aggressive
foreign policy and turned instead to Germany.[68] Crispi also enlarged the army and navy and advocated
expansionism as he sought Germany's favor by joining the Triple Alliance which included both Germany
and Austria-Hungary in 1882. It remained officially intact until 1915 and prevented hostilities between Italy
and Austria, which controlled border regions that Italy claimed.

Colonialism
In the late 19th and early 20th century, Italy emulated the Great Powers in
acquiring colonies, especially in the scramble to take control of Africa that took
place in the 1870s. Italy was weak in military and economic resources
compared to Britain, France and Germany. Still, it proved difficult due to
popular resistance. It was unprofitable due to high military costs and the lesser
economic value of spheres of influence remaining when Italy began to
colonize. Britain was eager to block French influence and assisted Italy in
gaining territory of the Red Sea.[69]

Several colonial projects were undertaken by the government. These were

Francesco Crispi done to gain the support of Italian nationalists and imperialists, who wanted to
promoted the Italian rebuild a Roman Empire. Italy had already large settlements in Alexandria,
colonialism in Africa in Cairo and Tunis. Italy first attempted to gain colonies through negotiations with
the late 19th century. other world powers to make colonial concessions, but these negotiations failed.
Italy also sent missionaries to uncolonized lands to investigate the potential for
Italian colonization. The most promising and realistic of these were parts of
Africa. Italian missionaries had already established a foothold at Massawa (in present-day Eritrea) in the
1830s and had entered deep into the Ethiopian Empire.[70]
The beginning of colonialism came in 1885, shortly after the fall of
Egyptian rule in Khartoum, when Italy landed soldiers at Massawa
in East Africa. In 1888, Italy annexed Massawa by force, creating
the colony of Italian Eritrea. The Eritrean ports of Massawa and
Assab handled trade with Italy and Ethiopia. The trade was
promoted by the low duties paid on Italian trade. Italy exported
manufactured products and imported coffee, beeswax and hides.[71]
At the same time, Italy occupied territory on the south side of the The Ain Zara oasis during the Italo-
horn of Africa, forming what would become Italian Somaliland. Turkish War: propaganda postcard
made by the Italian Army
The Treaty of Wuchale, signed in 1889, stated in the Italian
language version that Ethiopia was to become an Italian
protectorate, while the Ethiopian Amharic language version stated that the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II
could go through Italy to conduct foreign affairs. This happened presumably due to the mistranslation of a
verb, which formed a permissive clause in Amharic and a mandatory one in Italian.[72] When the
differences in the versions came to light, in 1895 Menelik II abrogated the treaty and abandoned the
agreement to follow Italian foreign policy.[73] Because of the Ethiopian refusal to abide by the Italian
version of the treaty and despite economic handicaps at home, the Italian government decided on a military
solution to force Ethiopia to abide by the Italian version of the treaty. In doing so, they believed that they
could exploit divisions within Ethiopia and rely on tactical and technological superiority to offset any
inferiority in numbers. As a result, Italy and Ethiopia came into confrontation, in what was later to be
known as the First Italo-Ethiopian War.[74]

The Italian army failed on the battlefield and was overwhelmed by a huge Ethiopian army at the Battle of
Adwa. At that point, the Italian invasion force was forced to retreat into Eritrea. The war formally ended
with the Treaty of Addis Ababa in 1896, which abrogated the Treaty of Wuchale, recognizing Ethiopia as
an independent country. The failed Ethiopian campaign was one of the few military victories scored by the
Africans against an imperial power at this time.[75]

From 2 November 1899 to 7 September 1901, Italy participated as

part of the Eight-Nation Alliance forces during the Boxer Rebellion
in China. On 7 September 1901, a concession in Tientsin was
ceded to Italy by the Qing Dynasty. On 7 June 1902, the
concession was taken into Italian possession and administered by an
Italian consul.

In 1911, Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire and invaded

Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica. These provinces together Italian mounted infantry in China
formed what became known as Libya. The war ended only one during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900
year later, but the occupation resulted in acts of discrimination
against Libyans, such as the forced deportation of Libyans to the
Tremiti Islands in October 1911. By 1912, one-third of these Libyan refugees had died from a lack of food
and shelter.[76] The annexation of Libya led nationalists to advocate Italian domination of the Mediterranean
Sea by occupying Greece and the Adriatic Sea coastal region of Dalmatia.[77]

Giovanni Giolitti
 In 1892, Giovanni Giolitti became Prime Minister of Italy for his first term.
Although his first government quickly collapsed one year later, Giolitti
returned in 1903 to lead Italy's government during a fragmented period until
1914. Giolitti had spent his earlier life as a civil servant and then took positions
within the cabinets of Crispi. Giolitti was the first long-term Italian Prime
Minister because he mastered the political concept of trasformismo by
manipulating, coercing and bribing officials to his side. In elections during
Giolitti's government, voting fraud was common. Giolitti helped improve
voting only in well-off, more supportive areas while attempting to isolate and
intimidate poor areas where opposition was strong.[78] Southern Italy was in
terrible shape before and during Giolitti's tenure as Prime Minister: four-fifths
Giovanni Giolitti was
of southern Italians were illiterate, and the dire situation there ranged from
Prime Minister of Italy
five times between 1892 problems of large numbers of absentee landlords to rebellion and even
and 1921. starvation.[79] Corruption was such a large problem that Giolitti himself
admitted that there were places "where the law does not operate at all".[80]

