VI.

History

For the history of Italy to the 5th century ad, see Rome, Kings of; Roman Republic; Roman Empire. For additional data on the development of modern Italy, see Etruscan Civilization; Florence; Genoa; Lombardy; Milan; Naples; Papal States; Savoy, House of; Sicily; Tuscany; Venice.

A.

The Middle Ages

In ad 476 the last independent Roman Emperor of the West, Romulus Augustulus, was dethroned by the invading Germanic chieftain Odoacer, who thereupon succeeded to the throne. In 488 Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, invaded Italy and, after defeating and slaying Odoacer, became the sole ruler in Italy. Theodoric ruled until his death in 526. In 535 Justinian I, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire (see Byzantine Empire), dispatched the great general Belisarius to expel the Germanic invaders from Italy. A fierce war ensued, ending in 553 with the death of Teias, the last of the Gothic kings. The Byzantine rule was of short duration, however, for in 572 Italy was invaded by the Lombards, another Germanic tribe. Alboin, their king, made Pavia the capital of his realm, and from that city he launched a series of campaigns that eventually deprived the Byzantine power in Italy of everything except the southern portion of the province and the exarchate of Ravenna in the north. The country’s most important religious leaders of the time were the archbishops of Ravenna.

A.1.

Religious Conflict

After the death of Alboin in 572, the Lombards for a time had no king. Separate bands thereupon united under regional leaders known as duci. The Lombards, like the Goths before them, espoused the heretical creed called Arianism, with the result that they were in perpetual religious conflict with the native Italians, who overwhelmingly supported orthodox Christianity. This conflict was intensified as the temporal power of the popes increased. At length, Agiluf, a new Lombard king who reigned from 590 to 615, was converted to orthodox Christianity, and for some time comparative harmony prevailed. To consolidate their political power, however, the Lombards began to encroach on papal territory, even threatening Rome, the centre of Church authority. In 754 Pope Stephen II summoned help from the Franks, who had accepted the spiritual authority of the Church a century earlier. Under the vigorous leadership of Pepin the Short and his son, Charlemagne, the Franks conquered the Lombards, deposing the last Lombard king in 774. On Christmas Day, 800, Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the West by Pope Leo III.

When the Saracens subdued Sicily and threatened Rome in the 9th century, Pope Leo IV called on King Louis II, Charlemagne’s great-grandson, who checked the progress of the invaders. The Muslims overran southern Italy after Louis died and compelled the popes to pay tribute. For many years thereafter, the history of Italy is the record of the rise and fall of successive petty kings. Chief among them were Guido of Spoleto; Berengar I of Friuli, Holy Roman Emperor; and Hugh of Provence. The period of anarchy ended in 962, when the Germanic leader Otto I, after obtaining possession of northern Italy and the Lombard crown, was crowned Emperor by Pope John XII. This event is considered by some to mark the establishment of both the Holy Roman Empire and the German nation.

A.2.

The Papacy Versus the Holy Roman Empire

Until the close of the Middle Ages the Holy Roman emperors claimed and, in varying degrees, exercised sovereignty over Italy, but for practical purposes imperial authority became completely nominal by the beginning of the 14th century. Meanwhile, the south of Italy had remained under Byzantine and Lombard sway. In the 11th century, however, the Normans broke the Byzantine power and expelled the Lombards. The Normans united their territorial conquests in Italy in 1127 with Sicily, which they had wrested from the Saracens. These developments coincided with a resurgence of papal power, long secondary to that of the emperors. Imperial and papal friction reached a peak in the Investiture Controversy. By the Concordat of Worms, negotiated in 1122, the emperor surrendered to the college of cardinals the right to elect the pope. Simultaneous with the increasing influence of the papacy, strong opposition to the continued rule of the Holy Roman emperors appeared in the form of the rising Italian city-states. In Italy the feudal system had never attained the high degree of development characteristic of France and Germany. The relative weakness of Italian feudalism was due in great part to the survival of Roman traditions and to the large number of cities in Italy, for feudalism was a rural rather than an urban phenomenon. The northern cities in particular defied the power of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, who fought fierce but inconclusive wars with them. At length the Lombard League, an alliance of Italian cities, was formed in 1167; Frederick was vanquished at Legnano in 1176, and in 1183, with the signing of the Peace of Constance, the cities of northern Italy secured virtual autonomy. A final and unsuccessful attempt to crush both the papacy and its allies was made by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, the last great ruler of the royal House of Hohenstaufen. Italy itself was divided by the struggles between imperial partisans (the Guelphs) and their opponents (the Ghibellines). These names continued to be the designations of fiercely contending parties long after the Holy Roman emperors had lost their hold on the country.

Meanwhile, in 1266, southern Italy and Sicily came under the domination of the French House of Anjou. In 1282, however, Sicily threw off the French yoke and placed itself under the power of Aragón. See Sicilian Vespers.

A.3.

The Rise of The City-States

Through commerce, some of the northern Italian cities had meanwhile grown wealthy and had established oligarchical governments that were tending to become democratic. The prosperous merchants of these cities, having secured their independence from the authority of the Holy Roman emperors, soon began to contest the authority of their powerful nobles. Gradually, these nobles were divested of their power and compelled to abandon their extensive landholdings. Venice, by its participation in the Fourth Crusade, had secured extensive possessions in the Byzantine East and had developed a far-reaching trade empire. Pisa, Genoa, Milan, and Florence had likewise become powerful. A bitter struggle for ascendancy soon developed between Genoa and Venice. The conflict ended with a Venetian victory towards the close of the 14th century.

In every city of northern and central Italy the population had long been divided into Guelphs and Ghibellines. The former party was substantially progressive in character, the latter conservative. Civil strife was almost incessant, and the triumph of one party frequently resulted in the banishment of members of the other. On occasion, the banished party sought to regain power with the aid of other cities, so that city often warred against city, producing a shifting succession of alliances, conquests, and temporary truces. This turbulence was highly disadvantageous to commerce and industry, the chief interests of the northern cities. In consequence, the office of podesta, or chief magistrate, was established to mediate the differences of the contending parties. It proved ineffective, however, and the podesta came in time to be primarily a judicial officer. His place as head of the city was taken by a “captain of the people”, representing the dominant party. This position was usually held by a noble. The people, longing for peace, acquiesced in the establishment of centralized authority. Thus, almost every city came to have its despot, or absolute ruler; the office in many cases became hereditary in some noble families, such as the Scala at Verona, the Este at Ferrara, the Malatesta at Rimini, and the Visconti and later the Sforza at Milan. Under the rule of the despots, wealth increased, life became more luxurious, and literature and the arts flourished. Gradually, the smaller cities passed under the influence of the larger ones.

A.4.

Period of Prosperity

By the middle of the 15th century Italy had achieved great prosperity and comparative tranquillity. The country stood in the forefront of European nations culturally, having pioneered the great revival of learning and the arts known as the Renaissance. Pre-eminent in this revival was Tuscany, which had produced the great poet Dante Alighieri and the painter Giotto. Near the end of the 15th century Italy became the object of a succession of aggressive wars, waged by France, Spain, and Austria, which culminated in the ascendancy of the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs. In 1494 King Charles VIII of France undertook to conquer the Kingdom of Naples, then under the rule of the House of Aragón. Charles was induced to conduct this campaign by the Milanese regent Ludovico Sforza and by the citizens of Florence, who were restive under the Medici family. He invaded Italy, occupied Naples, and concluded a treaty with Florence, by the terms of which the Medici were expelled and the pope was brought to submission. In consequence, however, of a league formed against him by Spain, the pope, the Holy Roman Emperor, and the Italian cities of Venice and Milan, Charles was forced to retire from Naples and fight his way out of Italy. This French invasion, although it produced no great political results, was highly important as a means by which Italian culture was disseminated throughout Europe.

B.

