Chapter 541 Mussolini

What is slightly surprising is that Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the defeated countries in World War I, did not collapse. Russia and the United Kingdom, which were plunged into civil war, did not collapse. Neither did France, which suffered heavy losses. Instead, Italy, which seemed to have a low sense of existence, did not collapse. Going to collapse. ♜♦

Italy's collapse is no joke. The situation is so chaotic that even Russia, which is currently undergoing a civil war, would say it is outrageous.

Before the war, Italy was a standard middle-to-lower power country. Although its fiscal revenue and economic status are slightly higher than those of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy's development status is actually not as good as that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in terms of industry and agriculture that demonstrate national strength.

The first is industry. The total output of iron is about 1.42 million tons, but it is lower than that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the same period.

At the same time, Italy only has a grain output of 8.1 million tons. It is a veritable grain importing country, and its development lags far behind other major powers. This is why the overall strength of the island country was considered to exceed Italy for a period of time.

Of course, the real display of Italy's strength came in war. Whether it was the war against Ethiopia or its performance in World War I, countries around the world clearly understood the strength of Italy's army.

Even though Russia has various problems, it can still fight back and forth against the German-Austrian coalition. Although there are many disadvantageous battles, it still has no problem unilaterally defeating the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Italy's performance was a bit ridiculous. From beginning to end, Italy only faced the Austro-Hungarian army and basically never saw the Germans.

However, the Italian front line always remained within the national border, and the 500,000-strong army was blocked by the 100,000-strong Austro-Hungarian army for a long time.

If the Austro-Hungarian Empire had not collapsed too quickly in other areas, it would have been difficult for Italy to make progress on the front line, and it would have been impossible to gain territory.

Compared with the Italian army, the Italian navy is barely passable.

In several blockades in which the Italian Navy participated, the training level of the Italian Navy was comparable to the strength of the great powers. This is why after Italy showed poor military strength, its military strength is still considered to be at the level of the great powers.

Because of Italy's poor performance, Italy only obtained part of the conditions promised by Britain and France, namely Trieste and South Tyrol, and the Istria Peninsula.

Italy's domineering Dalmatia and Dodecanese Islands were not assigned to Italy, but were jointly managed by a multinational alliance.

This also caused Italy to lose the opportunity to fully control the Adriatic Sea, and even allowed other powers to intervene in the Balkan situation, which seriously affected Italy's expansion in the Balkans.

This made the Italian people very dissatisfied. They selectively ignored the poor performance of the Italian army in World War I and blamed the government for not fighting for Dalmatia and the Dodecanese Islands, which caused Italy to suffer heavy losses. , even limiting future expansion.

The then Italian Prime Minister Orlando suffered a major blow. He was obviously the hero of the victory in World War I, but he quickly resigned due to public dissatisfaction.

Immediately afterwards, in just three years, Italy successively experienced Prime Ministers Francesco Saverio Niti, Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti, Prime Minister Ivanoe Bonomi and Prime Minister Luigi. Prime Minister Fakta achieved the achievement of five prime ministers in three years.

Among them, Prime Minister Giolitti, who had the shortest term, only stayed in the Prime Minister's Palace for 42 days before he was dismissed by the opposing political parties and the people.

There have been five prime ministers in three years, and the average term of each prime minister is only about seven months.

This has caused great disruption to Italy's political environment. The major political parties have competed for power and entered into a long battle for the prime minister.

At the same time, because the prime minister's term was too short, some policies and plans had to be terminated due to the change of prime minister before they were well implemented.

In addition, each prime minister has different preferences, appointments and removals of officials, and preferences for some policies.

From the end of the war to the present, the political situation in Italy has been in a state of unspeakable chaos.

It cannot be well reflected in other aspects. After all, the decline of a country cannot be completed in a short time, unless it experiences an extremely depleting war.

But in terms of the country's public security, we can actually get a glimpse of it.

Because of the political chaos at the highest level, Italy's economy did not recover well after the war, and its economic growth was extremely slow.

Even due to the impact of the flu, some industries in Italy closed down, a large number of people lost their jobs, and a considerable number of capitalists went bankrupt, seriously damaging Italy's economic development.

Chaos breeds darkness, and the world-famous Italian Mafia is developing crazily across Italy, even in every big city in Italy.