In 1911, Giolitti's government sent forces to occupy Libya. While the

success of the Libyan War improved the status of the nationalists, it did not
help Giolitti's administration as a whole. The government attempted to
discourage criticism by speaking about Italy's strategic achievements and
inventiveness of their military in the war: Italy was the first country to use
the airship for military purposes and undertook aerial bombing on the
Ottoman forces.[81] The war radicalized the Italian Socialist Party, and anti-
war revolutionaries called for violence to bring down the government.
Elections were held in 1913, and Giolitti's coalition retained an absolute
majority in the Chamber of Deputies, while the Radical Party emerged as
the largest opposition bloc. The Italian Socialist Party gained eight seats and
was the largest party in Emilia-Romagna.[82] Giolitti's coalition did not
endure long after the election, and he was forced to resign in March 1914. Italian dirigibles bomb
Giolitti later returned as Prime Minister only briefly in 1920, but the era of Turkish positions in Libya,
liberalism was effectively over in Italy. as the Italo-Turkish War of
1911–1912 was the first in
The 1913 and 1919 elections saw gains made by Socialist, Catholic and history in which air attacks
nationalist parties at the expense of the traditionally dominant Liberals and (carried out here by dirigible
airships) determined the
Radicals, who were increasingly fractured and weakened as a result.
outcome.

World War I and failure of the liberal state (1915–

1922)
Italy entered into the First World War in 1915 with the aim of completing national unity: for this reason, the
Italian intervention in the First World War is also considered the Fourth Italian War of Independence,[83] in
a historiographical perspective that identifies in the latter the conclusion of the unification of Italy.[84][85]

The war forced the decision whether to honor the alliance with Germany and Austria. For six months Italy
remained neutral, as the Triple Alliance was only for defensive purposes. Italy took the initiative in entering
the war in spring 1915, despite strong popular and elite sentiment in favor of neutrality. Italy was a large,
poor country whose political system was chaotic, its finances were heavily strained, and its army was very
 poorly prepared.[86] The Triple Alliance meant little either to
Italians or Austrians – Vienna had declared war on Serbia without
consulting Rome. Prime Minister Antonio Salandra and Foreign
Minister Sidney Sonnino negotiated with both sides in secret for the
best deal, and got one from the Entente, which was quite willing to
promise large slices of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including the
Tyrol and Trieste, as well as making Albania a protectorate. Russia
Italian cavalry in Trento on 3 vetoed giving Italy Dalmatia. Britain was willing to pay subsidies
November 1918, after the victorious and loans to get 36 million Italians as new allies who threatened the
Battle of Vittorio Veneto southern flank of Austria.[87]

When the Treaty of London

was announced in May 1915, there was an uproar from antiwar
elements. Reports from around Italy showed the people feared war,
and cared little about territorial gains. Rural folk saw war as a
disaster, like drought, famine or plague. Businessmen were
generally opposed, fearing heavy-handed government controls and
taxes, and loss of foreign markets. Reversing the decision seemed
impossible, for the Triple Alliance did not want Italy back, and the
king's throne was at risk. Pro-war supporters mobbed the streets.
The fervor for war represented a bitterly hostile reaction against Italian troops landing in Trieste, 3
politics as usual, and the failures, frustrations, and stupidities of the November 1918
ruling class. [88][89] Benito Mussolini created the newspaper Il
Popolo d'Italia, which at first attempted to convince socialists and
revolutionaries to support the war.[90] The Allied Powers, eager to draw Italy to the war, helped finance the
newspaper.[91] Later, after the war, this publication would become the official newspaper of the Fascist
movement.

Italy entered the war with an army of 875,000 men, but the army
was poorly led and lacked heavy artillery and machine guns, their
war supplies having been largely depleted in the war of 1911–12
against Turkey. Italy proved unable to prosecute the war effectively,
as fighting raged for three years on a very narrow front along the
Isonzo River, where the Austrians held the high ground. In 1916,
Italy declared war on Germany, which provided significant aid to
The Redipuglia War Memorial of
the Austrians. Some 650,000 Italian soldiers died and 950,000 were Redipuglia, with the tomb of Prince
wounded, while the economy required large-scale Allied funding to Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta in
survive.[92][93] the foreground

Before the war the government had ignored labor issues, but now it
had to intervene to mobilize war production. With the main working-class Socialist party reluctant to
support the war effort, strikes were frequent and cooperation was minimal, especially in the Socialist
strongholds of Piedmont and Lombardy. The government imposed high wage scales, as well as collective
bargaining and insurance schemes.[94] Many large firms expanded dramatically. Inflation doubled the cost
of living. Industrial wages kept pace but not wages for farm workers. Discontent was high in rural areas
since so many men were taken for service, industrial jobs were unavailable, wages grew slowly and
inflation was just as bad.[95]
The Italian victory,[96][97][98] which was announced by the Bollettino della Vittoria and the Bollettino della
Vittoria Navale, marked the end of the war on the Italian Front, secured the dissolution of the Austro-
Hungarian Empire and was chiefly instrumental in ending the First World War less than two weeks later.
More than 651,000 Italian soldiers died on the battlefields.[99] The Italian civilian deaths were estimated at
589,000 due to malnutrition and food shortages.[100] In November 1918, after the surrender of Austria-
Hungary, Italy occupied militarily Trentino Alto-Adige, the Julian March, Istria, the Kvarner Gulf and
Dalmatia, all Austro-Hungarian territories. On the Dalmatian coast, Italy established the Governorate of
Dalmatia, which had the provisional aim of ferrying the territory towards full integration into the Kingdom
of Italy, progressively importing national legislation in place of the previous one. The administrative capital
was Zara. The Governorate of Dalmatia was evacuated following the Italo-Yugoslav agreements which
resulted in the Treaty of Rapallo (1920).