The Early Modern Age

During the 16th century the various states on the Italian Peninsula fell prey to armies from the more centralized countries of the north. In 1499 King Louis XII of France, successor to Charles VIII, subjugated Milan, which changed hands several times between the French and the Habsburgs. In 1501 Ferdinand V of Castile, who had also been King of Sicily since 1468, reunited Naples and Sicily under one crown. The rivalry between Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, and King Francis I of France led to another French invasion of Italy in 1525. With the Florentines, Genoese, and Venetians as allies, the French were successful at first, but they were ultimately defeated. In the Peace of Cambrai (1529) Francis renounced all his claims to territory in Italy. Although he renewed the conflict in the 1540s, Charles’s domination over Italy could not be broken. On the extinction of Milan’s Sforza dynasty in 1535, Charles also took control of that duchy, which became part of his Spanish Habsburg realm. Milan remained a Spanish possession for almost 200 years. Of the various free cities of Italy a few survived, and of these only Genoa and Venice remained influential. Venice, in its last notable achievement as an independent city, conquered the Pelopónnisus in 1684, but lost it in 1715.

During the 18th century Italy remained divided and controlled by foreigners. Until 1748 it was the site of a succession of European wars, while the balance of power shifted. Venice turned eastwards, the papacy became increasingly insular, and Florence no longer had a central role in the area. The Duchy of Savoy, located between France and the Habsburg possessions in Italy, became a major force in the area. Duke Victor Amadeus II emerged from the War of the Spanish Succession with power and prestige. The Peace of Utrecht (1713) awarded him a royal title and Sicily, which he ceded to Austria in exchange for Sardinia in 1720. The Utrecht treaties also transferred Spain’s holdings in Italy to the Austrians, who exercised dominion in the peninsula throughout most of the second half of the 18th century.

B.1.

The Napoleonic Period

In 1796 Napoleon Bonaparte, later Emperor of France, invaded Italy. His victories led to the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797), establishing the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics with the former’s capital at Milan and the latter’s at Genoa. Venice and its territory were given to Austria. Napoleon was crowned King of Italy at Milan in 1805. The next year he took possession of the Kingdom of Naples. The island of Sicily, however, was preserved for the Neapolitan Bourbons by the British fleet. Naples was granted first to Napoleon’s brother Joseph and later to his brother-in-law Joachim Murat. By 1810 even Rome was incorporated into the French empire.

Napoleon’s hold on Italy was weakened by his defeat at Leipzig in 1813 as the Austrians invaded northern Italy and a British fleet occupied Genoa. The Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) led to a restoration of Austrian domination of the peninsula, but Sardinia recovered Piedmont, Nice, and Savoy and acquired Genoa.

C.

The Risorgimento

The Italian resistance to Austrian domination, characterized by a growing movement for the unification of Italy and independence, has been termed the Risorgimento. Despite suppressive measures by the petty despots who relied on Austrian statesman Prince Klemens von Metternich, with his astute diplomacy and threat of military intervention, to preserve their rule, a network of secret societies challenged the traditional order. These societies, especially the Carbonari of southern Italy, played a key role in the revolutions of 1820, which were suppressed by Austria.

C.1.

Nationalist Movements

The July Revolution of 1830, which drove the Bourbons from the throne of France, had repercussions in Italy. In 1831 insurrections erupted in the Papal States. A congress of representatives from its constituent areas (except Rome and a few cities in the march of Ancona) met in Bologna and adopted a constitution establishing a republican form of government. Responding to the request of Pope Gregory XVI, Austria intervened to suppress the revolutionary movement in the papal domain, and placed Bologna under military surveillance.

After the 1831 death of King Charles Felix of Sardinia, the crown passed to Charles Albert, Prince of Savoy and Piedmont, who, as regent, had proposed granting his people a constitution in 1821. Believing that Charles Albert still held liberal views, the Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini exhorted the new king to serve as liberator of Italy. The king answered this appeal by ordering Mazzini’s arrest; nevertheless, patriotic Italians continued to look to the Sardinian monarchy for leadership.

From exile in Marseille, France, in 1831 Mazzini established an organization called Giovine Italia (“Young Italy”) to spread the ideals of nationalism and republicanism to the Italian people. Its goals were education and insurrection, and it inspired several revolutions. As these uprisings were suppressed, some Italians questioned the use of radical tactics, suggesting that the national movement required a more responsible leadership.

The neo-Guelph movement sought to establish an order in which the pope would exercise political as well as spiritual leadership in Italy. In 1846 the nationalist and neo-Guelph movements were quickened by the election of Pope Pius IX, who was perceived as being a liberal and a nationalist. The pope immediately began an extensive programme of reform in the Papal States. An amnesty was proclaimed for political offenders, political exiles were permitted to return, freedom of the press was introduced, the highest government offices were opened to laymen, and a consultative chamber was created to suggest new reforms. The pope’s example was followed by the rulers of Lucca, Tuscany, and Piedmont. Instead of allaying the revolutionary movement, however, the reforms of 1846 and 1847 only intensified it. In January 1848 the people of Palermo drove out the forces of Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies, who responded to the revolutionary outburst on the mainland by granting his Italian subjects a constitution. At the same time Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, issued a constitution for his duchy. In Turin, Charles Albert, encouraged by Conte Camillo Benso di Cavour, also promised to issue a constitution. Pope Pius IX reluctantly consented to a constitution for the Papal States, although he began to regard the course of events with some apprehension.

C.2.

The Uprisings of 1848

The outbreak of revolution in Vienna in 1848, part of the Europe-wide revolutions of 1848, which drove Metternich from power, served as the signal for an uprising in Milan on March 18. The populace drove the Austrian troops out of the city on March 22. The Austrians were also expelled from Venice, and a Venetian republic was proclaimed. The autocratic rulers of Parma and Modena were forced to abandon their thrones. In Piedmont the nationalists called for a war of liberation to drive the Austrians from Italian soil. After some hesitation, Charles Albert mobilized his army and marched to the assistance of Lombardy, which he entered on March 26, acclaimed as the liberator of Italy.

Italian hopes were dashed when at the end of April the pope refused to join in the war, in mid-May the revolution in Naples collapsed, and on July 24 the Piedmontese were defeated in battle by the Austrians. By the subsequent armistice the Piedmontese gave up Lombardy. Charles Albert later denounced this armistice, only to be badly defeated in battle at Novara in March 1849. He then abdicated the Sardinian throne in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel II.

C.3.

The Revolution in Rome

Meanwhile, Pius IX was denounced by radicals in the Papal States for failing to join the war of national liberation. A popular insurrection in Rome led the pope and his closest adviser, Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli, to flee the capital in November 1848. In his absence the temporal power of the pontiff was abolished and a republic was proclaimed. Early in 1849 Cardinal Antonelli appealed to the Roman Catholic powers of France, Austria, Spain, and Naples to overturn the Roman Republic. Despite the efforts of Mazzini, at the head of the government, and the military leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Austrians moved into the north, the Spanish and Neapolitans invaded from the south, and a French force occupied Rome in July 1849. The papal regime was restored.

C.4.

Garibaldi and Cavour

Victor Emmanuel remained faithful to the liberal constitution promulgated by his father and retained the tricolour flag, symbol of a free Italy, thus encouraging political refugees from the restored conservative states of the peninsula to find asylum in Sardinia. In 1852 Cavour became the Sardinian prime minister and in 1855 led his country into the Crimean War on the side of Britain and France. At the peace conference in Paris in 1856, Cavour, with the connivance of French Emperor Napoleon III, aired the Italian question as an international problem. In 1858 he met secretly with Napoleon to plot a Franco-Sardinian war against Austria for the liberation of Italy; war erupted in 1859. The Franco-Italian coalition won the battles of Magenta and Solferino, which proved costly. Fearing the consequences of a long war, Napoleon deserted the Italians and unilaterally concluded a preliminary agreement in July 1859 with the Austrians. The Sardinians then accepted the terms formalized in the Treaty of Zurich: Austria ceded most of Lombardy to France, which in turn transferred the Lombard cities of Peschiera and Mantua to Sardinia.

