Editing Gabriele D'Annunzio (section)

=== Fiume ===
{{main|Impresa di Fiume}}
The war strengthened D'Annunzio's [[ultranationalist]] and [[Italian irredentist]] views, and he campaigned widely for Italy to assume a role alongside her wartime [[Allies of World War I|allies]] as a first-rate European power. Angered by the proposed handing over of the city of [[Fiume]] (now [[Rijeka]] in Croatia) whose population, when the suburbs are included, was mostly Italian, at the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]], on 12 September 1919, D'Annunzio led 186 grenadiers of the [[Royal Italian Army]]'s [[2nd Regiment "Granatieri di Sardegna"|2nd Grenadiers Regiment]]'s I Battalion from [[Ronchi dei Legionari|Ronchi]] to Fiume to seize the city. Within days troops from other army units joined D'Annunzio in Fiume, who soon commanded a force of 2,500 troops of former Royal Italian Army troops, Italian nationalists, and World War I veterans of the [[Italian front (World War I)|Italian front]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bonelli |first1=Ernesto |title=Granatieri di Sardegna |date=2010 |publisher=Associazione del Museo Pietro Micca |location=Turin |pages=23–26, 104–109}}</ref> D'Annunzio then forced the [[Occupation of the eastern Adriatic|inter-Allied (American, British and French) occupying forces]] to withdraw.<ref>H.R. Kedward, ''Fascism in Western Europe 1900–45'', p 40 New York University Press New York, 1971</ref> The plotters sought to have Italy annex Fiume but were denied. Instead, Italy initiated a blockade of Fiume while demanding that the plotters surrender.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

[[File: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>]]
D'Annunzio then declared Fiume an independent state, the [[Italian Regency of Carnaro]]; the [[Charter of Carnaro]] foreshadowed much of the later Italian Fascist system, with himself as "Duce" (leader). Some elements of the [[Royal Italian Navy]], such as the destroyer ''Espero'' joined up with D'Annunzio's local forces.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D07E7D7163CE533A25752C1A9649D946195D6CF |work=[[The New York Times]] |title=D'ANNUNZIO PAYS DESERTING SAILORS; Hands Out 10,000 Francs to Crew of Destroyer – Its Officer Bound to Gun. WRANGEL TROOPS NEAR BY Many in Rome Look Hopefully to Giolitti to Find a Way Out of Flume Crisis |date=11 December 1920 |access-date=3 May 2010}}</ref> He attempted to organize an alternative to the [[League of Nations]] for (selected) oppressed nations of the world (such as the Irish, whom D'Annunzio attempted to arm in 1920),<ref>Mark Phelan, 'Prophet of the Oppressed Nations: Gabriele D'Annunzio and the Irish Republic, 1919–1921, ''History Ireland'' vol. 21, no, 5(Sept/Oct 2013, pp. 44–50.</ref> and sought to make alliances with various [[separatism|separatist]] groups throughout the [[Balkans]] (especially groups of Italians, though also some [[Slavs|Slavic]] and [[Committee for the National Defence of Kosovo|Albanian]] groups),<ref>{{cite book |language=de |title=Lebenserinnerungen: 1912 bis 1925 |trans-title=Memoirs: 1912–1925 |page=154 |first=Ekrem |last=Vlora |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bnsITEI0l4IC&q=beqir+vokshi |isbn=9783486475715 |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] |year=1973}}</ref> although without much success. D'Annunzio ignored the [[Treaty of Rapallo, 1920|Treaty of Rapallo]] and declared war on Italy itself, only finally surrendering the city on 29 December 1920 after a bombardment by the Italian navy and five days of fighting.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

[[File:Foto Fiume.jpg|thumb|D'Annunzio (near the centre with cane) with some legionaries (components of the Arditi's department of the Italian Royal Army) in Fiume in 1919. Next to D'Annunzio (right) is Arturo Avolio, a lieutenant and the commander of the Arditi's department of Bologna Brigade.]]