Editing History of Italy (section)

===World War I and crisis of the Liberal state===
{{See also|Italian entry into World War I|Italian Front (World War I)|Military history of Italy during World War I|Italian Campaign (World War I)}}
[[File:Italian empire 1914.png|thumb|left|Italy and its [[Italian Empire|colonial possessions]] in 1914]]

Italy entered into the [[First World War]] on 24 May 1915 with the aim of completing national unity: for this reason, it is also considered the [[Fourth Italian War of Independence]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=6 March 2015 |title=Il 1861 e le quattro Guerre per l'Indipendenza (1848-1918) |url=http://www.piacenzaprimogenita150.it/index.php?it%2F176%2Fil-1861-e-le-quattro-guerre-per-lindipendenza-1848-1918 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319075828/http://www.piacenzaprimogenita150.it/index.php?it%2F176%2Fil-1861-e-le-quattro-guerre-per-lindipendenza-1848-1918 |archive-date=19 March 2022 |access-date=12 March 2021 |language=it}}</ref> in a historiographical perspective that identifies in the latter the conclusion of the [[unification of Italy]].<ref name="ReferenceB">{{Cite web |title=La Grande Guerra nei manifesti italiani dell'epoca |url=http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Eventi/visualizza_asset.html_1239896580.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923183754/http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Eventi/visualizza_asset.html_1239896580.html |archive-date=23 September 2015 |access-date=12 March 2021 |language=it}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Genovesi |first=Piergiovanni |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_LntMIUOXngC&q=%22quarta+guerra+d%27indipendenza%22&pg=PA41 |title=Il Manuale di Storia in Italia, di Piergiovanni Genovesi |date=11 June 2009 |publisher=FrancoAngeli |isbn=978-8-8568-1868-0 |language=it |access-date=12 March 2021}}</ref>

The war forced the decision whether to honour the alliance with Germany and Austria. For six months, Italy remained neutral, as the [[Triple Alliance (1882)|Triple Alliance]] was only for defensive purposes. Italy took the initiative in entering the war in spring 1915, despite strong popular and elite sentiment in favour of neutrality. Italy was, since its unification, the [[least of the great powers]]: a relatively large, but only partialy industrialized country, whose political system was chaotic; its finances were heavily strained, and its army had not been prepared for a long conflict.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Renzi |first=William A. |title=In the Shadow of the Sword: Italy's Neutrality and Entrance into the Great War, 1914–1915 |date=1987}}</ref> The Triple Alliance meant little either to Italians or Austrians. Prime Minister [[Antonio Salandra]] and Foreign Minister [[Sidney Sonnino]] negotiated with both sides in secret for the best deal, and got one from the Entente, which was quite willing to promise large slices of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including the [[History of Tyrol|Tyrol]] and [[Trieste]], as well as making [[Albania]] a protectorate. Russia vetoed giving Italy [[Dalmatia]]. Britain was willing to pay subsidies and loans to get 36 million Italians as new allies who threatened the southern flank of Austria.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lowe |first=C. J. |date=1969 |title=Britain and Italian Intervention 1914–1915 |journal=Historical Journal |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=533–548 |doi=10.1017/s0018246x00007275 |s2cid=162738142}}</ref>
[[File:Promised Borders of the Tready of London.png|thumb|Territories promised to Italy by the 
[[Treaty of London (1915)]], i.e. [[Trentino-Alto Adige]], the [[Julian March]] and [[Dalmatia]] (tan), and the [[Snežnik (plateau)|Snežnik Plateau]] area (green). Dalmatia, after the WWI, however, was not assigned to Italy but to [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]]]