Elsewhere, the drive for a united Italy accelerated. In a series of plebiscites in 1860 the people of Romagna and the duchies of Parma and Modena voted for union with Sardinia. France, in return for its collaboration, obtained the regions of Nice and Savoy. In April 1860 Palermo rose against Francis II, King of the Two Sicilies. In May, Garibaldi, with Cavour’s secret support, led an expedition from Genoa to aid the Sicilian revolt. Garibaldi soon took control of Sicily, and in August he attacked the Neapolitan mainland, entering Naples on September 7. Francis fled to the fortress of Gaeta. The Sardinian government, while sympathetic to Garibaldi’s conquest, had officially maintained a policy of neutrality. When Garibaldi threatened to march on Rome, which was protected by French forces, Cavour became alarmed. With Napoleon’s consent, he moved his forces into the Papal States to block Garibaldi. In the process, Sardinia absorbed the bulk of the Papal States, leaving the pope with Rome and its immediate environs. Meanwhile plebiscites in Naples and Sicily and in the marches and Umbria all favoured union with Sardinia.

D.

The Kingdom of Italy

On March 17, 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed, with Victor Emmanuel II as King and Cavour as Prime Minister. Italy, however, was not complete; Rome and Venice remained outside the kingdom. Cavour, who planned for their peaceful inclusion, died in June. The next year Garibaldi went to Sicily and organized a march on Rome. Fearing French intervention, the Italian government denounced Garibaldi. He and his followers, who had landed in Calabria, were blocked by the troops of Victor Emmanuel and compelled to surrender in August 1862. In 1866 Italy became the ally of Prussia in the Seven Weeks’ War against Austria, and at its end acquired Venice. Rome remained elusive, however, as a combined Franco-Papal force defeated a renewed effort by Garibaldi and his followers at Mentana in 1867. In 1870 French reverses in the Franco-Prussian War induced Napoleon III to withdraw his troops from Rome, and the Italians were finally able to enter the city. An October plebiscite favoured union with the Italian kingdom, and in July 1871, Rome became the capital of a united Italy.

D.1.

Colonial Ventures

When Victor Emmanuel died in January 1878, his son, Humbert I, succeeded to the Italian throne. During his reign, Italy concluded the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1882, marking the division of Europe into two hostile camps. Humbert was assassinated by an anarchist on July 29, 1900, and his son, Victor Emmanuel III, ascended the throne. Meanwhile, prompted by the examples of France and Britain and by the desire to distract attention from economic and social problems at home, the government had launched a colonial programme. In early 1885 an Italian expedition occupied a portion of East Africa. These territories were consolidated in 1890 into the colony of Eritrea. In that year Italy established a protectorate over the Somali coast south of British Somaliland. Prime Minister Francesco Crispi then decided to move from the coastal territories and take over the heartland of Ethiopia. The Italians, however, suffered a serious defeat in the Battle of Ādwa in 1896 and had to recognize Ethiopia’s independence. Elsewhere, Italian troops moved into Libya in 1911 and, at the end of the ensuing Italo-Turkish war, Italy’s possession of the Libyan coast was confirmed.

D.2.

Pre-War Italy

From 1901 to 1914 Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti dominated Italy, which underwent political, social, and economic modernization. Giolitti has been criticized for interfering in the electoral process, tolerating protectionism, and creating a virtual parliamentary dictatorship, but he has also been hailed as the maker of modern Italy. During his tenure a number of reforms were introduced: the right of workers to strike for higher wages was recognized; changes in electoral law greatly increased male suffrage; Roman Catholics were drawn into Italy’s political life; and the first major legislation on behalf of the economically depressed south was passed.

In foreign affairs, relations were improved with France, while Italy remained in the Triple Alliance. During the Giolitti era Italy’s rate of industrial growth was 87 per cent, and workers’ wages grew by more than 25 per cent despite a shortened workday and the introduction of a guaranteed day of rest. In many ways Italy was a democracy in the making, but this progress was halted by participation in World War I.

D.3.

World War I

When World War I began in August 1914, the Italian government brushed aside the Triple Alliance and declared its neutrality. Subsequently, after having signed the secret Treaty of London with the Allied powers, Italy declared war on Austria and Turkey, and then declared war against Germany about one year later. Italy sent a large force into the Trentino region, in the south Tirol. In 1916 the Austrians launched a series of attacks north-east of Trent and along the eastern bank of the Adige River, capturing the towns of Asiago and Asiero. Most of the lost territory was later regained by Italian forces, which then mounted an offensive along the Isonzo River in Venezia Giulia, capturing Gorizia on August 9. The Italian armies made little progress thereafter.

In October 1917 a combined Austro-German force attacked the Italian defences, winning a dramatic victory at Caporetto in Venezia Giulia. The Italians fell back, abandoning both Gorizia and the Karst Plateau. The enemy threatened the Italian line from the Julian Alps to the Adriatic Sea. The Italians retreated to the Piave River; reinforced by small numbers of French and British troops, they consolidated their defences and were able to fight off an Austrian force that attacked in June 1918. The Italians and their allies assumed the offensive, culminating in their crushing victory in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto (October 24-November 4). The Italian army then occupied Udine and Trent, while the navy landed troops at Trieste.

Meanwhile, on November 3, the Austro-Hungarian government and the Allies had signed an armistice. Italian casualties during the war totalled more than half a million. In the treaties that followed, Italy acquired the Trentino, Trieste, and the South Tirol, but did not get all the territory promised in the Treaty of London—notably Dalmatia and Fiume. In November 1920 Italy and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later renamed Yugoslavia) signed the Treaty of Rapallo; Fiume was established as a free state, and Italy renounced its claims to Dalmatia.

D.4.

The Post-War Years

From 1919 to 1922 Italy was torn by social and political strife, inflation, and economic problems, aggravated by the belief that Italy had won the war but lost the peace. Armed bands with a strong nationalist bias, known as the Fascisti (see Fascism), fought Socialist and Communist groups in Rome, Bologna, Trieste, Genoa, Parma, and elsewhere.

During Giolitti’s final ministry from 1920 to 1921, some semblance of normality returned. He formed a National Bloc of Liberals, Nationalists, and others, including Fascists, but he failed to gather a stable parliamentary majority because the two largest political parties, the Socialists and the newly formed Catholic Popular Party, refused their support. Giolitti then resigned. His departure precipitated a period of uncertainty. Many landowners feared that their estates would be seized by the peasants; the middle class and the industrialists feared that Italy would become a Soviet-style republic; and conservative Roman Catholics worried that socialism, communism, and atheism threatened the religious order.

On October 24, 1922, the Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, emboldened by the support of conservatives and former soldiers, demanded that the government be entrusted to his party. He threatened to seize power by force if his conditions were refused. As the Fascisti mobilized for a march on Rome, Prime Minister Luigi Facta resigned. On October 28 Victor Emmanuel called on Mussolini to form a new government.

E.

The Fascist Dictatorship

Although he was given extraordinary powers to restore order, Mussolini initially governed constitutionally. He headed a coalition government in 1923 that included Liberals, Nationalists, and Catholics, as well as Fascists. After the violence of the 1924 elections and the murder of the Socialist Party Deputy Giacomo Matteotti in 1924, Mussolini moved to suspend constitutional government. He proceeded in stages to establish a dictatorship by forbidding the parliament to initiate legislation; by making himself responsible to the king alone; by ordering parliament to authorize him to issue decrees having the force of law; by establishing absolute censorship of the press; and, in 1926, by suppressing all opposition parties.

E.1.

