220-625: The Greco-Italian War ( Greek : Ελληνοϊταλικός Πόλεμος , romanized : Ellinoïtalikós Pólemos ), also called the Italo-Greek War , Italian campaign in Greece , Italian invasion of Greece , and War of '40 in Greece, took place between Italy and Greece from 28 October 1940 to 23 April 1941. This conflict began the Balkans campaign of World War II between the Axis powers and
440-560: A September 1920 speech: When dealing with such a race as Slavic—inferior and barbarian—we must not pursue the carrot, but the stick policy ... We should not be afraid of new victims ... The Italian border should run across the Brenner Pass , Monte Nevoso and the Dinaric Alps ... I would say we can easily sacrifice 500,000 barbaric Slavs for 50,000 Italians ... In the same way, Mussolini argued that Italy
660-483: A Socialist ) in the radical periodical La Voce . He also wrote several essays about German literature, some stories, and one novel: L'amante del Cardinale: Claudia Particella, romanzo storico ( The Cardinal's Mistress ). This novel he co-wrote with Santi Corvaja, and it was published as a serial book in the Trento newspaper Il Popolo from 20 January to 11 May 1910. The novel was bitterly anticlerical, and years later
880-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,
1100-522: A classmate with a penknife and was severely punished. After joining a new non-religious school in Forlimpopoli , Mussolini achieved good grades, was appreciated by his teachers despite his violent character, and qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in July 1901. In July 1902, Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland, partly to avoid compulsory military service. He worked briefly as a stonemason but
1320-630: A condition for being pardoned was serving in the army, he joined the corps of the Bersaglieri in Forlì on 30 December 1904. After serving for two years in the military (from January 1905 until September 1906), he returned to teaching. In February 1909, Mussolini again left Italy, this time to take the job as the secretary of the labour party in the Italian-speaking city of Trento , then part of Austria-Hungary . He also did office work for
1540-473: A conflict with Italy. The General Staff's plan for the defence of Epirus envisaged withdrawal to a more defensible line, and it was only through Katsimitros' insistence that the Italian attack was confronted close to the border. Metaxas himself, during a briefing of the press on 30 October 1940, reiterated his unshakeable confidence on the ultimate victory of Britain, and hence of Greece, but was less confident on
1760-614: A conflict. As a result, Metaxas, who believed Grazzi to be a "faithful executor of Rome's orders", was left unsure of Italy's true intentions, wavering between optimism and "crises of prudent rationalism", in the words of Tsirpanlis. Neither Metaxas nor Grazzi realized that the latter was being kept in his post "deliberately in order to allay the suspicions of the Greek government and so that the aggressive plans against Greece might remain concealed". German intervention, urging Italy to avoid Balkan complications and concentrate on Britain, along with
1980-513: A daughter, Edda, at Forlì in 1910. In 1915, he had a son with Ida Dalser , a woman born in Sopramonte, a village near Trento. He legally recognised this son on 11 January 1916. By the time he returned from service in the Allied forces of World War I, Mussolini was convinced that socialism as a doctrine had largely been a failure. In the autumn of 1917, he was recruited as a MI5 agent with
2200-526: A dispute over the two sides' financial claims from World War I. The Greek government put renewed emphasis on improving relations with Italy and in November 1926, a trade agreement was signed between the two states. Initiated and energetically pursued by Andreas Michalakopoulos , the Italian–Greek rapprochement had a positive impact on Greek relations with Romania and Turkey and after 1928 was continued by
2420-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in
SECTION 10
#17327656944842640-508: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on
2860-470: A flight of Blenheim Is from 84 Squadron arrived. All RAF assets were placed under the command of Air vice-marshal John D'Albiac . The RAF aircraft participated in the Greek counter-offensive that began on 14 November, with No. 84 Squadron operating forward from Menidi . A few days later, the Gloster Gladiator fighters of 80 Squadron moved forward to Trikala , causing significant losses to
3080-487: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near
3300-416: A friendly phase that lasted until spring 1940. In May 1940, as Italian entry into the war became imminent, the Italian press began an anti-Greek propaganda campaign, accusing the country of being a foreign puppet and tolerating British warships in its waters. Following the defeat of France , Greek–Italian relations deteriorated further. From 18 June, De Vecchi sent a series of protests to Rome, reporting on
3520-594: A historical and political biography about the life and mission of the Czech ecclesiastic reformer Jan Hus and his militant followers, the Hussites . During this socialist period of his life, Mussolini sometimes used the pen name "Vero Eretico" ("sincere heretic"). Mussolini rejected egalitarianism , a core doctrine of socialism. He was influenced by Nietzsche's anti-Christian ideas and negation of God's existence . Mussolini felt that socialism had faltered, in view of
