Economic situation was not encouraging at all in the years before the dawn of the 20th century. This was a consequence of the failure of the democratic traditions in Italy, as the government was controlled by corrupt politicians who bribed the voters, thus controlling the elections and once in power were more interested in making personal gains rather than solving the problems of the people. Due to the decaying situation, thousands of Italians were forced to emigrate abroad. Although Italy tried to acquire international prestige by acquiring colonies, she met no success as she was defeated by Abyssinia in the battle of Adowa in 1896. Because of its lack of success in both domestic and foreign affairs, the parliamentary government became a symbol of decadence and corruption; it was neither trusted nor respected by the people. By 1898 the economic situation provoked a series of bread riots in Milan, which were ultimately suppressed with considerable loss of life. Again, in 1904, a general strike in Italy, with violent incidents once again in Milan, which was to be afterwards the cradle for Fascism, provoked the subsequent elections and the return to a conservative majority.
As we can see, even in these early stages of government development, there was a general struggle for a conservative government as an alternative to a decaying previous one. However, this feeling is not as accentuated as in later stages because of the absence of an antagonistic point of view, some idea to be utterly opposed to, and therefore reinforcing the conservationist feeling, in this case, Socialism.
From 1901 to 1914, Giovanni Giolitti was the Italian Prime Minister and introduced reforms on the country which experienced political, social and economic modernization. He recognized the right of workers to strike for higher wages, changes in the electoral law greatly increased the male suffrage, Roman Catholics were introduced into political life and the first major legislation on behalf of the economically depressed south was passed. Industrial growth was of 87% and workers’ wages grew in more than 25% despite a shortened workday and the introduction of a guaranteed day of rest. However, this success was centralized and the southern regions remained quite as forgotten as they were before. In addition, the overall Italian economy remained predominantly agricultural and seasonal; therefore, poverty was the rule for most of the peasant labourers. Also, to a certain extent the Italian state was developing into a democracy, however, this evolution was limited by the outbreak of WWI.
In 1914 the war broke put and Italy’s membership of the Triple Alliance apparently committed her to support Germany and Austria-Hungary, but the government in Rome declared the alliance invalid because of some claims against Austria-Hungary. However, the government increasingly took the view that Italy must intervene in the war at some point and should negotiate with both sides in order to obtain the best terms for joining either the Alliance or the Entente. This polarisation of Italian politics came to be known as the Intervention Crisis. Many conservatives, like new Prime Minister Salandra, hoped, in contrast to the total opposed left, that the war would be short and victorious and that it would serve to forge a new solidarity among the increasingly divided Italian people. As a result, Italy signed the Treaty of London in 1915 and joined the Entente. However, the war proved longer and a more demanding struggle than most conservative interventionists had anticipated. There were huge casualties and the millions of conscripted men, forced out of their native region in order to serve a country whose interests they were only barely aware forged a huge resentment that was accumulated towards the distant governing class and towards the Socialist party and the mainly exempted workers it represented.
Difficulties of the same magnitude were to be faced in the post-war years. Firstly, there was enormous dissatisfaction among all sectors of society to the so-called “Mutilated Victory”. By not being able to achieve the expected goals after the war, even though Italy was among the victors, it discredited the regime and the political ideas associated with it, in this case, parliamentary and Liberal ones, so the ineffectiveness of the parliamentary politicians was blamed. Therefore, there was much resentment against the weak and unsuccessful foreign policy of the Italian government. An expression of this disappointment came in September 1919 when a band of alien patriots, under the command of Grabriele D’Annunzio, took Fiume, a port on the Dalmatian coast, by force and in defiance of the decision of the Paris Peace Conferences.
There was also much economic distress after the war as Italian economy, as of all other European participants in the war, became weak. Being a mostly poor and agricultural nation, Italy could only support her war effort by obtaining foreign loans, therefore, immediately after the war, the Italian tourist trade and export trade came to a standstill and there was large-scale unemployment, due also to the masses of returning soldiers. There was food and raw material crisis while a large inflation reduced the Italian Lire to one fifth of its pre-war value. Encouraged by the success of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 the unemployed workers and some peasants, who would be the mostly benefited from a Socialist type government, stirred up riots and strikes throughout the country.
The worsening of the economy gave rise to different political alternatives to the crisis and hence political divisions widened. The industrial workers flocked to the Socialist party, whose membership rose from 50,000 in 1914 to approximately 200,000 by 1919. Socialists called for the overthrow of the Liberal state, while landowners were appalled by the government’s failure to halt the spread of revolution in the countryside, where many peasants were occupying uncultivated land and farming for themselves.
