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Formation of an Independent Italy
The unification of Italy was the result of the Risorgimento movement which called for Italy to be one, united group of people. Mazzini and Garibaldi Giuseppe, who used an army called the Thousands in order to conquer cities and bring them under single Italian rule led the process of unification. This eventually led to liberal Italy under the rule of King Emmanuel II. This image shows the different land Italy gained in the process of becoming one united nation. -
Papal States taken over by new nation of Italy
The Papal States were absorbed by Italy in 1870 following the withdrawal of the French troops in the Franco-Prussian War. As the Papal states consisted mostly of Rome and surrounding areas, Italy's taking of Rome was significant because the Pope refused to acknowledge the action. The significance of this image is that it shows the violence that it took Italy to acquire Rome and the rest of the Papal States. The States were not willingly taken by Italy -
Failure of First Italo-Ethiopian War with the Battle of Adowa
Italy took particular parts of Ethiopia to show that it was a powerful country in Europe. The First War began when there was a dispute over the Treaty of Wuchale, as there had been a translation error. This led to fighting that came ended when Italy was defeated by Ethiopia, who was backed by France and Russia. This shows Italy's inexperience in fighting and ultimately a point conveyed by Mussolini in his rise to power, making Italy stronger with him. -
Italy invades and takes over Libya
In order to regain their global reputation, Italy invaded Libya, a Turkish colony, in order to expand its empire and stop the French from creating colonies. Italy continued fighting even after the french surrender to lessen the embarrassment from the last battle. This image shows a clipping from a newspaper during 1911, which is a primary source and gives insight to what the Italians thought or decided significant enough to report on. -
Mussolini begins work as editor for the Socialist Party newspaper Avanti
After being imprisoned, Mussolini was noticed for his socialist movements, being awarded the position at the newspaper. He increased the span of the newspaper's influence, and eventually would be able to effectively spread his fascist beliefs across Italy. The significance of this image is that it shows Mussolini's prominence in Italy through his name at the top. -
Mussolini kicked out of Socialist Party for pro-nationalistic sentiments regarding WW I
After publically sharing opposing beliefs from those of the Italian government, Mussolini was removed from his role in the newspaper. In return, he started the Il Popolo d'Italia, a newspaper sponsored by the rich Italians in the North to support the War. This image shows Mussolini's first newspaper after being fired, and conveys his strong beliefs towards supporting the War. -
Treaty of London
Members of the fascist group believed that Italy should enter WWI in order to create an internal revolution. The Liberal politicians agreed to join the war, signed the treaty of London, and fought with France, Russia and Britain in the Triple Entente. The image below shows the amount of land that the Entente and Treaty promised to Italy if they won the war, therefore their reason to fight. -
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Beginning of Biennio Rosso
The unemployment in Italy increased because of the men away from work in industries due to the war. Strikes,factory occupations, land stealing, trade unions, and peasant leagues were all harming the Italian economy and social status at the time. The image below shows a group united for rebellion during the Biennio Rosso, and the strength against the War's impact on the industry. -
Fascio di Combattimento formed in Milan
Mussolini met in Milan with multiple different groups of people to create a bigger group of support for his ideas. The group created the Fascist Program, which was a combination of left-wing and right-wing demands against the much despised liberal government. This group gave Mussolini a foundation to grow his party and it shows a willingness to work together that would help strengthen him. This image shows the many different groups that participated. -
D’Annunzio takes Fiume
In opposition to the liberal government in Italy, D'Annunzio took 2000 men to Fiume and occupied it for 15 months. When these troops came back to Italy after occupying Fiume, many of them joined Mussolini. D'Annunzio himself was also a large inspiration to Mussolini's cause. This image shows D'Annunzio leading his soldiers after taking Fiume, and his strong supporting followers. -
Mussolini forms alliance with Giolitti
