The Kingdom of Italy – Troubled Years and National Resurrection Part II

At the reopening of the Chambers, Mussolini, leader of Fascism and head of the government, presented himself at the head of a ministry which, apparently similar in its composition to the others that had preceded it, was unmistakably different in the spirit that animated it, in the language that his boss was speaking (November 16). “All the problems of Italian life have already been solved in paper: but the will to translate them into facts has been lacking. The government today represents this firm and determined will ”. And alongside the affirmed reaction against the abolition of internal politics, the reference to action outside the borders: “We intend to follow a policy of national dignity and usefulness. We cannot afford the luxury of a policy of senseless altruism or complete dedication to the designs of others ”. Therefore, all efforts to raise the position of Italy “which not only due to the weakness of its governments has lost strong positions in the Adriatic and in the Mediterranean, while some of its fundamental rights are being questioned; of Italy which has had no colonies or raw materials and is literally crushed by the debts made to achieve common victory “.

According to HOLIDAYSORT, the arduous effort, upon which the Duce had invoked God’s help, was beginning. Order, work and discipline were given to the troubled nation, the state was “framed” and strengthened, the revolution was equipped with an armed instrument, the militia, the military forces were reconstituted, the nagging problem of readjustment was faced in full economic and financial. From the first time, public services were improved, especially the railways, a wide-ranging seafaring policy was implemented, the foundations were laid for a radical scholastic reorganization, the reorganization of the currency began, the victorious battle of wheat banned (autumn 1925), which the liberation from foreign markets allowed, hundreds of initiatives started and completed in all fields, which would have taken decades under the past regimes, the national wealth increased with grandiose reclamations and public works, the colonies were reconquered, while, more difficult, the legislative renewal transformed the face and organization of the state (see Fascism; Italy: Order). With the demoliberal conception gone forever, the state organized itself on a corporate basis. Tenacious resistances from the old mentality and the old parties, which were beaten in the elections of May 6, 1924. And when the violence of some insane in a dark episode of partisan passion suppressed an opposition deputy, the representatives of this wanted to make fascism responsible and its leaders with a campaign of denigration without example and without limits. But the Tenacious resistances from the old mentality and the old parties, which were beaten in the elections of May 6, 1924. And when the violence of some insane in a dark episode of partisan passion suppressed an opposition deputy, the representatives of this wanted to make fascism responsible and its leaders with a campaign of denigration without example and without limits. But the secession of the Aventine it was cut short by the memorable and decisive speech of the Duce of January 3, 1925 and, having overcome the artificial moral question, Fascism resumed its victorious path. And the people were with him, as evidenced by the plebiscite elections of 1929 and the grandiose and yet controlled increase of members of the party and its organizations (2,045,792 in May 1933). The internal solidity has allowed Italy after the advent of the black shirt revolution a constructive and far-reaching foreign policy. Peace policy: “but not a suicide policy”. And when in August 1923 the Italian mission in Albania was massacred, an energetic political-military action obtained the necessary reparations and served as a warning that the era of Italian submissiveness was over (occupation of Corfu). Shortly after, in January 1924, negotiations with Yugoslavia reopened, Fiume became part of the kingdom of Italy and the eastern neighbor signed a friendship treaty for five years, which was not renewed upon expiry, but which attested to the Italian will to follow a foreign policy inspired by a sincere desire for peace and the overcoming of old frictions and past enmities. From the very first moment the Duce could affirm that the Italian international action, far from vain and murky aspirations for the imperialist adventure, was inspired by criteria of national utility, of respect for the treaties, of “fair clarification of Italy’s position in the Understanding “. And this idea guided all the foreign relations of fascism, intended to protect Italian interests with appropriate treaties and to consolidate peace in Europe. So agreements with Romania; with Greece, with Bulgaria, with Turkey, to guarantee the Italian expansion in the Levant, then the pacts of Tirana with Albania to protect it against future gluttony and to defend the Italian influence compromised by the unconscious abandonment of 1920, relations with the Hungary increasingly solid, aid to Austria, good and useful relations with Russia, with Germany, with Spain, while the settlement of war debts with America and England (1925-1926) ensured Italy not useless sympathies from across the ocean and across the Channel. The reconfirmed English friendship made it possible to obtain the Oltre Giuba from the London government (London convention 15 July 1924), which completed the Italian possessions of Somalia and favored the agreement with Egypt for the sale of the Giarabub oasis (6 December 1923). Another noteworthy agreement for the Italian colonies was the one that consecrated the definitive cession of the Dodecanese by Turkey (Lausanne, July 24, 1923). Faced with the League of Nations, Italy, no longer in tow of the politics of this or that power, although without allowing itself to be seduced by a certain doctrinalism that often acts as a convenient screen for more or less confessed interests, has tried to favor all proposals tending to overcome the mentality of war (Locarno pact of 1925, truce of armaments, pact of Rome between the four major European powers of 7 June 1933), to ensure peace, to make the agreement between the great powers effective in political and economic field, to eliminate the blatant injustices of the so-called peace treaties. The spirit of Italian politics is characterized by the Duce’s article of 23 May 1933: the Italian people “for a long time no longer considered the peoples against which they fought as enemies, nor even ex-enemies: they consider them friends and practice a politics of peace, justice, collaboration ”. And the overcoming of the Roman question, a source of such grave unease for the nation, has also reaffirmed the desire for harmony and peace of fascism in this special field (11 February 1929). A great nation that has consolidated its moral unity in the war and has restored its strength in the constructive revolution of fascism, Italy looks serenely at its future. Strong in her right, proud of her past, renewed in her spirit, compact as never before, she does not threaten and does not fear.

The Kingdom of Italy - Troubled Years and National Resurrection 2