The new state of Italy was far from being a great success in the years before 1914; the strain of the First World War on its insecure economy and the bitter disappointment at the country's treatment at the Treaty of Versailles caused growing discontent. Between 1919 and 1922 there were five different governments, all of which were incapable of taking decisive action that the situation demanded. In 1919 Benito Mussolini founded the Fascist party which won 35 seats in the 1921 elections. At the same time there seemed to be a real danger of a left-wing seizure of power; in an atmosphere of strikes and riots, the fascists staged a 'March on Rome' which culminated in King Emmanuel III inviting Mussolini to form a government in October 1922. Mussolini remained in effective power until July 1943. The government was faced with many new problems after the First World War. Italian Unity was at an all-time low, as the north and south had been split. There were huge cultural and social differences between the industrialised north and the poverty-stricken south. Another problem was the Italian unrest 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 surrendered to Italy in the Paris Peace Conference were not as many as they had originally been promised. Italy was given Trentino, Trieste, Tyrol and Istria, but she did not get any former German colonies nor any land in Asia Minor, Albania or Dalmatia. There was much resentment against the weak and unsuccessful foreign policy of the Italian government, of which was thought by many to be far too fragile in i...