Kidnapping, extortion, vendetta, armed fighting and drugs are taking place in every dark corner of Italy, and even many well-known Italian capitalists have suffered greatly.

However, at this time, the Italian political arena has always focused on the competition for prime minister, and the situation of the people at the bottom is unknown.

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Or in other words, Italy’s top leaders currently don’t care about the conditions of the people at the bottom. Compared with caring for the people at the bottom, the current competition for the position of Italian Prime Minister is the most important thing.

It is precisely because of this that the Italian Mafia became more arrogant and even began to collude with local government officials, forming a huge force with overwhelming power.

Amidst this extreme chaos, an ordinary reporter broke into the Italian political arena and quickly gained a considerable number of supporters because of his unique ideas.

The name of this ordinary reporter is Mussolini, whose full name is Benito Amilcarre Andrea Mussolini. He was born in Ferrara Province, Italy, in 1883.

Mussolini was only 37 years old, but his life experience was extraordinary.

Mussolini's father, Alessandro Mussolini, was an anarchist, an activist in the socialist movement, and an atheist.

Under the influence of his father, Mussolini had a different way of thinking about politics, because he later laid the foundation for governing Italy.

Before World War I, Mussolini became a leading member of the Italian Socialist Party and a reporter for the party newspaper Forward, but was expelled from the Socialist Party for encouraging Italy to join the war.

But Mussolini was not discouraged and founded the Italian newspaper People before Italy entered the war, taking the opportunity to promote his political ideas.

When the political situation in Italy was very chaotic, Mussolini founded the Fighting Fascist Organization, which quickly attracted a considerable number of loyal members and established its own political base.

After gaining a certain strength, Mussolini changed the name of the organization to the National Fascist Party of Italy and became the leader of the Fascist Party.

After the official name change, the National Fascist Party has become one of the few major parties in Italy and has a certain influence in major Italian cities.

A large number of Italians who were disappointed with the government joined Mussolini's party and enthusiastically called Mussolini their leader, believing that he was the chosen one who could save Italy and all Italians.

By various coincidences, Mussolini's party solved a strike crisis for the government, which also made Mussolini and his party well received in Italy.

But at the same time, the black-shirted stormtroopers used by Mussolini to resolve the strike crisis also aroused dissatisfaction among some people in the government.

Advisers to King Emmanuel III of Italy recommended that the king arrest Mussolini on the grounds that Mussolini's Blackshirts were a highly dangerous private force and that Mussolini had gone too far in his actions to resolve workers' strike demonstrations. The interests of the people were persecuted.

But at this time, Emmanuel III was worried about the influence of the workers' party on Italy and its anti-monarchy characteristics, so he rejected the advisers' suggestion to arrest Mussolini.

Mussolini, whose power and status had greatly expanded at this time, was naturally not satisfied with being the leader of just one political party, but instead set his sights on the highest throne of the Italian government.

Thanks to the experience of suppressing workers' demonstrations in the past few years, Mussolini's Black Shirt Army gained a lot of combat experience and its total number of troops was effectively expanded.

Mussolini was very satisfied with the fanatical eyes of these young lads looking at him. As long as the leader gave an order, these lads would advance like sharp swords to wherever the leader pointed.

Finally, Mussolini felt ready.

With the release of Mussolini's "Revolutionary Manifesto", tens of thousands of black-shirted troops began to march towards Rome. This was the famous March on Rome in history.

Because they understood that their purpose was not to start a civil war, when the black shirt army marched into Rome, there was basically no conflict with government troops and police.

A small number of political parties and believers blocked the Black Shirts, but were quickly suppressed by the more numerous Black Shirts.

Italy's territory is not huge. This group of Montenegrin troops marched from Naples and approached Rome within a few days.

Some political parties that opposed Mussolini along the way surrendered, and even the distinguished Italian congressmen had to condescend to go to Milan to consult Mussolini in person.

Of course, these parties and parliamentarians' sues for peace were not important to Mussolini. In the current situation in Italy, Mussolini urgently needs the most official recognition, that is, the Italian King Emmanuel III, who represents the Italian royal power and the entire kingdom.

The good news is that Emmanuel III trusted Mussolini's party more than some of the parties opposed to the monarchy.

Mussolini quickly received an invitation from the King's Guards, and officially conveyed the news that the King appointed Mussolini as Prime Minister and asked Mussolini to form a new cabinet.

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