2021-12-25
48
Italian fascism and its downfall
First time fascism came to power in Italy. Mostly it served as an example for fascists in other countries: Poland, Germany, Spain, Portuguese and so on. And for some of us it still serves as an example today. In this film we describe the history of Italian fascism rise and fall.
Let us start from 1870. Unification of Italy just had been finished. The country became such as we know it today. Well, something like it. Form of rule – parliament monarchy, like in modern Britain. It means that monarch is vested with some nominal authority, like signing laws for their entry into force, but all real authority is gets by parliament and government presided over by a Prime Minister.
In the end of 19th century Italy was economically and politically weak country. Unmodernized agricultural and poor society were main brakes in industry development. Roughly speaking, demand on Italian production on internal market was weak, while on export markets the country was suppressed with more developed contenders. Especially great obstacle for Italian industry was scarcity of crucial raw materials as oil, coal, iron ore, non-ferrous ores and rare metals, cotton, timber, and the like.
On the other hand, these drawbacks were counterbalanced with the poverty. If salaries in a country are low, so goods net cost are also lower than in developed ones. It helped Italian entrepreneurs to compete on world markets. However, that leads to even deeper poverty and weakened country’s economy further.
Hence Italian business tendency to capture colonies. There it was possible to get cheap raw materials and create additional markets. Hence Italy took part in the Triple Alliance, colonized Eritrea and Somalia, fought in Italo-Ethiopian War, participated in the China plunder, Livian war and in the end, in First World War.
It is clear that producers of any pasta have never been the engine of Italian imperialism. The most aggressive Italian entrepreneurs, generally, were those who was connected to war production: metallurgical, chemical, ship- and machine-building industries, as well as their financing banks.
At the same time, the appetites of Italian business clearly did not match its capabilities. At the time of First World Was outbreak, Italian heavy industry lagged from Western European countries. Not to mention vast part of society worked for agriculture, more than half country’s entire population. At the same time, labor movement was extremely powerful, what afflicted businessmen. At the parliament voting, for example, Italian socialistic party was able to achieve 17% votes, beaten only by Liberalistic Union. Trade unions did not lag behind either. In 1912, all trade unions in Italy had up to 1 million workers and employees.
Such imbalance of forces between classes, as well as unsuccessful military campaigns in recent past, led to the fact that the Italian people were not particularly obsessed with the ideas of imperialism and nationalism. However, in such a state of economic, political and military weakness, Italian entrepreneurs were still able to plunge their country into the First World War.
As it is well known, Italy participated in the war not from the start, but only from 1915. Leaders of nationalistic party as well as the entrepreneurs of heavy and war industries, who stand behind them, were main agitators for the war. Other activists joined a bit later. Italy’s next leader, Benito Mussolini, was among them as well.
By the beginning of the war, the future Duce was the editor of the socialist newspaper “Avanti!” (Forward!), where he propagated idea of Italy’s neutrality. Then, he had suddenly changed his views and began to call for participation in the war, for which he was expelled from the party. A little later, Mussolini founded his newspaper “Il Popolo d'Italia" (People of Italy) with French money (France wanted Italy to participate in the war on the side of the Entente). This newspaper would become the basis of fascistic movement and would be issued until 1943.
Despite the fact that no one attacked the country, and the Italian people were not threatened, propagandists of the war portrayed participation in it as something progressive; As a struggle for freedom and democracy, as a struggle to express the national aspirations of the Italian people, and the like. Finally, the resistance of the anti-war forces was broken and in May 1915 Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary.
For Italian heavy industry The First World War was very welcome. It promoted the rapid development of everything related to military production and helped major businessmen to become even more powerful!
During the war, huge mass of giant concerns became stronger, among them: “Ansaldo” and “Ilva” in heavy industry, “Fiat” in the automotive industry and “Breda” in war equipment
and railway materials production. For instance, at the beginning of the war, only 8 thousand people were employed at all “Ansaldo” factories, and by the end of the war - 56 thousand. Annual car production at Fiat factories had rose from 4.5 thousand in 1914 to almost 20 thousand in 1917. The interest of particular entrepreneurs in the war is obvious.
Naturally, according to all the laws of economics, what is gone from one place shows up in the other. While entrepreneurs associated with the military-industrial complex were making money, hard workers and peasants, as well as entrepreneurs not connected with the military-industrial complex, only bankrupted. As the war dragged on, especially after the revolution in Russia, the people's discontent grew more and more severe. In August 1917, an anti-war uprising broke out in Turin due to the lack of food, which, however, did not lead to any major changes.
When the war finally ended, the Italian imperialists looked forward to sharing the booty. However, they were deeply disappointed with their lot. French and English businessmen turned out to be much more aggressive, greedy, and strong, so refused to give the Italians everything that they hoped for.
Italy was among countries, which won the war, however, based on economic and political situations in general, Italy, in fact, lost. It is not difficult to guess, how furious the Italian imperialists were. Now they wanted to revenge their former Entente allies.
