Mussolini's Italy is the sequel to Mussolini, which I read a few months ago. In the second book, Bosworth explores everything else that wouldn't really fit in his biography of Mussolini without being much longer. So while the two books could theoretically be combined for one epic biography of Mussolini (which I would of loved), Bosworth instead gave us a book that focused on the man, and another that focused on the country, partly a social history, and partly a political history of Italy, but not going as far back as Mussolini's childhood in the 19th century.
The Fascists' Rise to Power
Like in Mussolini Bosworth uses the First World War and the siege of Fiume as two of the biggest political events that would shape Italy prior to the rise of Mussolini. The First World War comes across as a huge event for the educated and middle classes in Italy, but something that did not interest the poor and the peasants. Their men were drafted to fight and suffered in a war that meant little to them, as they were not nearly as nationalistic as the middle classes. Fiume refers to the proclamation by the poet Gabriele d'Annunzio of the "Free State of Fiume" in the modern town of Rijelka, Croatia, which was known as Fiume in Italian. He led a band of passionate Italians to take the city and declare it to be Italian, and held it for several years. This gross act of illegal, nationalist occupation was considered by many to be a sort of precursor to Fascism. Mussolini himself saw it and apparently felt that time was passing him by to become a political leader, since he had been preempted by d'Annunzio.
At the turn of the century, Italy was expelling emigrants en masse. Departures peaked in 1913 with 407,000 Italians going to North America, 148,000 to South America, and 307,000 to elsewhere in Europe. Sicily alone lost 146,000 inhabitants. Italians were mostly part of chain migration where they followed family members to developing immigrant communities, and mostly intended to return after some years of sending money home from abroad. In that same peak year of 1913, 111,000 Italians returned home from North America and 64,000 from South America. It was conceived of similarly to service in the army, when an Italian did their duty before returning home. So things weren't good going into World War One.
WWI gave the Italian economy an artificial boost from governmental spending for the war effort, but the economy collapsed right after. Italy's GDP contracted by 14.5% in 1918, 7.6% in 1920, and 1.8% in 1921. The cost of living in 1918 was more than double what it was in 1914 and quadruple in 1921. It is probably no coincidence that Mussolini entered Parliament for the first time in 1921. The 1921 elections followed the Biennio Rosso, a period of intense social conflict between socialists, anarchists, the liberal government, and the nascent fascist movement. Mussolini would end up marching on Rome and being named Prime Minister in 1922. I think it is a real truism of politics that when liberal democracies fail to provide a strong economy for the majority of people, fascists or socialists will prevail. It is really the ultimate abdication of responsibility when liberal governments impose austerity in recessions, almost guaranteeing a massive toxic reaction. A lot of the reason the Fascists were successful, I think, was because they were the main party (that was not socialist or communist) that advocated to a return to the economic interventionism that kept everyone busy during the war. They called for bringing the war economy into peacetime, which must have been attractive with the economy basically dead to start the 20s.
The period from the end of the First World War through Mussolini's seizure of power four years later seems like a time in Italy when violence was rewarded. In most cases, the first to resort to violence was the winner, which reminded me of Lenin's situation in Russia around the same time. In the May 1921 elections, the establishment National Bloc won 275 seats, which would have been a thin majority, but was split and not loyal to the reliable ex-Prime Minister Giolitti. The Socialists lost some seats but remained the next biggest, and the People's Party (the Catholic Party) made a strong showing. There were only 35 Fascists in the chamber of over 500, but would end up leading all by the end of the next year.
Who made up the new Fascist party? They were largely soldiers returned from WWI, who formed fasci di combattimento or fighting bands/leagues. Fasci comes from the same root as the English word "factions" and referred to the groups that combat veterans formed to advocate for themselves after the war. The fasci united to create the Fascist Party, which ballooned from 20,000 members at the end of 1920 to 151,644 in 1921. 57% were returned soldiers, 24% were peasants, 15% were workers, 13% students, 12% landowners, 10% white-collar, 9% artisans and traders, 6.6% lawyers, doctors, and other professionals, 5% bureaucrats, 3 percent big businessmen, and 1% seamen. I would say not knowing what proportions each of these groups made up of the total population that the returned soldiers and the students stand out to me as the most disproportionately represented in the Fascist movement. In March 1921, just two months before the election that brough Fascists into Parliament, the Fascists were strongest in Trieste, followed by Ferrara, Milan, Bologna, Cremona, Verona, Naples, and Bari. There were very few in Turin. The Fascist heartland was basically the Po Valley. As of December 1921, 2% of Fascists were in Northern Italy, 13% in Central Italy, 19% in the mainland Southern Italy, and 6% in the islands.
