Why Italy
Help with Italian History!?
I need a timeline that is pre-world war 2 for italy. The years 1920-1939. Including economics and politics. HELP ME PLEASE!!!!!
Public Comments
- This ??? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Italy_as_a_monarchy_and_in_the_World_Wars#The_Fascist_regime_.281922-1943.29
- Timeline Italy 1930-1939 Return to home -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1930 Feb 18, Luigi Pirandello's "Come Tu Mi Vuoi," premiered in Milan. (MC, 2/18/02) 1930 Apr 21, Silvana Mangano, actress (Death in Venice, Barabbas), was born in Rome, Italy. (MC, 4/21/02) 1930 Jun 29, Oriana Fallaci, Italian journalist, was born. (HN, 6/29/01) 1930 Jul 23, Earthquake struck Ariano, Italy, and some 1,500 were killed. (MC, 7/23/02) 1930 Gino Severini, artist, published Fleurs et Masques in London. (SFEM, 2/1/98, p.6) 1930 Futurist poet, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti denounced pasta as obsolete and urged Italians to try more avant-garde combinations like cooked salami sauced in espresso and spiked with eau de Cologne. (WSJ, 12/29/95, p.A-11) 1930 Mt. Stromboli in Italy erupted and hurled 30-ton rocks onto houses 3 km away and caused a tidal wave as the entire island mountain rose. (PacDisc. Spring/’96, p.30) 1932 Jan 5, Umberto Eco, Italian novelist who wrote "The Name of the Rose," was born. (HN, 1/5/99) 1932 Apr 17, Graziella Sciutti, Italian opera singer, was born. (MC, 4/17/02) 1932 Sep 11, Valentino, fashion designer for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, was born in Milan, Italy. (MC, 9/11/01) 1932 Oct 25, Mussolini promised to remain dictator for 30 years. (MC, 10/25/01) 1932 Nov 5, Mussolini freed 16,000 criminals. (MC, 11/5/01) 1933 Mar 19, Italy's dictator Benito Mussolini proposed a pact with Britain, France and Germany. (AP, 3/19/03) 1933 Jun 26, Claudio Abbado, composer, conductor (London Symph-1982), was born in Milan, Italy. (MC, 6/26/02) 1933 Giulio Einaudi (d.1999 at 87) founded the Giulio Einaudi Editore in Turin, a publishing house that he built into a wellspring of fine literature, intellectual thought and political theory. In 1994 the firm became part of Mondadori, part of the media empire of Silvio Berlusconi. (SFC, 4/8/99, p.C5) 1933 Mussolini decided to transform Campione, a destitute fisherman’s village, into a showcase for Italy’s prosperity. Subsidies were curtailed in 2001. (WSJ, 1/16/00, p.A1) 1933 Francesco Illy founded Illycafe in Trieste, Italy. He invented the compressed air coffee machine (patented in 1934), the predecessor of the espresso machine as we now know it. (http://indiacoffee.org/newsletter/2005/august/in_the_news1.html) 1934 Feb 18, Aldo Ceccato, conductor (Detroit Symph Orch 1973-77), was born in Milan, Italy. (MC, 2/18/02) 1934 Feb 24, Renata Scotto, soprano (Violetta, La Traviata), was born in Savona, Italy. (MC, 2/24/02) 1934 Jun 23, Italy gained the right to colonize Albania after defeating the country. (HN, 6/23/98) 1934 Sep 20, Sophia Loren, actress (Desire Under the Elms, Black Orchid), was born in Rome. (MC, 9/20/01) 1934 Dec 5, Italian and Ethiopian troops clashed at the Ualual on disputed Somali-Ethiopian border. (HN, 12/5/98) 1934 Attilio Bertolucci (1912-2000) published his 1st collection of poems "November Fires." (SFC, 6/15/00, p.A34) 1934 The Italian film "La Signora di Tutti" starred Isa Miranda and was directed by Max Ophuls. (SFEC, 9/5/99, DB p.50) 1934 Charles Ponzi, Italian immigrant, check forger and scam artist, was deported from the US to Italy where he got work in Mussolini’s treasury and embezzled money from the fascists. (SSFC, 7/14/02, p.G2) 1935 Feb 18, Rome reported sending troops to Italian Somalia. (HN, 2/18/98) 1935 Feb 27, Mirella Freni, lyric soprano (Madame Butterfly), was born in Modena, Italy. (MC, 2/27/02) 1935 Mar 23, France, Italy and Britain agreed to present a unified front in response to Germany. (HN, 3/23/98) 1935 Jul 18, Ethiopian King Haile Selassie urged his countrymen to fight to the last man against the invading Italian army. He had previously warned the League of Nations of the dangers of appeasement. (HN, 7/18/98) 1935 Oct 3, Italy invaded Ethiopia. (DoD, 1999, p.237)(www.onwar.com/aced/data/india/italyethiopia1935.htm) 1935 Oct 6, Italian army occupied Adua, Abyssinia (Ethiopia). (MC, 10/6/01) 1935 Oct 11, The League of Nations met and voted 50 to 4 (Austria, Hungary, Italy and Albania