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When Italy declared war on the rest of Europe in 1940, she was in the grip of fascism. Led by the power hungry Mussolini, eager to use his armies to defeat other countries, the failings of fascism in Italy were about to be made clear.
Mussolini had made it clear that they were not at war with Germany, nor against them, but alongside them, as a separate power. Unlike Hitler, the Italian ruler had severely overestimated the capabilities of his army. In all aspects they were distinctly second rate, even from an optimists point of view.
Italian intelligence had also underestimated the power of Greece by a catastrophic margin. The Italian army was ordered by Mussolini to attack Greece, and was soon suffering extremely heavy casualties. In response to this, the Italian fascist leader dismissed his Chief of Staff, Pietro Badoglio, who was also part of the fascist regime; one of the first cracks had appeared then in fascist agreement in Italy.
The military disaster against Greece was the beginning of a catalogue of disasters for the ill equipped Italian Army. Mussolini, oblivious to this encouraged foray upon foray in which the Italians suffered many deaths. As long as Italy was seen to have a presence alongside the successful Germans, Mussolini was happy.
At home though, the propaganda began to fail. News of mass deaths in the army, combined with extreme hardship for normal citizens ultimately had an effect. When Mussolini declared war on the Americans, senior politicians decided they had had enough.
Two separate plots were hatched to get rid of Mussolini in the spring of 1943, one by a group supported by the Royals, the other by a group of dissident fascists. It was the Royals who secretly took power, and declared the former Chief of Staff, Pietro Badoglio as Prime Minister. When Mussolini was summoned to the palace to report he was immediately dismissed, arrested and transferred to the prison island of Ponza. The Germans were confident that Mussolini’s supporters would soon overturn the new government, and restore him to power, but this never happened. Instead, the National Fascist party was dissolved, and anti fascist prisoners of the former regime released.
Although the German military were still allowed to pour into the country the new Royal Italian Government were secretly holding discussions with the Allies concerning a separate peace. On September 3 1943, the Allies landed on mainland Italy, and five days later announced Italy’s surrender. Subsequently, the Italian government was forced to sign a declaration of war against Germany, but was still viewed with distrust by the Allies.
Chaos ensued. Even though the Royal Italian Government had signed the surrender, they had no say in what the Allies did. Also, Mussolini’s Italian Socialist Republic had reformed and sided with the Germans. A Central Committee of National Liberation had also formed, comprising anti fascist groups that refused to have any dealings with the Royal Government.
It was against this complicated political background that the Resistance movement started up in the North of Italy. These partisan groups were willing to fight either the Allies or the Germans, and also began to gain political respect within Italy. They wished to forge a new Italy, as a way to recover national identity and pride, as well as form new democratic policies as a political party.
The resistance was quite left wing, to some extent communist, as a response to years of fascist repression. As Germany was forced to retreat north towards the end of the Second World War, the Royal Italian Government were declared in power. Other parties agreed to join with that government to work towards anything of national interest, and so the road to a democratic government after years of fascism had begun.
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