When the [[Treaty of London (1915)|Treaty of London]] was announced in May 1915, there was an uproar from antiwar elements. Reports from around Italy showed the people feared war, and cared little about territorial gains. Pro-war supporters mobbed the streets. The fervor for war represented a bitterly hostile reaction against politics as usual, and the failures, frustrations, and stupidities of the ruling class.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clark |first=Martin |title=Modern Italy: 1871–1995 |date=1996 |publisher=Longman |edition=2nd |pages=180–185}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mack Smith |first=Denis |title=Italy: A Modern History |date=1969 |pages=292–305}}</ref> [[Benito Mussolini]] created the newspaper ''[[Il Popolo d'Italia]]'', which at first attempted to convince socialists and revolutionaries to support the war.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gregor |first=Anthony James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DTZ_holEfS0C&pg=PA200 |title=Young Mussolini and the Intellectual Origins of Fascism |date=1979 |publisher=U. of California Press |isbn=978-0-5200-3799-1 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=DTZ_holEfS0C&pg=PA200 200]}}</ref> The [[Allies of World War I|Allied Powers]], eager to draw Italy to the war, helped finance the newspaper.{{Sfnp|Clark|1996|p=183}} Later, after the war, this publication would become the official newspaper of the Fascist movement.
[[File:Liberazione di Trieste.jpg|thumb|Italian troops landing in [[Trieste]], 3 November 1918]]
[[File:Trento 3 novembre 1918.jpg|thumb|Italian cavalry in [[Trento]] on 3 November 1918, after the victorious [[Battle of Vittorio Veneto]]]]
[[File:Sacrario militare di Redipuglia agosto 2014.JPG|thumb|The [[Redipuglia War Memorial]] of [[Fogliano Redipuglia|Redipuglia]], with the tomb of [[Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta (1869–1931)|Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta]] in the foreground]]

Italy entered the war with an army of 875,000 men, but the Austrians had terrain advantage and superior artillery and machine guns. Italy's war supplies had also been depleted in [[Italo-Turkish War|the war of 1911–12]] against Turkey. Italy fought a long trench warfare, with fighting raging for three years on front along the [[Alps]] and the [[Battles of the Isonzo|Isonzo River]], and later on the [[Piave river]]. In 1916, Italy declared war on Germany. Some 650,000 Italian soldiers died and 950,000 were wounded, while the economy required large-scale Allied funding to survive.{{Sfnp|Clark|1996|pp=185–194}}{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1969|pp=307–313}}

Before the war the government had ignored labor issues, but now it had to intervene to mobilize war production. With the main working-class Socialist party reluctant to support the war effort, strikes were frequent and cooperation was minimal, especially in the Socialist strongholds of Piedmont and Lombardy. The government imposed high wage scales, as well as collective bargaining and insurance schemes.<ref>Luigi Tomassini, "Industrial Mobilization and the labour market in Italy during the First World War," ''Social History'', (1991), 16#1 pp 59–87</ref> Many large firms expanded dramatically. Inflation doubled the cost of living. Industrial wages kept pace but not wages for farm workers. Discontent was high in rural areas since so many men were taken for service, industrial jobs were unavailable, wages grew slowly and inflation was just as bad.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tucker |first=Spencer C. |title=European Powers in the First World War |pages=375–376}}</ref>

The Italian victory,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burgwyn |first=H. James |title=Italian foreign policy in the interwar period, 1918–1940 |date=1997 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=0-2759-4877-3 |page=4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schindler |first=John R. |title=Isonzo: The Forgotten Sacrifice of the Great War |date=2001 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=0-2759-7204-6 |page=303}}</ref>{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1982|p=31}} which was announced by the ''[[Bollettino della Vittoria]]'' and the ''[[Bollettino della Vittoria Navale]]'', marked the end of the war on the Italian Front, secured the dissolution of the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]] and was chiefly instrumental in [[Armistice with Germany|ending]] the First World War less than two weeks later. More than 651,000 Italian soldiers died on the battlefields.<ref name="Mortara">{{Cite book |last=Mortara |first=Giorgio |title=La Salute pubblica in Italia durante e dopo la Guerra |date=1925 |publisher=G. Laterza & figli |pages=28–29, 165 |lang=it}}</ref> The Italian civilian deaths were estimated at 589,000 due to malnutrition and food shortages.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hersch |first=Liebmann |author-link=Liebmann Hersch |title=La mortalité causée par la guerre mondiale |date=1927 |publisher=The International Review of Statistics |pages=52–59 |language=fr}}</ref> In November 1918, after the surrender of Austria-Hungary, Italy occupied militarily [[Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol|Trentino Alto-Adige]], the [[Julian March]], [[Istria]], the [[Kvarner Gulf]] and [[Dalmatia]], all Austro-Hungarian territories. On the Dalmatian coast, Italy established the [[Governorate of Dalmatia#The first Governorate of Dalmatia|Governorate of Dalmatia]], which had the provisional aim of ferrying the territory towards full integration into the Kingdom of Italy, progressively importing national legislation in place of the previous one. The administrative capital was [[Zadar|Zara]]. The Governorate of Dalmatia was evacuated following the Italo-Yugoslav agreements which resulted in the [[Treaty of Rapallo (1920)]], although Zara was annexed.

