The Kingdom of Italy was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia, was proclaimed King of Italy, until 18 June 1946, when the monarchy was abolished, following civil discontent that led to an institutional referendum on 2 June, resulting in the establishment of the 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 House of Savoy-ruled Sardinia, which was one of Italy's legal predecessor states.
In 1866, the Third Italian War of Independence broke out; it was part of the Italo-Prussian Alliance against the Austrian Empire. Upon victory, Italy received Veneto. Italian troops captured Rome in 1870, ending the more than one thousand years of Papal temporal power.
In the last two decades of the 19th century, Italy developed into a colonial power, resulting to the establishment of the Italian Empire in 1882; that year, it entered into the 'Triple Alliance' with the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, following strong disagreements with the French Third Republic about their respective colonial expansions. Although relations with Berlin became very friendly, the alliance with Vienna remained purely formal, due in part to Italy's desire to acquire Trentino and Trieste from Austria-Hungary. As a result, Italy accepted the British invitation to join the Allies of World War I in 1915. Victory in the war gave Italy a permanent seat in the Council of the League of Nations, but it did not receive all the territories it was promised.
In 1922, Benito Mussolini became prime minister and the National Fascist Party took control of the Italian government, thus ushering an era of the Fascist period in Italy known as "Fascist Italy". Authoritarian rule was enforced, crushing all political opposition while promoting economic modernization, traditional values, and territorial expansion. In 1929, the Italian government reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church through the Lateran Treaties, which granted independence to the Vatican City. The following decade presided over the Spazio vitale, an aggressive foreign policy that launched successful military operations in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War in 1935, Italian military intervention in Spain in 1937, and the Italian invasion of Albania in 1939. This led to economic sanctions, departure from the League of Nations, growing economic autarky, and the signing of the Pact of Steel and Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan.
Italy entered World War II as a leading member of the Axis powers in 1940, and despite initial success, was defeated in the North African campaign and the Eastern Front. The Allied invasion of Sicily led to the fall of the Fascist regime. The new government surrendered to the Allies in September 1943 at the Armistice of Cassibile. German forces occupying northern and central Italy established the Italian Social Republic (ISR) and reappointed Mussolini as dictator, opening the Italian Civil War, where the National Republican Army of the ISR and its German allies contended with the Allied forces and the Italian Co-belligerent Army and Italian resistance movement. Shortly after the Surrender at Caserta of all Axis forces in Italy, civil discontent prompted an institutional referendum, which established a republic and abolished the monarchy in 1946.
Territory
The Kingdom of Italy covered and at times exceeded the land area of the successor Italian Republic. The kingdom gradually extended its area through the Italian unification until 1870. In 1919 it annexed Trieste and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The Triple Entente of the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland promised to grant to Italy several regions, including former Austrian Littoral, western parts of former Duchy of Carniola, Northern Dalmatia and notably Zara, Šibenik and most of the Dalmatian islands (except Krk and Rab), according to the secret London Pact of 1915.
After the refusal by President Woodrow Wilson to acknowledge the London Pact and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, with the Treaty of Rapallo in 1920 Italian claims on Northern Dalmatia were abandoned. During World War II, the kingdom gained additional territory in Slovenia (the province of Lubiana) and Dalmatia (the governatorate of Dalmatia) from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia after its breakup in 1941.
Until the end of World War II, Italy established and maintained colonies, protectorates, military occupations and puppet states beyond its borders. These included Italian Eritrea, Italian Somaliland, Italian Libya, Italian Ethiopia (annexed by Italy from 1936 to 1941), the Albanian Kingdom (an Italian protectorate since 1939), British Somaliland, part of Greece, Corsica, southeastern Vichy France and Monaco, French Tunisia, Kosovo, and Montenegro (all territories occupied in World War II), the Independent State of Croatia (Italian and German client state in World War II), and a 46-hectare concession from China in Tianjin. These foreign colonies and lands came under Italian control at different times and remained so over different periods.