As the war came to an end, Italian Prime Minister Vittorio

Emanuele Orlando met with British Prime Minister David Lloyd
George, Prime Minister of France Georges Clemenceau and United
States President Woodrow Wilson in Versailles to discuss how the
borders of Europe should be redefined to help avoid a future
European war. The talks provided little territorial gain to Italy as
Wilson promised freedom to all European nationalities to form their
nation-states. As a result, the Treaty of Versailles did not assign
Dalmatia and Albania to Italy as had been promised in the Treaty of Territories promised to Italy by the
London. Furthermore, the British and French decided to divide the Treaty of London (1915), i.e.
Trentino-Alto Adige, the Julian March
German overseas colonies into their mandates, with Italy receiving
and Dalmatia (tan), and the Snežnik
none. Italy also gained no territory from the breakup of the Ottoman
Plateau area (green). Dalmatia, after
Empire. Despite this, Orlando agreed to sign the Treaty of WWI, however, was not assigned to
Versailles, which caused uproar against his government. The Treaty Italy but to Yugoslavia.
of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919) and the Treaty of Rapallo (1920)
allowed the annexation of Trentino Alto-Adige, the Julian March,
Istria, Kvarner as well as the Dalmatian city of Zara.

Furious over the peace settlement, the Italian nationalist poet Gabriele D'Annunzio led disaffected war
veterans and nationalists to form the Free State of Fiume in September 1919. His popularity among
nationalists led him to be called Il Duce ("The Leader"), and he used black-shirted paramilitary in his
assault on Fiume. The leadership title of Duce and the blackshirt paramilitary uniform would later be
adopted by the Fascist movement of Benito Mussolini. The demand for the Italian annexation of Fiume
spread to all sides of the political spectrum, including Mussolini's Fascists.[101]

The subsequent Treaty of Rome (1924) led to the annexation of the city of Fiume to Italy. Italy's lack of
territorial gain led to the outcome being denounced as a mutilated victory. The rhetoric of mutilated victory
was adopted by Mussolini and led to the rise of Italian fascism, becoming a key point in the propaganda of
Fascist Italy. Historians regard mutilated victory as a "political myth", used by fascists to fuel Italian
imperialism and obscure the successes of liberal Italy in the aftermath of World War I.[102] Italy also gained
a permanent seat in the League of Nations's executive council.

Fascist regime, World War II, and Civil War (1922–1946)

Rise of Fascism into power

Benito Mussolini created the Fasci di Combattimento or Combat League in
1919. It was originally dominated by patriotic socialist and syndicalist
veterans who opposed the pacifist policies of the Italian Socialist Party. 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.[103][104] They also differed from later Fascism by opposing
censorship, militarism and dictatorship.[105]

At the same time, the so-called Biennio Rosso (red biennium) took place in
the two years following the war in a context of economic crisis, high
unemployment and political instability. The 1919–20 period was
characterized by mass strikes, worker manifestations as well as self-
Benito Mussolini, who titled management experiments through land and factory occupations. In Turin
himself Duce and ruled the and Milan, workers councils were formed and many factory occupations
country from 1922 to 1943 took place under the leadership of anarcho-syndicalists. The agitations also
extended to the agricultural areas of the Padan plain and were accompanied
by peasant strikes, rural unrests and guerilla conflicts between left-
wing and right-wing militias. Thenceforth, the Fasci di
Combattimento (forerunner of the National Fascist Party, 1921)
successfully exploited the claims of Italian nationalists and the quest
for order and normalization of the middle class. In October 1922,
Mussolini took advantage of a general strike to announce his
demands to the Italian government to give the Fascist Party political
power or face a coup. With no immediate response, a group of
30,000 Fascists began a long trek across Italy to Rome (the March
Benito Mussolini during the March on
Rome in 1922 on Rome), claiming that Fascists were intending to restore law and
order. The Fascists demanded Prime Minister Luigi Facta's
resignation and that Mussolini be named to the post. Although the
Italian Army was far better armed than the Fascist militias, the liberal system and King Victor Emmanuel III
were facing a deeper political crisis. The King was forced to choose which of the two rival movements in
Italy would form the government: Mussolini's Fascists, or the marxist Italian Socialist Party. He selected the
Fascists.