3740-405: A historical basis—belonged to Italy anyway. In Mussolini's thinking, demography was destiny; nations with rising populations were nations destined to conquer; and nations with falling populations were decaying powers that deserved to die. Hence, the importance of natalism to Mussolini, since only by increasing the birth rate could Italy ensure its future as a great power. By Mussolini's reckoning,
3960-614: A message that was articulated by the Fascist newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia , which was now edited by Mussolini's brother, Arnaldo . To that end, Mussolini obtained from the legislature dictatorial powers for one year (legal under the Italian constitution of the time). He favoured the complete restoration of state authority, with the integration of the Italian Fasces of Combat into the armed forces (the foundation in January 1923 of
4180-788: A military intervention; the same was true for an alleged revolt of the Albanian minority living in Chameria , located in the Greek territory immediately behind the boundary, which would break out after the beginning of the attack. On the eve of 28 October 1940, Italy's ambassador in Athens , Emanuele Grazzi, handed an ultimatum from Mussolini to Metaxas. It demanded free passage for his troops to occupy unspecified strategic points inside Greek territory. Greece had been friendly towards Nazi Germany, profiting from mutual trade relations, but now Germany's ally, Italy, intended to invade Greece. Metaxas rejected
4400-429: A number of ideas that fascism promoted, such as rule by an elite promoting the state as the ultimate end, opposition to democracy, protecting the class system and promoting class collaboration, rejection of egalitarianism, promoting the militarisation of a nation by creating a class of warriors, demanding that citizens perform civic duties in the interest of the state, and utilising state intervention in education to promote
4620-731: A possible attack on Corfu mounted, Metaxas wrote in his diary of his determination to resist any Italian attack. Following the Italian invasion of Albania in April, relations between Italy and Greece deteriorated rapidly. The Greeks began making defensive preparations for an Italian attack, while the Italians began improving infrastructure in Albania to facilitate troop movements. The new Italian ambassador, Emanuele Grazzi , arrived in Athens later in April. During his tenure, Grazzi worked earnestly for
SECTION 20
#17327656944844840-597: A result of a continued anti-Greek campaign in the Italian press, combined with provocative Italian actions. Thus during Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano 's visit to Albania, posters supporting Albanian irredentism in Chameria were publicly displayed; the governor of the Italian Dodecanese, Cesare Maria De Vecchi , closed the remaining Greek communal schools in the province, and Italian troops were heard singing " Andremo nell'Egeo, prenderemo pure il Pireo. E, se tutto va bene, prenderemo anche Aténe. " ("We go to
5060-579: A setback: the Italian forces encountered unexpectedly tenacious resistance by the Hellenic Army and penetrated only a few kilometers into Greek territory and had to contend with the mountainous and muddy terrain on the Albanian–Greek border. With British air and material support, the Greeks stopped the Italian invasion just inside Greek territory by mid-November and subsequently counter-attacked with
5280-484: A speech that acknowledged the nation as an entity, a notion he had rejected prior to the war, saying: The nation has not disappeared. We used to believe that the concept was totally without substance. Instead we see the nation arise as a palpitating reality before us! ... Class cannot destroy the nation. Class reveals itself as a collection of interests—but the nation is a history of sentiments, traditions, language, culture, and race. Class can become an integral part of
5500-597: A supremely overconfident man whose vainglorious pursuit of power led him to believe that under his leadership Italy was about to win as he put it "the glory she has sought in vain for three centuries". The staging of incidents at the border to provide a suitable pretext (analogous to the Gleiwitz incident ) was agreed for 24 October. Mussolini suggested that the expected advance of the 10th Army (Marshal Rodolfo Graziani ) on Mersa Matruh , in Egypt, be brought forward to prevent
5720-566: A tacit member of the anti-Axis camp, despite its official neutrality. British warships did sail deep into the Aegean, leading the British ambassador in Athens to recommend, on 17 August, that the government put a stop to them. Mussolini saw his war as a guerra parallela ("parallel war") under which Italy would finally conquer its spazio vitale allied to Germany, but without the help of Germany since until early 1941 he remained vehemently opposed to
5940-569: A threat to the "white race". Mussolini believed that the United States was doomed as the American blacks had a higher birthrate than whites, making it inevitable that the blacks would take over the United States to drag it down to their level. The fact that Italy was suffering from overpopulation was seen as proving the cultural and spiritual vitality of the Italians, who were thus justified in seeking to colonise lands that Mussolini argued—on
