The Italian Gambit-A Timeline by TheTimeRanger

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People of Fiume, cheering at the arrival of Gabrielle D'Annunzio's raiders, on 1919.

PROLOGUS
September 1919-October 1919
Fiume, Kingdom of Croats, Slavs and Slovenes

Then the endavours of Italy ended. Despite being in the victorious side, the first world war does not yield anything for Italy, and such facts ironically paints the government, and the army in a bad way, as they were fighting for a war that they does gain anything from. In a sense, they had spilled blood for something useless, and by such, Italy is ironically victorious on something the should not taking fights upon. With the economy being shaken, and the populace are getting restless as nationalist fervors began to fill the air, with a false move to the left could easily invite the reds, and a false move to the right could easily invite-anything that the right spectrum could offer, at the moment. The king-once again is still seen as a puppet, and the government of Italy, at the moment, is seen as a weak force by the Italian people, who wanted their nation to be in the same light as the Brits, France, or even the losing Germans and the ailing Ottomans. It is on all-time low, on how the people believed about the nation's capability to project power on the region, as the nation itself is unable to wrestle the territory of Fiume, from a much obiviously weaker force, the Kingdom of Croats, Slavs, and Slovenes, who gained the territory via the Paris Conference. This, eventually, opted Gabrielle D'Annunzio to take matters into his own hands, and taking nearly more than 2.500 troops into the small city, opting to take over the territory for the Italian Kingdom, in order to advance the interrests of the nation, on which such acts itself as seen as blatant terrorism by the Italian Kingdom itself, forcing the Italian army, desperate to save its own face due to Annunzio's antics, to blockade the town in order to stop Annunzio's Legionnaires's occupation over the town, and saving Italy's name in the foreign stage. There, as his legionnaires stepped in and taking over Fiume, a grandeur twist of irony came in form of of the Italian intervention over Fiume-in conjunction with the army of the Slavs on 30th September 1919(POD), aiming to arrest Annunzio-and end the chaos over the territory, as Italy's name on the foreign affairs stage is at stakes, due to Annunzio's actions. Despite the international world only asking for Annunzio's plot to be stopped, the Italian Kingdom took things few more notches, as a arrest for Annunzio being their most important objective.

Such move, however, does not fare well as the populace, as after Annunzio's capture, and the dissolvement of the Carnaro Regency on 2nd October 1919, riots began to occur simultanously across Italy, as Annunzio's imprisonment is seen as a "Treachery" against the state, and also seen as a sign on how "Weak" Italy is , as some elements of the populace(1) even taking things as far as deeming that the Savoy monarchy being just as weak as a disunited Italy of the past. Not only this, the faltering post-war economy is further ruined by the riots-and the sudden blames that most common Italians at that time(2) placed towards the Brits, French-or in short, their old Entente friends, for the failing economy Italy have been experiencing during these days, not realizing that their overzealous and nationalist attitude, whom fueled the riots filling Italy at that time. Due to this, perhaps, Italy indeed became the only losing party on the side of the Entente. As manifestos from Annunzio began resurface, detailing about Annunzio's plans for Fiume, on where his ideology, his belief, and his thoughts began to make their way into the public populace, eventually leading to the Italian Nationalist Association's adaptation of the ideology, where they waited for Annunzio's return, as they saw that Annunzio is something that could bring them into dominating the parliament, and eventually the nation. Also, despite being in bars, Annunzio managed to wrote various unnamed works, aptly dubbed as the Manifesto del Patriota(The Patriot's Manifesto)(3). These works, put out monthly by a visiting supporter-who regularly visited Annunzio and published his works, made its way to the newspapers, pamphlets, and even by 19th October 1919, seeing the Italian government's lack of response to the publication of the manifesto, the Italian Nationalist Association, in order to combat Benito Mussolini's rise on the Italian political circle, took over any operations of the publication by themselves, and putting their stamps on the published papers.

As October reaching its end, the effects of Annunzio's attempt is largely unseen, as the riots died down, and crackdowns managed to restore order on Italy, with the economy of the nation being repaired once more. However, people longed for Annunzio-and in the end, Mussolini will meet his match, as Annunzio's fame began to overshadow him.
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Annunzio after receiving his pardon, on 18th January 1920.

18th January 1920-30th January 1920
Kingdom of Italy

Then came the time of Annunzio's freedom, and as the pardon, given due to the army's pressure(4) towards the Italian government managed to free the people's hero, Annunzio returned back to the public stage, and realizing that the Italian National Association had played the cards behind his current newfound fame, Annunzio immidiately heads towards the party's headquarters on Rome, where he soon joined the party, and quickly appointed as the party's secretary-by Enrico Corradini's own will, and soon, afterwards, history of the world will be forever changed, as Annunzio soon will became one of the world's msot important figure, and his dream for Italy will eventually affect the world in whole. What Annunzio had initially planned for Italy, however, will soon expands, and his mind, became one of the 20th century's greatest motors.