Mussolini formed a coalition with nationalists and liberals, and in 1923 passed the electoral Acerbo Law,
which assigned two-thirds of the seats to the party that achieved at least 25% of the vote. The Fascist Party
used violence and intimidation to achieve the threshold in the 1924 election, thus obtaining control of
Parliament. Socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti was assassinated after calling for a nullification of the vote.
The parliament opposition responded to Matteotti's assassination with the Aventine Secession.
Over the next four years, Mussolini eliminated nearly all checks and
balances on his power. On 24 December 1925, he passed a law that
declared he was responsible to the king alone, making him the sole
person able to determine Parliament's agenda. Local governments
were dissolved, and appointed officials (called podestà) replaced
elected mayors and councils. In 1928, all political parties were
banned, and parliamentary elections were replaced by plebiscites in
which the Grand Council of Fascism nominated a single list of 400
candidates. Christopher Duggan argues that his regime exploited
Mussolini's popular appeal and forged a cult of personality that
served as the model that was emulated by dictators of other fascist
regimes of the 1930s.[106]

In summary, historian Stanley G. Payne says that Fascism in Italy

was:
Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti
A primarily political dictatorship. The Fascist Party
was murdered a few days after he
itself had become almost completely bureaucratized
openly denounced Fascist violence
and subservient to, not dominant over, the state itself.
during the 1924 elections.
Big business, industry, and finance retained extensive
autonomy, particularly in the early years. The armed
forces also enjoyed considerable autonomy. ... The
Fascist militia was placed under military control. The judicial system was left largely intact
and relatively autonomous as well. The police continued to be directed by state officials
and were not taken over by party leaders, nor was a major new police elite created. There
was never any question of bringing the Church under overall subservience. Sizable
sectors of Italian cultural life retained extensive autonomy, and no major state propaganda-
and-culture ministry existed. The Mussolini regime was neither especially sanguinary nor
particularly repressive.[107]

End of the Roman question

During the unification of Italy in the mid-19th century, the Papal
States resisted incorporation into the new nation. The nascent
Kingdom of Italy invaded and occupied Romagna (the eastern
portion of the Papal States) in 1860, leaving only Latium in the
pope's domains. Latium, including Rome itself, was occupied and
annexed in 1870. For the following sixty years, relations between
the Papacy and the Italian government were hostile, and the status
of the pope became known as the "Roman question". The Lateran
Treaty was one component of the Lateran Pacts of 1929, Vatican and Italian delegations prior
agreements between the Kingdom of Italy under King Victor to signing the Lateran Treaty

Emmanuel III of Italy and the Holy See under Pope Pius XI to
settle the question. The treaty and associated pacts were signed on
11 February 1929.[108] The treaty recognized Vatican City as an independent state under the sovereignty of
the Holy See. The Italian government also agreed to give the Roman Catholic Church financial
compensation for the loss of the Papal States.[109] In 1948, the Lateran Treaty was recognized in the
Constitution of Italy as regulating the relations between the state and the Catholic Church.[110] The treaty
was significantly revised in 1984, ending the status of Catholicism as the sole state religion.

Foreign politics
Lee identifies three major themes in Mussolini's foreign policy. The
first was a continuation of the foreign-policy objectives of the
preceding Liberal regime. Liberal Italy had allied itself with
Germany and Austria, and had great ambitions in the Balkans and
North Africa. Ever since it had been badly defeated in Ethiopia in
1896, there was a strong demand for seizing that country. Second
was a profound disillusionment after the heavy losses of the First
World War; the small territorial gains from Austria were not enough
to compensate. Third was Mussolini's promise to restore the pride
and glory of the Roman Empire.[111]

Italian Fascism is based upon Italian nationalism and in particular

seeks to complete what it considers as the incomplete project of
Risorgimento by incorporating Italia Irredenta (unredeemed Italy)
Italian ethnic regions claimed by the into the state of Italy.[112][113] To the east of Italy, the Fascists
Italian irredentism in the 1930s: * claimed that Dalmatia was a land of Italian culture.[114] To the
Green: Nice, Ticino and Dalmatia * south of Italy, the Fascists claimed Malta, which belonged to the
Red: Malta * Violet: Corsica * Savoy
United Kingdom, and Corfu, which belonged to Greece, to the
and Corfu were later claimed.
north claimed Italian Switzerland, while to the west claimed
Corsica, Nice and Savoy, which belonged to France.[115][116]

Mussolini promised to bring Italy back as a great power in Europe, building a "New Roman Empire" and
holding power over the Mediterranean Sea. In propaganda, Fascists used the ancient Roman motto "Mare
Nostrum" (Latin for "Our Sea") to describe the Mediterranean. For this reason the Fascist regime engaged
in interventionist foreign policy in Europe. In 1923, the Greek island of Corfu was briefly occupied by Italy,
after the assassination of General Tellini in Greek territory. In 1925, Albania came under heavy Italian
influence as a result of the Tirana Treaties, which also gave Italy a stronger position in the Balkans.[117]
Relations with France were mixed. The Fascist regime planned to regain Italian-populated areas of
France.[118] With the rise of Nazism, it became more concerned of the potential threat of Germany to Italy.
Due to concerns of German expansionism, Italy joined the Stresa Front with France and the United
Kingdom, which existed from 1935 to 1936. The Fascist regime held negative relations with Yugoslavia, as
it continued to claim Dalmatia.

During the Spanish Civil War between the socialist Republicans and Nationalists led by Francisco Franco,
Italy sent arms and over 60,000 troops to aid the Nationalist faction. This secured Italy's naval access to
Spanish ports and increased Italian influence in the Mediterranean. During the 1930s, Italy strongly pursued
a policy of naval rearmament; by 1940, the Regia Marina was the fourth largest navy in the world.