6160-521: A total of c. 44,000 men. The 3rd Alpine Division "Julia" with (10,800 men and 29 guns), was placed between the corps to cover the advance of XXV Corps along the Pindus mountains. The Regia Aeronautica had 380 aircraft available for operations against Greece. About half of the fighter force consisted of 64 Fiat CR.42 Falco (Hawk) and 23 Fiat CR.32 Freccia (Arrow) biplanes (the latter already outdated). More modern and effective were
6380-474: A unified region that had belonged to Italy from the times of the ancient Roman province of Italia , and was claimed as Italy's exclusive sphere of influence. The right to colonise the neighbouring Slovene ethnic areas and the Mediterranean, being inhabited by what were alleged to be less developed peoples, was justified on the grounds that Italy was allegedly suffering from overpopulation. Borrowing
6600-410: A veteran of Spanish War , with fixed undercarriage, and 31 Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero (Sparrowhawk) built with steel tubes, timber, aluminium, and fabric and carrying scarce defensive firepower. On 28 October, the Greek army had 14 infantry divisions, one cavalry division and three infantry brigades, all at least partly mobilized since August; four infantry divisions and two brigades were on
6820-595: A £100 weekly wage by Sir Samuel Hoare , the agency's representative in Rome , in return for which he promised not only to keep up pro-war propaganda in Il Popolo but also to send army veterans in to break up any pro-peace strikes in Milan factories . In early 1918 he called for the emergence of a man "ruthless and energetic enough to make a clean sweep" to revive the Italian nation. On 23 March 1919 Mussolini re-formed
Greco-Italian War - Misplaced Pages Continue
7040-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout
7260-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During
7480-466: Is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki ,
7700-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to
7920-1053: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (in Switzerland known as Benedetto Mussolini ; 29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945)
8140-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,
8360-596: The 51st Infantry Division "Siena" (9,200 men and 50 guns) and the 131st Armored Division "Centauro" (4,037 men, 24 guns and 163 light tanks, of which only 90 operational). In addition, it was reinforced by cavalry units in a brigade-level command operating on the extreme Italian right along the coast (4,823 men and 32 guns). The XXV Corps comprised 22 infantry battalions, three cavalry regiments, 61 artillery batteries (18 heavy) and 90 tanks. Along with Blackshirt battalions and auxiliary troops, it numbered c. 42,000 men. XXVI Corizza Corps in
8580-625: The Allies , and eventually turned into the Battle of Greece with British and German involvement. On 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on France and the United Kingdom. By September 1940, the Italians had invaded France , British Somaliland and Egypt . This was followed by a hostile press campaign in Italy against Greece, accused of being a British ally. A number of provocations culminated in
8800-649: The Balkan Pact of 1935, the Turks threatened to intervene on Greece's side if the Bulgarians attacked Greece—the Greek high command was free to throw the bulk of its army against Italian forces in Albania. Almost half the forces assigned to the Bulgarian front (13th and 17th Divisions, 16th Infantry Brigade) and the entirety of the general reserve ( I Army Corps with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Infantry Divisions, as well as
9020-620: The Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from
Greco-Italian War - Misplaced Pages Continue
9240-486: The British Crown Colony of Cyprus after the war. On 13 October, Mussolini finalized the decision for war when he informed Marshal Badoglio to start preparing an attack for 26 October. Badoglio then issued the order for the Italian military to begin preparations for executing the existing war plan, "Contingency G[reece]", which envisioned the capture of Epirus as far as Arta but left the further pursuit of
9460-624: The Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are
9680-627: The Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of
9900-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It
10120-669: The First Austrian Republic , the Kingdom of Hungary , the Kingdom of Romania and the Kingdom of Bulgaria , which lay on the periphery of an Italian European sphere of influence . In 1935, Italy began the Second Italo-Ethiopian War to expand the empire; a more aggressive Italian foreign policy which "exposed [the] vulnerabilities" of the British and French and created an opportunity the Fascist regime needed to realize its imperial goals. In 1936,
10340-580: The First World War , the Italian delegation withdrew from the conference for several months. Italy occupied parts of Anatolia which threatened the Greek occupation zone and the city of Smyrna . Greek troops were landed and the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22) began with Greek troops advanced into Anatolia. Turkish forces eventually defeated the Greeks and with Italian aid, recovered the lost territory, including Smyrna. In 1923, Mussolini used
