Arrivederci Savoia!

Jivan Johal
May 9, 2017
2 min read

The country of Italy had been small states for a long time. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Italy went through a series of reformations and transformations (including the renaissance), and became a collection of small independent states on the peninsula. The Republic of Venice was one of these small states, and for a long time, there was no such thing as "Italy". This changed after the Congress of Vienna, when unification was put into the works. Italy then fell under war, with Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoia assembling a group of soldiers to take the peninsula. He won, and thus became the first king of the Unified Kingdom of Italy.

The King of Italy died in 1878, being killed in an assassination, and passed his reign onto his son who claimed the country in 1900. Vittorio Emanuele III became the king, and ruled the country. The period for which he ruled was a hard time, for there were two major wars. When WWI began in 1914, he had previously been sided with the Triple Alliance, but switched to the [later victorious] Entente side. The king then was challenged by Mussolini, who took over by force, scaring the parliament into giving him power. He also threatened the king, and was able to force the king into giving him complete rule.

When Mussolini led the Italians into WWII, he believed he was resurrecting the old Roman Empire, but in actuality, was not. Italy was only able to conquer the more primal African countries (Such as Ethiopia). Near the end of the war, Mussolini's forces had been beaten back, and the Allies began to invade the south of Italy from Tunisia. A civil war broke out between the anti-fascists and Mussolini's forces, and the entire country was plunged into chaos, with the Allied invasion occurring as the people fought the fascists. The civil war resulted in Mussolini's death, the collapse of fascism, and the liberation of Italy. The war ended and the country had been freed from a terrible reign.

King Vittorio by this point knew that his reign was finished, for Italy lay in ruins for a second time, and fascism and war had completely destroyed Italy. He held a referendum in 1946, and on May 9th, 1946, he officially abdicated the throne and abolished the monarchy, ending the existence of the Kingdom of Italy, and giving birth to the Republic of Italy, which still exists today.

It was the two world wars and the iron grip of fascism that had led to the end of the Italian monarchy, and although he had been a popular leader at one time, it was ultimately war that brought the monarchy down as it had propped it up.