Economic Measures

In 1928 further measures were taken to transform the nation into a Fascist state. Supreme power was theoretically lodged in the Fascist Grand Council, comprising the top leadership of the Party, with the prime minister as chair. The Grand Council was to select the list of candidates for the Chamber of Deputies and to be consulted on all important business of the government, especially the choice of an heir to the throne and successor to Mussolini. Mussolini scored one of his greatest diplomatic triumphs in 1929, when he concluded the Lateran Treaty between the Italian state and the Holy See. This settled the 60-year-old controversy concerning the temporal power of the pope by the creation, at Rome, of Vatican City. In 1934 another step was taken in the reorganization of the economic life of Italy with the formation of 22 corporations, or guilds, representing workers and employers in all phases of the economy. Each corporation included Fascist Party members on its governing council and had Mussolini as its president. These councils were organized into a National Council of Corporations.

During the world economic depression that began in 1929, the Fascist government increasingly intervened to prevent the collapse of a number of industries. The construction of new factories or the expansion of old ones without governmental consent was prohibited. The government reorganized the iron and steel industries, expanded hydroelectric plants, and embarked on other public works projects. The military was also expanded and strengthened. Near the end of 1933, Mussolini announced that the Italian Chamber of Deputies would be called upon to legislate itself out of existence and to transfer its functions to the National Council of Corporations. This step was finally taken in 1939. The Chamber of Deputies was replaced by a Chamber of Fasci and Corporations, composed of some 800 appointive members of the National Council of Corporations. In their respective industries the corporations were entrusted with regulating prices and wages, planning economic policies, and discharging other economic functions.

E.2.

Relations with Germany

The appointment in 1933 of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany was greeted cautiously by the controlled Italian press. Hitler in turn expressed friendship for Italian fascism. A German-Italian axis was not immediately formed, however, and a temporary improvement in Franco-Italian relations resulted from German attempts to force the incorporation of Austria into the Third Reich of Germany in 1934. Mussolini rushed 75,000 Italian troops to the Italo-Austrian frontier, announcing that he would intervene if Germany took overt action. Italy drew even closer to its allies of World War I in 1935, when, along with France and Britain, it formed the Stresa Front, organized in protest against Germany’s repeated violations of the Treaty of Versailles.

E.3.

The Ethiopian Campaign

The event that upset European alignments and brought the Fascist and Nazi dictatorships into close accord was Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. Generally regarded as within the Italian sphere of influence, Ethiopia was bound to the Fascist state by many commercial and diplomatic pacts, but Italy sought every opportunity to integrate it into the Italian colonial empire. The Ethiopian war was preceded in 1935 by a Franco-Italian accord, by which Italy agreed to support French opposition to German rearmament in exchange for French concessions in Africa. Britain, regarding aggressive Italian expansion as a menace to British interests, vigorously opposed Mussolini’s plan.

The Italian invasion of Ethiopia began on October 3. Four days later the Council of the League of Nations declared Italy guilty of violating its obligations under the League Covenant and imposed economic sanctions against the aggressor. The league’s failure to enforce these sanctions, however, contributed largely to the Italian victory. On May 9, 1936, Mussolini formally annexed Ethiopia and proclaimed King Victor Emmanuel III as Emperor. Within a month, the country was incorporated, along with Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, into a single colony, Italian East Africa. In October 1936, after Germany had recognized the Italian conquest, Hitler and Mussolini concluded an agreement providing for joint action in support of their common goals.

E.4.

The Spanish Civil War

New stresses on the Italian economy were caused by Mussolini’s active espousal of General Francisco Franco’s cause in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Italian troops played an important role at the battles of Málaga and Santander, the Italian air force participated in many engagements, and Italian submarines allegedly sank many neutral ships bound for Loyalist ports with oil, food, and other supplies for the Republican armies. On the Guadalajara front, Italian forces were routed by the Spanish Loyalists in March 1937. An official report put Italian casualties at some 4,000 killed and 15,000 wounded.

E.5.

The Berlin-Rome Axis

By 1937 cooperation between Italy and Germany had begun to produce results. Following Mussolini’s visit to Germany in September, Italy announced its adherence to the Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany and Japan, and soon afterwards withdrew from the League of Nations. The first major consequence of Italian policy towards Germany was Mussolini’s refusal to aid Austria when the latter was absorbed by Germany in March 1938. Meanwhile, the increasing influence of Nazi racist doctrines on Fascist Italy found expression in a series of measures designed to curb the activities of Italian Jews, including a law that excluded all Jews from civil and military administrations. During the negotiations for the Munich Pact in 1938 and the subsequent dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, Mussolini gave firm support to Hitler’s demands. The two dictators signed a military assistance pact in May 1939. This move followed the German seizure of Bohemia and Moravia and the Italian annexation of Albania.

F.

World War II

When World War II began in September 1939, Mussolini took the position that he was under no obligation to aid Germany militarily because he had made it clear to the Nazis that Italy would not be prepared for war until 1942.

German successes during the first year of the war, however, led Mussolini to reverse his policy. In June 1940, when France lay prostrate in defeat and Britain alone faced the powerful German armies, Italy entered the war and granted France an armistice. In August 1940 Italian forces in East Africa occupied British Somaliland, and the following month Fascist armies in Libya and Italian East Africa began a gigantic pincer movement designed to overwhelm British defences in Egypt. On October 28, 1940, Fascist forces in Albania invaded Greece, apparently to divert British forces from Egypt and to secure bases on the Greek peninsula. The invasion failed, however, as the Greeks drove the Italians from Greece and Albania. This debacle, followed by British victories in the Mediterranean and in Egypt, rocked the Fascist regime to its foundations. Mussolini had to ask Hitler for aid, and thereafter Italian policy in all fields fell increasingly under German control. Sweeping changes in the Fascist military hierarchy were instituted, but these and other reforms failed to restore the morale of the Italian people.

In 1941 Italy suffered successive military and naval disasters and growing economic privation caused by an Allied blockade. Anti-Fascist sentiment spread throughout the population. The successful end of the Balkan campaign, as a result of German intervention, somewhat offset the Fascist reverses, however, as Italy acquired several new territories. By arrangement with Germany, almost all Greece was occupied by Italian troops. Many Italians soon realized that their territorial gains in the Balkans were largely illusory, because the Germans actually controlled these areas. Also, Italy was forced to pay an increasingly high price for Hitler’s military assistance. Italian foodstuffs and other commodities ran low as large shipments were sent to the Third Reich in return for German coal and oil. Italy declared war on the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on June 22, 1941, the day of the German invasion, and five weeks later the first Italian division was sent to the Soviet front. As difficulties developed in the German offensive, Hitler became more pressing in his demands on Mussolini.

F.1.

The United States Enters the War

At the same time, relations between the United States and Italy were approaching a showdown. In March the US government had seized 28 Italian merchant ships in US ports and arrested crew members who sabotaged the vessels on orders from the Italian naval attaché in Washington, D.C. The immediate recall of the attaché was demanded, whereupon Italy forced the recall of the US military attaché in Rome. When Italian assets in the United States were impounded in June, similar measures were taken against US assets in Italy. The alienation reached a climax in December, after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, when Mussolini declared war on the United States.

The outlook for Fascist Italy in 1942 was gloomy. In North Africa, temporary Italo-German gains were liquidated by a vigorous allied offensive. Axis forces, including the Italian, suffered serious reverses in the Soviet Union. Italian occupation troops in Albania, Yugoslavia, and Greece suffered heavy losses from guerrilla bands.

At home the Italian people endured a bitter winter with short rations of food and fuel. Increasing German control of all phases of Italian life, corruption and inefficiency among Fascist officials, and evasion of the rationing laws by the wealthy and influential contributed to their demoralization. In October the British launched a series of bombing raids against the industrial cities of northern Italy. As advancing British and American forces in North Africa established air bases in Algeria and Cyrenaica, southern Italy was also bombed. The political prestige of the Fascist regime continued to decline. In February 1943, hoping to turn the tide, Mussolini assumed full responsibility for both political affairs and military operations. When the Axis forces in Tunisia collapsed in May, he established a council of defence to prepare for an Allied invasion of the Italian mainland. All efforts to bolster defences and raise morale, however, were nullified by the Allied air raids.