10560-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as
10780-544: The Mediterranean –Danubian– Balkan region and Mussolini imagined the conquest "of an empire stretching from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Strait of Hormuz ". There were designs for a protectorate over the Albanian Kingdom and for the annexation of Dalmatia and economic and military control of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Kingdom of Greece . The fascist regime also sought to establish protectorates over
11000-526: The Munich Conference in October 1938 suggested a British–Greek alliance to the British ambassador, arguing that Greece "should prepare for the eventuality of a war between Great Britain and Italy, which sooner or later Greece would find itself drawn into". Loath to be embroiled in a possible Greek–Bulgarian war, dismissive of Greece's military ability, and disliking the regime, the British rebuffed
11220-662: The National Fascist Party at a congress in Rome. In 1921 , Mussolini won election to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time. In the meantime, from about 1911 until 1938, Mussolini had various affairs with the Jewish author and academic Margherita Sarfatti , called the "Jewish Mother of Fascism" at the time. In the night between 27 and 28 October 1922, about 30,000 Fascist blackshirts gathered in Rome to demand
SECTION 50
#173276569448411440-657: The Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of
11660-470: The Regia Aeronautica . 211 Squadron with Blenheim Is, followed before the end of November, joining 84 Squadron at Menidi and 80 Squadron moved to Yannina , about 65 kilometres (40 mi) from the Albanian border. In the first week of December, 14 Gladiators were transferred from the RAF to the RHAF. The Greek official history of the Greco-Italian War divides it into three periods: The Greek commander-in-chief, Alexandros Papagos , in his memoirs regarded
11880-421: The Regia Marina nor Francesco Pricolo of the Regia Aeronautica were asked to attend while Roatta arrived late as he was invited by Mussolini's secretary to the meeting just before it started. Mussolini reiterated his objectives; stated he believed that neither of Greece's allies in the Balkan Pact, Yugoslavia or Turkey would act; expressed his determination that the attack take place on 26 October and asked for
12100-453: The Regio Esercito would require 20 divisions in Albania, which in turn would require 3 months, but he did not press this point. The one man in Italy who could have stopped the war, King Victor Emmanuel III , chose to bless it instead. The king told Mussolini at a meeting that he had his support as he expected the Greeks to "crumble". Victor Emmanuel was looking forward to having a fourth crown to wear (Mussolini had already given Victor Emmanuel
12320-464: The Spanish Civil War began and Italy made a military contribution so vast that it played a decisive role in the victory of the rebel forces of Francisco Franco . "A full-scale external war" was fought for Spanish subservience to the Italian Empire, to place Italy on a war footing, and to create "a warrior culture". In September 1938, the Italian army had made plans to invade Albania , which began on 7 April 1939, and in three days had occupied most of
12540-414: The Spanish Civil War . Mussolini took part in the Treaty of Lausanne , Four-Power Pact and Stresa Front . However, he alienated the democratic powers as tensions grew in the League of Nations , which he left in 1937. Now hostile to France and Britain, Italy formed the Axis alliance with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan . The wars of the 1930s cost Italy enormous resources, leaving it unprepared for
12760-404: The University of Lausanne 's Department of Social Science on 7 May 1904, attending the lectures of Vilfredo Pareto. In 1937, when he was prime minister of Italy, the University of Lausanne awarded Mussolini an honorary doctorate . In December 1904, Mussolini returned to Italy to take advantage of an amnesty for desertion from the military. He had been convicted for this in absentia . Since
12980-445: The Voluntary Militia for National Security ) and the progressive identification of the party with the state. In political and social economy, he passed legislation that favoured the wealthy industrial and agrarian classes (privatisations, liberalisations of rent laws and dismantlement of the unions). In 1923, Mussolini sent Italian forces to invade Corfu during the Corfu incident . The League of Nations proved powerless, and Greece
13200-517: The general strike , and the use of neo-Machiavellian appeals to emotion, impressed Mussolini deeply. Mussolini became active in the Italian socialist movement in Switzerland, working for the paper L'Avvenire del Lavoratore , organising meetings, giving speeches to workers, and serving as secretary of the Italian workers' union in Lausanne . Angelica Balabanov reportedly introduced him to Vladimir Lenin , who later criticised Italian socialists for having lost Mussolini from their cause. In 1903, he