The Fascists won an enormous victory in 1924, coming to lead the government with two-thirds of the votes, and putting Mussolini at its head. I am not totally clear on the reasons for this and the shifting votes, but the election was marred by allegations of fraud that seem not entirely clear to me and allegations of violent intimidation by the Fascists that appear to be absolutely true. When socialist politician Giacomo Matteotti made these allegation in Parliament, he was assassinated by Fascists. It was a massive scandal and could have brought down the government, but it didn't. Bosworth writes:
In most liberal democracies it might be hoped that the kidnapping and killing of a leading opposition Member of Parliament would at once precipitate the collapse of a government whose chief, at a minimum, bore moral guilt for the death. In Italy in 1924, however, the government, after a reshuffle on 17 June, ... soldiered on. The King, the Vatican, the army chiefs, business, the academic world, all the old elites, contemplated the crisis and preferred not to swing decisively against the Prime Minister.
I think that is another common feature of Fascist movements: they come to power without major opposition by elites, and often with some tacit sanction, which could never be granted to left-wing revolutionaries. And so instead of toppling the government, just the opposite occurred and Mussolini declared the dictatorship in January 1925, issuing orders that no one may hold spontaneous "meetings, assemblies, parades, or other public demonstrations." Local governments were curtailed, and cities no longer elected their own mayors, who were instead appointed by Mussolini to five-year terms. There were also significant press controls and other changes that locked in Fascist power at this point.
What is Fascism?
Wikipedia says Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy."
I would say this is a pretty good definition, and basically every one of these facets is present in the first Fascist movement in Italy. The only difference in Italy from later forms of Fascism is that there was less emphasis on scientific racism, and more focus on a spiritual or mythical nation, likely because Italy's history is one of many groups merging together. The nationalism is maybe the most important element. One example is how in April 1922, Trieste banned the use of Slovene in any local proceedings, and closed down about 500 Slovene schools between 1919 and 1928. Another major aspect is illegality or just "alegality," since Fascists simply don't care to follow the law. The movement rose to power in Italy through "squadrism," sending squads of thugs into cities and the countryside to simply beat up those who opposed them. Fascists are not interested in logic. They like words that deal with emotion, and will quickly resort to violence when words fail. They also focus on the physical health of the nation and the need to procreate to create more members of the nation and to conquer their neighbors and replace them.
While Fascism is generally associated with conservatism, there are some currents running against it. Fascists don't really love the church, and that is evidenced in the conflict that occurred between Fascists and the Pope in Italy in the 1920s. But they were able to eventually accommodate one another, reflecting the fact that the far right and religious institutions often have more in common than not and will unite with each other. Fascists are also not very conservative in the sense that Fascists are radicals who want to change things. They are conservative in the sense of promoting hierarchies, not in the sense of standing athwart history yelling "stop!" It is that love of radical change that led to Mussolini to call elections in April 1924 and passing the Acerbo law, which "made the nation more governable" by giving a reward to the political grouping with the most votes; that victor would receive two-thirds of the seats in Parliament with the other third distributed proportionally. What I don't understand about this is why establishment politicians like Salandra, Giolitti, and Orlando all approved the Acerbo law. Maybe they thought they would be its beneficiaries. But I am also tempted to believe that there is or at least was some natural affinity of vaguely nationalist moderates and conservatives in favor of Fascists, as they are the ones likely to protest that they don't "really" support the Fascists, but "look how much they love the country." The Acerbo law, however, wasn't even necessary since the Fascists won by so much in 1924. A huge amount of votes came from Catholics, who abandoned the Catholic parties (as the Church had earlier for reasons I don't know) and went to the Fascists, who they believed would bring Bismarckian success to Italy.
But Fascism is still conservative. The way that it is most conservative is that unlike left-wing revolutions, the right-wing does not usually attempt a "root-and-branch" removal of the ruling class. Fascist rule in Italy left much intact from the past. It did not assault the family, it did little to alter the existing distribution of property, it remained constitutionally a monarchy, and it successfully accommodated the Church. Whatever cultural revolution occurred in Italy was not nearly as ambitious as what was attempted in France in the 1790s, Russia in the 1920s, or China in the 1960s. Moreover, Mussolini portrayed himself as fiscally conservative, preoccupied with cutting waste, but willing to assist capital interests by denationalizing the telephone network and cancelling investigations in to excessive war profits that might have revealed some inconvenient culprits.