As the war came to an end, [[Italian Prime Minister]] [[Vittorio Emanuele Orlando]] met with [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|British Prime Minister]] [[David Lloyd George]], [[Prime Minister of France]] [[Georges Clemenceau]] and [[President of the United States|United States President]] [[Woodrow Wilson]] in [[Palace of Versailles|Versailles]] to discuss how the borders of Europe should be redefined to help avoid a future European war. The talks provided considerable territorial gains to Italy, but not all those promised in the Treaty of London, as Wilson championed freedom to all European nationalities to form their nation-states. As a result, the [[Treaty of Versailles]] did not assign [[Dalmatia]] (inhabited by a Slavic majority) to Italy as had been promised. Furthermore, the British and French decided to divide the German and Ottoman overseas possessions into their mandates, with Italy receiving only some colonial compensations. Despite this, Orlando agreed to sign the Treaty of Versailles, which caused the uproar of nationalists against his government. The [[Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)]] and the [[Treaty of Rapallo (1920)]] allowed the annexation of [[Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol|Trentino Alto-Adige]], [[Julian March]], [[Istria]], [[Kvarner Gulf|Kvarner]] as well as the [[Dalmatia]]n city of [[Zadar|Zara]].
[[Image:Fiume cheering D'Annunzio.jpg|thumb|Residents of [[Fiume]], now Rijeka, Croatia, cheering the arrival of [[Impresa di Fiume|Gabriele D'Annunzio and his ''Legionari'']] in September 1919, when Fiume had 22,488 (62% of the population) Italians in a total population of 35,839 inhabitants.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Fiume-question|title=Fiume question|publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|access-date=8 May 2025}}</ref>]]

Furious over the peace settlement, the Italian nationalist poet [[Gabriele D'Annunzio]] led disaffected war veterans and nationalists to form the [[Free State of Fiume]] in September 1919. His popularity among nationalists led him to be called ''[[Il Duce]]'' ("The Leader"), and he used black-shirted paramilitary in his assault on Fiume. The leadership title of ''Duce'' and the blackshirt paramilitary uniform would later be adopted by the [[Italian fascism|fascist]] movement of [[Benito Mussolini]]. The demand for the Italian annexation of Fiume spread to all sides of the political spectrum.{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|p=293}}

The subsequent [[Treaty of Rome (1924)]] led to the annexation of the city of [[Fiume]] to Italy. Italy's lack of territorial gain led to the outcome being denounced as a ''[[mutilated victory]]''. The rhetoric of ''mutilated victory'' was adopted by Mussolini and led to the [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|rise of]] [[Italian fascism]], becoming a key point in the [[propaganda of Fascist Italy]]. Historians regard ''mutilated victory'' as a "political myth", used by fascists to fuel [[Italian imperialism]] and obscure the successes of [[liberal Italy]] in the aftermath of World War I.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sabbatucci |first=G. |title=Miti e storia dell'Italia unita |date=1999 |publisher=Il Mulino |editor-last=AA.VV. |location=Bologna |pages=101–106 |chapter=La vittoria mutilata |lang=it}}</ref> Italy also gained a permanent seat in the [[League of Nations]]'s executive council.