13420-465: The interwar period . Mussolini was originally a socialist politician and journalist at the Avanti! newspaper . In 1912, he became a member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), but was expelled for advocating military intervention in World War I . In 1914, Mussolini founded a newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia , and served in the Royal Italian Army until he was wounded and discharged in 1917. Mussolini eventually denounced
SECTION 60
#173276569448413640-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in
13860-462: The 1920s, he ordered the Pacification of Libya , the bombing of Corfu over an incident with Greece , and annexed Fiume , after a treaty with Yugoslavia . In 1936, Ethiopia was conquered following the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and merged into Italian East Africa (AOI) with Eritrea and Somalia . In 1939, Italian forces annexed Albania . Between 1936 and 1939, Mussolini ordered an intervention in Spain in favour of Francisco Franco , during
14080-999: The 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th pursuit squadrons, the 31st, 32nd, 33rd bomber squadrons, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th military cooperation squadrons, the 2828 Independent Military Cooperation Flight and the 11th, 12th and 13th naval cooperation squadrons. At the outbreak of the war the operational combat fleet of the Royal Greek Air Force counted 24 PZL P.24 and nine Bloch MB.151 fighters, as well as eleven Bristol Blenheim Mk IV , ten Fairey Battle B.1 and eight Potez 633 B2 bombers. Serviceable ground attack and naval support aircraft included about nine Breguet 19 two-seater biplane bombers, 15 Henschel Hs 126 reconnaissance and observation aircraft, 17 Potez 25 A observation aircraft, nine Fairey III amphibious reconnaissance aircraft, 12 Dornier Do 22 G torpedo bombers, and 9 Avro Anson maritime reconnaissance aircraft. The main air bases were located in Sedes , Larissa , Dekeleia , Faleron , Eleusis , Nea Anchialos and Maleme . The Royal Hellenic Navy had
14300-411: The 851 million drachmas spent on fortification between April 1939 and October 1940, only 82 million went to the Albanian frontier and the rest on the Metaxas Line and other works in the north-east. Nevertheless, given the enormous numerical and material superiority of the Italian military, the Greek leadership, from Metaxas down, was reserved and cautious, with few hopes of outright victory in
14520-472: The Aegean, and will take even Piraeus. And if all goes well, we will take Athens too."). Four of the five Italian divisions in Albania moved towards the Greek border, and on 16 August the Italian Chief of the General Staff, Marshal Pietro Badoglio , received orders to begin planning for an attack on Greece. On 4 August, Metaxas had ordered Greek forces to a state of readiness and a partial mobilization. "The entire road-building programme has been directed towards
14740-458: The Allies, in September 1943, Mussolini was rescued in the Gran Sasso raid by Germany. Hitler made Mussolini the figurehead of a puppet state in German-occupied north Italy, the Italian Social Republic , which served as a collaborationist regime of the Germans. With Allied victory imminent, Mussolini and mistress Clara Petacci attempted to flee to Switzerland, but were captured by communist partisans and executed on 28 April 1945. Mussolini
14960-491: The Axis on 1 March 1941. British ground forces began arriving in Greece the next day. This caused Hitler to come to the aid of his Axis ally. On 6 April, the Germans invaded northern Greece (" Operation Marita "). The Greeks had deployed the vast majority of their men into a mutually costly stalemate with the Italians on the Albanian front, leaving the fortified Metaxas Line with only a third of its authorized strength. Greek and British forces in northern Greece were overwhelmed and
15180-606: The Balkans, and advanced plans for an invasion of Greece. The fact that Hitler never told Mussolini of any foreign policy moves in advance had long been considered humiliating by the latter and he was to determined to strike Greece without informing Hitler as a way of asserting Italian equality with Germany. On 13 October, Mussolini told Marshal Badoglio that Italy was going to war with Greece, with Badoglio making no objections. The next day, Badoglio first learned that Mussolini planned to occupy all of Greece instead of just Epirus as he had been led to understand, which led Badoglio to say that
15400-400: The British from aiding Greece. Over the next couple of days Badoglio failed to elicit objections to the attack from the other service chiefs or to achieve its cancellation on technical grounds. Mussolini, enraged by the Marshal's obstructionism, threatened to accept his resignation if offered. Badoglio backed down, managing only to secure a postponement of the attack until 28 October. The front
15620-401: The Cretan 5th Infantry Division and the Cavalry Division ) were directed to the Albanian front. On the Epirus sector, Katsimitros had left five battalions along the border to delay the Italian advance, and installed his main resistance line in a convex front with the Kalpaki pass in the centre, manned by nine battalions. Further two battalions under Major-General Nikolaos Lioumbas took over
15840-685: The Dodecanese went on to bombard Greek warships in harbour at Kissamos . On 31 July Italian bombers attacked two Greek destroyers in the Gulf of Corinth and two submarines in Nafpaktos ; two days later a coastguard vessel was attacked at Aegina , off Athens. Ciano's diary confirms that over the summer of 1940, Mussolini turned his attention to the Balkans: on 6 August, Mussolini was planning an attack on Yugoslavia, while on 10–12 August he railed against