A major argument of Bosworth's about Italian Fascism is that it had a lighter touch than most historians acknowledge. Bosworth points out that most of the legal framework of Mussolini's state was written by ex-Nationalists, and the Lateran Pacts, some of the regime's biggest triumphs, were not solely Fascist-drafted. Similarly, Fascist secret police were not like Nazi secret police. In Italy, police played a more "normal" role under dictatorship. Bosworth writes, "Himmler believed in the weirdest Nazi mysteries; Bocchini believed in nothing except a satisfying coitus and a succulent lobster." Nazism was dominated by ideology, Fascism seems by comparison almost bereft of it. For a government that sought to describe itself as totalitarian, Fascism was very incomplete.
In it's most simple forms, Fascism is described by Mussolini as requiring only "a single party, a single youth organization, a single institution binding employers and their workforce, a dopolavoro," and a Duce. Or even more succinct, Mussolini told Franco that Fascism was "authoritarian, social, and popular." One thing that seems absent from Fascism is ideas. Bosworth points out that other scholars argue that Fascism should be understood by its ideas, but Bosworth seems to indicate to me that he disagrees. My impression is that Italian Fascism had few ideas, especially as compared to Communism, and even when compared to German fascism. When Michael Mann says that Fascism is "the pursuit of a transcendent and cleansing nation-statism through paramilitarism," I think he is right, and I think there is not much more than that. Fascism doesn't need ideas because they get in the way of power, since somtimes power would have to be sacrificed in pursuit of ideals. I don't see that happening very often in Fascist Italy.
The Economics of Fascism
The Fascists did not succeed in making the trains run on time. In fact, their economic impact on Italy seems slight. Wages went down, and through the 1930s, Italy's contribution to West European GDP went from 8.2 to 8.0 %. The national growth rate between 1922 and 1938 was an anemic 1.9% while the rest of Western Europe averaged 2.5%. Under Prime Minister Giolitti (before Fascism), Italy had actually outperformed German growth 2.7% to 2.6%. Meanwhile, the deficit grew to 6.6% of GDP in 1934, 16% in 1936, and 28% in 1940. Military expenditure made up two-thirds of public works spending. By the early 1930s, the Fascists had little to show for a decade in power. 62% of dwellings lacked a separate kitchen, just 52% had electric light, only 44% had running water, 42% had a toilet, and only 4% had a bath and 1% central heating.
Women in Italy
In a country that remained backwards compared to the rest of Europe, women were even further behind. While illiteracy among women fell from 81% in 1860, but remained as high as 42% in 1911. Women still frequently died in childbirth or abortions and female life expectancy only reached male life expectancy in the 1920s. Women also knew little of the outside world. When the men of the relatively modern Piedmont were drafted to fight Austria in World War One, peasant women, writes Bosworth, would not have understood where Austria was, merely understanding that their men would have to spend many days in a train or on foot to get there. Such ignorance made the peasants largely uninterested in the war effort compared to the bourgeoisie, who were excited by it and agitated for it.
When the Fascists came into power, they quickly attempted to control the women of Italy and encourage them to have more babies. Fascists worried about the rise of feminism pushing women into work, and the resulting "full freedom in choice of reading, the freedom to flirt, to smoke, to cut short their luxuriant locks, to wear masculine-looking clothes, to engage in violent sports like football, fencing, javelin-throwing, and skiing," as Federico Maconcini (a fascist academic) warned. Fascists prosecuted women for abortions, and one series of trials resulted in a tabulation of the gruesome ways that women resorted to illegal abortions:
falling off a bicycle, subjection to heavy work, immersion in fast-flowing water up to the stomach, imbibing large quantities of purgatives (bitter salt, laxative pills, taurine tablets, castor oil, manna [a mould on rye] ... ; then there was the use of mechanical means (bone crochet-hooks with the head removed, knitting needles, parsely stalks, bone hairpins), taking hot baths and various kinds of douches...
But Fascism also brought modernity into girls' and women's lives. Bosworth writes that dressing in uniforms, walking to Fascist functions alone or with a female friend the same age, and just breaking up family life through attendance at Fascist events exposed girls to a wider world than they would have otherwise seen in the countryside.
