Economic factors in Mussolini's rise to power

             However to say that Germany benefited from no gain in the treaties would be false. The Treaty of St Germain gave Italy South Tyrol, Trentino and Istria as agreed in the treaty in London. There was no direct financial reparation payment but the geographical gains increased the Italian population by 1.6 million. .
             The mutilated peace was a turning point in public opinion towards the politicians. For years the lower classes had dismissed the parliament hierarchy as corrupt and ineffective due to Transformismo, but as they were excluded from the voting franchise their opinions were usually unheard and irrelevant. However they were directly effected by the treaties conditions increasing ill feeling towards the government and improving political awareness in the masses. .
             The publics sceptical opinion of the government was well founded, the proportional representation system meant that the coalition governments were weak and undecided on their aims. During a two-year period preceding Mussolini's administration there were 5 different governments. This instability and public disillusionment meant support for radical groups with defined aims grew.
             In 1859 Italy was a small collection of independent states, however due to the ambitions and dreams of 19th centaury intellectuals a resurgence took place to unite Italy between 1859 - 1870. This movement was known as Risorgimento and was led by the southern state of Piedmont. This unification led to many problems in Italy, the first and perhaps most important was the definite sense of disunity between states. Most of these states had no common language, with regional dialects so strong it was almost impossible to find a national language. Industrial and agricultural centres were so spread out that each different state had a completely different ways of life. .
             This sense of disunity was a crucial part in Mussolini's rise to power, he could see Italy's ambitions for a sense of true unity and in his manifesto of 1921 Mussolini promised "complete unification for Italy with a major role in the Mediterranean.