Others that can be considered to be the reason for slow progress are the nature of the states at this time with reactionary governments and their leaders, regionalism, lack of mass support and Mazzini’s ideas. It can be inferred that the main reason for the slow progress of national unity was due to the powerful influence of Austria. Austria, especially Metternich, the Austrian chancellor was very powerful during this time. Therefore, it was hard for Italian states to progress and make their own decisions as Austria had a great influence over them. This can be supported by the fact that in the northern states of Italy, Metternich had a lot of influence over the Italian rulers; not only this, but Austria had influence over southern states as well, for example in Sicily Ferdinand I married the daughter of the Austrian ruler but only to discover that the marriage enabled Maria to dominate not only the marriage but the direction of government policy as well.
The ideas of Young Italy were to spread from Marseilles in France, which was Mazzini’s base, to Piedmont, the Papal States and Tuscany. In Piedmont the journal, ‘Young Italy’ was widely read and many readers supported the idea of a national revolution, however, the attempts at revolutions failed. Although Young Italy failed in some aspects, nationalist feelings had spread across Italy, therefore encouraging other nationalists to stand up. Young Italy was a failure, as all the national revolutions which were supposed to unify Italy never happened. In 1833 the proposed army coup was detected before it began, however Charles Albert was enraged by the intended revolution, and 12 members of Young Italy were executed, and 67 members were arrested.
Mazzini gave tremendous support to Italian Nationalism and he spent most of his time convincing Italians to support the creation of a democratic, self-governing state of Italy. His complex ideas such as ‘The Brotherhood of people’ meant that he had limited appeal to upper classes, and his radical views also did not appeal to the middle classes and liberals who opposed violence. The revolutions in support for national unity in the years 1848-9 meant that for 18 months the Italian peninsula was in turmoil until the gains won by liberals were reversed and the revolutions that had taken place were suppressed. To a large extent I agree that Mazzini’s limited appeal contributed to slow progress, however I think that there are other over-riding factors such as the influence of the Church and lack of foreign support that would have also contributed. It could be argued that Mazzini’s ideas were the main reason for the slow progress of national unity in Italy in the years 1815-48.
The king at the time of Mussolini’s coming to power was King Victor Emmanuel III. He was an unremarkable ruler who achieved very little. He was the one who gave into the terms and conditions of the people of Italy, due to factors, which got to him, such as fear of a civil war, socialism and his sense of insecurity. Only the king had the power to appoint the Prime Minister, so it was in Mussolini’s favor to force it upon him. By the autumn of 1922, Mussolini was in contact with most major politicians of the formation of a new government that would include the fascists.
Besides, the kingdom of Naples was established in the south and the independent kingdom of Piedmont including Sardinia lay in the north. In the centre were the dominions of the Pope. The people of the Italian provinces were not satisfied with the above decisions. Consequently, the movement for the establishment of national unity was started 6y the patriots of Italy just after the Congress of Vienna, but they could not achieve any success. As most of the provinces of Italy were under the direct control of Austria, and Chancellor Metternich was a great reactionary of his age, no progress could be made in this field.
This proved a problem for the newly formed government as Italy was a predominantly Catholic country and many Italians were devoted to the Pope. The power of the Pope at that time was huge and though there would have been a few who didn’t listen to the pope, many would have done. The lack of support from the church was a significant weakness in the new liberal government and increased the government’s already minimal respect. Additionally the North South divide was influential on the lack of success for the liberal government. Italy was divided in terms of wealth; the south was poor and the north wealthy.
The Italians did not get what they felt had been promised at the Treaty of London and that caused resentment especially at the losses Italy had endured fighting for the Allies. The government came over as weak and lacking pride in Italy. In the years that led up to World War One, Italy had sided with Germany and Austria-Hungary in the Triple Alliance. In theory, Italy should have joined in the sides of these two nations when war broke out in August 1914. She did not.
Italy did not hold a threat to the British until March 1941 when German Africa Korps counterattacked under the command of General Rommel. Thus not until the battle of El Almein 1942 could the Allies drive the Germans out through Tunisia with the USA from the West and the British from the East. The control of the Suez Canal and access to oil from the Middle East and raw materials from Asia was a core ignition of the North Africa campaign. This camping led to the start of the downfall contributing to the Allied victory of WWII. The canal was immensely important for the British as there was a large amount of trade that went on between India and Britain, Rather than going all the way around Africa, they passed through the Canal saving ships huge amounts of time an average of two-thirds of the voyage around Africa, giving the British and its allies a huge advantage for the battles to come.
With Mussolini’s strong beliefs in totalitarianism, militarism, nationalism, and imperialism, he was able to rise to power and carry out his Italian War Plan. As a Fascist leader, Mussolini greatly enforced totalitarianism, which was a form of government in which the state had complete control over almost every aspect of peoples’ lives. Mussolini was the foundation for totalitarianism in Italy. He set the stage for strong and secure leadership by practicing totalitarian dictatorship. Mussolini stated: …a party holding "totalitarian" rule over a nation, is a new departure in history.
Fascist Italy and Nazi German Fascism was among the forces that were produced during the 19th century. It emerged in Italy in the year 1919 and it catapulted Benito Mussolini who was the leader into premiership after three years and it lead to the creation of new political dictatorship which started in 1925. Fascism aimed at combining the strong nationalism with an aggressive style of activism characterized by anti-materialism, idealism and violence. According to the scholars, there was both left and right influences on fascism as a social movement. On the other hand, Nazism is a term referring to a political ideology and the regime of Adolf Hitler which was in power in Germany since 1933 to 1945.