History UsefulNotes / FascistItaly

There's still controversy among historians over the exact number of the victims: according to the majority of them, at least 5,000 Italians from Istria were summarily executed, while the ones who survived were pushed out of the region and had to resettle in other parts of Italy during the Istrian exodus. Moreover, the whole issue was conveniently "forgotten" by the newly-established Italian Republic in order to maintain a "good neighbor policy" with Yugoslavia (which still claimed other parts of the Italian territories as war compensation) and did not resurface until the early '90s, when Yugoslavia was no more ([[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars and in turmoil]]) and the first systematic investigations began and the findings were brought to the public.

[[folder:'''Conclusion''']]
The previous and later performances of the Italian armed forces were never as bad as their fiasco in [=WWII=], which led to the false perception (strengthened by the ignominious Allied propaganda) that the Italian flags [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys came in white only]], the red and the green bands being omitted for expediency.

Actually, even the Germans (who never had qualms about mocking their nominal allies and blaming them for their own mistakes) did praise the fighting skills and abilities of the Italian common soldiers, rating them at least equal to any unit in the Afrika Korps. The ''Folgore'' parachute regiments were especially singled out for German praise. And, according to Website/TheOtherWiki, by the British and American troops facing them at El Alamein, the Kasserine pass (Tunisia) and Amba Alagi (Ethiopia), where Italian units fought so honorably that the British singled them out for the honor of being allowed to surrender without the formality of a white flag or a display of disarmament.

[[folder:'''28 October, 1922: the March on Rome''']]

[[folder:'''Italy from 1922 to 1935''']]

[[folder:'''1935 - 1936: the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and the involvement in the Spanish Civil War''']]

[[folder:'''The Racial Laws - Italy joins the Axis''']]

[[folder:'''Italy occupies Albania''']]

[[folder:'''Interval: society and culture in Fascist Italy''']]

[[folder:'''10 June, 1940: Fascist Italy digs its own grave''']]
When [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WWII]] broke out, Italy declared neutrality at first. The unshakable certainty that Germany would have won the war, coupled with the prospect of easy land-grabs at the expense of France and Britain, eventually caused the Italian entry into UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.

[[folder:'''The war: Italy faces disaster''']]

[[folder:''' The Foibe killings''']]
Between '''1943''' and '''1949''', the ethnic Italian population which had been living in Istria (a region then in North-Eastern Italy, now split between Slovenia and Croatia) for centuries suffered greatly at the hands of the Yugoslav partisans. The name "foibe" refers to a kind of karst sinkhole that can be commonly found in the area, in which the victims' dead bodies -- or the victims themselves, [[BuriedAlive when still alive]] -- were unceremoniously dumped after the massacre (previously unknown mass graves were still being discovered as late as 2000).

The events were probably triggered by the acts of violence (forced Italianization, beatings, internment in concentration camps, etc.) perpetrated by the Fascists against the ethnic Croat and Slovene minorities in the area, but there were also preliminary plans to wipe out potential opponents of the new Communist rule - Yugoslavia wanted to annex the whole area along with most of the neighboring region of Venezia Giulia - that called for the ethnic cleansing of the region. And when Italy signed the Armistice, there was nobody left to protect said population. It's worth noting that, among the victims (which included women, elders and Army soldiers...), there were also some Italian members of the Yugoslav partisan formations.

There's still controversy among historians over the exact number of the victims: according to the majority of them, at least 5,000 Italians from Istria were summarily executed, while the ones who survived were pushed out of the region and had to resettle in other parts of Italy during the Istrian exodus. Moreover, the whole issue was conveniently "forgotten" by the newly-established Italian Republic in order to maintain a "good neighbor policy" with Yugoslavia (which still claimed other parts of the Italian territories as war compensation) and did not resurface until the early '90s, when the first systematic investigations began and the findings were brought to the public.

Speaking dialects (or one of the minority languages such as German, Sardinian, Slovene, Croatian, etc.) was forbidden by the authorities, and in many cases the native speakers of said languages were forcibly italianized while local toponyms were replaced with their Italian equivalents. This "italianization" process even applied to popular cartoons: Mussolini initially thought about banning popular foreign comic strips such as MickeyMouse or WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck, but was later persuaded not to by his own nieces, who enjoyed them contrary to their father's wishes. Thus, Donald Duck became ''Paperino'' ("Lil' Duck" in Italian) while Mickey Mouse was rechristened ''Topolino'' ("Lil' Mouse"); the fun is that, nowadays, these characters are still known in Italy by those names!

The history of Italy from '''1922''' to '''1943''', under the rule of UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini and his ideology.

The history of Italy from '''1922''' to '''1943''', under the rule of UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini.