Italy Booklet 2: Post-war challenges to the Liberal State, 1918-1920

Question 1

When was the treaty of Versailles?

Answer 1

June 1919

Question 2

How did the treaty of Versailles go for italy?

Answer 2

Not very well, they got most of their promised land, but not all and they did not get any of their additional requested land, nor any of the German colonies in Africa.

Question 3

List four territories that Italy gained at the treaty of Versailles

Answer 3

Trentino, Trieste, Istria and the Brenner

Question 4

Who seized the port of Fiume in 1919?

Answer 4

D’Annunzio (nationalist poet)

Question 5

How long did D’Annunzio hold the port of Fiume for?

Answer 5

two years

Question 6

Who took Fiume with D’Annunzio and how many of them were there?

Answer 6

Ex-soldiers who felt dissatisfied with how Italy was treated after the war, and with their own lives. There was roughly 2000 of them.

Question 7

What problems did the industrialists face after the end of WWI?

Answer 7

They disliked the welfare initiatives by the state and were severely affected by Biennio Rosso. They were worried about the rising threqt of socialism.

Question 8

What problems were faced by the petty bourgeoisie after WWI?

Answer 8

Their savings were worth a lot less than they were before due to inflation. They were being heavily taxed. They were losing jobs to previously illiterate working class and women.

Question 9

What good things happened to the rural areas after WWI?

Answer 9

Some were able to buy or seize land for themselves. They could sell food for more due to inflation. Rural trade unions were established for the first time (labour leagues), meaning wage rates were set.

Question 10

by how much did socialist support increase between 1918 and 1920?

Answer 10

it went from 250,000 to 2 million

Question 11

What was Biennio Rosso?

Answer 11

In the years 1919 and 1920, there were mass strikes in Italy. the socialist party and the trade unions became much more powerful

Question 12

Why did Biennio Rosso occur?

Answer 12

During the war, workers experienced severe drop to living standards and there were high levels of unemployment due to loss of military contracts.

Question 13

What was significant that happened in September 1920 (Italy)?

Answer 13

The biggest strike of Biennio Russo, 400,000 people went on strike and took over factories, flying the flags of anarchism and communism.

Question 14

What changes did Nitti make to Italian government in 1919?

Answer 14

He introduced universal male suffrage and changed it to a proportional representation (% votes = % seats)

Question 15

Describe the PPI

Answer 15

A party set up by the Catholics and led by a priest, they represented catholic ideals and supported land redistribution to the peasants. However, they didn’t address the roman question.

Question 16

Which parties got the two largest percentages in the 1919 election?

Answer 16

1. Italian socialist party (PSI)

2. Italian’s people party (PPI)

Question 17

who ended up in power after the 1919 election? Why?

Answer 17

Giolitti and the liberals because they were able to make coalitions with other liberals, whereas the PSI and PPI refused to work together

Question 18

What was the idea of mutilated victory?

Answer 18

Many of the Italian people felt they had been cheated out of their victory as they were refused many of the irredente lands that they had been promised in the treaty of london

Question 19

What problems did Giolitti face in regards of removing D’Annunzio from Fiume?

Answer 19

Forcibly removing D’annunzio might have led to a decrease in his popularity - and therefore power, so he waited which increased his popularity

Question 20

What did D’Annunzio’s occupation of Fiume show the people?

Answer 20

That the liberal government had been weak to accept the treaty of versailles

Question 21

Summarise the post war economic problems Italy faced

Answer 21

Unemployment reached 2 million by 1919, while demobilised soldiers flooded the job market. Due to the printing of money during the war, inflation was at a highand the lira collapsed, they were in a lot of debt

Question 22

What evidence is there that Bienno Rosso was serious?

Answer 22

There were violent clashes between Fascists and Socialists with over 2000 killed between 1919-22
Socialists controlled one-half of all municipal governments in Italy
The Socialists had support from trade unions, and cooperative societies in the countryside
In September 1920, there was the biggest strike with over 400,k000 workers taking over factories

Question 23

In what ways was Biennio Rosso not serious?

Answer 23

after 1920 there was a sharp decline in the number if strikes.
The general strike of August 1922 was a failure and fizzled out after one day
There was little national coordination of the movement - each town or factory protested in their own way
MAny left wing leaders bickered amongst themselves
There was no revolution

Question 24

In what ways did the Biennio Rosso weaken the liberal government?

Answer 24

It made the workers look to the extreme left wing and the middle-upper classes to the right extreme, meaning that the liberals in the middle had minimal support . Many people saw how poorly the liberal government dealt with the crisis and would therefore want new leadership