Editing Italy (section)

=== Fascist regime and World War II ===
{{Main|Fascist Italy|Military history of Italy during World War II|Italian Civil War|Italian campaign (World War II)}}
[[File:Benito Mussolini portrait as dictator (retouched).jpg|thumb|upright=.7|left|The fascist dictator [[Benito Mussolini]] titled himself ''[[Duce]]'' and ruled the country from 1922 to 1943.]]

The [[Biennio Rosso|socialist agitations]] that followed the devastation of the Great War, inspired by the [[Russian Revolution]], led to counter-revolution and repression throughout Italy. The liberal establishment, fearing a Soviet-style revolution, started to endorse the small [[National Fascist Party]], led by Mussolini. In October 1922, the [[Blackshirts]] of the National Fascist Party organised a [[mass demonstration]] and the "[[March on Rome]]" [[coup d'état|coup]]. King [[Victor Emmanuel III]] appointed Mussolini as prime minister, transferring power to the fascists without armed conflict.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lyttelton|first=Adrian|title=The Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy, 1919–1929 |date=2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-4155-5394-0|location=New York|pages=75–77}}; {{Cite news|title=March on Rome {{!}} Italian history|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/March-on-Rome|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504055509/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/508871/March-on-Rome|archive-date=4 May 2015|access-date=25 July 2017|work=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> Mussolini banned political parties and curtailed personal liberties, establishing a dictatorship. These actions attracted international attention and inspired similar dictatorships in [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Francoist Spain]].

[[Fascism]] was based upon Italian nationalism and imperialism, seeking to expand Italian possessions via irredentist claims based on the legacy of the Roman and Venetian empires.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rodogno|first=Davide|author-link=Davide Rodogno|title=Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation during the Second World War|date=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England|page=88}}; {{Cite book|last=Kallis|first=Aristotle A.|title=Fascist ideology: territory and expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922–1945 |date=2000|publisher=Routledge|location=London, England; New York City, USA|pages=41}}; {{Cite book|last1=Ball|first1=Terence|title=The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought|last2=Bellamy|first2=Richard|pages=133}}; {{Cite book|last=Stephen J. Lee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u-mm5UDlzBEC&pg=PA157|title=European Dictatorships, 1918–1945 |date=2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-4154-5484-1|pages=157–158|access-date=8 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240211001320/https://books.google.com/books?id=u-mm5UDlzBEC&pg=PA157#v=onepage&q&f=false|archive-date=11 February 2024|url-status=live}}</ref> For this reason the fascists engaged in [[interventionism (politics)|interventionist foreign policy]]. In 1935, Mussolini [[Second Italo-Abyssinian War|invaded Ethiopia]] and founded [[Italian East Africa]], resulting in international isolation and leading to Italy's withdrawal from the [[League of Nations]]. Italy then [[Pact of Steel|allied with Nazi Germany]] and the [[Tripartite Pact|Empire of Japan]], and strongly supported [[Francisco Franco]] in the [[Spanish Civil War]]. In 1939, Italy [[Italian invasion of Albania|annexed Albania]].

Italy entered World War II on 10 June 1940. At different times, Italians advanced in [[Italian conquest of British Somaliland|British Somaliland]], [[Italian invasion of Egypt|Egypt]], the [[Balkan Campaign (World War II)|Balkans]], and eastern fronts. They were, however, [[Italian participation on the Eastern Front|defeated on the Eastern Front]] as well as in the [[East African campaign (World War II)|East African]] and [[North African campaign|North African]] campaigns, losing their territories in Africa and the Balkans. [[Italian war crimes]] included [[extrajudicial killing]]s and [[ethnic cleansing]]<ref>James H. Burgwyn (2004). [http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/rmis/2004/00000009/00000003/art00005 General Roatta's war against the partisans in Yugoslavia: 1942] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921054155/http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/rmis/2004/00000009/00000003/art00005|date=21 September 2013}}, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Volume 9, Number 3, pp. 314–329(16)</ref> by deportation of about 25,000 people—mainly Yugoslavs—to [[List of Italian concentration camps|Italian concentration camps]] and elsewhere. [[Yugoslav Partisans]] perpetrated their own crimes against the ethnic Italian population during and after the war, including the [[foibe massacres]]. An [[Allied invasion of Sicily]] began in July 1943, leading to the [[Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy|collapse of the Fascist regime]] on 25 July. Mussolini was deposed and arrested by order of King Victor Emmanuel III. On 8 September, Italy signed the [[Armistice of Cassibile]], ending its war with the Allies. The Germans, with the assistance of Italian fascists, succeeded in taking control of north and central Italy. The country remained a battlefield, with the Allies moving up from the south.
[[File:01 partigiani a milano1.jpg|thumb|[[Italian resistance movement|Italian partisans]] in Milan during the final insurrection leading to the [[liberation of Italy]] in April 1945]]

