While it was clear that the true trigger for the Italian Revolution was the Imperialist War, there are a number of underlying factors that made Italy susceptible to a political uprising by the left. Italy suffered from a lack of legitimacy and stability, both institutionally and locally. Italy failed to follow through on her claim of Risorgimento immediately, and when she did, it was often aided by the Carbonari cliques. Italy always claimed the credit, and when the Carbonari pushed back, Italy went to war with her own people. The inability of the Italian crown to integrate the Republican opposition transformed the Carbonari into socialist groups and drove the Liberal Republicans right into the hands of the Left. Locally, the Italian crown faced a governmental problem. Bureaucrats were only one source of political power in the south – the rising Mafia clans suppressed political legitimacy from center flowing to the relatively recently acquired South. A profitable export economy from Carthage helped smooth over lost tax revenue from across the country. Finally, the inability to overwhelm the Papal States left the State-Church conflict of welfare and legitimacy unresolved in many rural areas.
The direct causes all flow from the war. Italy entered on the German side, in the hope of acquiring the French Papal Ally. They did this knowing that the Italian navy could not hope to maintain naval superiority against the larger French Mediterranean fleet, and that the Carthaginian Garrison could not hope to last against the large Franco-Egyptian Army or the Algerian-based Foreign Legion. However, these problems came home to roost. France placed every port under general blockade – a move that would not starve Italy but would lead to constant buckle-tightening. A quick conquest and pillaging of the Italian colonies would send thousands of refugees across to Sicily – refugee movements that were fully encouraged by the French. More refugees would make an occupation of the region easier, and put strain of the Italian state. The arriving Colon and Magrebi populations hampered the already weak Southern Italian governments and their weak aid networks.
If the direct causes were the kindling and the fuel, the actions taken by the Italian government was the fuse of revolution. Italy had already previously suspended elections, acquired emergency powers, and formed a national government of unity around the conservative elite to the protests of socialists in the streets. With most available men already drafted or employed in essential industries, the was eager to put the new available manpower to use before it got captured by the southern networks. The refugees were treated as scabs – those that could work were shipped across the nation, those that could not, stayed in the south. Crucially, the government deemed the refugees unfit for military service, deeming an individual who lacked a home to fight for as an individual likely to desert. Instead, these refuges became factory workers, extra security forces, clinic assistants, and farmhands. Far from their occupied homes, the migrants turned to the many Socialist groups which called for peace.
The rebellion began in Verona. On November 20th, ration riots turned violent, with the people convinced (correctly) that their mayor had been hoarding. The local MPs were calling into restore order, but hey being fully integrated into the Socialist underground refused to fire. But as usual in these things, an unknown shot was fired and the Police did their duty. But that was not the end of it. A subsequent protest was called for November 25th, this time allied with the sympathetic guards. This new protest was always going to be a greater threat since it was organized by the Socialists, and the oppressors would soon be understaffed. But, nobody knew just how dangerous it would. The protestors found little opposition, and when the peasants realized that the MPs were on their side, they got emboldened. One thing led to another, and by nightfall the mayor had telegraphed to Milan the city was lost.
November 28th was the day of revolution. Sensing their chance, the socialist underground across the Italian northwest sprang to life. Verona, which was now facing an advancing troop column, had called for aid in what she hoped was to be a revolt against the entire Italian establishment. Her message: “Peace, Equality, Dignity.” Uprisings quickly engulphed almost every city of note across the region, with the battle lines now being drawn through cities, neighborhood by neighborhood. Armed with a commission of speed, the advancing troops divided up to quell the uprisings. Little did they know that the north was to be bloodiest front of the revolution, with urban guerilla warfare preventing permanent pacification.
With revolts engulfing the northwest, two political fronts took vary different approaches to pacifying the unrest. As November became December, the refugees from the north wired south calling for aid. The message of revolution spread through the underground networks, the south proved just how beyond the governments control it was. One by one, the clans pulled Sicily and Naples out of the governments power and into their own. These were supposedly neutral revolts to preserve influence, but with so many potential socialist rebels in their midst, the south officially become a second front for Socialism.
The Italian government, meanwhile needed to prevent this uprising from getting out of hand. Italy had much experience with uprisings of all sizes, and it was obvious Italy needed time. The Italian and French ambassadors to Switzerland worked out a temporary truce at the 11th hour to combat the rebels – one that greatly benefitted France. Italy would leave Nice to the French, French Troops would continue to hold the Libyan coast, and Italy was to withdraw from the Papal State. In exchange, France would open civilian access to the peninsula and the African colonies. When news of this deal became public knowledge, Italy was astonished. Italy was abandoning the ideal of Risorgimento to kill her own people. The troops on the front saw this as even more of a betrayal, as their deaths and tragedy seemed to be for nothing. With red propaganda already in the minds of many soldiers, defections become a norm. The red army was forming.