F.2.

Invasion of Italy

On July 10, 1943, following the capitulation of the strategic Italian island of Pantelleria in the Mediterranean, Allied forces invaded Sicily. Six days later, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed a joint radio message to the people of Italy urging their surrender to avoid greater devastation. The next day Allied planes dropped leaflets over Rome advising of a possible raid on military installations in its vicinity, but assuring that the utmost care would be taken to avoid destruction of residential buildings and cultural monuments. About 500 Allied bombers then attacked marshalling yards, armament factories, and airfields near the city.

The bombing precipitated a large-scale exodus of the Roman population and brought the political crisis to a climax. During the raid Mussolini was at Verona, conferring with Hitler on measures to meet the next phase of the Allied invasion. On his return to Rome he was confronted with a demand for a meeting of the Fascist Grand Council to consider the Italian military crisis. After a stormy debate, the session concluded with a vote of no confidence in Mussolini. King Victor Emmanuel on July 25 asked for Mussolini’s resignation and placed him in military custody. He summoned Marshal Pietro Badoglio to form a new ministry. The Badoglio Cabinet soon decreed the liquidation of all Fascist organizations.

F.3.

Surrender and Armistice

The fall of Mussolini precipitated clamorous peace demonstrations throughout Italy. Meanwhile, the Allies continued their advance in Sicily. Churchill offered Italy the choice of breaking off its alliance with Germany or suffering destruction; General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allied Commander-in-Chief, promised the Italian people an honourable peace and a beneficent occupation if they ended their aid to the German war effort. In mid-August, a representative of Prime Minister Badoglio arrived in Lisbon with an offer to join the Allies against Germany when the Allied invasion of the Italian mainland began. American and British staff officers were dispatched to negotiate with the Italian emissary on the basis of Italy’s unconditional surrender. The armistice was signed on September 3, the day the invasion of southern Italy began.

The announcement of the armistice set off a furious race between the Allies and the Germans for possession of the territories, bases, arms and supplies, communications, and other war facilities formerly under Italian control. A large Anglo-American amphibious force landed on the beaches of Salerno just south of Naples, hoping to drive inland and trap the German units facing the British Eighth Army further south. The Germans, however, held off the invasion force until German units in southern Italy could retire. They also seized the cities and strategic centres of northern and central Italy, disarmed Italian troops, and rounded up thousands of suspected enemies. On September 10 they occupied Rome, from which King Victor Emmanuel III and Badoglio had fled two days earlier. The Allies were more successful in the race for control of the Italian fleet. In response to a message from the Allied naval commander in the Mediterranean, virtually all seaworthy Italian warships left their bases at La Spezia and other Italian-held ports to surrender to the Allies in accordance with the armistice terms.

The Germans retained the support of pro-Fascist Italians by announcing in September that a Fascist National Government had been established in opposition to the Badoglio government and was functioning in the name of Mussolini. The former dictator had been rescued from prison by German parachute troops, thus baulking Badoglio’s promise to deliver him to the Allies.

In line with pledges made to the Allies and to the Italian people, Prime Minister Badoglio declared war on Germany on October 13 and reorganized his government on a broader, more democratic basis. Seeking to induce leaders of various anti-German political groups to enter his Cabinet, he conferred with leaders of six political parties, disbanded by Mussolini, which had united to form a National Liberation Front. These liberal elements, however, would consent to form a representative government only if Victor Emmanuel abdicated. The king refused, and Badoglio declined any part in a move to oust him. As a temporary solution, he organized a so-called technical government of non-party experts to carry on administrative functions. In November the Committee of National Liberation voted no confidence in the Badoglio government and called on the king to abdicate.

F.4.

A New Government

In April 1944 the king announced his decision to withdraw from public affairs and to appoint his son Humbert, later King Humbert II, as Lieutenant-General of Italy, the appointment to become effective on the entry of Allied troops into Rome. This cleared the way for a government representing the National Committee of Liberation. The Allied armies liberated Rome on June 4, and Victor Emmanuel transferred all royal authority to Humbert. The party leaders of the Committee of National Liberation, however, unanimously refused to serve in the Badoglio government, and the position of prime minister was given to Ivanoe Bonomi, who formed a coalition government.

Because the new government was under Allied jurisdiction and control, its plans for domestic reforms were largely nullified. American and British officials, fearful of anything that might impede the Allied war effort, vetoed all proposals for social and economic change. Allied authorities also frowned on Italian anti-Fascist volunteers and resistance fighters, most of whom were radicals. The new Cabinet largely agreed on basic political issues. Middle-class liberals and proletarian radicals were united in the belief that the armistice terms should be modified and that Italy should be allowed to reshape itself into a self-governing democracy. Communists and socialists, elsewhere bitter adversaries, advocated economic reform. Even Communists and Roman Catholics found areas of agreement.

The winter of 1944 and 1945 was a period of intense suffering, particularly in the ravaged areas left by the retreating Germans. Throughout the central provinces were burned villages, idle or flooded fields, and ruined factories, railways, power plants, and bridges. Some 800,000 hectares (2 million acres) of arable land were left uncultivated, and prices of necessities rose prohibitively. As a result of the widespread misery, the Action and Socialist parties sharply criticized Bonomi’s leadership. Industrial stagnation, mass unemployment, and skyrocketing inflation, however, continued to frustrate the government in its efforts to rehabilitate the national economy.

The final Allied offensive in Italy began in April 1945, and by the end of the month the German armies had been completely smashed. Mussolini, his mistress, and several of his high-ranking colleagues were captured by Italian partisans at a small town near Lake Como. The entire group was summarily tried and, on April 28, executed. Northern Italians inflicted brutal vengeance on Mussolini’s followers after the German surrender on May 2. More than 1,000 Fascists were shot in Milan alone.

F.5.

Rise of De Gasperi

In accordance with a previous pledge Bonomi resigned after the liberation of northern Italy. A coalition government, representing the entire Committee of National Liberation, was then formed. The new government, headed by Ferruccio Parri, leader of the Action Party, was little more than a stopgap regime, however; it was unable to grapple effectively with the problems confronting Italy. In October monarchists and leaders of the Liberal Party accused Prime Minister Parri of violating the truce on the question of the monarchy, and he subsequently resigned. The ensuing crisis was accompanied by riotous demonstrations in southern Italy at the high cost of living. The Committee of National Liberation finally offered the premiership to Alcide De Gasperi, a Christian Democrat. He took office on December 9.

The year 1946 was one of unparalleled hardship for most of the Italian people. Although the privations provoked occasional civil unrest, the general mood of the populace was apathetic during the campaign preceding the national referendum and elections for a Constituent Assembly in June. The prevalence of opposition to the monarchy was indicated in April, when the convention of the Christian Democratic party voted by a ratio of 3 to 1 in favour of a republic. King Victor Emmanuel III abdicated on May 9, and his son ascended the throne as Humbert II.

G.

The Republic

Nearly 25 million voters, about 89 per cent of the eligible electorate, which for the first time included women, voted in the general elections of June 2 and 3, 1946. Of the voters, 54.3 per cent chose a republic. On June 10, when the popular mandate was officially proclaimed, Italy became a de facto republic. Three days later King Humbert abdicated, left the country and settled in Portugal. He died in Geneva in 1983.

G.1.

Principal Parties

In the vote for the Constituent Assembly the Christian Democrats won a plurality of 207 seats and emerged as the first party in Italy. The Socialist Party won 115 seats, the Communists gained 104 seats, and four minor parties shared the remaining 117 seats. On June 28, Enrico de Nicola, a member of the Liberal Party, was elected provisional president of the republic. De Gasperi remained as prime minister.