16060-511: The Ethiopian crisis, it was unwilling to commit itself further so as to avoid limiting its freedom of manoeuvre vis-à-vis Italy. Furthermore, with the (British-backed) restoration of the Greek monarchy in 1935 in the person of the anglophile King George II , Britain had secured its dominant influence in the country. This did not change after the establishment of the dictatorial 4th of August Regime of Ioannis Metaxas in 1936. Although imitating
16280-541: The Fascist regime in Italy in its ideology and outward appearance, the regime lacked a mass popular base, and its main pillar was the King, who commanded the allegiance of the army. Greek foreign policy thus remained aligned with that of Britain, despite the parallel ever-growing economic penetration of the country by Nazi Germany . Metaxas himself, although an ardent Germanophile in World War I, followed this line, and after
16500-758: The First World War that resulted in his ousting from the Italian Socialist Party: Professor Benito Mussolini, ... 38, revolutionary socialist, has a police record; elementary school teacher qualified to teach in secondary schools; former first secretary of the Chambers in Cesena, Forlì, and Ravenna; after 1912 editor of the newspaper Avanti! to which he gave a violent suggestive and intransigent orientation. In October 1914, finding himself in opposition to
16720-506: The Germans advanced rapidly west and south. In Albania, the Greek army made a belated withdrawal to avoid being cut off by the Germans but was followed up by the Italians. Greece surrendered to German troops on 20 April 1941 and to the Italians on 23 April. Greece was subsequently occupied by Bulgarian, German and Italian troops. The Italian army suffered 102,064 combat casualties (with 13,755 dead and 3,900 missing) and fifty thousand wounded;
16940-522: The Grabala and other heights; on the night of the 7th, Grabala briefly fell once more, but was swiftly recaptured. On 8 November, the Italians began withdrawing and assuming defensive positions until the arrival of reinforcements. On the coastal sector, the Italians made better progress. The Greek covering units were forced south of the Kalamas already on the first day, but the bad state of the roads delayed
17160-487: The Greco-Bulgarian frontier. Large sums of money were spent to re-equip the army but due to the increasing threat of and the eventual outbreak of war, the most significant foreign purchases from 1938 to 1939, were only partly delivered or not at all. A massive contingency plan was developed and great amounts of food and equipment were stockpiled in many parts of the country as a precaution in the event of war. After
17380-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit
17600-524: The Greek border. And this is by order of the Duce, who is thinking more and more of attacking Greece at the first opportunity." Entry in Ciano's diary for 12 May 1939 Although both Britain and France publicly guaranteed the independence of Greece and Romania on 13 April 1939, the British still refused to be drawn into concrete undertakings towards Greece, as they hoped to entice Mussolini to remain neutral in
17820-503: The Greek border. The Italian dictator even instructed Grazzi, to express his trust towards Metaxas and offer to sell Greece aircraft. On 20 September, the Italians offered to formalize relations by renewing the 1928 treaty. Metaxas rejected this, as the British Foreign Office was opposed to a formal commitment by Greece to Italy, and made only a public declaration of friendship and good-will. Greek–Italian relations entered
18040-464: The Greek covering units had withdrawn to the Kalpaki line, and by 1 November, Italian units made contact with the Greek line. During these three days, the Italians prepared their assault, bombarding the Greek positions with aircraft and artillery. In the meantime, the developing Italian threat in the Pindus sector forced Papagos to cable Katsimitros that his main mission was to cover the Pindus passes and
18260-495: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in
18480-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow
18700-562: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community
18920-414: The Greeks suffered over 83,500 combat casualties (including 13,325 killed and 1,200 missing) and forty two thousand wounded. In the late 1920s, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini said that Fascist Italy needed Spazio vitale , an outlet for its surplus population and that it would be in the best interests of other countries to aid in the expansion of Imperial Italy . The regime wanted hegemony in
19140-400: The Greeks, promising to rectify the "unfinished business" of 1923. Count Ciano was the Italian official who had pushed most strongly for the conquest of Albania in 1939 and afterwards Albania was ruled very much as his own "personal fiefdom" as the viceroy Francesco Jacomoni was a lackey of Ciano's. As a way of improving his prestige within the regime, Ciano was the Italian official who pressed