opposed) to condemn Italy for the attack on Ethiopia. (http://nazret.com/history/) 1935 Oct 12, Luciano Pavarotti, Italian opera tenor, was born in Modena, Italy. (HN, 10/12/98)(MC, 10/12/01) 1935 Dec 30, Italian bombers destroyed a Swedish Red Cross unit in Ethiopia. (MC, 12/30/01) 1935 Mussolini presented a gift of 3,000,000 gold francs to Albania; other economic aid followed. (www, Albania, 1998) 1935 Bruno Ducati (d.2001) and his brothers Adriano and Marcello began producing condensers and radio equipment. They switched to motorcycle production after WW II. (SFC, 5/17/01, p.A25) 1935-1936 The Italian army used chemical warfare against Ethiopia in violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol. (NH, 10/98, p.18) 1936 Jan 5, Daggha Bur, Ethiopia, was bombed by the Italians. (HN, 1/5/99) 1936 Mar 1, Giulio Bargellini (b.1869), Italian artist, died in Rome. (www.comune.calenzano.fi.it/redaz/web/I/3B0241D3.htm) 1936 Mar 23, Italy, Austria and Hungary signed Pact of Rome. (SS, 3/23/02) 1936 Mar 29, Italy firebombed the Ethiopian city of Harar. (HN, 3/29/98) 1936 Apr 18, Ottorino Respighi (56), Italian composer (Pines of Rome), died. (MC, 4/18/02) 1936 May 2, With the Italian invasion Ethiopia’s Emp. Haile Selassie left for French Somaliland. He went into exile for 5 years during which time he was based in Bath, England. (http://tinyurl.com/ahqhm) 1936 May 5, Italian troops occupied Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 1757 Italians and 1593 Eritreans were killed, more than 275,000 Ethiopians were killed. (http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/Prelude05.html)(http://nazret.com/history/) 1936 May 9, Fascist Italy took Addis Abba and annexed Ethiopia as Benito Mussolini celebrated in Rome. (AP, 5/9/97)(HN, 5/9/98) 1936 Jun 30, Haile Selassie asked the League of Nations for sanctions against Italy. (www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_400.html) 1936 Jul 4, The League Council voted to end economic sanctions against Italy with the collapse of Ethiopia. The cancellation of economic sanctions against an aggressor state marked the failure of collective security under the League and was a harbinger of conflict in the upcoming years. (http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1936.htm) 1936 Sep 29, Silvio Berlusconi, later 2-time PM of Italy, was born to middle-class parents in Milan. (WSJ, 3/30/06, p.A12) 1936 Nov 1, In a speech in Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini described the alliance between his country and Nazi Germany as an "axis" running between Rome and Berlin after Count Ciano’s visit to Germany. (AP, 11/1/97)(HN, 11/1/98) 1936 Nov 18, Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco. (AP, 11/18/97) 1937 Jan 9, Italian regime banned marriages between Italians and Abyssinians. (MC, 1/9/02) 1937 Jun 10, Luciana Paluzzi (Fiona Volpe), actress (Five Fingers, Thunderball), was born in Rome, Italy. (www.jamesbondmm.co.uk/bond-villains/luciana) 1937 Jul 20, Guglielmo Marconi (b.1874), Italian engineer, inventor of wireless telegraphy, marquis (radio, Nobel 1909), died in Rome. (ON, 11/99, p.10)(MC, 7/20/02) 1937 Sep 6, The Soviet Union accused Italy of torpedoing two Russian ships in the Mediterranean. (HN, 9/6/98) 1937 Sep 25, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler met with Italian Premier Benito Mussolini in Munich. (HN, 9/25/98) 1937 Dec 11, Italy withdrew from the League of Nations. (AP, 12/11/97) 1937 Dec 23, London warned Rome to stop the anti-British propaganda in Palestine. (HN, 12/23/98) 1937 Italy occupied Albania. [see Apr 8, 1939] (SFC, 4/5/97, p.A20) 1937 An Italian Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Cabriolet, later called one of the finest classic cars in existence, was produced. In 1999 it sold for $4 million. (SFC, 8/31/99, p.A26) 1937 The 1,700 year-old Axum Obelisk was dismantled and removed from Ethiopia by Italian forces. Mussolini used it to commemorate the 15th anniversary of his march on Rome. In 1998 Italy agreed to return it. The border war delayed the return to 2003. (AM, 5/01, p.10)(SSFC, 11/9/03, p.A2) 1938 Jul 14, Mussolini published anti-Jewish and African manifest. (MC, 7/14/02) 1938 Sep 1, Mussolini cancelled the civil rights of Italian Jews. (MC, 9/1/02) 1938 Sep 29, British, French, German and Italian leaders signed the Munich Agreement, which was aimed at appeasing Adolf Hitler by