Mussolini and Adolf Hitler first met in June 1934, when Mussolini opposed German plans to annex Austria
to ensure that Nazi Germany would not become hegemonic in Europe. Public appearances and propaganda
constantly portrayed the closeness of Mussolini and Hitler and the similarities between Italian Fascism and
 German National Socialism.
While both ideologies had
significant similarities, the
two factions were
suspicious of each other,
and both leaders were in
competition for world
influence.
From left to right: Chamberlain,
Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini and Italian In 1935 Mussolini decided
Foreign Minister Count Ciano at the
to invade Ethiopia; 2,313 Ambitions of fascist Italy in Europe
signing of Munich Agreement
Italians and 275,000 in 1936.
Ethiopians died. [119] The Legend:
Second Italo-Ethiopian War resulted in the international isolation of Metropolitan Italy and dependent
Italy; the only nation to back Italy's aggression was Nazi Germany. territories;
After being condemned by the League of Nations, Italy decided to Client states;
leave the League on 11 December 1937.[120] Mussolini had little Claimed territories to be
choice but to join Hitler in international politics, thus he reluctantly annexed;
Territories to be transformed into
abandoned support of Austrian independence and Hitler proceeded
client states.
with the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria, in 1938. Mussolini
Albania, which was a client state,
later supported German claims on Sudetenland at the Munich was considered a territory to be
Conference. In 1938, under influence of Hitler, Mussolini supported annexed.
the adoption of antisemitic racial laws in Italy. After Germany
annexed Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Italy invaded Albania and
made it an Italian protectorate.

As war approached in 1939, the Fascist regime stepped up an

aggressive press campaign against France claiming that its Italian
residents were suffering.[121] This was important to the alliance as
both regimes mutually had claims on France: Germany on German-
populated Alsace-Lorraine and Italy on the mixed Italian and
French populated Nice and Corsica. In May 1939, a formal alliance
with Germany was signed, known as the Pact of Steel. Mussolini Mussolini and Hitler in June 1940
felt obliged to sign the pact in spite of his own concerns that Italy
could not fight a war in the near future. This obligation grew from
his promises to Italians that he would build an empire for them and from his personal desire to not allow
Hitler to become the dominant leader in Europe.[122] Mussolini was repulsed by the Molotov–Ribbentrop
Pact agreement where Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to partition the Second Polish Republic into
German and Soviet zones for an impending invasion. The Fascist government saw this as a betrayal of the
Anti-Comintern Pact, but decided to remain officially silent.[122]

World War II and fall of Fascism

When Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 beginning World War II, Mussolini chose to stay
non-belligerent, although he declared his support for Hitler. In drawing out war plans, Mussolini and the
Fascist regime decided that Italy would aim to annex large portions of Africa and the Middle East.
Hesitance remained from the King and military commander Pietro Badoglio who warned Mussolini that
 Italy had too few tanks, armoured vehicles, and aircraft available to
be able to carry out a long-term war; Badoglio told Mussolini "It is
suicide" for Italy to get involved in the European conflict.[123]
Mussolini and the Fascist regime thus waited as France was
invaded by Germany in June 1940 (Battle of France) before
deciding to get involved.

Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940, fulfilling its obligations

towards the Pact of Steel. Mussolini hoped to quickly capture
Savoy, Nice, Corsica, and the African colonies of Tunisia and
Algeria from the French, but Germany signed an armistice (22
June: Second Armistice at Compiègne) with Marshal Philippe
Pétain establishing Vichy France, that retained control over
Map of Great Italy according to the
1940 fascist project in case Italy had
southern France and colonies. This decision angered the Fascist
won the Second World War (the regime.[124] In summer 1940, Mussolini ordered the bombing of
orange line delimits metropolitan Mandatory Palestine and the conquest of British Somaliland. In
Italy, the green line the borders of the September, he ordered the invasion of Egypt; despite initial success,
enlarged Italian Empire) Italian forces were soon driven back by the British (see Operation
Compass). Hitler had to intervene with the sending of the Afrika
Korps of General Erwin Rommel, that was the mainstay in the
North African campaign.

On 28 October, Mussolini launched an attack on Greece. However, the Greeks not only proved a more
capable opponent successfully repelling the initial attack, but also managed to push the Italians back to
Albania. Hitler came to Mussolini's aid by attacking the Greeks through the Balkans. The Balkans
Campaign had as result the dissolution of Yugoslavia and Greece's defeat. Italy gained south Slovenia,
Dalmatia, Montenegro and established the puppet states of Croatia and Hellenic State. By 1942, it was
faltering as its economy failed to adapt to the conditions of war and Italian cities were being heavily
bombed by the Allies. Also, despite Rommel's advances, the campaign in North Africa began to fail in late
1942. The complete collapse came after the decisive defeat at El Alamein.

By 1943, Italy was losing on every front. Half of the Italian forces fighting in the Soviet Union had been
destroyed,[125] the African campaign had failed, the Balkans remained unstable, and Italians wanted an end
to the war.[126] In July 1943, the Allies invaded Sicily in an effort to knock Italy out of the war and
establish a foothold in Europe. On 25 July, Mussolini was ousted by the Great Council of Fascism and
arrested by order of King Victor Emmanuel III, who appointed General Pietro Badoglio as new Prime
Minister. Badoglio stripped away the final elements of Fascist rule by banning the National Fascist Party,
then signed an armistice with the Allied armed forces.