As we can see, the government became increasingly unpopular and the people started to give their support to alternative groups. Even though the Fascist party was still not popular at this stage, its rise in popularity would be a reaction to the previous rise in popularity of the Catholic Popular Party and especially the Socialist Party in the elections of 1919. The Socialist party won a third of all votes, showing the increasingly leftist tendency, as it was the most direct antagonist of the actual Liberal government that they were so dissatisfied with. The Popular party also gained substantial votes, one fifth, while the ruling ones (Liberals, Democrats) lost heavily. Encouraged by the results of the general election, the Socialists were preparing more strikes and this reached a climax when the General Confederation of Labour called for a general strike. However, even after establishing Russian model soviets in a number of industrial towns in northern Italy, the Socialists failed to seize power in Italy (mainly because they lacked support of the peasants and hence, of the agricultural south), however, the Italian government, in fear of a greater revolution, promised a 20% wage increase to the workers.
Italy went through rapid government changes between 1919 and 1920, yet all of them failed to find effective solutions to the most urgent short-term problems. A radical change in government style was imminent and the only alternative then was Socialism. However, as elsewhere in Europe, the threat of communism provided an added impetus towards the establishment of other political movements. In the case of Italy, armed bands, with a strong nationalist bias, known as the Fascisti fought Socialist and communist groups while the government did nothing to stop the violence it was seen as a cheap way of curbing against the menace of socialism. These fights succeeded in their aim of disrupting the progress of socialism and in January 1921 the PSI split into the revolutionary and reformist wing. The Fascist party had now strong support that would act as a foundation for Mussolini’s eventual rise to power.
As we see from the development of Italy since its unification there was never a concrete and solid government which had enough majoritarian support to keep political stability. This is evident in the first years of the 20th century when the return to a conservative majority was established after the elections of 1904 as a reaction to the inefficiency of the Liberal government. This first political struggles for conservationism can be seen as some sort of premonition of what would happen to Italy some twenty years later, but in the latter case the magnitude would be much greater as the motor that boosted the reaction, Socialism, was absent in the first one. This leads us to an important point, as we can observe from the reactions to the Liberal government itself, that the main group that utterly opposed this government was the Socialists and not the Fascists. Therefore, we can say that the rise of Fascism is a consequence of the Liberal government’s ineffectiveness (as it was indeed a political group that aspired for power and not a mere anti-Socialist one), yet catalysed by the increasing popularity of Socialism, which was seen as a threat by most factory owners, some land owners and most middle class workers. In this position Fascism is undoubtedly the result of a conservative reaction to change, however the change was the rise of a radical threat as Socialism was regarded and not so much the increasing ineffectiveness of the Liberal government whose main opposer was Socialism itself.
The reason of why Fascists gained more support than the Socialists is the dual sectorial appeal that they had, instead of the single one in Socialism. Fascists not only appealed to the rising middle class and factory owners which felt that Socialism was a threat to their possessions, but also to the peasants of the oppressed and backward south who had resentment towards the Socialists. This resentment was due to the fact that they were poor and underdeveloped. This made them feel forgotten by the industrial north, which represented the Socialists. Also the fact that much of the industrial workers did not go to the war and weren’t driven out of their land as they were because workers were needed for war supplies added to this resentment. This is why much of the Fascist supporters were strong nationalists and ex-servicemen, hence this made the peasants feel more identified with them than with the Socialists and therefore its popularity increased.
However, we can also explore the possibility that the Fascist regime was not an entirely conservative option, however, it was regarded as the most feasible conservative alternative to Socialism or Liberal decay. This reinforces the idea of the rise of Fascism as being the result of the Socialist rise, as without this “menace” Fascist ideas as in their pure existence would have been regarded as radical and thus, in case it would have reached power after all, it wouldn’t be the results of a conservative reaction to change.
In conclusion, the political crisis that was incubated since the unification of Italy and broke out in the post-war years gave rise to radical groups that, because of their lack of complete majoritarian support throughout the country, were overpowered by the Fascist party. The rise of this party was an overreaction to the menace of communism which was seen as too radical for the country by the majority, while Fascism, within its context, was seen as conservative, but when taken from that frame of reference it is observed as radical, as it afterwards proved to be.