Furthermore, money wasn’t the only issue that was facing the Liberal country. Language problems, illiteracy, poverty and Catholic opposition were only a few matters that were an issue. Only 2% of the population actually spoke Italian, over 70% were illiterate and no investment in the South made it extremely poor. The socialists had no confidence in Liberalism and were more interested in using their funds on imperialism, instead of Italy.
In addition, Italy’s problems were made greater by what the Italians saw as an inadequate post-war settlement. Following the war, Italy was given some land (Trieste and Istria) but believed that the allies had failed on a promise to give them more land, particularly Fiume. The Italians, many whom hadn’t wanted war in the first place, saw Italy as having a “mutilated victory” in the 1st World War. The Pope, amongst others, was very bitter about the loss of land and instructed all Catholics to take no part in politics. Women, despite having contributed massively to the war effort, also continued to be excluded from the political process.
Subsequently, the soldiers that had fought so bravely in the Great War who believed they were coming home to glory instead got disappointment. The land that they were promised was not provided and they would have found that even the battlefield itself had changed. The money was greatly reduced in value and the attitude of the government as well as young people had changed. The government was weak and the Liberal Party was not strong, however it was argued that they didn’t need many votes as not many could vote at all at the time. The political system mainly consisted of powerful people wanting to be even more powerful the greed of the ‘legal Italy’ people was more important than helping those lower in the ‘real Italy’. There was a widespread dissatisfaction with the government; critics said, it had been the Italian people who had won the war, not its leaders.
In addition, radical changes considerably altered the ‘political balance’ in Italy’s parliament as political groups who weren’t considered powerful at all suddenly held powerful positions in the parliament; (the PSI (socialists) and the PPI (popolari, the Catholic Party). This meant that traditional political groups such as the Liberals no longer had a secure hold on power. The PSI had radicalized; large-scale strikes occurred; factories were occupied by red guards and the years 1919-1920 were referred to as the ‘red years’ – the two years of socialist anarchy. In these years Italy's government changed frequently. One of the nationalist critics of the government was Gabriele D’Annunzio writer who in September 1919, with a handful of supporters marched into Fiume and took over the government there.
As a result of this, at 1920 no leader had the country under much control as rebels broke the law where and when they wanted to. The threat of socialist revolution could emerge, there was political instability with the frequent change of governments, and none of the politicians seemed to know how to re-establish law and order.