Falling Into Hitler's Orbit and The Second World War
By the mid-1930s, Mussolini had very clearly brought Italy into Nazi Germany's circle. This seemed to stem from two factors. One was that Fascism had made no friends among the European superpowers. This failed foreign policy of brash imperialism, cynicism, and illegality (most especially in the invasion of Ethiopia and use of poison gas there) left Italy alone. And from the other end, Germany was forcing Italy into a subordinate role, which Anschluss confirmed. Through massive aggression, Germany became larger and larger and could have seized Italian lands if it wanted. So there was a carrot and stick that turned Italy into Germany's sidekick.
More acceleration came with the Spanish Civil War in 1936, when Italy and Germany joined forces to support General Francisco Franco. The war was a disaster for Italy, which lost more casualties than it did in Ethiopia, with 3,819 dead and 12,000 wounded. Italy also lost 759 places, 157 light tanks, 6,791 trucks, and 3,436 machine guns. This collaboration with Spain was what lead most directly to the formation of an "axis," the product of a visit by the young Foreign Minister and Mussolini-son-in-law Ciano to Berlin. By the end of 1937, Italy left the League of Nations along with Germany and Japan.
Italy was not ready for World War Two. Since Fascism had failed to modernize the country or even keep it on the same pace as liberal Italy under Giolitti, the country was forced into World War Two after losing serious amounts of equipment and casualties in Spain, not having been successful at replacing them. Even as they geared up for a "war economy," over a half a million Italians remained unemployed in 1940 according to official figures. Even the well-educated couldn't find work, with only one in every hundred law graduates being admitted to the bar, and half of engineering graduates not working professionally. Unable to stimulate the market economy, the only answer was to employ people in government posts, tripling the number of employees in government services from 1930 to 1943.
At the dawn of the war, Italy's air force had only six weeks of fuel, and the Italian fighter made by Fiat was considered the least effective fighter of the war. Engines routinely failed in flight and manufacturers fabricated different test results. In 1939, Italy had just 840 (many of which could not fly) while it claimed publicly to have 8,538. And by 1943, Italy could produce just 1,600 per year while the USA produced 85,898. So the USA was making more planes in a week than Italy did in a year. Italy foolishly joined Hitler in the Second World War on June 10, 1940, managing to stay out for just 273 days against the 296 days of the liberal government that joined WWI. And they joined the wrong side!
During the war, the Fascist Party's footprint expanded, peaking at over half the population either being party members or attending some events. However, Italy was unable to develop the total war economy necessary to win the war let alone survive it. Italy's spending on the war effort peaked at just 23% of GDP in 1941, an especially weak figure considering that Italy had one of the weaker economies of the great powers. Those great powers also committed more of their greater resources to the war, as a percentage of GDP: Germany 64%, the USSR 61%, and Britain 52%). Mussolini talked of running a parallel war, separate from the Nazis' plans, but that was just a euphemism for disorganization. He invaded Greece without telling the Nazis, maybe as payback for them only informing him 15 minutes before their invasion of Poland. But he only gave his own generals two weeks' notice for that invasion, so maybe it was just incompetence. In some ways, Italy's incompetence during the war helped it to escape retribution after the war. Italy never had any public trials like those in Nuremberg and Tokyo, and the country's elites were able to largely continue their business.
Miscellaneous Facts:
- In 1914, Naples was still the most populous city in Italy. Today it is third, after Rome and Milan.
- The 1908 Messina earthquake killed as many as 100,000 people in the city and the surrounding area at a time when the region (Calabria) averaged 5,000 dead yearly as a result of natural disasters. Messina had been Italy's fourth-largest trading port and was completely destroyed, with the first shock alone lasting 37 seconds. Because the earthquake came at night, there were more fatalities since more people were inside their homes, which collapsed.
- The word "totalitarian" was born in Italy to criticize Fascist government, and was appropriated by the Fascists themselves after 1925.
- I was pretty stunned to learn that there is an 80-meter obelisk that says MUSSOLINI DUX that still stands in Rome.
- Bosworth discusses how Mussolini differed from other dictators of the time in that he didn't relish in killing or purging his opponents. He actually paid money to Matteoti's family and would deny accusations of being a killer, something Hitler and Stalin never felt they had to do.
- Fascists also led campaigns in linguistics. Apparently lei was not as manly as voi and Fascists tried to make a replacement to the second-person pronoun.
- Italy banned interracial marriages between whites and blacks in 1937.
- Italy's post-war republic is known for passing leggine, or little laws. The result is that by the 1990s it was estimated that Italy had 90,000 laws while France and Germany had just 7,325 and 5,587, respectively.
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