Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
By the 1930s, all aspects of Italian society were regulated by the party. The economy,
banking, a massive public works program, the conversion of coastal malarial swamps into
arable land and an ambitious modernisation of the armed forces were all part of Mus-
solini's grand plan.
On the international front, Mussolini at first showed a cautious hand, signing interna-
tional cooperation pacts (including the 1928 Kellogg Pact solemnly renouncing war) and
until 1935 moving close to France and the UK to contain the growing menace of Adolf
Hitler's rapidly re-arming Germany.
That all changed when Mussolini decided to invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia) as the first big
step to creating a 'new Roman empire'. This aggressive side of Mussolini's policy had
already led to skirmishes with Greece over the island of Corfu and to military expeditions
against nationalist forces in the Italian colony of Libya.
The League of Nations condemned the Abyssinian adventure (King Vittorio Emanuele
III was declared Emperor of Abyssinia in 1936) and from then on Mussolini changed
course, drawing closer to Nazi Germany. They backed the rebel General Franco in the
three-year Spanish Civil War and in 1939 signed an alliance pact.
WWII broke out in September 1939 with Hitler's invasion of Poland. Italy remained
aloof until June 1940, by which time Germany had overrun Norway, Denmark, the Low
Countries and much of France. It seemed too easy and so Mussolini entered on Germany's
side in 1940, a move Hitler must have regretted later. Germany found itself pulling Italy's
chestnuts out of the fire in campaigns in the Balkans and North Africa and could not pre-
vent Allied landings in Sicily in 1943.
By then, the Italians had had enough of Mussolini and his war and so the king had the
dictator arrested. In September, Italy surrendered and the Germans, who had rescued Mus-
solini, occupied the northern two-thirds of the country and reinstalled the dictator.
The painfully slow Allied campaign up the peninsula and German repression led to the
formation of the Resistance, which played a growing role in harassing German forces.
Northern Italy was finally liberated in April 1945. Resistance fighters caught Mussolini as
he fled north in the hope of reaching Switzerland. They shot him and his lover, Clara
Petacci, before stringing up their corpses (along with others) in Milan's Piazzale Lotto.
This was a far cry from Il Duce's hopes for a glorious burial alongside his ancient imperi-
al idol, Augustus, in Rome.