Giovanni Giolitti was the head of the Italian government in 1921 and made small amounts of action against the socialist rebellion outbreaks in fear of a repeat of the Bolsheviks. He made an electoral alliance with Mussolini for the national elections to be held that month in hopes to destroy the socialists and the idea of their communist takeover. This image shows Giolitti as a rich, influencial, and powerful man in Italy. -
Mussolini forms the PNF (Fascist Party) and is elected its leader
Mussolini resigned from the Fascist Central Committee in 1921, as part of the Pact of Pacification with moderate socialists and the General Confederation of Workers. He did this because he wanted to control the Ras, who were becoming increasingly militaristic. Mussolini became the leader of the Fascist National Congress in November, ended his truce with the socialists, and ordered all branches of the party to organize action squads. This image shows propaganda for the PNF and their beliefs. -
March on Rome and Mussolini becomes Prime Minister
The king gave Mussolini the opportunity to become prime minister in October, 1922. This was in response to a political march in Rome and the mutual opposition to the socialist party. Mussolini accepted and began creating influence and allies within the government to get more power and control. This image shows Mussolini presenting himself to the public as prime minister and his followers and support behind him. -
Acerbo Law passed
In November 1923, the Acerbo law was passed, provided the most popular party two thirds of the seats in parliament. This was used by Mussolini to legally give him more political influence over Italy. This image shows Giacomo Acerbo and paints a picture of the influence he created for the fascist party. -
Corfu Incident
Italy was involved in a military and diplomatic crisis with Greece through August and September of 1923. Italians were murdered in Greece leading Mussolini to act against the Greek to show the power of the Italian state. This was his attempt to gain more support of the Italian people through nationalism. The image shows the location of the Italian deaths, and the lengths Mussolini went to display Italian power -
Aventine Secession
After Matteotti was murdered and trust was lost in Mussolini, politicians left the fascist party and boycotted parliament in attempt to remove Mussolini from power. This was because said politicians believed Mussolini was "not fascist enough" or not devoted enough to true fascist ways to lead the party. This image shows the politicians that disapproved of Mussolini's ways and supported the boycott, conveying the size of this disapproval. -
Matteotti Crisis
In June of 1924, Giocomo Matteotti spoke up against Mussolini an the Fascists at the first parliamentary meeting. This led multiple fascists, led by Amerigo Dumini, the leader of a violent group called the Ceka to abduct Matteotti and kill him. Mussolini was worried this would reflect poorly on the fascist party and had Dumini arrested on the 15th. This lost the people's respect and trust for Mussolini. This political cartoon represents Mussolini silencing Matteotti and his opposing views. -
Battle for Grain
In 1925 Mussolini tried to reach autarchy by encouraging landowners to grow more grain, as seen by the propaganda piece below where Mussolini himself is helping harvest the grain. This picture helped convince the people to follow Mussolini's example. This resulted in too many farmers planting grain rather than other necessities, which decreased other resources that were needed in Italy. -
Locarno Treaty signed
Italy signed the Locarno Treaty on December 1, 1925 because they felt betrayed due to how little land they received after they were promised more in the treaty of London in 1915. This foreshadows the Italian support of Germany in WWII because they were still upset that the Entente betrayed their promises after the first World War. This cartoon shows Europe striving to keep Germany powerless, which opposes what Italy was doing in 1925. -
Battle for Land and Battle for the Lira
In 1926, the battles for land and lira were introduced to make more land available to new farmers and to revalue the Lira currency, as the monetary unit had become worth less over time. The battles resulted in high prices for exports, hurting the wealth of the economy, and only a few swamps were cleared for farming. This image below shows more propaganda used by Mussolini in order to encourage the people to participate. -
Battle for Births
The Battle for Births was introduced in 1927 to try to increase the population so that Mussolini could have more soldiers for the army in the future. The Battle for Births placed boundaries on gender roles and many of the job opportunities that had previously been open to women such as industrial work were no longer available. The sole focus for women was housekeeping and reproduction. This image shows both the role women played, and also the surplus of babies. -
