The Battle for Land, started in 1928 in Italy by Benito Mussolini, aimed to clear marshland and make it suitable for farming, as well as reclaiming land and reducing health risks.
The primary aims of the Battle for Land was to increase the amount of land available for cereal production, to help with the Battle for Grain. This would in turn provide more jobs and show dynamic action from the government, impressing foreign governments. Another important aim of the Battle was to improve health by reducing malaria, which was an issue due to the wildlife populating the marshlands.
The government expanded the previous government's schemes of providing money to drain or irrigate farmland. Private landowners were made to cooperate with drainage schemes and other projects via the landholder association, which determined contributions. [1] Malaria swamps were drained and a network of small farms were set up, owned by ex-servicemen, as Fascist propaganda stressed the need to revive the rural areas and to build up a strong peasantry - which would strengthen the fascist regime. The government also abolished day and short term labour. Collective contracts were negotiated which secured long-term employment in agriculture. This encouraged relocation to the countryside, particularly in the South. [2]
Public health was improved, due to the destruction of the habitats of malaria-carrying wildlife. The Battle created thousands of jobs during the depression, and resulted in the creation of new towns for show pieces – Latina and Sabaudia – as well as reclamation of 80,000 hectares of land from the years 1928 to 1938. However, the 80,000 hectares reclaimed was only one twentieth of the propaganda claim, which was one sixth of Italy's land. Three quarters of the reclaimed land was in the North; the South, which was most in need of improvement, was largely neglected. Southern landowners who were unable to make great enough contributions in terms of finance, stock or employment had their land expropriated, albeit rarely. [3] The Fascist regime achieved nothing in the way of land redistribution, which was, in any event, inconsistent with the central thrust of the higher-profile Battle for Grain. Due to these failures, the scheme was abandoned in 1940.
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy. Opposed to anarchism, democracy, pluralism, egalitarianism, liberalism, socialism, and Marxism, fascism is placed on the far-right wing within the traditional left–right spectrum.
The Pact of Steel, formally known as the Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy was a military and political alliance between Italy and Germany.
The Pontine Marshes is an approximately quadrangular area of former marshland in the Lazio Region of central Italy, extending along the coast southeast of Rome about 45 km (28 mi) from just east of Anzio to Terracina, varying in distance inland between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Volscian Mountains from 15 to 25 km. The northwestern border runs approximately from the mouth of the river Astura along the river and from its upper reaches to Cori in the Monti Lepini.
The economy of Fascist Italy refers to the economy in the Kingdom of Italy under Fascism between 1922 and 1943. Italy had emerged from World War I in a poor and weakened condition and, after the war, suffered inflation, massive debts and an extended depression. By 1920, the economy was in a massive convulsion, with mass unemployment, food shortages, strikes, etc. That conflagration of viewpoints can be exemplified by the so-called Biennio Rosso.
The 4th of August Regime, commonly also known as the Metaxas regime, was an authoritarian regime under the leadership of General Ioannis Metaxas that ruled the Kingdom of Greece from 1936 to 1941.
The history of fascist ideology is long and it draws on many sources. Fascists took inspiration from sources as ancient as the Spartans for their focus on racial purity and their emphasis on rule by an elite minority. Fascism has also been connected to the ideals of Plato, though there are key differences between the two. Fascism styled itself as the ideological successor to Rome, particularly the Roman Empire. From the same era, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's view on the absolute authority of the state also strongly influenced fascist thinking. The French Revolution was a major influence insofar as the Nazis saw themselves as fighting back against many of the ideas which it brought to prominence, especially liberalism, liberal democracy and racial equality, whereas on the other hand, fascism drew heavily on the revolutionary ideal of nationalism. The prejudice of a "high and noble" Aryan culture as opposed to a "parasitic" Semitic culture was core to Nazi racial views, while other early forms of fascism concerned themselves with non-racialized conceptions of the nation.
Historians and other scholars disagree on the question of whether a specifically fascist type of economic policy can be said to exist. David Baker argues that there is an identifiable economic system in fascism that is distinct from those advocated by other ideologies, comprising essential characteristics that fascist nations shared. Payne, Paxton, Sternhell et al. argue that while fascist economies share some similarities, there is no distinctive form of fascist economic organization. Gerald Feldman and Timothy Mason argue that fascism is distinguished by an absence of coherent economic ideology and an absence of serious economic thinking. They state that the decisions taken by fascist leaders cannot be explained within a logical economic framework.
