Download HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Italy before 1919
Italy achieved her unification in 1870. She had a constitutional monarchy like that of Great
Britain. But democratic traditions failed to develop in Italy because the government was
controlled by corrupt politicians, called the party bosses.
They controlled the elections by bribing the voters.
Once they were in power, they were more interested
in making personal gains for themselves than in solving
the social and economic problems of the people.
As a result, by 1914 Italy remained a poor and backward
country. The franchise was limited to 2.5 per cent of
the population until after the election of 1913. Industrial
progress was slow. Moreover, Italy was poor in natural
resources and lack of fertile land. Many of the farm labourers were landless and were often
unemployed. Thus millions of Italians were forced to emigrate abroad.
The foreign policy of the Italian governments also lacked the
grandeur the days of the Caesars. Although Italy tried to raise
her own international prestige by acquiring overseas colonies,
she met with no success. She was defeated by Abyssinia,
an African state, at the battle of Adowa in 1896. Because
of its lack of success in both domestic and foreign affairs,
the parliamentary government became a symbol of decadence
and corruption— it was neither trusted nor respected by the people.
New Problems After The First World War
The government was faced with many new problems after the First World War. The first one
was the Italian dissatisfaction with the territorial settlement made at the Paris Peace
Conference. Most of the Italians had expected big territorial
gains when they entered the war. According to the Treaty
of London, Italy was promised Trentino, Trieste,
Southern Tyrol, Istria, Dalmatia, the coastal districts of Albania,
a share in the division of the Ottoman Empire and of the German
colonies in Africa. Although the Italians fought bravely and lost
600,000 men, the territories ceded to Italy in the Pairs Peace Conference were not as many as
she had originally been promised.
The second problem was general economic distress. Italy was a poor nation. She could only
support her war effort by obtaining foreign loans. Immediately
after the war, as Europe was exhausted by the war, the Italian
tourist trade and export trade came to a standstill and there was
large-scale unemployment throughout the country. The problem
of unemployment was aggravated by the return of millions of
ex-soldiers to Italy and a new immigration law of the U.S.
government which restricted entry of immigrants.
As the government became increasingly unpopular, many Italians turned to support the
Socialist Party . In the elections of 1919 the Socialist Party won more than one-third of all
votes and became the largest single party in the Chamber of Deputies.
The 'Red Menace' alarmed the industrialists, landlords and other property holders.
The fear of revolution and the desire for national glory were manipulated to the advantage
of a new political group, the Fascists, led by Benito Mussolini.
The turning-point for the growth of the Fascist movement came by the end of 1920.
With some support from the property class, Mussolini formed the National Fascist Party
in 1921.
From May 1921 to 1922, Mussolini changed his tactics
to suit the different circumstances with the aim of seizing
political power as soon as possible.
Fascist membership jumped up from 20,000 in 1920 to
248,000 in 1921, and to 300,000 in 1922.
From the early spring of 1921, the Fascists, the Black Shirts,
carried out a systematic terrorist campaign against the Socialist
and Communist groups.
On October 26, 1922, Mussolini decided to exploit the chaotic
situation to seize power. He threatened a 'March on Rome‘
if he was not accepted into the cabinet.
The Fascist Movement
King Victor Emmanuel refused to call out the army to resist the Fascists partly because he was
anxious to avoid civil war, and partly because he wanted a strong government to restore law and
order. The King asked Mussolini to form a new government. On October 31, Mussolini became
Prime Minister in a coalition government of Fascists, Nationalists, Catholics, and right-wing
Liberals. Power was thus put into Mussolini's hands.
Mussolini was not satisfied with a coalition government. He aimed to be the ruler of one-party
totalitarian state. From 1922 to 1929, slowly but gradually, he destroyed all effective opposition at
home.
The King had to accept Mussolini as the permanent Prime Minister of Italy. From this time onwards,
all other ministers were appointed, and dismissed by and directed to work under Mussolini alone.
From 1929 to I939, Mussolini completed the building-up of the totalitarian state.
