Mussolini’s Foreign Adventures

About the Images

The following citations are for the images shown above, left to right, illustrating books and other works included in the exhibit “Italian Life Under Fascism” in the Department of Special Collections in 1998.

1. Orazio Pedrazzi. La Conquista della Libia. Florence: R. Bemporad e Figli, n.d. but ca. 1930.
   • This book for young readers recounts Italy’s conquest of its oldest colony in 1911-1912 (although the text is remarkably free of dates). The book offers the usual justifications for this and later colonial adventures — namely, that “civilized nations have not only the right but also the duty to dominate these barbarous countries and bring to them the light of human progress.” Many black-and-white full-page reproductions of paintings glorify the actions of Italian soldiers.
2. Fasci Italiani all’Estero. L’ Abissinia e Noi. Rome: Tipografia Regionale, 1935.
   • An official publication of the Fascist regime justifying Italy’s claims to Abyssinia (Ethiopia) on the eve of the conquest: a congeries of backward, poorly governed feudal entities, Abyssinia is seen as presenting grave danger to the Italian colonies of Eritrea and Somalia. The publication describes in some detail the battle of Adua.
3. Azione Imperiale. Rassegna della Creazione Fascista. Rome, August 1936.
   • The first issue of a monthly magazine devoted to culture under the regime and directed by a leading literary figure, Futurist writer F. T. Marinetti. The present installment dwells on imperial themes, and the cover carries a map of Italian Africa.
4. Il Piccolo. Trieste, 6 May 1936.
   • This full-page spread in Trieste’s fiercely Fascist daily celebrates the Italian conquest of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. This victory “opens the doors to work and Italian civilization,” a phrase often used to describe Mussolini’s colonial adventures.
5. G. de Agostini. La Libia Turistica. Milan: G. de Agostini, 1938.
   • An illustrated guidebook to Italy’s oldest colony, compiled with the enthusiastic support of its “proconsul,” Italo Balbo, the daring aviator who led a squadron of flying boats over the Atlantic to Chicago in 1933.
6. Itinerario Tripoli-Gadàmes. Milan: Tipo-Litografia Turati Lombardi e C., 1938.
   • This guide describes in great detail a tourist itinerary from Tripoli to the desert city of Gadàmes in southern Libya. It includes fifty-four photographs and many full-page reproductions of watercolors prepared especially for this book. Almost every small village or historical (Roman) landmark is described and illustrated. A large fold-out map in color is appended. Although the guide appeared at the height of Italian involvement in Africa, the text includes little Fascist propaganda.
7. Ente Autonomo Fiera di Tripoli. XIII Fiera di Tripoli. Rome: Arti Grafiche Trinacria, 1939.
   • A propaganda document that describes in detail the inauguration of the thirteenth trade fair in Tripoli (Libya) and commemorates the visit of Attilio Teruzzi, undersecretary of state for Italian Africa.

Additional Exhibit Items

The following items were part of the original exhibit in the Department of Special Collections but are not pictured above.

• I Comunicati del Conflitto Italo-Abissino. Venice: Tipografia del Gazzettino Illustrato, 1936.
  • A description of the war in Abyssinia using official government communiqués, with maps and photographs of important military leaders.
• Omnibus. Rome, 3 and 24 December 1938.
  • When the United States backed economic sanctions against Italy because of her colonial adventures, a hostile campaign was unleashed in the Italian press. The popular weekly Omnibus, for example, includes unflattering depictions of American life.
• Rivista delle Colonie. January 1939.
  • A monthly Fascist publication devoted to the topic of Italian and foreign possessions beyond the seas. Its overarching theme is the civilizing benefits brought by colonization.
• Antieuropa, Nuoveuropa. Rassegna Universale del Fascismo, Italia 12: 2-3 (1941).
  • In a journal dedicated to extolling Italy’s role in the Second World War, this issue places special emphasis on occupied Croatia. Numerous photographs show England devastated by incendiary bombs and preparing for the worst. A highly pitched propaganda vehicle, this journal in fact conveys an impression of desperation.