Kellogg-Briand Treaty signed
The Kellogg-Briand Treaty stated that conflict and war would not be used in a disagreement and was signed by 15 nations in hopes to keep the peace. Italy also signed this in hopes to create a better global reputation despite its past violence. This picture shows the different representatives of countries that signed this treaty, and therefore the amount of support behind wide-spread peace.. -
Lateran Treaty with Pope
Mussolini made an agreement with the pope to gain his support of the fascist party on June 7, 1929. To gain this support, Mussolini gave the Vatican City to the pope to rule as a papal state, enforced Christian schooling, and gave the pope a large amount of money. Despite this agreement, Mussolini and the Pope still had opposing views for the future of Italy and the Fascist beliefs. This image shows a map of the small region the pope gained as a papal state. -
Abyssinian Crisis
Italy invaded Abyssinia following the Stresa front, which went against the Kellogg-Briand Treaty. This caused the League of Nations to impose economic sanctions on Italy, which only urged Mussolini to push further for Italy to rely solely on itself for resources and industry. The image shows how Italy attacked Abyssinia, entering from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea, illustrating the attack. -
Stresa Front
The Stresa front was an agreement between France, Britain, and Italy to verify the strength of the Locarno Treaties and the resistance to Germany's goal of changing their punishment provided by the Treaty of Versailles. This image shows German troops led by Adolf Hitler, which illuminates the upset of the Germans towards the European powers. -
Rome-Berlin Axis Treaty signed
In October 1936, Mussolini created an alliance with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, resulting in anti-semitism in Italy where anti-semitism was originally never present. Mussolini tried to make laws that outlawed Jews in certain territories in Italy, but most podestas never carried out the laws. This image shows Hitler and Mussolini united, and Mussolini adopting Hitler's mantra. -
Italian involvement with Spanish Civil War
The Italians joined the Spanish Civil War on the Nationalist side in 1936. Mussolini "helped" Spain by providing supplies; however, it was not anywhere near the amount he had promised to Spain before the war had started. As Germany joined also, the war strengthened the Italian and German alliance, but overall did not help Spain. This image shows the alliance between the leaders of the three countries. -
Munich Conference
At the Munich Conference, an agreement was made that allowed Germany to annex more Germanic areas of Czechoslovakia and Hitler was able to make the British and French representatives agree as they feared another world war. The British and French believed that this agreement would help sustain peace, as attempted in the Kellogg-Briand Treaty. The image shows Hitler, Mussolini and the French and British representatives at the conference, coming to an agreement. -
Italy invades Albania
General Guzzoni of Italy led Mussolini's fascist military to invade Albania in April 1939. Italy was successful in the invasion, allowing them to take almost complete control of the country. This started to convey Italy's peace agreements were not agreed upon for peace, but for global acceptance. -
Italy enters WWII on side of Germany
Mussolini followed the advice of Hitler and declared war on Great Britain and France in June of 1940 in order to keep the Italian-German alliance intact. Due to this declaration of war and alliance, many opposition groups and strikes erupted within Italy. Politicians such as Galeazzo Ciano greatly opposed Mussolini's choice, and strikes were commonly happening in Italy by 1943. This image shows the quick decision made by Italy, and the rate at which the war escalated. -
Mussolini brought down by coup during WWII
Throughout WWII, the allies began gaining traction and succeeding more causing Mussolini to be blamed for most of Italy's failures such as his alliance with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. These things lead to a coup when the Fascist Grand Council voted to remove Mussolini from power. This image shows German occupied Italy, which further shows why the Italian people would so strongly oppose Mussolini. -
Mussolini killed
The day after Mussolini's second arrest, he was taken by a communist-led group and on April 28, he was shot and hung upside down with 16 others outside a garage in Milan. This execution ended the German hold over Italy, as Hitlers puppet was now dead. This image shows Mussolini's execution and the Italian people's support of it.