In the deliberations preceding approval of the new republican government by the Constituent Assembly, irreconcilable disagreements between the Communists and Christian Democrats became evident. This friction was intensified by the constant threat of famine and the generally chaotic Italian economy. As the prestige of the De Gasperi government declined, the Socialist and Communist parties drew together. Municipal elections in November 1946 indicated a decline in Christian Democratic support and gains for the Communist, Socialist, and right-wing parties.

G.2.

Paris Peace Conference

The despairing mood of the Italians was meanwhile aggravated by preliminary decisions of the Big Four (France, Britain, the United States, and the USSR), as revealed at the Paris Peace Conference in July 1946. These decisions contemplated the internationalization of Trieste, the cession of several territories, and the award of US$100 million in reparations to the USSR. The proposed treaty provided also for additional reparations to other nations victimized by Fascism, for severe restrictions on the Italian armed forces, and for British administration of Italian East Africa, pending a Big Four agreement on final disposition of the colonies. Despite popular protests, the treaty was signed at Paris on February 10, 1947, and was subsequently ratified by the Italian Constituent Assembly, with Communist and Socialist delegates abstaining; it came into effect on September 15. Allied occupation forces withdrew from Italy soon afterwards. Although the Italian people generally opposed the peace treaty, many were mollified by the attitude of the US government, which had helped to frustrate Soviet demands for harsher terms and had also concretely demonstrated its friendly intentions towards Italy.

G.3.

Political Violence

Early in 1947 the Italian Socialist Party, reflecting a trend in Europe, split into two groups on the issue of collaboration with the Communists. Pietro Nenni, foreign minister in De Gasperi’s Cabinet and a leader of the pro-Communist faction, resigned on January 15. The entire Cabinet then withdrew, and De Gasperi formed another coalition ministry, including both Communists and Socialists. Relations between the leftists and moderates deteriorated steadily thereafter. In the mounting Cold War between the Western democracies and the Soviet bloc, Italians took sides according to their ideology. During this period the extreme right, composed mainly of former adherents of Mussolini and monarchists, became increasingly bold. On May 1 an armed band attacked a Communist-led parade at Greci, Sicily, killing eight people. The incident precipitated a Cabinet crisis from May 13 to 31, when De Gasperi formed a ministry of Christian Democrats and non-party specialists, excluding both Communists and Socialists. The new regime immediately began a purge of leftists from important public positions.

Bitter political strife followed. By means of mass demonstrations, general strikes, and other tactics the leftists tried to dislodge the De Gasperi government. Reflecting hostility to the Italian government, the USSR in the UN Security Council vetoed Italy’s application for UN membership. At the same time the Italian Communist Party became a founding member of Cominform. See International.

G.4.

Parliamentary Elections

Meanwhile, the Constituent Assembly had drafted a constitution for Italy. Approved on December 22, 1947, by a vote of 453 to 62, the document became effective on January 1, 1948. The ensuing national election campaign was one of the most bitter and dramatic in Italian history. Coinciding with an intensification of the Cold War, the contest brought Italy to the verge of civil war. Displays of force became a central feature in the strategy of many parties. The Communist-led coalition, operating through the General Confederation of Labour, frequently used strikes as a political weapon. In reprisals against the left, the government confiscated arms and ammunition and conducted intimidatory military demonstrations in various urban areas. Pope Pius XII sanctioned anti-Communist activity by the Italian clergy.

In the elections on April 18 and 19 the Christian Democratic Party won overwhelmingly. It received nearly 49 per cent of the vote, giving it 307 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 151 in the Senate. The Popular Front, the coalition of Communists and left-wing Socialists, won 182 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 31 in the Senate. The right-wing Socialists elected 33 deputies; the remaining 52 seats went to minor parties.

G.5.

Communist Opposition

The decisive mandate to the Christian Democrats markedly reduced political tension in Italy. Because of the relative strength displayed by the Communists, however, reconciliation of the differences that had divided the country appeared unlikely. On May 11, Luigi Einaudi, the candidate of the Christian Democrats and right-wing Socialists, was elected President of the Italian republic. De Gasperi was reappointed prime minister.

Supplies and credits made available under the Marshall Plan (see European Recovery Program) had meanwhile begun to flow into Italy, creating favourable conditions for reconstruction of the national economy. Adhering to their policy of irreconcilable struggle against the plan, Communists promoted a widespread strike for higher wages. The movement culminated on July 2 in a general 12-hour walkout. Within two weeks Italy was plunged into another grave crisis as the result of the attempted assassination of Palmiro Togliatti, Head of the Italian Communist Party. The General Confederation of Labour, charging the government with political responsibility, immediately called a nationwide general strike to force its resignation. During the next two days riotous demonstrations occurred in practically every city throughout Italy. Peace was restored only by the mobilization of more than 300,000 troops and police.

G.6.

Foreign Problems and Treaties

In 1949 the Popular Front confined its struggle against the Christian Democratic regime chiefly to the chambers of parliament. The principal object of Communist attacks during this period was the proposed North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). With the unanimous approval of his Cabinet and a large majority of the Chamber of Deputies, however, De Gasperi signed the treaty in Washington, D.C., on April 4, 1949.

The Big Four meanwhile had failed to agree on the disposition of Italian pre-war colonies in Africa, and the matter had been referred to the UN. On November 21, 1949, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the issue. Its salient features included provisions for granting independence to Italian Somaliland after ten years as a UN trust territory under Italian administration; for granting independence to Libya by January 1, 1952; and for disposition of Eritrea on the basis of a report to be prepared by a UN special commission.

Italy continued to collaborate with the Western democracies after its ratification of the North Atlantic Treaty. The government announced in July 1950 that the Italian army would be built up to 250,000, the limit imposed by the World War II peace treaty. Further expansion of the military establishment was announced the following December. The Western countries subsequently waived the clauses of the peace treaty concerning restrictions on Italy’s rearmament.

In June 1952 the Italian parliament ratified the Schuman Plan creating the European Coal and Steel Community, which would become the European Community (now the EU).

G.7.

Fall of De Gasperi

In an attempt to improve the effectiveness of the executive branch of the government, the Christian Democrats and their allies secured passage, in March 1953, of an electoral reform bill ensuring the party in power of a working majority in parliament. The bill provided that a party or coalition polling 50 per cent or more of the popular vote would receive 65 per cent of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies.

Parliamentary elections were held on June 7 and 8. The Christian Democrats emerged again as the strongest party, this time with 40 per cent of the votes. The Communists were second (22.6 per cent), and the parties of the right, which registered the biggest gains (12.7 per cent as compared with 4.2 per cent in 1948), were third. De Gasperi was succeeded as Prime Minister by Giuseppe Pella, former Treasury Minister, who won the neutrality of the Socialists and the support of the monarchists. Intra-party differences, however, brought about the collapse of several governments in the following two years.

Late in 1953 the question of the future status of the Free Territory of Trieste brought Italy and Yugoslavia to the verge of war, but tension relaxed after the United States, Britain, and France agreed to work out a formula acceptable to both sides. The subsequent settlement in 1954 allocated a zone including the city of Trieste to Italy; Yugoslavia received the rest of the Trieste region. Italy became a member of the UN in 1955.

G.8.

Christian Democratic Governments

The repudiation of Joseph Stalin at the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party in February 1956 plunged the powerful Italian Communist Party into confusion, and it disillusioned the left-wing Socialists and weakened their alliance with the Communists. After the Hungarian Revolution in October of that year, the number of Communist sympathizers dwindled. The decline of the Party strengthened democratic forces.

