The 20th
Century in Italy
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The First World War in Italy
The direct participation of the masses in national political
life occurred in 1913 with the introduction of universal suffrage,
although women were still excluded. Consequently, on the eve
of the First World War (1914-18) Italy appeared on the
international scene as a country that was more socially uniform,
freer in its choices (which then swayed, often with passionate
dispute, between interventionism and pacifism) and altogether
more modern in its organization than immediately after its unification.
The cooling of relations with Austria and the renewal of Irredentist
designs on the Trentino and Venezia Giulia lead to a reversal
of Italy's traditional European alliances and she fought on
the side of the Allies, together with France and England. The
outcome of the war, which also saw the presence of the United
States of America, despite the grave crisis of Caporetto (November
1917), was in Italy's favour. At the Conference of Versailles
(1919) Italy received the Trentino, Alto Adige, Venezia Giulia
and the Dodecanese, while being refused Fiume and Dalmatia.
A reaction to this followed with the occupation of Fiume (1919-20)
by the legionaries of Gabriele D'Annunzio.
In the context of the grave political crisis following the war,
from which Italy had emerged victorious but economically ruined
due to her efforts, the country underwent a series of political
and social agitations that the weak government of the period
was unable to control. One remnant of the war was however resolved
with the Treaty of Rapallo (1920) by which Dalmatia, with the
exception of Zadar, went to the new State of Yugoslavia, formed
from the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Italy's
possession of Istria was confirmed. Fiume was also declared
a free town but was annexed by Italy only three years later
with a specific agreement between Italy and Yugoslavia.
In this period were founded a number of political parties; Partito
Popolare (1919), by Luigi Sturzo, as a continuation of the Democrazia
Cristiana; Partito Comunista d'Italia (1921, at Leghorn), from
a split with the Partito Socialista and led by Antonio Gramsci;
and, finally, the Fasci di Combattimento of Benito Mussolini,
previously a socialist leader and an ardent interventionist.
This latter movement, after having obtained 35 deputies in the
1921 election, transformed itself into the Partito Nazionale
Fascista equipped with a revolutionary programme that, after
the episode of the March on Rome of 28 October 1922, brought
Mussolini to the head of a government.
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