Named for the colors on the Italian flag, three forces plus one would answer the revolutionary message. The first were the Greens – the Monarchist/Loyalist forces. They were concentrated in the Northwestern Savoy-Milan region, and the Central corridor between Tuscany and Naples. Then there were the Reds. Their call of revolution would echo across the urban centers of Italy, turning most streets into barricaded fortresses. They however had an army of form deserters, who helped liberate the Venetian-Veronan countryside of the Northeast. Then there were the whites of the South, so-called because of their supposed neutrality. Ruling over Sicily and the south, these were rural revolutionary partisans. Despite their alliance with the Reds, the Whites wanted parochial demands, not social redistribution. The final force was The Papal State. Mobilized in the name of Christ the militias of Rome were supposedly Neutral, but had every inclination of assisting the eventual victor to gain goodwill with their neighbor. But unbeknownst to the Papal regime, Rome was ready to revolt – they just had not gotten the call to activate.
One of the problems that crippled the Greens and led to their eventual defeat was a string of bad leaders. Luigi Cardona, the Supreme Field Marshall of the French front efficiently swapped roles to the Monarchist high commander. Cardona was known to mistreat his underlings, sacrifice his soldier willingly, and had a poor knowledge of tactics. It did not help that many of his subcommanders had similarly had been trained by the reality of the French front, and had shelved many of their tactics relevant to civilian conflicts and urban struggle. In contrast the Revolutionaries had new leaders like Giovanni Messe who would eventually come into their prime in the brief civil war.
A breakthrough was achieved in late March, and the Reds were able to pierce the Po valley. On April 10th, the collection of deserters and militias had linked up with the Milan Socialist Network, and on April 26th the Capital was taken. In full view of the enthralled masses, Filippo Turati (who had taken full control of the revolution ideologically) proclaimed the Peoples Republic. Despite this, the revolution was still not over – Savoy, Sardinia, and central areas were still held by Loyal government. And it was still making gains – particularly around Naples.
Urbino was the last city to fall to the rebels, finally hoisting the Red flag on February 14, 1909. To get to that point though, the uprising would have to twist and turn through European Intrigue. The southern Whites had long been fighting a losing battle, but on September 22nd, Rome revolted. Papal soldiers, who had been previously occupying the greater Lazio and Umbria regions supposedly “in the name of peace,” suddenly found themselves outflanked. The opening of a Roman front, and the entry of the Papal States into the conflict in support of the Monarchy, reshaped the balance of power in the south in favor of the Whites. On November 2nd, 1908, the Northern Reds held the entire border with France, an awkward situation for a country supposedly in a state of truce. But, the French had always hoped the rebels would win and pull Italy out of the conflict – they had funneled arms and money across Switzerland to the Reds. With victory in sight though, the French occupation of Nice and Africa now loomed ominously. Secret Swiss negotiations seemed to only confirm just how uncertain the reality was – Italy was happy to accept the losses geopolitically, but the reality on the ground was much different. Rome was already in flames, something France desperately had hoped to avoid. An uneasy truce was signed in secret, effectively ensuring the status quo. The only way the rebels ever got away with the annexation of Rome was thanks to French struggles against Germany.
The new Socialist Republic now faced every problem every state faced post-revolution. Ideologues called for full redistribution immediately and global revolution. This went against the interests of the new government, who had publicly called for peace with Europe and now had the fortunate position of watching her potential enemies fight each other. The rebels had long been a coalition of Republicans, Socialists/Leftists, and Parochialists from the south. Building a working government between all three of those generalized groups and extending the new Republics power to those territories presently under Military low was priority one. Following that, new elections were to be held on March 4th 1910 for a Peoples Congress who would be responsible of building a new Left-Wing government.
When that congress was opened, it was clear just how divergent the interest of the revolutionary coalition were. Socialist censors had banned any party or individual that was explicitly “reactionary” or “against the ideals of the Revolution,” but the cast of characters who arrived in Milan proved that the revolutionary coalition had been swept along by many without an idea of what was to come. Trade Unionists, Intellectuals, Military Men, Former Artisans, Small Business Republicans, Mafia families, Underground revolutionaries, former refugees, socialist clergy – they were all there and bickering. Alongside them though was a dangerous new set of men: The Children of Fire. The Revolution had tested young radicals, transforming former outcasts and thinkers into Local Leaders and Commanders. Men like Michele Bianchi, Antonio Gramsci, Giacomo Matteotti, Pietro Nenni, Cesare de Vecchi, the previously stated Giovanni Messe, and most importantly Benito Mussolini were coming into the congress with limitless ambition and all the necessary revolutionary credentials. It was these men’s skill at preying on the congresses weaknesses that would send Italy down her path of Socialism.
These men would remake Italy to serve their ideals. Mussolini, the clear charismatic ‘man of the militias’ would replace Turati as head of the state, and in doing so assume near dictatorial powers. He would get there ironically by playing the non-socialist factions against the socialist ones. Under Mussolini Italy would launch an invasion/liberation of Carthage and Libya at a moment of French weakness, permanently cementing the man as a friend of the 4th shore. Even though he and his gang of radicals would control everything from the top, local powers would be devolved to elected councilor bodies, to try and appease republicans – while also giving the guiding commissars eyes and ear locally. A socialized church and bible were created along the idea that faith, just like capital, is a resource that should be returned to the people. Land would be reorganized, and industrial concerns would be state directed. On the military side, Italy would begin construction of the Alpine fortresses, to protect the people’s Eden. Instead of direct conflict, Italy would create two new agencies: the BRDI and the AIL. The Revolutionary Bureau for Internal Defense, would seek out counterrevolutionary elements at home, and the International Liberation Agency would eventually foster Socialist and Communist movements across the Mediterranean.