In the north, the Germans set up the [[Italian Social Republic]] (RSI), a Nazi [[puppet state]] and [[collaborationist]] regime with Mussolini installed as leader after he was [[Gran Sasso raid|rescued]] by German paratroopers. What remained of the Italian troops was organised into the [[Italian Co-belligerent Army]], which fought alongside the Allies, while other Italian forces, loyal to Mussolini, opted to fight alongside the Germans in the [[National Republican Army]]. German troops, with RSI collaboration, committed massacres and deported thousands of Jews to death camps. The post-armistice period saw the emergence of the [[Italian Resistance]], who fought a guerrilla war against the [[Operation Achse|Nazi German occupiers]] and collaborators.<ref>G. Bianchi, ''La Resistenza'', in: AA.VV., ''Storia d'Italia'', vol. 8, pp. 368-369.</ref> This has been described as an Italian civil war due to fighting between partisans and fascist RSI forces.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Storia della guerra civile in Italia|url=http://www.istitutobiggini.it/storia_pisano.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221013183444/https://www.istitutobiggini.it/storia_pisano.pdf|archive-date=13 October 2022|access-date=28 August 2023}}; See the books from Italian historian [[Giorgio Pisanò]] ''Storia della guerra civile in Italia'', 1943–1945, 3 voll., Milano, FPE, 1965 and the book ''L'Italia della guerra civile'' ("Italy of civil war"), published in 1983 by the Italian writer and journalist [[Indro Montanelli]] as the fifteen volume of the ''Storia d'Italia'' ("History of Italy") by the same author.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Pavone|first=Claudio|title=Una guerra civile. Saggio storico sulla moralità della Resistenza|date=1991|publisher=Bollati Boringhieri|isbn=8-8339-0629-9|location=Torino|page=238|language=it}}</ref> In April 1945, with defeat looming, Mussolini attempted to escape north,<ref>{{Citation|last=Viganò|first=Marino|title=Un'analisi accurata della presunta fuga in Svizzera|date=2001|work=Nuova Storia Contemporanea|volume=3|language=it}}</ref> but was captured and [[Death of Benito Mussolini|summarily executed]] by partisans.<ref>{{Cite news|date=28 April 1945|title=1945: Italian partisans kill Mussolini |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/28/newsid_3564000/3564529.stm|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111126075555/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/28/newsid_3564000/3564529.stm|archive-date=26 November 2011|access-date=17 October 2011|publisher=BBC News}}</ref>

Hostilities ended on 29 April 1945, [[Surrender of Caserta|when the German forces in Italy surrendered]]. Nearly half a million Italians died in the conflict,<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Italy – Britannica Online Encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/297474/Italy|access-date=2 August 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306095718/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/297474/Italy|archive-date=6 March 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> society was divided, and the economy all but destroyed—per capita income in 1944 was at its lowest point since 1900.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Liberal and fascist Italy, 1900–1945 |date=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|editor-last=Lyttelton|editor-first=Adrian|page=13}}</ref> The aftermath left Italy angry with the monarchy for its endorsement of the Fascist regime, contributing to a revival of Italian republicanism.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Italia|encyclopedia=Dizionario enciclopedico italiano|publisher=[[Treccani]]|date=1970|volume=VI|page=456|language=it}}</ref>