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FACTORS INFLUENCING MUSSOLINI'S FOREIGN POLICY - Coggle Diagram
FACTORS INFLUENCING MUSSOLINI'S FOREIGN POLICY
Fascist ideology
impact of WW1 fostered Fascism's growth in Europe and in Italy
Mussolini set up his first Fascist units in March 1919 called "fascio di combattimento"
after the war → Italy entered into a period of political crisis
liberal governments of 1918-22 began to lose control → liberals fared badly in elections of 1919 → gained fewer than half of the seats in the chamber → none of the political parties were able to form a coherent coalition government → result = short-term governments that undermined the credibility of the democratic parliamentary system)
September 1919 → D'Anunzio led 2000 ex-soldiers to occupy Fiume by force in protest against the Italian government's agreement to hand the port over to Yugoslavia → government proved too feeble to remove D'Annunzio until Giolitti was returned as prime minister in 1920 → the whole affair also undermined the credibility of the Italian democratic system
support for the government declined further when it became clear that liberal Prime Minister Vittorio Emmanuelle Orlando had not obtained the territory had claimed from the defeated Austro-Hungarian Empire
Italy received the province of Tyrol, the Istrian peninsular, the port of Trieste, the Dodecanese islands + a port in and a protectorate over Albania
Italy had also expected to gain the port of Fiume and Dalmatia
Prime Minister Orlando went to Versailles with the conservative foreign minister (Sydney Sonnino) → Orlando had been willing to renounce Italian claims to Dalmatia in return for the port of Fiume → the foreign minister disagreed → their differences were exploited by other great powers → Italians were not given either territory → Orlando was forced to resign
1921 elections → 35 seats went to the Fascists (PNF), 108 to the Catholic Party, 138 to the Socialists and the Communists (newly founded in 1921)
expansionist aims
Mussolini believed that Fascist Italy could be the second Roman Empire
control of the Mediterranean Empire was key to his vision of Italy as "the heir of Rome"
International situation
WW1
different sides
intervention caused division on the left → PSI was against intervention (viewed the conflict as an "imperialist's war" ; others on the left supported intervention (believed it would destroy Liberal Italy and could foster revolution)
fasci di azione rivoluzionaria ("revolutionary action groups") were set up by left-wing interventionists to support the war
Benito Mussolini was a leading member of the PSI → initially opposed the war, but by October favored it → Mussolini was expelled from the PSI and from his editorship of its newspaper (Avanti!)
Giolitti and many liberals (including most of the Chamber) opposed the war, like the Catholic Church → believed Italy had little to gain from entering the war & the Church did not want to go to war against Austria (a fellow Catholic state)
right-wing liberals + prime minister (Antonio Salandra) favored joining the Entente Alliance (hoped that if Italy joined the Entente, they would gain the Italian-speaking territories of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) → April 1915, prime minister signed the Treaty of London with Britain, France, and Russia
impact of the war
Italians fought Austrians and the Germans across a front in Northern Italy
trenches developed → for most of the 3 years the war was static
October 1917 → Battle of Caporetto → Italians were pushed back by the Austrians and Germans, who advanced more than 100 km → Italy suffered huge losses
October 1918 → Italy achieved a victory against the Austrians at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto
human cost of the war: 600,000 men were dead + hundreds of thousands wounded
the war made Italy more politically divided
more than 5 million men that served in the army were politicized → began resenting the liberal government for their mismanagement of the war
many resented PSI's anti-war stance
workforce was mobilized to fight a "total" war → number of industrial workers grew → increased membership of trade unions and the PSI → both became increasingly militant
fostered Fascism's growth in Europe
another key factor for Mussolini's foreign policy was that he wanted to make Italy (and himself) a much more significant force in international politics
Economic resources
new capital in Rome limited support in the south → majority of peasants in the south lived in poverty; industrialized north prospered
liberal governments that existed before WW1 only represented the needs of the middle and upper classes → growing peasant and working-class unrest → general strike in 1914 → working-class movements grew in Italy from the late 19th century → in 1892 the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) was founded
post-war economy was also an important factor in the rise of Fascism
high inflation hit both the fixed-wage workers and the middle classes with savings → unemployment soared to 2 million by the end of 1919
new US restrictions on immigration → the southern poor could not emigrate to America to escape their poverty
Bolshevik revolution in Russia → between 1919 and 1920 there was extensive unrest in Italy, "Two Red Years"
