Mussolini's Rise - Mutilated victory, Fiume and Post-war crisis

Question 1

How did ex-soldiers feel after WWI towards the liberal government?

Answer 1

Betrayed, humiliated and desired a new Italy that would achieve national greatness

Question 2

What key issues did the Italian government face after WWI?

Answer 2

Debt and inflation, rising tension in the south from returning conscripts pushing for the land they had been promised, demobilised soldiers in the south forcibly occupying land, divide in the north between returning soldiers and workers exempt from military service

Question 3

How was the anger in Italian society made worse after WWI?

Answer 3

Italy’s treatment at the Paris Peace Conference at Versailles in January 1919

Question 4

What did Orlando argue at the PPC

Answer 4

Italy should be given all the territory it had been promised in the 1915 Treaty of London, plus the port of Fiume

Question 5

Why did Orlando want Fiume?

Answer 5

Fiume had a large community of Italians and it should be part of Italy based on the ‘principle of nationality’

Question 6

Who were the key leaders at Versailles?

Answer 6

American president, Woodrow Wilson
British prime minister, David Lloyd George
French prime minister, Georges Clemenceau

Question 7

What did the key leaders at Versailles reject in regards to Italy?

Answer 7

Italy’s claim on Fiume and aspects of the TOL including the Dodecanese Islands and parts of the Balkans. They believed Italy’s contribution to the war did not justify its territorial claims

Question 8

PPC

Answer 8

Paris peace conference

Question 9

TOL

Answer 9

Treaty of London

Question 10

Why did Orlando argue that the territorial expansions were needed at the PPC?

Answer 10

To justify the war effort to the Italian people and avoid mass protests, anarchy and even a revolution. He claimed he faced assassination if he couldn’t secure Dalmatia

Question 11

What effects did Orlando walking out of the conference in April have?

Answer 11

Weakened his position at Versailles but improved popularity in Italy. In his absence, Britain and France took Germany’s African colonies without considering Italy’s demands. He returned in May but his proposals were ignored

Question 12

When was Orlando forced to resign?

Answer 12

June 1919

Question 13

What land did Italy actually acquire by 1920 from Versailles and the TOL?

Answer 13

Trent, Trieste
Istria and northern Dalmatia

Question 14

Who made the idea of a ‘Mutilated victory’?

Answer 14

Gabriele d’Annunzio who claimed it was a national shame that disgraced the 600,000 soldiers who had died in war.

Question 15

What did the Mutilated Victory demonstrate about Italy?

Answer 15

The weakness of the liberal government and Italy’s low position in relation to other European powers

Question 16

Who replaced Orlando?

Answer 16

Francesco Nitti

Question 17

How were Nitti’s actions unhelpful to Italy’s already poor situation?

Answer 17

Italy needed coal and money from the Allies so Nitti down-played Italy’s claims to not jeopardise its relations with Britain, France and the USA

Question 18

Who did Nitti allow to take Dalmatia and Fiume?

Answer 18

Yugoslavia

Question 19

Which of Nitti’s economic actions drew anger from nationalists and the military?

Answer 19

Reducing military spending and issuing an amnesty to Italian soldiers who had deserted

Question 20

Which groups challenged the government in Rome?

Answer 20

Nationalist right-wing groups made up of returned soldiers and young men who were angry about the inadequacies of liberal Italy. Most prominent leader being d’Annunzio

Question 21

12 September 1919

Answer 21

D’Annunzio and 2000 ex-soldiers, futurists, students and patriots seized the contested port of Fiume . The Italian government failed to act for 15 months but were removed Christmas 1920 by Italian navy

Question 22

What was unemployment by November 1919?

Answer 22

Two million

Question 23

What were the major issues in post-war Italy?

Answer 23

Unemployment, Inflation, the collapse of the lira’s value, wages and pensions declined, major companies struggled to stay afloat, anarchists and socialist radicals released from prison, strikes

Question 24

Biennio Rosso

Answer 24

Labour militancy and strikes between 1919 and 1920

Question 25

[Gap fill] _________ ______ membership had grown from ____,____ in 1918 to ____ ________ by 1920

Answer 25

Socialist union membership had grown from 250,000 in 1918 to two million by 1920

Question 26

[Gap fill] There were _______ strikes in January 1920, _________ strikes in April and September and an ______ _______ strike in July. The largest strike took place in ____________ _____ with ____,____ workers taking over factories, flying _____________ ____ ___________ flags for four weeks

Answer 26

There were railway strikes in January 1920, telegraph strikes in April and September and an army troops’ strike in July. The largest strike took place in
September 1920 with 400,000 workers taking over factories, flying communism and anarchism flags for four weeks

Question 27

What did peasants do when they were not given the land they were promised despite some land being available for peasants to purchase?

Answer 27

Seized lang from owners who were mostly absent by marching on to barren or uncultivated land, raising flags and setting to work. This alarmed wealthy landowners who feared a rural revolution

Question 28

Who did the upper and middle classes look to for an alternative to the weak liberal government?

Answer 28

Right-wing organisations that would confront and destroy the left wing organisation that were pushing Italy towards revolution