Donald Detwiler notes that "Italy's entrance into the war showed very early that her military strength was
only a hollow shell. Italy's military failures against France, Greece, Yugoslavia and in the African Theatres
of war shook Italy's new prestige mightily."[127] Historians have long debated why Italy's military and its
Fascist regime were so remarkably ineffective at an activity – war – that was central to their identity.
MacGregor Knox says the explanation, "was first and foremost a failure of Italy's military culture and
military institutions."[128] Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen argue that "the Regia Aeronautica failed to
 perform effectively in modern conflict."[129] James Sadkovich
gives the most charitable interpretation of Italian failures, blaming
inferior equipment, overextension, and inter-service rivalries. Its
forces had "more than their share of handicaps."[130]

Civil War, Allied advance, and Liberation

Soon after being ousted,
Italian prisoners in El Alamein,
Mussolini was rescued by a
November 1942
German commando in
Operation Eiche ("Oak").
The Germans brought Mussolini to northern Italy where he set up a
Fascist puppet state, the Italian Social Republic (RSI). Meanwhile,
the Allies advanced in southern Italy. In September 1943, Naples
rose against the occupying German forces. The Allies organized Flag of the National Liberation
some royalist Italian troops into the Italian Co-Belligerent Army, Committee
while other troops continued to fight alongside Nazi Germany in
the Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano, the National Republican
Army. A large Italian resistance movement started a long guerrilla
war against the German and Fascist forces,[131] while clashes
between the Fascist RSI Army and the Royalist Italian Co-
Belligerent Army were rare.[132] The Germans, often helped by
Fascists, committed several atrocities against Italian civilians in
occupied zones, such as the Ardeatine massacre and the Sant'Anna
di Stazzema massacre. The Kingdom of Italy declared war on Nazi
Germany on 13 October 1943;[133][134] tensions between the Axis Insurgents celebrating the liberation
Powers and the Italian military were rising following the failure to of Naples, after the Four days of
Naples (27–30 September 1943)
defend Sicily.[133]

On 4 June 1944, the German occupation of Rome came to an end

as the Allies advanced. The final Allied victory over the Axis in Italy did not come until the spring offensive
of 1945, after Allied troops had breached the Gothic Line, leading to the surrender of German and Fascist
forces in Italy on 2 May shortly before Germany finally surrendered ending World War II in Europe on 8
May. It is estimated that between September 1943 and April 1945, some 60,000 Allied and 50,000 German
soldiers died in Italy.[c]

During World War II, Italian war crimes included extrajudicial

killings and ethnic cleansing[136] by the deportation of about
25,000 people, mainly Jews, Croats, and Slovenians, to the Italian
concentration camps, such as Rab, Gonars, Monigo, Renicci di
Anghiari and elsewhere. Yugoslav Partisans perpetrated their own
crimes against the local ethnic Italian population during and after
the war, including the foibe massacres. In Italy and Yugoslavia,
The head of the Italian Social unlike in Germany, few war crimes were
Republic, Benito Mussolini, with a prosecuted. [137][138][139][140]
soldier in 1944
On 25 April 1945 the National Liberation Committee for Northern
Italy proclaimed a general insurrection in all the territories still
occupied by the Nazis, indicating to all the partisan forces active in
Northern Italy that were part of the Volunteer Corps of Freedom to
attack the fascist and German garrisons by imposing the surrender,
days before the arrival of the Allied troops; at the same time, the
National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy personally issued
legislative decrees,[141] assuming power "in the name of the Italian
people and as a delegate of the Italian Government", establishing Italian anti-fascist partisans in Milan
during the liberation of Italy, April
among other things the death sentence for all fascist hierarchs,[142]
1945
Today the event is commemorated in Italy every 25 April by the
Liberation Day, National Day introduced on 22 April 1946, which
celebrates the liberation of the country from fascism.[143]

Mussolini was captured on 27 April 1945, by communist Italian partisans near the Swiss border as he tried
to escape Italy. On the next day, he was executed for high treason. Days later on 2 May 1945, the German
forces in Italy surrendered. On 9 June 1944, Badoglio was replaced as prime minister by anti-fascist leader
Ivanoe Bonomi. In June 1945 Bonomi was in turn replaced by Ferruccio Parri, who in turn gave way to
Alcide de Gasperi on 4 December 1945. Finally, De Gasperi supervised the transition to a Republic
following the abdication of Vittorio Emanuele III on 9 May 1946, the one-month-long reign of his son
Umberto II ("King of May") and the Constitutional Referendum that abolished the monarchy; De Gasperi
briefly became acting head of state as well as prime minister on 18 June 1946, but ceded the former role to
Provisional President Enrico de Nicola ten days later.