allowing Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, inhabited by a German-speaking minority. British PM Neville Chamberlain gained a brief peace agreement from Hitler at Munich and without consulting the Czechs agreed that Nazi forces could occupy Sudetenland. Some mark this "appeasement policy" as the decisive event of the century. Chamberlain predicted "peace in our time." French PM Edouard Daladier was very depressed from the meeting. (SFC, 6/9/96, Z1 p.5)(SFC, 6/16/96, Z1 p.6)(WSJ, 6/8/98, p.A21)(AP, 9/29/06) 1938 Nov 10, Fascist Italy enacted anti-Semitic legislation. (HN, 11/10/98) 1938 Nov 17, Italy passed its own version of anti-Jewish Nuremberg laws. (MC, 11/17/01) 1938 Dec 17, Italy declared the 1935 pact with France invalid, because ratification's had not been exchanged. France denied the argument. (HN, 12/17/98) 1938 King Victor Emmanuel III supported dictator Benito Mussolini and signed racial laws that expelled Jews from government and university jobs and the military and restricted their work, schooling and right to own property. Some 8,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps from which only about 600 survived. (SFC, 5/6/97, p.A11) 1938 In the Langhe region of Italy Giacomo Morra initiated the Int’l. Truffle Fair in Alba. (SFEC, 9/27/98, p.T4) 1938 In Italy Ugo Cerletti (1877-1963), neurosurgeon, and psychiatrist Lucio Bini (1908-1980) pioneered the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), electric shock, to cure patients of depression. (www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dh38el.html) 1938 Enrico Rebuschini, a northern Italian priest, died. In 1997 he was beatified by Pope John Paul II. (SFC, 5/5/97, p.A8) 1939 Feb 24, Hungary signed an anti-Communist pact with Italy, Germany and Japan. (HN, 2/24/98) 1939 Apr 7, Italy invaded Albania, which offered only token resistance. Less than a week later, Italy annexed Albania. [see Apr 8] (AP, 4/7/99) 1939 Apr 8, Italy, under Fascist dictatorship led by Benito Mussolini seized the country of Albania. The Albanian parliament voted to unite Albania with Italy; King Zog fled to Greece. Under Mussolini’s totalitarian rule Italy embarked on expansion and military conquest. Ethiopia fell victim, conquered by Italy in 1936. Italy’s foreign policy cooperation with Germany began in 1936 and both joined forces to intervene in the Spanish Civil War on the side of Francisco Franco’s rebel forces. Italy’s military alliance with Germany was struck in 1939. [see Apr 7] (HN, 4/8/98)(www, Albania, 1998) 1939 May 7, Germany and Italy announced a military and political alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis. (AP, 5/7/97) 1939 May 22, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed a "Pact of Steel" committing Germany and Italy to a military alliance forming the Axis powers. (AP, 5/22/97)(HN, 5/22/99) 1939 The Italian film "Ossessione" (Obsession) featured the debut of Massimo Giroti (d.2003 at 84). It was a loose adaptation of "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and was directed by Luchino Visconti. (SFC, 1/11/03, p.A17) 1939 Italy passed a law for the Protection of Artistic Patrimony. It required that art over 50 years old be offered to the government for acquisition before export. (AM, May/Jun 97 p.64) Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com Subject = Italy End of file Economics During the Inter-War Years (1919-1938) Summary During World War I, some 10 million Europeans were killed, about 7 million were permanently disabled, and 15 million seriously wounded, mostly young men of working age and middle class backgrounds. This loss, combined with the destruction of land and property, led to a European situation of grave pessimism and poverty for many. Living conditions declined dramatically at the close of the war, the infant mortality rate skyrocketed, and life was quite difficult for Europeans of the period. The widespread material destruction totaled billions of dollars of damage in Europe. The war's prosecution had cost the nations of Europe six and one-half times as much as the total national debt of the entire world during the years from 1800 to 1914. The Allies bore the brunt of the debt, and material damages, France especially. But the Central Powers were punished severely by the war's concluding treaties. Germany lost 15 percent of its pre-war capacity, all of its foreign investments, and 90 percent of