In the elections held on May 25 and 26, 1958, the centre coalition obtained majorities in both houses of parliament. A new coalition government composed of Christian Democrats and right-wing Socialists and led by Amintore Fanfani was sworn in on July 2. He was succeeded in January 1959 by Antonio Segni, whose Cabinet consisted entirely of Christian Democrats. Widespread criticism of the visit by President Giovanni Gronchi to the Soviet Union in February 1960 led to the fall of the government later that month. In July Fanfani returned to office and, with the voting support of three centrist parties, obtained approval of a Cabinet composed entirely of Christian Democratic ministers. Two years later, former Prime Minister Segni, who was foreign minister in Fanfani’s government, was elected to the presidency.

Local elections in 1962 demonstrated strong popular support for the pro-government parties, and the Communists lost strength for the first time in many years. Subsequently, dissent arose among the parties supporting the government. It had its base in Communist criticism of Fanfani’s policies, including charges that the prime minister had failed to stimulate domestic economic reforms and to secure the removal of NATO missile bases from Italy. Although the parties agreed in January 1963 to continue their support of his government, it was weakened by the results of parliamentary elections on April 28 and 29. The popular vote for the Christian Democrats declined to 38.3 per cent, while the Communist vote increased to 25.3 per cent. Fanfani resigned on May 16 but remained head of a caretaker government until Giovanni Leone, President of the Chamber of Deputies, formed a temporary Christian Democratic minority government.

G.9.

Opening to the Left

In October the moderate elements of the left-wing Italian Socialist Party, led by Nenni, agreed to enter a centre-left government for the first time since 1947. A four-party coalition Cabinet was then organized by the Christian Democrat Aldo Moro, who assumed the position of prime minister in December.

During 1964 the conservative and left-wing elements in the government persistently and fundamentally disagreed. The situation was rendered more serious by signs that the six-year economic boom would be ending because the factions were unable to agree on a policy to counter the threatened slump. On March 4, 1965, however, the four parties in the coalition government agreed to set aside their political differences in order to take unified action against the economic recession. Throughout 1965 and 1966 the government headed by Moro maintained the confidence of the coalition parties.

G.10.

Social Upheavals

In the late 1960s and the 1970s Italy experienced dramatic social, economic, political, and religious developments. In 1968 students demanding educational reforms clashed with police on university campuses in Rome and other cities, and workers called general strikes to urge an overhaul of the social security system. Feminist issues became more important as a divorce law was adopted in 1973 and abortion was legalized in 1978. Problems of inflation, unemployment, and currency outflows increased with the 1974 recession and Italy’s huge oil import bills. Government deficits rose rapidly, and massive international loans were needed to avert bankruptcy.

Throughout this period, Italy’s political system struggled to cope with the pace of change. The late 1960s and early 1970s were characterized by a series of short-lived, mainly coalition governments, led by the Christian Democrats. For a short period in 1974 the country was without a government altogether. As Italy’s economic problems worsened and a wave of extortive kidnappings and political violence swept the country, public confidence in the government declined, and support for the Communist Party, led by Enrico Berlinguer, increased.

In the June 1975 regional elections the Communists won 33 per cent of the vote and pressed the government to support a long-term alliance between Communism and Roman Catholicism. In parliamentary elections in June 1976 the Communists made more gains, winning 35 per cent of the vote; the Christian Democrats won 39 per cent. The Christian Democrat leader Giulio Andreotti formed a new government with Communist support; by July 1977 the Communists were permitted a voice in policymaking. The Andreotti government fell in January 1978 when the Communists insisted that the country’s economic crisis required emergency rule, with Communists holding Cabinet positions. Finally, in March, Andreotti formed a new Christian Democrat government with formal support from the Communists. The eventual loss of Communist support led to Andreotti’s resignation in January 1979.

G.11.

Urban Terrorism

Violence and lawlessness, which had plagued Italian society throughout the 1970s, took more virulent forms towards the end of the decade. Outraged by the Communists’ decision to ally themselves with the government, extreme left-wing terrorists preyed on politicians, police, journalists, and businessmen. In March 1978 former prime minister Aldo Moro was kidnapped by a fanatical left-wing group, the Red Brigades, which made Moro’s release contingent on the freeing of other terrorists from Italian jails. The government refused to deal with Moro’s captors, and he was subsequently found murdered.

G.12.

Shifting Alignments

From June 1979 to June 1981 the Christian Democrats led the government, as they had for more than three decades. In 1981, however, Giovanni Spadolini, a leader of the small Republican Party, became the first post-World War II prime minister who was not a Christian Democrat. Another series of Cabinet crises in August 1983 led to the formation of a government under Bettino Craxi, Italy’s first Socialist prime minister since the war. He served until March 1987, the longest tenure of any post-war leader. During his term, in 1984, Roman Catholicism lost its status as Italy’s state religion, as the government signed a new concordat with the Vatican to replace the Lateran Treaty of 1929. In July 1987 Christian Democrat Giovanni Goria became prime minister; his five-party coalition broke up in March 1988, and Ciriaco De Mita, leader of the Christian Democrats’ left wing, came to power. A year later, in March 1989, De Mita was ousted as party secretary; he resigned the premiership two months later. In July Giulio Andreotti returned for his sixth time as prime minister. Divisions among Christian Democrats and the five-party coalition led to his resignation in March 1991. When no one else was able to form a government, Andreotti did so, in April; this coalition lasted about a year.

The collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe precipitated changes in Italy too. In 1990 the Italian Communists renamed themselves the Democratic Party of the Left, playing down their former atheism and emphasis on class conflict in favour of such issues as the environment, feminism, and the nagging economic disparity between the industrial north and the poverty-ridden south. The Socialist Party, still led by Craxi, tried to unify the left and renamed itself the Party of Socialist Unity. Voters showed their lack of confidence in all established parties in the April 1992 elections. The once-dominant Christian Democrats received 29.7 per cent of the vote, an all-time low. The renamed Communists, in second place, drew 16.1 per cent, down from 26.6 per cent in 1987; the Socialists were third, with 13.6 per cent.

The voter backlash resulted from a combination of factors, including a poor economy, high unemployment, and the public revelation of widespread political corruption and high-level Mafia influence. In the following two years, more than 6,000 individuals, including hundreds of politicians as well as judicial and business leaders, were investigated or arrested on charges that included taking bribes and granting political and economic favours. As a result of the scandal, Craxi was forced to resign his position as head of the Socialist Party in early 1993. After an April vote in which Italian voters approved eight governmental reform referendums revising the country’s electoral system, Prime Minister Giuliano Amato resigned and was replaced by the head of the Bank of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

G.13.

New Political Climate

In the March 1994 elections, a newly formed coalition dubbed the Freedom Alliance was voted into power. The Freedom Alliance included: the Northern League (formerly the Lombard League), which had gained fourth place in the 1992 elections, in which it advocated the division of Italy into three separate republics, and which for the 1994 elections moderated its platform to emphasize taxation and economic issues; the neo-Fascist National Alliance; and the newly formed right-wing Forza Italia Party, a creation of media magnate Silvio Berlusconi. As a result of the victory by the Freedom Alliance, the right wing held an absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies as the strongest force in the Italian Senate. With about 25 per cent of the vote, Forza Italia was the election leader, and Berlusconi was consequently appointed prime minister shortly after the election.

In his new post, Berlusconi was faced with the challenges not only of reviving Italy’s moribund economy, but also of balancing the conflicting policies of the other two members of the Freedom Alliance. He survived only seven months as prime minister after his elevation in May 1994 before being forced to resign in December 1994 by the withdrawal of the Northern League from his coalition. However, the controversy generated by his administration continued, not least because Berlusconi controlled the majority of Italy’s private television stations and had a monopoly over television advertising. However, although he survived referendums in June 1995 aimed at reducing his television empire and removing his advertising monopoly, Berlusconi was increasingly touched by corruption scandals.