Anti-fascism against Mussolini's regime

In Italy, Mussolini's Fascist regime used the term anti-fascist to
describe its opponents. Mussolini's secret police was officially
known as the Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-
Fascism (OVRA). During the 1920s, anti-fascists, many of them
from the labor movement, fought against the violent Blackshirts and
against the rise of the fascist leader Benito Mussolini. After the
Italian Socialist Party (PSI) signed a pacification pact with
Mussolini and his Fasces of Combat on 3 August 1921,[144] and
trade unions adopted a legalist and pacified strategy, members of the
workers' movement who disagreed with this strategy formed Arditi
del Popolo.[145]
Flag of Arditi del Popolo, an axe
cutting a fasces. Arditi del Popolo The Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGL) and the PSI
was a militant anti-fascist group
refused to officially recognize the anti-fascist militia and maintained
founded in 1921.
a non-violent, legalist strategy, while the Communist Party of Italy
(PCd'I) ordered its members to quit the organization. The PCd'I
organized some militant groups, but their actions were relatively minor.[146] The Italian anarchist Severino
Di Giovanni, who exiled himself to Argentina following the 1922 March on Rome, organized several
bombings against the Italian fascist community.[147] The Italian liberal anti-fascist Benedetto Croce wrote
his Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals, which was published in 1925.[148] Other notable Italian
liberal anti-fascists around that time were Piero Gobetti and Carlo Rosselli.[149]
Concentrazione Antifascista Italiana (English: Italian Anti-Fascist
Concentration), officially known as Concentrazione d'Azione
Antifascista (Anti-Fascist Action Concentration), was an Italian
coalition of Anti-Fascist groups which existed from 1927 to 1934,
trying to promote and to coordinate expatriate actions to fight
fascism in Italy; they published a propaganda paper entitled La
Libertà.[150][151][152] Giustizia e Libertà (English: Justice and
Freedom) was an Italian anti-fascist resistance movement, active
from 1929 to 1945[153] which shared a belief in active, effective
opposition to fascism, compared to the older Italian anti-fascist
parties. Giustizia e Libertà also made the international community
aware of the realities of fascism in Italy, thanks to the work of 1931 badge of a member of
Concentrazione Antifascista Italiana
Gaetano Salvemini.

Between 1920 and 1943, several anti-fascist movements were

active among the Slovenes and Croats in the territories annexed to
Italy after World War I, known as the Julian March.[154][155] The
most influential was the militant insurgent organization TIGR,
which carried out numerous sabotages, as well as attacks on
representatives of the Fascist Party and the military.[156][157] Most
of the underground structure of the organization was discovered
and dismantled by the OVRA in 1940 and 1941,[158] and after June
Flag of Giustizia e Libertà, anti-
1941 most of its former activists joined the Slovene Partisans. Many
fascist movement active from 1929
members of the Italian resistance left their homes and went to live in
to 1945
the mountains, fighting against Italian fascists and German Nazi
soldiers during the Italian Civil War. Many cities in Italy, including
Turin, Naples and Milan, were freed by anti-fascist uprisings.[159]

End of the Kingdom of Italy (1946)

1946 Italian institutional referendum

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.

Even before the rise of the Fascists, the monarchy was seen to have performed poorly, with society
extremely divided between the wealthy North and poor South. World War I resulted in Italy making few
gains and was seen as what fostered the rise of Fascism. These frustrations contributed to a revival of the
Italian republican movement.[160] By the spring of 1944, it was obvious Victor Emmanuel was too tainted
by his previous support for Mussolini to have any further role. He transferred his constitutional powers to
Crown Prince Umberto, whom he named Lieutenant General of the Realm and de facto regent.

Victor Emmanuel III nominally remained King until shortly before the 1946 Italian institutional referendum
on whether to remain a monarchy or become a republic. On 9 May 1946, he abdicated in favour of the
Crown Prince, who then ascended as King Umberto II. However, on 2 June 1946, the republican side won
 54% of the vote, and Italy officially
became a republic, a day celebrated
since as Festa della Repubblica.
This was the first time that Italian
women voted at the national level,
and the second time overall
considering the local elections that
were held a few months earlier in
some cities.[161][162]

The table of results shows some

relevant differences in the different
parts of Italy. The peninsula seemed
Umberto II, the last king of to be drastically cut into two as if
Italy there were two different Results of the 1946 referendum

homogeneous countries: the North

for the republic (with 66.2%); the
South for the monarchy (with 63.8%). Some monarchist groups claimed that there was manipulation by
northern republicans, socialists and communists. Others argued that Italy was still too chaotic in 1946 to
have an accurate referendum.

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. He went into exile in Portugal.[163] From 1 January 1948, with the entry into force of the
Constitution of the Italian Republic, the male descendants of Umberto II of Savoy were banned from
entering Italy; the provision being repealed in 2002.[164]

Aftermath
The Republican Constitution, resulting from the work of a Constituent
Assembly formed by the representatives of all the anti-fascist forces that
contributed to the defeat of Nazi and Fascist forces during the liberation of
Italy,[165] was approved on 1 January 1948.