its mercantile fleet. The Treaty of Versailles imposed reparations payments which were generally considered intolerable and impossible. In Austria, agricultural production fell 53 percent from pre-war levels, and starvation was a persistent problem. Inflation hit all of Europe in the first years after the war, as pent up demand was released and production fell off due to a shortage of raw materials. By 1920, prices in Hungary were 23,000 times what they had been before the war, and in Russia the multiplier was 4 million. A sharp depression in 1920 and 1921 corrected prices to some extent. This depression, however, meant that the debtor countries increasingly found it impossible to pay their war debts. Germany pleaded with Britain and France for a moratorium on reparations payments, but France would not agree, and in fact, sent troops into the Ruhr in 1923, when Germany defaulted on its payments. In 1924, a solution was presented in the form of the Dawes Plan, presented by the American, Charles Dawes. Under this plan the total sum owed by Germany would remain the same, but the yearly payments were reduced, and Germany was granted a loan. The German Chamber of Deputies accepted the plan on August 27, 1924. As a result, the German mark began to stabilize, and Germany was able to pay on time for a short while. Meanwhile, the European Allies had their own financial problems. They ended the war deeply indebted to the United States. The United States demanded payment in gold and dollars, which the Allies borrowed from creditor nations, creating even greater debt elsewhere. From 1925 to 1929, Europe entered a period of relative prosperity and stability. However, unemployment remained high, and population growth outstripped economic growth. During this time, world trade increased and speculative investment increased as the result of better economic times. US creditors, flush with capital coming in from Europe, led this speculative movement. Germany continued to struggle with reparations payments, and in 1930, the Young Plan replaced the Dawes Plan, lowering annual payments yet again, but to no avail. In attempts to maintain benefits for the unemployed and drive prices down, taxes were hiked, and unemployment shot up again. As the Great Depression that had struck the United States in 1929 began to set in throughout Europe in the early 30s, banks began to collapse. Despite international loans, Germany, and Europe as a whole, plunged into depression, during which currencies collapsed and all hope of stability was dashed. Despite efforts to stabilize world prices and European employment, Europe remained mired in depression until the outbreak of World War II. Italian Fascism during the Inter-War Years (1919-1938) Summary In 1915, the French, British, and Russians had promised territory to Italy in exchange for joining the Allied cause. However, when the war ended, the principle of national self determination stood in the way of Italian efforts to collect on this promise. Under this widely accepted philosophy, the Allies could not grant Italy the territory it had been promised because it was not theirs to give, since most of the territory promised to Italy was populated by non-Italians. The Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando returned from the Paris Peace Conference at the close of World War I embarrassed and empty-handed, with nothing to show for the sacrifices of the Italian war effort. The Italian people naturally turned against Orlando's government, as well as the returning veterans, and both were widely despised. Veterans were often physically and verbally abused if they appeared publicly in uniform, adding to the misery of returning home from the war to widespread unemployment and poverty. Like the other warring nations, Italy had borrowed extensively to finance its war effort. In 1919, the Italian national debt was six times its pre-war level, and the lira had depreciated to one-third its pre-war value. To make matters worse, the democratically elected Chamber of Deputies, Italy's primary governing body, was unpaid, and thus prone to corruption and bribery. Amid the chaos of the early inter-war years, Benito Mussolini founded the Fascist Party, the Fascio di Combattimento, in March 1919. The Fascist Party, composed largely of war veterans, was vehemently anti-communist, and advocated the glorification of war, which they claimed displayed the