Meanwhile, President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro asked Berlusconi’s technocrat Treasury Minister Lamberto Dini to form a new non-party government in January 1995. His administration introduced supplementary budgets and media legislation aimed at Berlusconi’s empire. In May some 160 business and political figures were indicted for corruption, including former prime minister Bettino Craxi. In September Andreotti was sent for trial for collusion with the Mafia, and subsequently charged with complicity in the murder of a journalist. Opposition parties and the Northern League forced a close vote of no confidence in Dini in October. Despite public satisfaction with his record, Dini was driven to offer his resignation in December 1995 once his unelected government had fulfilled its mandate of passing the 1996 budget. However, President Scalfaro asked him to continue while Italy held its January-June 1996 presidency of the European Union.

G.14.

Left-Wing Government

Dini’s support from various left-wing parties swiftly collapsed, forcing his resignation in January 1996. The ensuing general election in April was won by the centre-left Olive Tree bloc, which included Communists and other Marxists but which was led by the moderate economics professor Romano Prodi and included Dini. The election also further underlined the decline of Berlusconi, and of the forces of separatism (Northern League) and neo-fascism (National Alliance).

Former prime minister Andreotti went on trial in Milan in April, and another former prime minister, Bettino Craxi, was sentenced in his absence on corruption charges to eight years’ imprisonment. Romano Prodi was sworn in as Italy’s 55th post-war prime minister in May. In June Umberto Bossi, leader of the Northern League, pledged to continue campaigning for secession for the northern region, despite a poor result in local elections; his declaration of the “Republic of Padania” in September, failed to attract wide support. The 1997 budget, which was approved in November 1996, was considered to be the most austere in post-war years, consistent with the government’s aim of reforming Italy’s public finances to become eligible to join in European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) at its inception. Silvio Berlusconi’s year-long trial was declared null and void in January 1997, when the presiding judge resigned amid allegations of bias.

Prodi’s government issued a mini-budget containing public deficit measures designed to achieve EMU entry in March 1997. Critics decried it as too limited, and in April the European Commission called on Italy to make deeper structural economic changes. This and a similar call by EU foreign ministers in May was reflected in the government’s May 1997 three-year economic plan. In late June a parliamentary commission issued political reform proposals, including a reduction of the Chamber of Deputies from 630 to 400 seats and the Senate from 315 to 200, a directly elected presidency with a six-year term, a new Regional Commission, and other measures.

The apparent stability of Prodi’s government was undermined in October 1997, when his coalition partners the Refounded Communists (RC) withdrew support over the (relatively mild) September budget. Prodi offered his resignation, but the crisis was defused when the RC leader Fausto Bertinotti, apparently surprised by opposition to his move within his party, agreed to terms. Victories in the November 1997 local elections reconfirmed the coalition’s mandate. In December Berlusconi was found guilty of false accounting. However, Italian law regarding suspension of sentences prevented a jail term.

In January 1998 the European Commission provisionally backed Italy to join in EMU in 1999. In October 1998 the coalition government of Romano Prodi was brought down when the Refounded Communists withdrew support once again. It was replaced by an administration headed by Massimo D'Alema, a former Communist and leader of the Democratic Party of the Left. In January 1999 Italy joined with 10 other European states in the launching of the single European currency, the Euro. From March 1999 the Italian government participated in NATO offensive action against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia over Yugoslav actions in Kosovo. In May 1999 President Scalfaro reached the end of his term of office, and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi was elected to replace him by a strong majority.

In September 1999 former Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti was acquitted by a court in Perugia; the judges ruled that there was no evidence to prove he had ordered the murder of Carmine Pecorelli. Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema resigned in December, although he was back in office two days later having been asked by Ciampi to form a new government. The upset was the result of internal disputes among D'Alema's coalition, which consisted of ten partners. However, D'Alema resigned again in April 2000 after his centre-left coalition was defeated by the centre-right opposition in regional elections. He was succeeded by Giuliano Amato who managed to stitch together an eight-party, centre-left coalition government, the country's 58th since the end of World War II.

G.15.

Berlusconi’s Return to Power

Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the Forza Italia party, was returned as prime minister in the May 2001 general election when the Freedom Alliance won a comfortable majority in the Chamber of Deputies and a narrower victory in the Senate. He was formally sworn in on June 11 and established a strongly right-wing Cabinet. Berlusconi pledged to make tax cuts and revive Italy’s flailing economy. The first major issue for his new government was the hosting of the G8 conference in Genoa in July, but the summit was overshadowed by violence and rioting and the death of a protester shot by police. Several hundred other protesters were injured in the rioting. In October Berlusconi was cleared by an Italian court of charges of corruption relating to a long-running case in which his employees had been charged with bribery and false accounting.

Italy’s worst air disaster in 30 years occurred at Milan’s Linate airport on October 8, 2001. A Scandinavian Airlines jet and a light aircraft collided in fog on the runway: 118 people were killed.

In line with 11 other European countries, Italy introduced Euro notes and coins on January 1, 2002. Italy’s foreign minister Renato Ruggiero resigned in protest at the Eurosceptic views of his colleagues, most notably those of the prime minister, with whom he had clashed repeatedly. Italy faced a number of general strikes in the autumn with workers protesting about new labour laws. Berlusconi succeeded in pushing through a criminal justice reform bill that his critics said was deliberately engineered so that Berlusconi could avoid facing corruption charges regarding the bribery of judges. Former leader Giulio Andreotti was not as fortunate: he was sentenced to 24 years’ imprisonment for his involvement in the murder of a journalist in 1979. Eighty-three-year-old Andreotti appealed against the sentence and in November 2003 was acquitted of the charge by Italy's highest court. Andreotti had always claimed that he was the victim of a Mafia vendetta. In July 2003 parliament passed a law granting the prime minister (that is, Berlusconi) immunity from prosecution during his trial on charges of corruption. The law was overturned by the constitutional court in January 2004. In December, judges applied a statute of limitations to the charges against Berlusconi, effectively acquitting him.

However, economic stagnation in Italy continued to erode support for Berlusconi and his government. Following poor results in April 2005's regional elections, the ruling coalition collapsed after two parties withdrew their support. This brought to an end Italy’s longest-serving government since 1945. Nevertheless, Berlusconi was asked by the president to form a new coalition. It took office a few days later and comprised Berlusconi's Forza Italia as well as the National Alliance, the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC), and the Northern League.

G.16.

Prodi’s Administration

In April 2006’s general election Berlusconi’s centre-right coalition of parties, Casa delle Liberta, lost by an extraordinarily narrow measure in both houses of parliament. The poll followed a fractious electoral campaign between Berlusconi and Romano Prodi, who led the centre-left coalition, L’Unione. After weeks of prevarication, Berlusconi resigned in May. Prodi was asked to form a government once the issue of a new president had been resolved. Giorgio Napolitano was elected president and sworn in on May 15; Prodi was sworn in two days later. His new Cabinet included roles for Massimo D’Alema and Giuliano Amato, both former prime ministers. Prodi resigned in February 2007 but after winning votes of confidence in both houses was prevailed upon to stay in office. Prodi announced plans for the withdrawal of Italian forces from Iraq, though he defended the military presence in Afghanistan. The fragile nature of the governing coalition made it difficult for him to enact the reforms he believed necessary to ensure Italy’s future prosperity and in January 2008 the centrist Udeur party withdrew from the government. Prodi was forced to hold votes of confidence in both houses of parliament and after defeat in the Senate he submitted his resignation. Napolitano once again asked him to remain in office as a caretaker prime minister while a solution to Italy’s vexing problem of short-lived governments was sought.

G.17.

Berlusconi’s Third Term

In April 2008 Berlusconi made a dramatic return to power when his new bloc of right-wing parties, Popolo della Libertà (People of Freedom), won majorities in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate in the legislative elections caused by the collapse of Prodi’s coalition. On taking office Berlusconi stated that his priorities would be ensuring the future of Italy’s troubled national airline, Alitalia, and resolving the refuse collection crisis in Naples that had left rubbish accumulating in the streets since December 2007.