Italian fascism, also classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian Fascism is associated with a series of political parties led by Mussolini: the National Fascist Party (PNF), which governed the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, and the Republican Fascist Party (PFR), which governed the Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945. Italian fascism also is associated with the post–war Italian Social Movement (MSI) and later Italian neo-fascist political organisations.
Sabaudia is a coastal town in the province of Latina, Lazio, in central Italy. Sabaudia's centre is characterised by several examples of Fascist architecture. Villa Volpi, a neoclassical seaside villa built for Countess Nathalie Volpi of Misurata, is located on the sand dunes of Sabaudia.
The Kingdom of Italy was a state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy was abolished, following civil discontent that led to an institutional referendum on 2 June 1946. This resulted in a modern Italian Republic. The kingdom was established through the unification of several states over a decades-long process, called the Risorgimento. That process was influenced by the Savoy-led Kingdom of Sardinia, which was one of Italy's legal predecessor states.
The National Fascist Party was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian fascism and as a reorganisation of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. The party ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 when Fascists took power with the March on Rome until the fall of the Fascist regime in 1943, when Mussolini was deposed by the Grand Council of Fascism. It was succeeded, in the territories under the control of the Italian Social Republic, by the Republican Fascist Party, and ultimately dissolved at the end of World War II.
Fascist movements in Europe were the set of various fascist ideologies which were practiced by governments and political organizations in Europe during the 20th century. Fascism was born in Italy following World War I, and other fascist movements, influenced by Italian Fascism, subsequently emerged across Europe. Among the political doctrines which are identified as ideological origins of fascism in Europe are the combining of a traditional national unity and revolutionary anti-democratic rhetoric which was espoused by the integral nationalist Charles Maurras and the revolutionary syndicalist Georges Sorel.
The Battle for Grain, also known as the Battle for Wheat, was a propaganda campaign launched in 1925 during the fascist regime of Italy by Benito Mussolini, with the aim of gaining self-sufficiency in wheat production and freeing Italy from the "slavery of foreign bread". This campaign was successful in increasing wheat output and lowering the trade balance deficit, but was ultimately economically counter-productive for Italy's agricultural sector as farmers who grew other produce had to clear their land for grain cultivation which decreased exports and thus resulted in higher food prices which placed Italian families under financial strain.
The Italian economic battles were a series of economic policies undertaken by the National Fascist Party in Italy during the 1920s and 1930s. They were designed to increase the potential of Italy becoming a great power by reclaiming land, placing emphasis on home-grown produce and having a strong currency.
The Battle for Births was one of four economic battles that took place in Fascist Italy (1922–1943), the others being the Battle for Grain, the Battle for the Lira, and the Battle for Land. Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, often known as Il Duce, envisioned an Italian Empire to rival that of the Romans, and in order to carry out this objective, foresaw the need to increase the population. Mussolini pursued an often aggressive foreign policy to achieve his colonial aims: the Italian army invaded Abyssinia in October 1935. The phrase "Battle for Births" was also used, in contemporary sources, to describe policies developed in Nazi Germany.
Propaganda in Fascist Italy was used by the National Fascist Party in the years leading up to and during Benito Mussolini's leadership of the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 to 1943, and was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power and the implementation of Fascist policies.
The Nationalist faction or Rebel faction was a major faction in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939. It was composed of a variety of right-leaning political groups that supported the Spanish Coup of July 1936 against the Second Spanish Republic and Republican faction and sought to depose Manuel Azaña, including the Falange, the CEDA, and two rival monarchist claimants: the Alfonsist Renovación Española and the Carlist Traditionalist Communion. In 1937, all the groups were merged into the FET y de las JONS. After the death of the faction's early leaders, General Francisco Franco, one of the members of the 1936 coup, headed the Nationalists throughout most of the war, and emerged as the dictator of Spain until his death in 1975.
The Agricultural policy of fascism in Italy was a series of complex measures and laws designed and enforced during Italian Fascism, as a move towards attempted autarky, specifically by Benito Mussolini following the Battle for Grain and the 1935 invasion of Abyssinia and subsequent trade embargoes.
Fascist Italy is a term which is used to describe the Kingdom of Italy when it was governed by the National Fascist Party from 1922 to 1943 with Benito Mussolini as prime minister and dictator. The Italian Fascists imposed totalitarian rule and they also crushed political opposition, while they simultaneously promoted economic modernization, traditional social values and a rapprochement with the Roman Catholic Church.