There is no denying that the power that Austrian Empire held from 1820 and 1848 was influential and was one of the reasons the Italian revolutionaries failed. This is why some argue that the main reason of the failed attempt to unite Italy was the brute force of the Austrian military and navy. However, many argue that this was merely one factor of many. Some argue that the reason that Italy’s revolutionaries failed was due to the geographical fragmentation of Italy and the fact that this consequently leads to parochialism within these individual sectors. However, the argument that carries the greatest weight is that the individuals who led these revolts and were at the forefront of the revolutionary movements were not united themselves in how they wanted Italy to unite.
How far do you agree that the consolidation of fascist power in Italy in the years 1922-1929 was mainly due to the use of force and intimidation? Mussolini consolidation of fascist power in Italy in the years 1922-1929 could have been mainly due to the use of force and intimidation. However this was not a straightforward process, since fascism was a new thing. In the years 1922 to January 1925 marked the transition from the liberal parliamentary system to the fascist state. Like many political transitions, it was an untidy and complicated process.
Indeed, without the knowledge that this growing movement would win him votes, Giolitti would not have included fascists on the government list for the 1921 elections in the first place. However, the fascists still only won 7% of vote in 1921 elections, which corresponded to just 35 seats out of the 535 in the Chamber of Deputies. Clearly Mussolini was not swept to power on a wave of popular support and was certainly not in a position to demand the post of prime minister on this basis. In the event, the type of people supporting Mussolini proved to be far more important that the raw numbers. The lower middle classes
Liberal Italy faced many problems in this period if it was from corruption in the government or catholic hostility. This showed that the government ( king ) was weak as political and religious opponents were ankle to challenge. The king had most of the power and was able to pass whatever law he wanted no matter how ridicules it was, Italy AT this time was meant to be liberated but with a king being able to do what he wanted it sounds very much like a dictatorship. The government also had substantial amounts of power but the problem was that they were elected by the king. This mean that the government mainly consisted of people with similar ideology as the king.
Growth of support for facism was a reason for Mussolinis appointment as Prime Minister,however there were many other reasons for Mussolinis appointment as PM, but growth of support was very important for him. The war and the mutilated victory, had an affect on Mussolinis appointment as PM. The main reason wad that the nationalists were bitterly disappointed that italy didn’t make any gains during the war. The nationalists claimed that Italy had been betrayed by the Liberal government, this shows that the nationalists might have wanted to overthrow the Liberal government and therefore supported Mussolini before he was appointed. This links into the title point that Mussolini had a wide support base and that it was growing.
To what extent was Italy politically and economically united, 1896-1914? Despite official unification in 1870, Italy still remained somewhat divided, especially so under the Liberal government, 1896-1914. Attempted reforms to ease political and economic divisions had limited success, such as the voting reform of 1912 to introduce universal male suffrage (which increased the popularity of socialism) and modernisation in industries such as steel and hydroelectricity (which consequently widened the North/South divide). Italy still remained partially divided, which prevented total unification, both politically and economically. Firstly, Italy was only partially politically united, namely due to a number of liberal policies.
The Unifications of Germany and Italy In the late 19th century, Germany and Italy had quickly gained power with their almost instantaneous unification. Germans had been governed by France, the Holy Roman Empire and Austrian Empire; the country divided into dozens of states sought power and saw unification as the means. Italy also separated into many duchies, kingdoms and principalities; lead by many greater countries also sought some independence and power. Both counties were lead into nationalistic views to fight for what they wanted, However, not everybody can get what they want, the unification of the countries had changed the stances of most other power countries, who wanted to remain in power. They saw the quickly growing countries as a threat, this all lead to the First and Second World War.
ANALYSE THE MAJOR FACTORS WHICH LED TO THE GROWTH OF FASCISM IN ITALY BETWEEN 1919 – 1922 There are a number of different arguments from various historians regarding Fascism. Some argue that there was something about the Italian people and the crisis’ they faced since unification that led to the Fascist regime. Others argue the Marxist theory that Fascism could have happened anywhere as it was a counter revolution between the bosses and the workers and that it just so happened to be Italy where it took place first. I believe that Fascism is predominately Italian. Fascism did not rise from one single event; it grew from actions of people and groups over many years.
The years of 1896 – 1914 are those of Liberal Italy, the country of ‘Italy’ as we know it today had come about roughly between the years of 1870 to 1871, the significance of this is that by 1896 the newly formed country had not been unified by any means for a great amount of time, meaning unification was likely to be strained because bringing large regions together takes time, as we see in the years prior. A great significance that did not support United Italy was language. 2% of the population at the time spoke ‘Mainstream’ Italian, which would lead to massive hold ups in any coalition. This is broken down into two problems, direct communication and problems with allegiance. Spoken communication was a small factor, as only a certain population had a large reason to speak it in the first place; lowly or poor people had little say in political matter making their language less relevant.
Summarise and discuss the economic policies of Fascist Italy? When Benito Mussolini came to power as Prime Minister in 1922, Italy’s economy was comparatively weak, having failed to recover sufficiently from the financial demands of the First World War. Mussolini realised that strengthening the economy was essential if Italy was to become a key player in Europe. A number of economic policies were implemented in an attempt to achieve this end. This essay will seek to examine these policies and their varying successes or failures.