In 1938, the parliamentary system in Italy came to an end. In 1939, though Italy remained, in name, a
monarchy, Mussolini, as the Duce of the Fascist Party, was the uncrowned King of Italy.
The 2nd World War
The United States, effectively neutral during World
War II's early stages after Nazi Germany's invasion of
Poland in September 1939, began supplying materiel
to the Allies in March 1941 through the Lend-Lease
program. On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan
launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting
the United States to join the Allies against the Axis
powers as well as the internment of Japanese
Americans by the thousands Participation in the war
spurred capital investment and industrial capacity.
Among the major combatants, the United States was
the only nation to become richer—indeed, far richer—
instead of poorer because of the war. Allied
conferences at Bretton Woods and Yalta outlined a
new system of international organizations that placed
the United States and Soviet Union at the center of
world affairs. As victory was won in Europe, a 1945
international conference held in San Francisco
produced the United Nations Charter, which became
active after the war. The United States, having
developed the first nuclear weapons, used them on the
Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August.
Japan surrendered on September 2, ending the war.
The attack on Pearl Harbor (called the Hawaii Operation
or Operation Z by the Japanese Imperial General
Headquarters, and the Battle of Pearl Harbor by some
Americans) was an unannounced military strike conducted
by the Japanese navy against the United States naval base
at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on the morning of December 7,
1941. It resulted in the United States' entry into World War
II. The attack was intended as a preventive action in order
to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from influencing the war
that the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia,
against Britain and the Netherlands, as well as the U.S. in
the Philippines. The base was attacked by Japanese
aircraft (a total of 353, in two waves) launched from six
aircraft carriers.
The attack was a major engagement of World War II and came as a profound shock to the
American people. Domestic support for isolationism, which had been strong, disappeared.
Germany's ill-considered declaration of war on the U.S., which was not required by any treaty
commitment, moved the U.S. from clandestine support of Britain (for example the Neutrality
Patrol) into active alliance and full participation in the European Theater. Despite numerous
historical precedents for unannounced military action, the lack of any formal warning by Japan,
particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led to it being characterized as a
"sneak attack", and to President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaiming December 7 "a date which
will live in infamy".
The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, commonly known as Bretton Woods
conference, was a gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount
Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire to regulate the international
monetary and financial order after the conclusion of World War II.
The conference was held from 1-22 July 1944, when the agreements were signed to set up the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
As a result of the conference, the Bretton Woods system of exchange rate management was
set up, which remained in place until the early 1970s.
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut
Conference, was the February 4–11, 1945 wartime meeting of the heads of government of the
United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union—President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and General Secretary Joseph Stalin, respectively—for the
purpose of discussing Europe's postwar reorganization. Mainly, it was intended to discuss the
re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe.
The conference convened in the Livadia Palace near Yalta, the Crimea. It was the second of
three wartime conferences among the Big Three (Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin). It had been
preceded by the Tehran Conference in 1943, and it was followed by the Potsdam Conference
which was attended by Harry S. Truman in place of the late Roosevelt; and Clement Attlee
who attended in place of Churchill.
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic
bombings against Japan in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
After six months of intense strategic fire-bombing of 67
Japanese cities the Japanese government ignored an
ultimatum given by the Potsdam Declaration. By
executive order of President Harry S. Truman the U.S.
dropped the nuclear weapon "Little Boy" on the city of
Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945, followed by the
detonation of "Fat Man" over Nagasaki on August 9.
These are the only use of nuclear weapons in war. The
target was chosen as Hiroshima was a city of
considerable military importance, containing Japan's
Second Army Headquarters, as well as being a
communications center and storage depot.
Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the
acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in
Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, with
roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the
first day. The Hiroshima prefectural health department
estimates that, of the people who died on the day of the
explosion, 60% died from flash or flame burns, 30%
from falling debris and 10% from other causes. During
the following months, large numbers died from the
effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries,
compounded by illness. A plausible estimate of the total
immediate and short term cause of death, 15–20% died
from radiation sickness, 20–30% from flash burns, and
50–60% from other injuries, compounded by illness.
Hibakusha
In both cities, most of the dead were civilians.