socialists attempted to catalyse a Russian-style revolution → Italian Communist Party was formed on January 21, 1921
strength of the left had already peaked → support passed to the Fascists who opposed the communists → Mussolini and the Fascists gained support from the wealthy industrialists and landowners (the Fascists offered not only ideological opposition but were also prepared to confront Socialists and Communists physically)
Fascism was also supported by the Catholic Church (a significant political force in Italy) → Pope Pius XI backed Mussolini as he saw the Fascists as a means of improving the position of the Church and cementing church-state relations
by 1922, there was a loss of faith in Italian state institutions (failed to bring about a "victors" peace settlement, seemed unable to contain violence on the streets, and had failed to establish a stable post-war economy)
Mussolini's foreign policy ambitions were reliant on strengthening the economy
his economic policies aimed not only to consolidate his political control and the Fascist system, but also to make Italy self-sufficient and to have an economy capable of supporting a militarist state
Mussolini was economically weak → to address the economic weakness, Mussolini promoted "productivism" → heavy industry was favored at the cost of consumer goods, high taxation to fund the development of this area → burden on working classes
Mussolini's big idea: the "Corporate State" (was supposed to be a new way of organizing the economy, an alternative to capitalism and socialism)
Fascists envisioned a society in which all people involved in the economy would work together for the national good (would be based on a system of corporations; have the advantages of capitalism and socialism but without their disadvantages)
in practice, labor was exploited → the system has been called an "elaborate fraud"
helped keep divergent forces from causing political problems
launched three key initiatives: Battle for Grain (1925), Battle for Lira (1926), the "Mussolini Law" (1928) → set out a programme of land reclamation
policies had little success
Battle for Grain did lead to an increase in grain production nd imports fell by 75% → this improvement in output came at the cost of other key crops (eg. olives)
the south → most negative impact, as the soil was not suitable for growing wheat
state failed to challenge the big landowners to redress the poverty in the south
Mussolini increased the value of the lira from 154 lira to 90 lira to the British pound → exports fell + there was not a corresponding benefit to consumers as they had to pay more for imported goods due to tariffs
the government also cut wages in 1927 by 10%
Versailles settlement
Prime Minister Orlando went to Versailles with the conservative foreign minister (Sydney Sonnino) → Orlando had been willing to renounce Italian claims to Dalmatia in return for the port of Fiume → the foreign minister disagreed → their differences were exploited by other great powers → Italians were not given either territory → Orlando was forced to resign
widespread disgust in Italy at the outcome of the Versailles Settlement
casualty rate for Italian forces was higher than the casualty rate for Britain → Gabriele D'Annunzio (Italian nationalist and poet) deemed it a "mutilated victory"
the disappointment over the Versailles Settlement was a key factor for Mussolini's aims → he wanted to increase national pride + make Italy (and himself) a much more significant force in international politics
Nationalist views
Italian-Turkish war of 1911-12 (Italian nationalists pressured Giovanni Giolitti to pursue the war) → Italy was able to seize Libya from Turkey
believed in the destiny of Italy to become a "Great Power"
1910 → Italian Nationalist Association was founded
Filippo Marinetti (poet) established the Futurist Movement
glorified war + criticized the weakness of liberal governments for failing to make Italy a "Great Power"
believed unification was unfinished → regions of Trentino and Trieste remained under Austrian rule (despite large numbers of Italian speakers) → became known as terre irredente ("unredeemed lands")
Mussolini wanted Italy to be an empire to compete with Britain, France, and the new Germany
1923 → Mussolini invaded Corfu after an Italian official was killed on the Greek border with Albania →LoG condemned this action and demanded that Italians withdraw → Mussolini only withdrew when Britain threatened to use its navy + demanded 50 million lire of compensation → the "Corfu Affair" was seen as a great success in Italy
key factor for Mussolini's foreign policy: he wanted to increase national pride, make Italy a much more significant force in international politics, and make Fascist Italy the second Roman Empire
Earlier humiliations
Liberal Italy (1870 - 1923) → inherent weaknesses that undermined Italy
Battle of Adowa → attempt to conquer Abyssinia → 1896, Italy was humiliatingly defeated by the Abyssinians
Mussolini pursued his aims to expand Italy's empire in Africa
supported independence movements against the French in Morocco
brutally crushed a revolt in Libya in 1922-28
massive force + mass executions
1928 → signed a treaty of "friendship" with Abbysinia