Mussolini's Greater Italy
Benito Mussolini on the cover of Time magazine, 1923.
prehistory
The victorious powers at Versailles seriously smashed everything, made a mess, and laid such “mines” that soon led to a new great war, even more terrible than the First World War.
Europe was in turmoil. The Greeks attempted to build a "Greater Greece" at the expense of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. They wanted to take control of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits, Constantinople, and western Asia Minor. The Greeks were given the Smyrna (Izmir) region. However, the dismemberment and occupation provoked powerful Turkish resistance. They rallied around the popular general Mustafa Kemal and launched a war to restore Turkey. A new wave of genocide against Christians in Anatolia began.
The Entente Great Powers, especially France, easily abandoned the Greeks, whom they had initially supported. Greece lost the Entente's diplomatic, financial, and military-material support. Italy and France began to support the Kemalists. The Allies, who signed the Peace of Sèvres (1920), transformed the Entente-Turkey confrontation into a Greece-Turkey confrontation.
The Greeks themselves were exposed. They tried to swallow too much and choked. The great offensive on Ankara in 1921 failed. Greece's military resources were exhausted by nine years of war (beginning with the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913).
The most prominent advocate of the idea of restoring the Byzantine Empire, Eleftherios Venizelos, who served as Prime Minister of Greece eight times between 1910 and 1933, wrote: “The advance into the depths of Asia Minor was madness.”
As a result, the Greek army in Asia Minor was completely routed in the summer of 1922. The Greeks lost all their gains. The Turks committed another genocide. Almost the entire Greek population of Turkey was exterminated or fled. Hundreds of thousands died, 1,5 million became refugees, having lost virtually everything.
All the benefits from the war went to Britain and the United States, which gained control over the economy and trade of the former Ottoman Empire.
The Balkans were also in turmoil. The South Slavic peoples, who had just been slaughtering each other, were herded into a single state. Romania, victorious in the war, and Bulgaria, defeated, were being undermined by their own governments. Foreigners had infiltrated the region, milking Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Romania. People were driven mad by abuses and poverty. Far-left and right-wing forces gained popularity. The threat of further unrest arose.
They drove Germany to the brink: humiliated, robbed, and stripped its borders. They turned the Germans into an impoverished and embittered people, the largest divided nation in Western Europe. In short, they created all the conditions for a future Nazi victory and Germany's transformation into a major war zone.
Fascist Italy
Similar processes were taking place in Italy, which was formally on the winning side but, in reality, gained little from its victory in World War I. This gave rise to the idea of "insulted victory." Specifically, under the 1915 Treaty of London, Italy was promised the western parts of Anatolia, particularly the Antalya region, in the event of the partition of the Ottoman Empire.
Italy, already economically weak, was overwhelmed by the war, the lira collapsed, and prices soared. Demobilization and the transition of industry to peacetime led to a surge in unemployment. Crime began to mount. Widespread poverty prompted an exodus to the United States.
The Italian public was outraged that the country's victory had been stolen: so much blood had been spilled, and for what?! The authorities were mired in corruption, turning a blind eye to outright plunder and predation. The mafia, merging with the bureaucracy, was rampant. Politicians and officials who had the courage to stand up to organized crime were simply murdered. Radical sentiments—left, anarchist, right—became popular in society.
It was in this environment that Benito Mussolini, a former leftist newspaper editor and frontline soldier, emerged. In March 1919, in Milan, he held the founding meeting of the new organization, the Italian Union of Struggle (Italian: Fasci italiani di combattimento). In 1921, the Union was renamed the Italian Fascist Party. The word "fascism" meant "unity, gathering." Therefore, the party's emblem depicted the symbol of the ancient Roman lictors: fasces tied into a bundle.
Mussolini proposed a "Third Way":
We will allow ourselves the luxury of being at the same time aristocrats and democrats, revolutionaries and reactionaries, supporters of legal struggle and illegal struggle, and all this depending on the place and circumstances in which we have to find ourselves and act.