Yet, there are challenges that awaits him, and also, there are unforseen consequences and challenges looming ahead, with the advent of Communism and Ultranationalism filling the air, and the birth of the Soviet Union shook Europe to its core.

TheTimeRanger Presents
The Italian Gambit-A Timeline by TheTimeRanger

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(POD).In OTL, there is no such things like this, with Annunzio's dream for Fiume is achieved on 1924, despite technically not on his terms.
(1).Technically, every class. High, low, nobles, workers, everyone is grumpy.
(2).Ergo, Italy will be just like Hit..nevermind. Vastly different. Relax.
(3).No. Its not a Mein Kampf expy.
(4).The army actually is sympathetic towards him, ITTL.
 
Well, ok, nice set up but there are many important things to take in consideration:

1- D'Annunzio itself; well the man while being exceptional in motivating men and propaganda it was totally uninterested and more importantly uncapable to do 'day to day' politics, just see his tenure as a member of the italian parlamient and as leader of the Carnaro Regency. Benny for all his fault, is still one of the best, if not the best, politician of his generation and unlike D'Annunzio he can make serious compromise and unite the various faction that compose the fledgling fascist movement. Basically the presence of two serious would-be leader of the movement will greatly weaken the entire Fascist element as, like the socialist/communist, will be too occupied in fight among themselfs than to pose a real danger. And even in the statistical case that they get in power, D'Annuzio will become a powerless figurehead by the end of the week (probably willingly at least till they give them women, drugs and booze).
2- Coming from that; the King and the goverment know that they can compromise with Mussolini, while D'Annunzio is seen as a much more dangerous revolutionary and enemy of the crown...basically if he try to march towards Rome, the order to shoot to them will be given.
3- The PoD will have other repercussion than the one towards D'Annuzio; first on the negotiation regarding the spoil of war...as the italian move really score points with everyone and demonstrated how serious things are but even how in control and willingly to collaborate the goverment his. We will probably get a Treaty similar to the OTL Rapallo by the end of the 1919, closing thing with the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. A similar show of force can get also repercussion on the negotiation towards Albania and with Greece; scoring general point with the population.
4- Finally, the liberals showing backbone mean that the socialist will be a lot less restless in trying violent uprising, as OTL the non-intervention agaisnt D'Annunzio showed how weak was the goverment while the later suppression, as said by Gramsci, give back a lot of legitimancy to them (the liberals)
 
Well, first thing first: thank you for undertaking an Italian TL. It'll be fun, for sure.

Fun fact of the day: D'Annunzio's Regency of Carnaro was the first state in the world to actually recognize the Soviet Union as a legitimate state. In kind, the SU was the only sovereign nation that ever extended official recognition to his Regency. (Take it however you will; it's mostly to show how histrionic and aestetic was D'Annunzio's pretended nationalism.)

My comments on the TL post itself are:

1 - Not even the most deluded, out of touch with reality Italian nationalist could think to be valued as lowly as the decrepit, more than ailing, Ottomans. I'd remove that.
2 - With the outrage of Versailles still blistering and the ink on the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye still fresh, I think nobody would have wanted to swiftly kick away D'Annunzio, especially not by working with the hated Serbs; whomever managed to get this done (unless it was a very casual event, in which everybody did the right thing while feigning no involvement) has serious potential as a new Prime Minister, as a replacement for Nitti.

That said, I mostly agree with lukedalton's points. Keep up the good work anyways! :D
 
1 - Not even the most deluded, out of touch with reality Italian nationalist could think to be valued as lowly as the decrepit, more than ailing, Ottomans. I'd remove that.
2 - With the outrage of Versailles still blistering and the ink on the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye still fresh, I think nobody would have wanted to swiftly kick away D'Annunzio, especially not by working with the hated Serbs; whomever managed to get this done (unless it was a very casual event, in which everybody did the right thing while feigning no involvement) has serious potential as a new Prime Minister, as a replacement for Nitti.

Well, unless the Pod is GIolitti being the first minister instead of Nitti, the old man get the job after Nitti clearly demonstrated to not really being apt to it, at least in that turbulent years...and you mess with him at your own risk
 
Well, you captured my attention. I've seen plenty of timelines focused in Germany or Japan after WWI, but I haven't seen yet a timeline centered in Italy. Subscribed, and good luck!
 
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