Government
The Kingdom of Italy was a constitutional monarchy. Executive power belonged to the monarch, who governed through appointed ministers. The legislative branch was a bicameral Parliament comprising an appointive Senate and an elective Chamber of Deputies. The kingdom maintained as its constitution the Statuto Albertino, the governing document of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In theory, ministers were responsible solely to the king. However, by this time, a king couldn't appoint a government of his choosing or keep it in office against the express will of Parliament.
Members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected through a plurality voting system in single-member districts. A candidate needed the support of 50% of votes and 25% of all enrolled voters to be elected in the first round of ballots. Seats not adjudicated on the first ballot, were filled through a runoff held shortly after the first ballots. In addition to this, there was a Council of State, which had consultative powers and decided on conflicts of jurisdiction between administrative authorities and courts, as well as on disputes between the state and its creditors. It consisted of a president, three section presidents, 24 councilors of state and the service staff, and was appointed by the king on the proposal of the Council of Ministers.
There was brief experimentation in 1882 with multi-member districts, and after World War I proportional representation was introduced with large, regional, multi-seat electoral constituencies. The Socialists became the major party, but were unable to form a government in a parliament split among the three factions of Socialists, Christian populists, and classical liberals. Elections took place in 1919, 1921 and 1924: on this last occasion, Mussolini abolished proportional representation, replacing it with the Acerbo Law, by which the party that won the largest share of votes got two-thirds of the seats, which gave the Fascist Party an absolute majority of the Chamber seats.
Between 1925 and 1943, Italy was a quasi-de jure fascist dictatorship, as the constitution formally remained in effect without alteration while the monarchy formally accepted Fascist policies and institutions. In 1928 the Grand Council of Fascism took control of government administration, and in 1939 the Chamber of Fasces and Corporations replaced the Chamber of Deputies.
The highest state administration was divided into the following ministries, with their headquarters in Rome:
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs (with the Council for Diplomatic Disputes)
- Ministry of the Interior (with the Supreme Health Council)
- Ministry of Mercy, Justice and Religious Affairs
- Ministry of Finance and Treasury
- Ministry of War (the committees for the General Staff, the Line Arms, the Royal Carabiniers, for Artillery and Engineering, for Military Health and the Supreme War and Naval Tribunal are subordinate to it)
- Ministry of the Navy (with the Supreme Navy Council)
- Ministry of Public Education (with the Higher Education Council)
- Ministry of Public Works (with the Higher Council for Public Works and the Railway Council)
- Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Trade (with the Mining Council and the Central Statistical Giunta)
- Ministry of Colonies (since 1937 Ministry for Italian Africa)
- Ministry for the Liberated Territories (for the territories occupied and annexed after the First World War)
- Ministry of Transport
- Ministry of Aviation
- Ministry of Education
- Ministry of Post and Telegraph
- Ministry of Labour
- Ministry of Agriculture
Due to the war, a number of other short-lived ministries were created during the First and Second World War.
The Court of Auditors of the Kingdom had an independent status.
Military
- King of Italy – supreme commander of the Italian Royal Army, Navy and later Air Force from 1861 to 1938 and 1943 to 1946
- First Marshal of the Empire – supreme commander of the Italian Royal Army, Air Force, Navy and the Voluntary Militia for National Security from 1938 to 1943 during the Fascist era, held by both Victor Emmanuel III and Benito Mussolini
- Royal Italian Army
- Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy)
- Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force)
- Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale or "Blackshirts" – a militia loyal to Mussolini during the Fascist era, abolished in 1943.
Monarchs
The King of Italy was formally the holder of state power, but he could only exercise the right of legislation in conjunction with the national parliament, and the government was de facto responsible to parliament. According to the Salic Law, the throne was inherited in the male line of the royal House of Savoy. The king and his house professed allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church. He came of age at the age of 18 and, upon assuming power, took an oath to the constitution in the presence of both chambers. According to the law of 17 March 1861, his title was: "By the grace of God and by the will of the nation, King of Italy and King of Albania (only from 1939 to 1943) and Emperor of Ethiopia (only from 1936 to 1943)". He awarded the five Orders of Knighthood of Savoy and exercised constitutional sovereign rights. He commanded the land, sea and air power; he declared wars, concluded peace, alliance, trade and other treaties, of which only those that entailed a burden on finances or a change in territory required the approval of the chambers to be effective. The king appointed to all state offices, sanctioned and promulgated the laws, which as well as the government acts had to be countersigned by the responsible ministers, and issued the decrees and regulations necessary for the execution of the laws. Justice was administered in his name, and he alone had the pardon and mitigation of punishment.