The party included many war veterans disillusioned with the peacetime reality. Fascism combined many ideas—socialism, nationalism, monarchism, and corporatism (the unification of various social groups for the sake of the state's prosperity).
Mussolini himself was an excellent orator, inventing a striking uniform, black shirts, and introducing the "Roman salute"—a raised hand. Veteran units—the "Blackshirts"—began to push back socialists, anarchists, and communists at mass protests. The authorities generally avoided intervening in these clashes, fearing a "communist threat." The Blackshirts gained respect; they assisted the authorities in suppressing unrest and dispersing troublemakers. The fascists achieved success in the 1921 elections. The first 35 fascist deputies, led by Mussolini, entered parliament.
However, the liberals and the mafia, who thrived in troubled waters, feared the fascists. Luigi Facto's government decided to clamp down on the Fascist Party. But it was too late. Mussolini, sensing popular support, staged a march on Rome in the fall of 1922. Facto proposed declaring a state of emergency and deploying troops against the Blackshirts. But the king was afraid to initiate armed confrontation. He had been informed that the fascists were favored by ordinary people and the military. King Victor Emmanuel III met with Mussolini and appointed him Prime Minister of Italy.
The Fascist Party triumphantly won the following parliamentary elections, capturing two-thirds of the seats. Parliament granted Mussolini dictatorial powers. He concentrated executive power in his hands, periodically occupying up to seven key ministries. He entered into an alliance with the Catholic Church, promising the Vatican to restore its former position in society.
March to Rome
Flag of the National Fascist Party from the late 1920s to 1943
Duce's policy
The Italian leader, Il Duce, began to drastically restore order in the country. He suppressed the opposition, banning other political parties by 1925 and closing independent newspapers. He created a political police force. Thousands were imprisoned. But within Italy, the regime was quite lenient: only a few people were executed.
Mussolini even managed to suppress the "immortal mafia." Officials who took bribes and embezzled public funds were jailed. Organized crime was so shaken that its bosses fled to the United States.
At the same time, Italian bankers and industrialists were completely satisfied with the Duce's policies; the order led to capital growth. Italian plutocrats, oligarchs, and bankers were also saved from social revolution. Therefore, Italian capital supported Mussolini (until it became clear that the country was losing the war), just as German capital supported Hitler.
The majority of the people—small businessmen, city dwellers, workers, and peasants—were also satisfied with the Duce's socioeconomic policies. Major programs were launched to combat poverty and unemployment. Massive construction projects were underway. The railway network, destroyed during the war, was restored. A highway network was built.
Life was becoming stable, the people's well-being was growing, the country was being built and improved. Therefore, Mussolini received the title "Duce of the Italian People"—"leader" (from the Latin "duke"—leader, leader).
The Duce launched a major agricultural program, the "Battle for Bread," aimed at ensuring Italy's food security. Massive drainage and land reclamation were undertaken. In particular, the Pontine Marshes, which had been the subject of attempts to reclaim since the time of Ancient Rome, were drained. Abandoned, virgin lands were restored. New lands were transferred to peasants, and new farms and rural settlements were established. Mechanization was implemented, and advanced agricultural methods were introduced. "Rural life" was promoted as the foundation of a healthy society, contrasting it with "rotten" urban life.
Thus, Mussolini solved Italy's age-old problem: agricultural overpopulation and the dire poverty of the Italian peasantry. Tens of thousands of peasants from the country's poorest regions began a new life. The sources of malaria were suppressed, and the nation's health improved.
Large investments were made in new schools and hospitals. Thus, from 1922 to 1930, the number of clinics and hospitals quadrupled.
The Duce attempted to strengthen the country's industry, making it self-sufficient. He supported large monopolies and stimulated heavy industry (mechanical engineering, metallurgy) to develop the military-industrial complex and shipbuilding. In 1933, the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction was established, leading to the nationalization of most of the economy. Trade unions were replaced by corporations that united workers and employers under state control to prevent the development of a labor movement.
