The Explorers' Club, № MCL

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
7 April 1926: Italian Duce Benito Mussolini was shot in Rome by Violet Gibson, an Anglo-Irishwoman, the first of three assassination attempts in 1926; he had just addressed an international conference of surgeons; the bullet only grazed Mussolini's nose, & he was able to carry on with his itinerary; Italian police saved Gibson from being lynched & she spent the rest of her life in a British insane asylum.

Commentary: In 2022, Dublin, Ireland unveiled a plaque honoring Gibson as a "committed anti-fascist," brushing aside her own Unionist political convictions (born & raised in Dublin, she refused to hold Irish citizenship after the Anglo-Irish War) & the inconvenient fact that her failed assassination boosted Mussolini's popularity, thus aiding the Fascist consolidation of power in Italy.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № MXXX

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
10 June 1924: Giacomo Matteotti (1885-1924), leader of the Unitary Socialist Party & member of the Chamber of Deputies, was kidnapped & murdered by Fascists, led by Amerigo Dumini; Matteotti had given a speech (30 May) denouncing the 6 April 1924 election as fraudulent; anti-Fascist deputies withdrew from Parliament (26 June), trying to force the king to dismiss Mussolini as Prime Minister.

Commentary: Three Fascists, including Dumini, were jailed for Matteotti's murder, but were released within a year as part of a general amnesty. After the Second World War, the three were re-sentenced to life imprisonment, but released after a few years as part of another amnesty.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № MXXVI

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
6 April 1924: A general election in Italy, the last multi-party elections until after the Second World War, produced a Fascist supermajority in the Chamber of Deputies; this was the only election held under the Acerbo Law, which granted a two-thirds majority to the party that won the largest share of the vote (if >25%); intimidation of opposition-party voters by Blackshirts & other irregularities were alleged.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № CMXII

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
27-29 October 1922: The March on Rome—Italo Balbo, Michele Bianchi, Emilio De Bono, & Cesare Maria De Vecchi (the Quadrumvirs) lead 25,000 Fascists toward Rome, while Benito Mussolini waited in Milan; King Victor Emmanuel III refused to declare a state of emergency to thwart the Blackshirts; Mussolini was invited to form a cabinet & succeeded Luigi Facta as Prime Minister on 31 October.

Commentary: Mussolini did not personally lead the March on Rome, but he did pose for propaganda photographs. The March on Rome did not immediately establish a Fascist authoritarian dictatorship, but catalyzed Fascism's gradual takeover within the Kingdom of Italy's liberal constitutional order.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCCXIV

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
24 April 1921: Bloody Sunday—Hundreds of Fascists descended upon the German-speaking town of Bozen (Italian: Bolzano), in South Tyrol, recently annexed by Italy from Austria, & attacked the parade in conjunction with the town's Spring Fair; one man was murdered & dozens wounded; the Italian military escorted the Fascist attackers safely back to the train station & no one was ever prosecuted.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCXCIII

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars—The Fiume Endeavor, Part III
12 November-30 December 1920: The Free State of Fiume—The Kingdom of Italy & the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, & Slovenes signed the Treaty of Rapallo (12 November), establishing Fiume as an independent state; the Italian Regency of Carnaro rejected the treaty & declared war on Italy; over "Bloody Christmas" (24-30 December) the Italian Army expelled D'Annunzio's legionaries from Fiume.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCLXXI

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Fiume Endeavor, Part II
8 September 1920: The Charter of Carnaro—After rejecting a modus vivendi proposed by the Italian government, Gabriele D'Annunzio declared the Italian Regency of Carnaro & unveiled the Carta del Carnaro, a new constitution that titled D'Annunzio as Comandante & set up a corporatist, syndicalist state, mandating the population into ten guilds; the Regency presaged much of Mussolini's Fascism.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCVIII

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Fiume Endeavor, Part I
12 September 1919: The Impresa di Fiume ("Endeavor of Fiume")—Gabriele D'Annunzio led a force of Italian veterans, irredentists, & fascists to Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia) & seized the formerly Austro-Hungarian Adriatic port; D'Annunzio claimed Fiume for Italy, rather than see it given to the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, & Slovenes (Yugoslavia), but Rome repudiated him & imposed a blockade.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCLXXIX

Operation AXIOM: After the World War
23 March 1919: Italian Fascism was founded—Benito Mussolini renamed his consolidation of several fasci groups the Italian Fasci of Combat (Fasci Italiani di Combattimento) & declared his movement's principles at a rally in Milan's Piazza San Sepolcro, later published in Il Popolo d'Italia, Mussolini's newspaper; the proto-Fascist "Third Position" opposed both Communism/Socialism & capitalism.

Lest we forget.