Under the Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947, Istria, Kvarner, most of the
Julian March as well as the Dalmatian city of Zara was annexed by
Yugoslavia causing the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus, which led to the
emigration from 1943 to 1960 of between 230,000 and 350,000 local ethnic
Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians), the others being ethnic
Slovenians, ethnic Croatians, and ethnic Istro-Romanians, choosing to
Alcide De Gasperi, first maintain Italian citizenship.[166] Later, the Free Territory of Trieste was
republican Prime Minister of divided between the two states. Italy also lost its colonial possessions,
Italy and one of the founding formally ending the Italian Empire. The Italian border that applies today has
fathers of the European existed since 1975, when Trieste was formally re-annexed to Italy.
Union
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.[167][168] Consequently,
in 1949 Italy became a member of NATO. The Marshall Plan helped to revive the Italian economy which,
until the late 1960s, enjoyed a period of sustained economic growth commonly called the "Economic
Miracle". In the 1950s, Italy became one of the six founding countries of the European Communities,
following the 1952 establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community, and subsequent 1958
creations of the European Economic Community and European Atomic Energy Community. In 1993, the
former two of these were incorporated into the European Union.

Maps of progressive territorial formation of the Kingdom of Italy

The Italian States in The Kingdom of The Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy
1859, on the eve of Sardinia in 1860, after in 1861, after the in 1866, after the Third
the Second Italian War the annexation of Expedition of the Italian War of
of Independence Lombardy and before Thousand Independence
the annexation of the
United Provinces of
Central Italy [d]

The Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy

after the conquest of in 1924, after the at its greatest extent in
Rome and Lazio World War I, 1943, during World
(Capture of Rome, 20 comprising the War II, with the
September 1870) Venices Tridentina and annexation of
Giulia, the city of territories from France
Fiume and the and Yugoslavia. The
Dalmatian city of Zara 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.
Legend

Kingdom of Sardinia (Kingdom of Italy from 1861)

Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
Papal States
Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia

Grand Duchy of Tuscany

Duchy of Modena and Reggio
Duchy of Parma and Piacenza
United Provinces of Central Italy

Chronology of national coats of arms

Coat of arms used Coat of arms used Coat of arms used Coat of arms used
from 1861 to 1870 from 1870 to 1890 from 1890 to 1927 from 1927 to 1929

Coat of arms used Coat of arms used

from 1929 to 1944 from 1944 to 1946

See also
Italy portal

Politics portal

Unification of Italy
Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy
 History of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
House of Savoy
List of prime ministers of Italy
Military history of Italy during World War I
Military history of Italy during World War II
Roman question
Italian Empire

Notes
a. In 1848, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour had formed a parliamentary group in the Kingdom
of Sardinia Parliament named the Partito Liberale Italiano (Italian Liberal Party). From 1860,
with the Unification of Italy substantially realized and the death of Cavour himself in 1861,
the Liberal Party was split into at least two major factions or new parties later known as the
Destra Storica on the right wing, who substantially assembled the Count of Cavour's
followers and political heirs; and the Sinistra Storica on the left wing, who mostly reunited the
followers and sympathizers of Giuseppe Garibaldi and other former Mazzinians. The
Historical Right (Destra Storica) and the Historical Left (Sinistra Storica) were composed of
royalist liberals. At the same time, radicals organized themselves into the Radical Party and
republicans into the Italian Republican Party.
b. The liberal-conservative Historical Right was dominated from 1860 to 1876 (also after it was
no more at the govern) by the leadership of elected Representatives from Emilia Romagna
(1860–1864) and Tuscany (1864–1876), known as the Consorteria, with the support of the
Lombard and Southern Italian representatives. The majority of the Piemontese liberal-
conservative representatives, but not all of them, organized themselves as the all-
Piemontese and more right-wing party's minority: the Associazione Liberale Permanente
(Permanent Liberal Association), who sometimes voted with the Historical Left and whose
leading representative was Quintino Sella. The party's majority was also weakened by the
substantial differences between the effective liberal-conservative (Toscano and Emiliano)
leadership and Lombards on one side and the quietly conservative Southern and
"Transigent Roman Catholic" components on the other side. (Indro Montanelli, Storia d'Italia,
volume 32).
c. In Alexander's Generals Blaxland quotes 59,151 Allied deaths between 3 September 1943
and 2 May 1945 as recorded at AFHQ and gives the breakdown between 20 nationalities:
United States 20,442; United Kingdom, 18,737; France, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal
and Belgium 5,241; Canada, 4,798; India, Pakistan, Nepal 4,078; Poland 2,028; New
Zealand 1,688; Italy (excluding irregulars) 917; South Africa 800; Brazil 275; Greece 115;
Jewish volunteers from the British Mandate in Palestine 32. In addition, 35 soldiers were
killed by enemy action while serving with pioneer units from Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland,
Seychelles, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Cyprus and the West Indies[135]
d. Provisional confederation between the pro-Savoy governments of the ex-Grand Duchy of
Tuscany, Emilian duchies and Pontifical Romagna, specially created to favor their union with
the Kingdom of Sardinia.

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External links
Axis History Factbook– Italy (http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090711200604/http://www.axishist
ory.com/index.php?id=37) (archived 11 July 2009)
Mussolini's War Statement – Declaration of War against USA, 11 December 1941 (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20081211210222/http://historicalresources.org/2008/09/17/mussolinis-wa
r-statement-declaration-of-war-against-usa-december-11-1941/) (archived 11 December
2008)
Declaration of War on France and The United Kingdom, 10 June 1940 (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20081004183325/http://historicalresources.org/2008/09/19/mussolini-speech-of-the-1
0-june-1940-declaration-of-war-on-france-and-england/) (archived 4 October 2008)

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