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.
How far do you agree that the limited appeal of Mazzini’s ideas was the main reason for the slow progress of national unity in Italy in the years 1815-1848? Nationalism is an ideology that elicits the belief that people of the same race, language, culture and traditions should be united in an independent nation of their own. This idea existing throughout ‘Italy’ at the time would have influenced and encouraged the motive of Italian unification. Since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Italy was divided up into eight different states, which made it clear that there would be divisions between the people, making the aim of unity appear more and more unrealistic. From this emerged a number of evident figures such as Guiseppe Mazzini who were advocates for Italian Unification.
Why German Unification was Germany Unified under Austria and not under Prussia? The revolutions of 1830/1848 brought lots of turbulence to the scene. In this period liberalism and nationalism ideas strengthen themselves and was particularly a problem for Austria because it suffered from divisions with the diverse nationalities and was over stretched, especially with the Italian commitments. So as the Austrian Empire is fighting against decline, the Prussian Empire was only strengthening itself. This period saw the gradual strengthening of Prussia with the Zollverein and economic reforms.
To what extent did Mussolini’s economic policies improve the standard of living of ordinary Italians in the years 1922-43? Since Mussolini’s rise to power, one of his main goals for future Italy was to rebuild its economy so it was able to compete with other European nations. To accomplish this, Mussolini felt he would have to eliminate or weaken Trade Unions so that the state had more control over the working economy and people. Through his attempts to improve the Italian economy through various ‘battles’, Mussolini effected the living standards of many ordinary Italian people, sometimes for the worse. In his campaign for a greater Economy, Mussolini’s actions sometimes benefitted the Italian people by improving their living conditions.
However, in reality it made it hard for Italy to sell abroad (due to the higher prices), so Italy lost its competitiveness on the world market. In addition, serious deflation took place and by 1936 the government was forced to devalue the Lira. To summarise, the reform was a failure as – although in the short run, Italy seemed powerful, in the long run the economy suffered. The battle for the Lira was a propaganda victory in which Mussolini successfully confirmed the image that the fascists were bringing stability and prosper to Italy, without actually doing so. Mussolini also had two other battles; that for
Italy was particularly influenced by the career of Napoleon who first rose to fame with his Italian campaign (1796). Imitially, Napoleon and his invading armies were treated by Italians as liberators who taught them liberalism and nationalism. In fact, Napoleon instituted some reforms in Italy and even created a united Kingdom of Italy. These reinforced the impact of liberalism and nationalism. However, when Napoleon became more and more a dictator, he was opposed by Italians who rose into rebellion against Napoleonic
(Robson, 1992)” However, reviewing the economical, social and political issues this was not to be. After the Unification of Italy in 1870, despite some modernisation occurring, the country still fell behind the other major powers of Europe. The state of the Italian economy was a major problem facing the new Kingdom. It was in huge debt that it had inherited from the states that had been unified to make Italy. The Liberal’s did nothing to make it look like they would attempt to transform the economy, which remained backward and unprepared for World War 1.
They also had more troops than the Italians had 75,000 troops to Italy’s 30,000 troops. The revolutions in Italy only had a chance to success when Austria was busy concentrating on the revolutions back home. After the failure of the Austrian revolutions, the Austrian army had even more troops to use against the Italian army. Austria also had the advantage of the leadership of Radetzky who was a skilful general. The leadership of Radetzky was important to the Austrian army as his guidance was much better than that of Charles Albert’s.The Austrian army was also very well equipped with weapons while the Italian army was not.
However, from my points of view, Cavour hindered the process of Italian Unification. Although he died in 1861, the year before the unification was achieved, he intended to delay or even prevented the unification in his mind. Nothing to say, Cavour made Piedmont economically progressive, politically liberal and financially stable through many reform programmes after he became the Prime Minister in 1852. From administrative aspect, he encouraged reforms in the army, state administration and legal systems; in trade and industry, he pioneered scientific agriculture, negotiated trade treaties and introduced new industries and he encouraged overseas investors and advisors to help in the economic development of Piedmont; in the communication network, schemes were initiated for the piecing of Mont Cenis by a rail tunnel and for turning Genoa into a great commercial port. Cavour did many things and has many contributions to Italy.
“To what extent was the unification of Italy due to the weakness of Austria?” Throughout Europe between 1815 and 1848 swept feelings of nationalism and a desire for unification, including the states collectively known as Italy. This lack of identity was underlined when Count Metternich said “Italy is just a geographical expression.” Nationalism promoted the belief in one language, one culture and the pride in one’s identity. Before unification, life in Italy was frustrating for those who wanted unification. The North and the South states were economically different; the pope influenced the central states. Nevertheless, the process began from 1861 and by 1871 boundaries had been settled.