19360-520: The Italian Futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti , French Socialist Gustave Hervé , Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta , and German philosophers Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx , the founders of Marxism . Mussolini had taught himself French and German and translated excerpts from Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and Kant . During this time, he published Il Trentino veduto da un Socialista ( Trentino as viewed by
19580-685: The Italian Socialist Party and its support of orthodox socialism, he claimed that his failure as a member of the party to revitalise and transform it to recognise the contemporary reality revealed the hopelessness of orthodox socialism as outdated and a failure. This perception of the failure of orthodox socialism in the light of the outbreak of World War I was not solely held by Mussolini; other pro-interventionist Italian socialists such as Filippo Corridoni and Sergio Panunzio had also denounced classical Marxism in favour of intervention. These basic political views and principles formed
19800-565: The Italian advance. On the night of 4/5 November, the Italians crossed the river and broke through the defences of the local Greek battalion, forcing Lioumbas to order his forces to withdraw south of the Acheron River . Igoumenitsa was captured on 6 November, and on the next day, the Italians reached Margariti . This marked their deepest advance, as the Thesprotia Sector began receiving reinforcements from Katsimitros, and as on
20020-636: The Italian occupation of Albania in spring 1939, the Greek General Staff prepared the "IB" (Italy-Bulgaria) plan, anticipating a combined offensive by Italy and Bulgaria. Given the overwhelming superiority of such an alliance in manpower and matériel, the plan prescribed a purely defensive strategy, including the gradual retreat of the Greek forces in Epirus to the Arachthos River – Metsovo –Aliakmon River– Mt. Vermion line, to gain time for
20240-531: The Italian offensive, Papagos, until then the Chief of the Hellenic Army General Staff , was appointed commander-in-chief of the newly established General Headquarters. The Army General Staff, which functioned as the main field staff throughout the war, was handed over to Lieutenant-General Konstantinos Pallis , recalled from retirement. With Bulgarian neutrality assured—following the terms of
20460-550: The Italian population had to reach 60 million to enable Italy to fight a major war—hence his relentless demands for Italian women to have more children. Mussolini and the fascists managed to be simultaneously revolutionary and traditionalist ; because this was vastly different from anything else in the political climate of the time, it is sometimes described as "The Third Way". The Fascisti, led by one of Mussolini's close confidants, Dino Grandi , formed armed squads of war veterans called blackshirts (or squadristi ) with
20680-571: The Italian viceroy in Albania, Francesco Jacomoni , the Italian and Albanian press began a campaign against Greece, on the pretext of the murder of the bandit Daut Hoxha in June. Hoxha was presented as a patriot fighting for the liberty of Chameria and his murder the work of Greek agents. Ciano wrote approvingly in his diary that Mussolini wanted more information on Ciamuria (the Italian term for Epirus) and had ordered both Jacomoni and General Count Sebastiano Visconti Prasca Guzzoni to Rome. Visconti Prasca,
20900-515: The Italian-ruled Dodecanese, and British-ruled Cyprus remained open but inactive in view of the country's weakness and isolation. The main threat Greece faced was from Bulgaria , which claimed Greece's northern territories. The years after 1923 were marked by almost complete diplomatic isolation and unresolved disputes with practically every neighbouring country. The dictatorship of Theodoros Pangalos in 1925–26 sought to revise
21120-434: The Italians had reinforced the Albanian front to 28 divisions against the Greeks' 14 divisions (though Greek divisions were larger). In March, the Italians conducted the unsuccessful spring offensive . At this point, losses were mutually costly, but the Greeks had far less ability than the Italians to replenish their losses in both men and materiel, and they were dangerously low on ammunition and other supplies. They also lacked
21340-421: The Kalpaki front began on 2 November. An Albanian battalion, under the cover of a snowstorm, managed to capture the Grabala heights, but were thrown back by a counterattack on the next day. On the same day, an attack spearheaded by 50–60 tanks against the main Kalpaki sector was also repulsed. The Greek units east of the Kalamas were withdrawn during the night. On 5–7 November, repeated assaults were launched against
21560-756: The Korçë area comprised the 29th Infantry Division "Piemonte" (9,300 men and 32 guns), and the 49th Infantry Division "Parma" (12,000 men and 60 guns). In addition, the Corps comprised the 19th Infantry Division "Venezia" (10,000 men and 40 guns), moving south from its deployment along the Yugoslav frontier between Lake Prespa and Elbasan , and was later reinforced with the 53rd Infantry Division "Arezzo" (12,000 men and 32 guns) around Shkodër . XXVI Corps totalled 32 infantry battalions, about ten tanks and two cavalry companies, 68 batteries (7 heavy) for
