The Kingdom of Italy

Part One: The Interwar Period: 1919-1939

The Kingdom of Italy had a difficult time in the Great War. The Royal Army had fought along the northern frontier for three years, only making notable progress at the very end as Austria-Hungary imploded. No fewer than twelve battles were waged along the same sector of the Isonzo River, accomplishing absolutely nothing and costing at total of 950,000 dead in just that sector. They had joined the Entente in 1915 after being promised Albania and Dalmatia as spoils, but when the victorious powers met at Versailles

Italian Arditi shock troops in the Great War

The result would be notable unrest in Italy. The country was beset by unrest as Socialist movements, galvanized all over the continent by the fall of Imperial Russia, began mass strikes and movements against the government. This would lead to a young socialist deciding to look to a third way, casting aside both democracy and pure Marxism.

Benito Mussolini had been a socialist firebrand before the war, and he began to support Italian intervention as a means to cause a mass socialist revolution in Austria and Italy. This went against the stance of the Socialist Party, and as a result Mussolini was ousted from the party. This would result in him losing faith in traditional Marxism, and adopting an idea of revolution not just by class, but by everyone in the nation. In 1916 he joined the Royal Army, and would fight until he was badly wounded by a shell in 1917 after ten months of service.

Benito Mussolini with fellow Fascists during the March on Rome

Returning home, he would continue to work as a newspaper editor as he had before, and was disgusted by what was termed by many in Italy as the “Mutilated Victory” of the Great War. Feeling cheated by the other Great Powers, Italians began to look to a new way to create a powerful Empire. Mussolini formed a paramilitary force in the northern part of the country similar to the German Freikorps, and the socialists began a series of general strikes in their own attempt to destabilize the government. Mussolini’s movement adopted the name Fascists, based on their symbol: the Roman Fasces, a bundle of bound sticks that was a symbol of Roman Imperial unity and power.

Using a massive strike in 1922 as a catalyst, Mussolini and his black uniformed paramilitaries began a March on Rome, calling all citizens loyal to the Fascists cause to join them. As they entered the capitol with a total of 30,000 Blackshirts, they demanded that the King dismiss Prime Minister Luigi Facta and replace him with Mussolini, and install a Grand Council of Fascism as a government body. Facing a civil war, King Vittorio Emmanuel III agreed to their terms.

Albanian Royal Guardsmen equipped with Italian Carcano rifles

Once in power Mussolini, now using the title of “Il Duce”, wasted no time in consolidating it and setting about rebuilding the Roman Empire. He integrated the Blackshirts into the Royal Armed Forces, thus taking direct control for himself. He also forces through laws that quickly ban all opposition parties, leaving Italy as a single party state controlled by the National Fascist Party. Indeed, many opposition parties boycotted Parliament, hoping to force the King to remove Mussolini. They only managed to allow the Fascists to ban them with no legal opposition.

In 1925 Italy forced the King of Albania to allow the Italians to make them a protectorate, thus taking control of the command of Albania’s army. As a result, Albania became an Italian territory in all but name. Mussolini also took in Ante Pavelić from Yugoslavia, providing the Croatian Nationalist with money, shelter, and other resources to use to destabilize the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Italian troops in Ethiopia

In 1935 Italy invaded Ethiopia, commencing a massive campaign of destruction, including massacres and use of poison gas against civilians. Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie made a desperate plea to the League of Nations to stop Italian Aggression, but they did nothing. The League was revealed to the world to be incapable of stopping aggression when it occurred as Ethiopia fell to Italy.

An Italian column in Spain

In 1936 Italian troops would deploy to Spain to assist Nationalist leader Francisco Franco in that country’s Civil War. This would be the first time Italians fought alongside German troops. In 1939, following Germany’s taking of Czechoslovakia and the collapse of the League, Italy invaded Albania, taking the country with almost no resistance from their Italian led Army.