State symbols
The first state coat of arms of the kingdom was adopted from Sardinia-Piedmont. It included the coat of arms of the House of Savoy in the middle and four Italian flags dating from 1848.
On 4 May 1870, by royal decree, two lions in gold, which now carried the shield, a crowned knight's helmet, which bore the Military Order of Savoy, the Order of the Crown of Italy, the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus and the Order of the Annunciation around its collar, were added. The motto FERT was deleted. The lions carried lances that held the national flag. From the helmet fell a royal cloak, which was supposed to protect the nation. Above the coat of arms was the star of Italy (Italian Stella d'Italia).
The newly adopted national coat of arms of 1 January 1890 removed the fur coat and the lances and the crown on the helmet was replaced by the Iron Crown of the Lombards. The whole group stood under a canopy, crowned with the Italian royal crown, above which was the banner of Italy. The flagpole was carried by a golden crowned eagle.
On 11 April 1929, Mussolini replaced the two Savoy lions with fasces. Only after his dismissal in 1944 was the old coat of arms from 1890 restored.
History
Unification process (1848–1870)
The birth of the Kingdom of Italy was the result of efforts by Italian nationalists and monarchists loyal to the House of Savoy to establish a united kingdom encompassing the entire Italian Peninsula. Following the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the political and social Italian unification movement, or Risorgimento, emerged to consolidate the different states of the peninsula and liberate it from foreign control. A prominent radical figure was the patriotic journalist Giuseppe Mazzini, member of the secret revolutionary society of Carbonari and founder of the influential political movement Young Italy in the early 1830s. Mazzini favoured a unitary republic and advocated a broad nationalist movement. His prolific output of propaganda helped to spread the unification movement.
The most famous member of Young Italy was the revolutionary and general Giuseppe Garibaldi, renowned for his extremely loyal followers, who led the Italian republican drive for unification in Southern Italy. However, the Northern Italy monarchy of the House of Savoy in the Kingdom of Sardinia, whose government was led by Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, also had ambitions of establishing a united Italian state. In the context of the 1848 liberal revolutions that swept through Europe, an unsuccessful First Italian War of Independence, led by King Charles Albert of Sardinia, was declared on Austria. In 1855, the Kingdom of Sardinia became an ally of Britain and France in the Crimean War, giving Cavour's diplomacy legitimacy in the eyes of the great powers. The Kingdom of Sardinia again attacked the Austrian Empire in the Second Italian War of Independence of 1859, with the aid of France, resulting in liberating Lombardy. On the basis of the secret Plombières Agreement (21 July 1858), the Kingdom of Sardinia ceded Savoy and Nice to France, an event that caused the Niçard exodus, that was the emigration of a quarter of the Niçard Italians to Italy.
In 1860–1861, Garibaldi led the drive for unification in Naples and Sicily (the Expedition of the Thousand), while the House of Savoy troops occupied the central territories of the Italian peninsula, except Rome and part of Papal States. Teano was the site of the famous meeting of 26 October 1860 between Giuseppe Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II, last king of Sardinia, in which Garibaldi shook Victor Emanuel's hand and hailed him as King of Italy; thus, Garibaldi sacrificed republican hopes for the sake of Italian unity under a monarchy. Cavour agreed to include Garibaldi's Southern Italy allowing it to join the union with the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860. This allowed the Sardinian government to declare a united Italian kingdom on 17 March 1861. Victor Emmanuel II, since March 1849 King of Sardinia, then became the first king of a united Italy, and the capital was moved from Turin to Florence. The title of "King of Italy" had been out of use since the abdication of Napoleon I of France on 6 April 1814.