Liberal Italy in crisis and the rise of Mussolini

Overview

Mutilated victory, fiume affair and biennio rosso.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What was meant by the mutilated victory?

   Model answer

   The nationalist complaint that Italy, after immense losses, had been cheated at the peace conference of the Adriatic gains she had been promised for entering the war.

2. 2

   What had Italy been promised for joining the war in 1915?

   Model answer

   Territory in the Trentino, the South Tyrol, Istria and much of Dalmatia; the peace conference granted the first three but almost none of Dalmatia, and refused Italy's new claim to Fiume.

3. 3

   What did the war cost Italy?

   Model answer

   Around six hundred thousand dead, a vastly increased national debt, severe inflation and hundreds of thousands of demobilised soldiers with no work.

4. 4

   What was the Fiume affair?

   Model answer

   The poet D'Annunzio seized the disputed Adriatic port with a force of volunteers in 1919 and held it for over a year, which humiliated the government and rehearsed fascist theatre.

5. 5

   What was the biennio rosso?

   Model answer

   The two red years of 1919 and 1920, marked by strikes, land occupations in the south and the occupation of the northern factories by their workers.

6. 6

   Why did the factory occupations of 1920 help the fascists?

   Model answer

   Although the occupations ended peacefully, industrialists and landowners concluded that the state would not defend property and looked for someone who would.

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