High tariffs were used to protect the domestic economy. Overall, Italy was developing quite well. However, the country remained part of the global capitalist system, which led to an increase in foreign debt.
Naturally, American capital stepped in. American capitalists and bankers began financing Mussolini's fascist regime, so they could then use Rome for their own global purposes.
Ultimately, Italy was used as a tool to spark a new world war. Had Italy been able to avoid involvement in a major war, it could have gained new impetus for its development.
Mussolini, on the cover of a propaganda magazine, wielding a pickaxe to free an ancient monument, 1935
Our Sea
Mussolini dreamed of making Italy great. He dreamed of reviving the ancient Roman Empire, to which he considered Italy the heir. He dreamed of turning the Mediterranean basin into "our sea."
The Balkans were to become part of the new Italian Empire, Greater Italy. Rome considered Belgrade and Athens its main adversaries. In April 1923, General Vecchi delivered a speech in Turin directed against Yugoslavia. "The outlines of imperial Italy," Vecchi noted, "drawn on the coat of arms of the fascist corporations, encompass Yugoslavia within their borders. For Yugoslavia is for us holy Dalmatia, sacrificed on the altar of the fatherland."
Rome is beginning to show its teeth. In September 1923, the Italians staged a coup in the "free city" of Fiume (Rijeka). This city and its surrounding area had previously been part of Austria-Hungary. After World War I, it received the status of a "free state." Fiume, however, was claimed by both Italy and Yugoslavia. Belgrade, lacking French support, relented. In January 1924, the Treaty of Rome was signed, officially merging Fiume with Italy. Yugoslavia received the town of Sušak.
At the same time, Rome was demonstrating its claim to Albania and Greek lands. In August 1923, Italian General Tellini, who headed the commission demarcating the border between Greece and Albania, was assassinated on the Greek border. Apparently, the crime was committed by Albanian bandits. Italy and Albania accused Greeks of the murder. Mussolini issued a 24-hour ultimatum: an official apology, a ceremonial funeral, an investigation involving Italians, and a 50 million lire indemnity. Athens agreed to compensate the families of the victims and expressed regret. The remaining demands were rejected as violating Greece's sovereignty and honor.
In response, Italian fleet shelled Corfu, then a landing force captured the Greek island. Under pressure from the League of Nations and Britain, the Italians returned the island to the Greeks. Athens apologized to the ambassadors' conference and agreed to a contribution.
On the island of Leros (Aegean Sea, Dodecanese Islands), captured by the Italians in 1912, a strong naval base was built with an eye on Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Before the outbreak of World War II, Italy expanded its North African colony—Italian Libya—at the expense of British Sudan and the French cession of the disputed Aouzou Strip between Chad and Libya. In Libya itself, Italian fascists bloodily crushed a local uprising. By 1931, the Italians had forced up to half the Cyrenaica population into concentration camps.
Map of "Greater Italy" ("Grande Italia") in 1942. Red - occupied lands, yellow - lands that were planned to be annexed
At this time, Mussolini looked down on Hitler. He was already an established dictator, had an army and a powerful navy. He considered the Führer himself an upstart and plagiarist who had copied his methods in Italy. The Duce called "German National Socialism a savage barbarism."
On June 14, 1934, the Italian leader received Hitler in Venice. After the meeting, the Duce said: "This annoying man... This Hitler is a ferocious and cruel creature. He brings to mind Attila. Germany has remained a land of barbarians since the time of Tacitus. It is the eternal enemy of Rome."
In August 1934, the Nazis assassinated the Italians' friend and ally, the Austrian dictator Dollfuss. Local Nazis wanted to annex Austria to Germany. Rome then moved several divisions to the Austrian border. Hitler's Germany, lacking a full-fledged army at the time, relented. The Anschluss of Austria was postponed.
Mussolini changed his position on Germany already in the autumn of 1937, when the Third Reich had already achieved significant success in creating a first-class military machine.
Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler stand together on the podium during Mussolini's official visit to Munich, 1937.
To be continued ...
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