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You'd probably see a civil war in Italy between whatever Fascist like faction that rises without Mussolini along with the Royalists and maybe the Liberals, against the communists and socialists.
 
You'd likely see a group, or maybe several, with similar views though less organized.

The frustration Italy felt after world war I was the underlying problem. They basiclly got screwed over by the Allies and their country was lacking in greatness.

If Mussolini wasn't there to fill that gap, someone else would. Most likely the communists. Though as I said, I think it would be in the form of a civil war.
 
If the communists would have come to power, what would they have done with the colonies? All of a sudden we have an Imperialist Communist Italy, kinda contradictory.
 
Oh and if Mussolini's not around, a fellow named Hitler doesn't have a rolemodel for his rise to power.
 
The fascist party dies without a real politician as a leader; the liberals lose ground to the socialists on one side and the catholics on the other; these two parties become the biggest ones. The communist party steadily grows but stays small, and is mayb the third biggest party. Nationalists make a lot of noise but without a fascist party to merge with they never really become important.

The main political forces are moderate, and stay on the side of France and Great Britain. Italy never gets close to Nazi Germany, and as a result Anschluss is not allowed to happen until Germany has overrun France in WWII and is in a much better position to ask Italy to reconsider. The country stays neutral through WWII, acting as neutral ground (also consider the role of the Holy See). When the Allies finally defeat Nazi Germany, war has devastated central and eastern europe, but southern europe and the balkans are untouched by it. Also, Africa never became a war theater.

A curious and maybe not so minor aspect of this scenario is that the first nuclear reactor is probably built in Italy, as Enrico Fermi, the father of the nuclear reactor, was never forced to flee the country out of fear for his jewish wife (but America is still the first to build nukes, Fermi was not central to project manhattan).
 
Well, Mussolini might be gone but Gabriele d'Annunzio will be alive and kicking- and ITTL he's less likely to be denfenestrated in 1921. So, the whole Fiume thing goes pretty much as OTL, but with d'Annunzio in a good position to stage his own march on Rome?

Hm, d'Annunzio's Italy would be fun. Similar to OTL's in many ways, but maybe a bit more competent and rational. Very corporatist too. The art would be great too; more of a chance for a proper "Fascist International" ITTL I'd say. In international relations terms, Abyssinia still gets invaded, but there's no chance of a deal with Hitler, if Hitler even comes to power; d'Annunzio hated the chap.

If Il Duce dies on schedule, that'd be interesting. I wonder who comes next- Balbo?
 
EdT said:
Well, Mussolini might be gone but Gabriele d'Annunzio will be alive and kicking- and ITTL he's less likely to be denfenestrated in 1921. So, the whole Fiume thing goes pretty much as OTL, but with d'Annunzio in a good position to stage his own march on Rome?

Hm, d'Annunzio's Italy would be fun. Similar to OTL's in many ways, but maybe a bit more competent and rational. Very corporatist too. The art would be great too; more of a chance for a proper "Fascist International" ITTL I'd say. In international relations terms, Abyssinia still gets invaded, but there's no chance of a deal with Hitler, if Hitler even comes to power; d'Annunzio hated the chap.

If Il Duce dies on schedule, that'd be interesting. I wonder who comes next- Balbo?

EdT's on the money. There will still be a Fascist party, perhaps built more, as EdT stated above, on the d'Annunzio Corporatist faction. Maybe Balbo remains a Mazzinian Republican, maybe not. He was a real admirer of d"Annunzio, probably more so than of Mussolini. Balbo in general liked the nationalist and revolutionary "messages" of Fascism. Since Balbo was perhaps the major factor in the growth, organization, and success of the Blackshirts, whether he's involved or not will play a big part in whether Fascism becomes a major movement or remains a small one. I see Balbo as d'A's successor. He'd also oppose the Axis as Balbo was a fervent Germanophobe and Anglophile.
 
Without Mussolini, maybe the Liberals limp on until they luck out and right the course. Perhaps another rightwing group imposes itself. My bet is on the military staging a coup and taking over. The one thing I don't see happening is communists taking over. The communists simply did not have nowhere enough the level of popular support or coercisive power to take over the country. Hell, even Mussolini's Brownshirts didn't have that kind of power or support. He gained power because the Italian elites (the military, the monarchy, the Liberals) LET him. They could have squashed him like a bug (and they should've), but they lost nerve. However, unlike the conservatives in Germany, Italian coservatives pretty much got everything they wanted, at least until late 30's, so you could say that they did the right thing by humoring him and "letting" him run the country. Until Mussolini gained Hitler's backing, his Fascist government ruled Italy in cooperation with the traditional elites; he never was able to dominate them completely, even with Hitler's backing, and thus it's no wonder that he was the only major Fascist leader to be overthrown by completely domestic opposition without foreign aid. The communists, though, would not have gotten any chance from the traditional elites. If they tried anything like the March to Rome, the military would not have hesitated to crush them and impose military rule over the country.
 
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