fascist italy

The Kingdom of Italy was governed by the National Fascist Party from 1922 to 1943 with Benito Mussolini as prime minister. The Italian Fascists imposed authoritarian rule and crushed political and intellectual opposition, while promoting economic modernization, traditional social values and a rapprochement with the Roman Catholic Church. According to Payne (1996), "[the] Fascist government passed through several relatively distinct phases". The first phase (1922–1925) was nominally a continuation of the parliamentary system, albeit with a "legally-organized executive dictatorship". The second phase (1925–1929) was "the construction of the Fascist dictatorship proper". The third phase (1929–1934) was with less interventionism in foreign policy. The fourth phase (1935–1940) was characterized by an aggressive foreign policy: the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, which was launched from Eritrea and Somaliland; confrontations with the League of Nations, leading to sanctions; growing economic autarky; invasion of Albania; and the signing of the Pact of Steel. The fifth phase (1940–1943) was World War II itself which ended in military defeat, while the sixth and final phase (1943–1945) was the rump Salò Government under German control.Italy was a leading member of the Axis powers in World War II, battling on several fronts with initial success. However, after the German-Italian defeat in Africa, the successes of the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, and the subsequent Allied landings in Sicily, King Victor Emmanuel III overthrew and arrested Mussolini, and the Fascist Party in areas (south of Rome) controlled by the Allied invaders was shut down. The new government signed an armistice with the Allies in September 1943. Nazi Germany, with Fascists' help, seized control of the northern half of Italy and freed Mussolini, setting up the Italian Social Republic, a collaborationist puppet state still led by Mussolini and his Fascist loyalists. Italian resistance to Nazi German occupation and Italian Fascist collaborators manifested in the Four days of Naples, while the Allies organized some Italian troops in the south into the Italian Co-belligerent Army, which fought alongside the Allies for the rest of the war. A smaller number of Italian troops continued to fight alongside the Germans in the National Republican Army. From this point on, the country descended in civil war, and a large Italian resistance movement fought a guerrilla war against the German and RSI forces. Mussolini was captured and killed on 28 April 1945 by the Italian resistance, and hostilities ended the next day.
Shortly after the war, civil discontent led to the 1946 institutional referendum on whether Italy would remain a monarchy or become a republic. Italians decided to abandon the monarchy and form the Italian Republic, the present-day Italian state.

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