nobility of the Italian soul. The Fascists thought Italy was destined to recapture the glory of Rome. In the elections of May 1921, 35 fascists, including Mussolini, were elected to the Chamber of Deputies, representing about 250,000 official party members drawn mostly from the lower middle class. Political tensions between the Fascists and the Communists mounted in Italy almost to the point of civil war. Fascist 'black shirts' and communist 'red shirts' were often seen brawling in the streets. By the summer of 1922, the Fascist army marched from Naples to Rome, declaring their loyalty to the king, Victor Emmanuel, and to the Roman Catholic Church, and claiming its purpose was to free Italy from the liberal left. The Communists also possessed their own army, and the king feared open violence. In an effort to avoid this he named Mussolini premier on October 30, 1922. Mussolini used his private army, now turned into a militia, to purge local governments of any opposition to fascism. He consolidated his power under the motto: "All in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state." Under this doctrine he ruled Italy with a tight fist during the war years, instituting economic and social reforms, some successful, others unsuccessful. He was sympathetic to Adolf Hitler's desire to regain glory for Germany and Europe, and proved Hitler's most important ally. Commentary Democracy as an institution was unstable and novel to the Italians, with universal male suffrage only having been granted in 1912. This made it easier for Mussolini to capitalize on the reaction to chaos and bring his party, representing rigid order, to power. Mussolini's strength lay in his ability to harness the anger and disillusionment of the returning soldiers and the lower middle class. Soldiers returned to a broken homeland after World War One, filled with misery and poverty. Moreover, they were not thanked for their sacrifices but jeered as the cause of Italy's hard times. These jeers seemed to be coming from more than anywhere else, the liberal left, which was in control of the Chamber of Deputies early in the inter-war years. Under their rule, conditions only worsened, and in many instances it seemed like they were doing nothing as Italy collapsed. The Fascist party appealed to the frustrations of these soldiers, and to the culturally instilled conservatism of the middle class. Rather than preaching liberalism and newly emerging liberal values, the Fascists offered a return to traditional politics and traditional values, promising to undo the changes made by the liberals and lift poor, crippled Italy to a position of glory once more. Most importantly, they offered the masses a type of government in which the leaders could and would do something about deteriorating conditions. To many, it did not matter what exactly the Fascists did, but only that they acted, and acted within the framework of a stable and strong government. Mussolini was a likely leader of the Fascist movement. Born into a lower middle-class family, Mussolini had watched his father in action as the socialist mayor of his small village. As a youth, Benito was a bully, engaging in frequent back-alley fights and other cruel-intentioned activities. At the age of ten, Mussolini was expelled from boarding school after stabbing another student, an incident repeated at a second school. As a political leader, he marshaled a group of bullies in black shirts, which he used to beat up on opposition political parties. When he rose to dictatorship, this bullying became institutionalized as a means of intimidating and silencing his opponents. It is known that he resorted to murder in at least one instance. Mussolini's rule as dictator fell nicely into the established totalitarian mold of an omnipotent state apparatus that controlled thought and suppressed dissent, demanding obedience and uniformity. Mussolini's ascent to power is also a perfect example of the means by which dictators during the inter-war years commonly rose to power, by literally beating the legal state apparatus down through brutality and intimidation until it had no choice but to legally accept the imposed government. Though Mussolini's means of ascension to power were by no means legal, in the end, he was granted control of the government by the king himself. This legitimization of totalitarian government was seen commonly throughout the twentieth century.
