What debt, if any, did German Nazism owe to Italian Fascism? Analyse the similarities and differences between the two regimes. The First World War has resulted in revolutionary movements across the whole of Europe. The unstable situation did not omit Italy and Germany. In both countries the aftermaths of the war led to frustration amongst the society, economic and political crisis and as a result, to revolution.
Italy was divided in terms of wealth; the south was poor and the north wealthy. Both the North and South seemed to live different existences, although there were many northern Italians who still remained poor. The new liberal government rightly saw a struggle to create a united Italy with such a dominant history of division. Moreover in order to make such drastic new policies to the country it was vital the new government was
Revolutions between 1820-1821, 1831-1832 and 1948-1949 were all ultimately overthrown to some extent by Austrian force. Prince Clement Metternich, the Austrian chancellor, was a passionate opponent of Italian Nationalism. A main catalyst for this was the issue of Austrian pride. The Liberals, Radicals and Nationalists ideas within Italy (that the people has a right to some say in government, fairer distribution of wealth and greater independence) would completely undermine Austrian control over Italy. In the interest of Austria’s security, Metternich was keen to suppress liberal and nationalists movements, and was determined to maintain dominance so that Austria would not appear weak.
This provided an opportunity for the revolutionary nationalist movements that offered action-based means to rebuilding nations. This essay will address the Fascist ideology in comparison to the other popular political movements of the time. Focusing on Italy and Germany, it will identify and discuss the post-war crisis events that led European societies away from democracy and towards the one-party state. Fascism was a “response to the problems of national development and individual identity that appeared in the wake of military defeat, political frustration, demobilization, class struggle and economic depression”. The Fascist ideology, as first outlined by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, varied greatly from one Fascist party to another.
Italy had tried and failed to conquer Abyssinia in 1896. Italians also felt that they didn’t get their fair share of territory after World War I when the Treaty of Versailles (1919) made peace and decided who would rule Germany’s former colonies. The invasion of Abyssinia would make up for these disappointments. Abyssinia and the territories Italy already held in East Africa would join together to make a new Italian empire in the region. Abyssinia had the support of the League of Nations, but did not have an army
However Italians such as Garibaldi, Cavour, Victor Emanuel and Mazzini sought to unify the area and create one nation. Separatism was an important factor in Italian Unification; however to first understand separatism it must be defined in the context of Italian Unification. Separatism in Italy at the time was the divided nature of the “geographical area known as Italy”, with its different states, rules and languages. The splitting up of Italy into these sets of smaller Pre-Napoleonic states at the Congress of Vienna was the main reason behind the increased feeling of separatism felt at the time in Italy. Separatism contributed positively to Italian unification in some ways, for instance it led to a sense of pride in certain states which led to an increased feeling of resentment towards foreign powers that were occupying, or held power over some states in Italy at the time.
The Matteoti crisis put Mussolini in a very powerful position with a great excuse to keep the opposition out of parliament. Other factors such as the acerbo laws, legge fascitisme, control of the squadristi/ras and the role of the king. The actions of the elites and the Catholic Church contributed greatly to giving Mussolini the opportunity to gain dictatorial powers. The elites are a group in Italian society who had a lot of money and therefore power. For years under the liberal government the elites had benefited from the system of trasformismo.
How far do you agree that the revolutions within the Italian states failed because they were too localised? I acknowledge that to some extent localism played a role in the failure in the 1820’s and 30’s revolutions within the Italian states. However I also recognise that there were other factors that played major if not bigger roles, such as the minimal amount of public support or the lack of involvement from the French. However I do believe it was the involvement of Austria that played the greatest role in the failure of the revolutions. In the context of the question, localism played an irrefutably large role in the failure of the revolutions.
‘To what extent do you agree that the nationalist movement was the greatest threat facing the liberal government by 1914?’ By 1914, there were a number of threats to the liberal government. Examples of these are from the PSI (the socialist party), nationalists and the Catholic Church. The reasons why these groups were a threat to the liberal government was in part because of the weaknesses of the liberal government itself, and the poor state of the economy under the liberals. The economy especially led to a lack of Italian identity, with very high levels of emigration (mainly to the USA). These factors led to a fragile liberal government, with the main threat in my opinion being posed not by the nationalists but the socialists.
The Italian Unification, also known as Risorgimento, was mainly lead by two important figureheads: Count Camillo di Cavour and Giuseppe Garibaldi. These two people made massive reforms in Italy, which created the Italy as we know today. However, these figureheads have different ways of thinking and unique styles of decision making, leading them to use completely different strategies while unifying Italy. The modern country of Italy was formed from numerous individual Italian States geographically linked, through a process called Risorgimento. It began when Napoleon’s reign started to end and the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and ended with the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-1871 (2).