21780-562: The Metsovon pass and blocking entry into Aetolia-Acarnania , "IBa" ordered the covering of Ioannina and the defence of the Kalamas river line. Katsimitros had discretion to choose the defensive line and chose the Kalpaki line, which lay astride the main invasion axis from Albania and allowed him to use the Kalamas swamps to neutralize the Italian tank threat. The Greek General Staff remained focused on Bulgaria as its main potential enemy: of
22000-519: The Milan fascio as the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (Italian Combat Squad), consisting of 200 members. The ideological basis for fascism came from a number of sources. Mussolini drew from the works of Plato , Georges Sorel , Nietzsche , and the economic ideas of Vilfredo Pareto . Mussolini admired Plato's The Republic , which he often read for inspiration. The Republic expounded
22220-600: The PSI, his views now centering on Italian nationalism , and founded the fascist movement which opposed egalitarianism and class conflict , instead advocating " revolutionary nationalism " transcending class lines . In October 1922, following the March on Rome , Mussolini was appointed prime minister by King Victor Emmanuel III . After removing opposition through his secret police and outlawing labour strikes , Mussolini and his followers consolidated power through laws that transformed
22440-470: The Second World War; Mussolini initially declared Italy's non-belligerence. However, in June 1940, believing Allied defeat imminent, he joined the war on Germany's side, to share the spoils. After the tide turned, and the Allied invasion of Sicily , King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Mussolini as head of government and placed him in custody in July 1943. After the king agreed to an armistice with
22660-627: The Socialist Party, as they were two " revisionists " who had supported the war. In 1912, he became a member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). He was rewarded with the editorship of the Socialist Party newspaper Avanti! Under his leadership, its circulation soon rose from 20,000 to 100,000. John Gunther in 1940 called him "one of the best journalists alive"; Mussolini
22880-613: The Treaty of Lausanne by a war with Turkey. To this end, Pangalos sought Italian diplomatic support, as Italy still had ambitions in Anatolia, but in the event, nothing came of his overtures to Mussolini. After the fall of Pangalos and the restoration of relative political stability in 1926, efforts were undertaken to normalize relations with Turkey, Yugoslavia, Albania and Romania, without much success at first. The same period saw Greece draw closer to Britain and away from France, exacerbated by
23100-552: The Venetian client state of Naxos . The Epirus and Acarnania regions were to be separated from the rest of the Greek territory and the Italian-controlled Kingdom of Albania was to annex territory between the Greek north-western frontier and a line from Florina to Pindus , Arta and Preveza . The Italians intended to partly compensate Greece for its extensive territorial losses by allowing it to annex
23320-521: The Wehrmacht operating in the Mediterranean. As such, he wanted Italy to occupy all the territory that he saw as part of Italy's spazio vitale , including in the Balkans, before Germany won the expected victory over Britain. The consistent German opposition to any Italian move into the Balkans was a major irritant to Mussolini as he saw it as a German attempt to block Italy from getting its fair share of
23540-412: The ability to rotate out their men and equipment, unlike the Italians. On the other side the Italian equipment proved to be of poor quality and of little use, while Italian morale remained low throughout the campaign. Adolf Hitler decided that the increased British intervention in the conflict represented a threat to Germany's rear, while German build-up in the Balkans accelerated after Bulgaria joined
23760-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),
23980-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of
24200-520: The anti-interventionist orthodox socialists resulted in violence between the Fascists and socialists. These early hostilities between the Fascists and the revolutionary socialists shaped Mussolini's conception of the nature of Fascism in its support of political violence. Mussolini became an ally with the irredentist politician and journalist Cesare Battisti . When World War I started, Mussolini, like many Italian nationalists, volunteered to fight. He
24420-485: The aristocratic commander of the Regio Esercito forces in Albania was a bodybuilder excessively proud of his "manly physique" who neglected his military duties in favor of physical exercises, and promptly told Mussolini that his forces were more than capable of conquering Greece. Although Greek "expansionism" was denounced and claims for the surrender of Chameria made, Ciano and well-informed German sources regarded
24640-464: The army, and had begun a reorganisation of divisions to fight wars of rapid decision , according to thinking that speed, mobility and new technology could revolutionise military operations. In 1937, three-regiment (triangular) divisions began to change to two-regiment ( binary divisions ), as part of a ten years plan to reorganise the standing army into 24 binary, 24 triangular, twelve mountain, three motorised and three armoured divisions. The effect of
24860-474: The basis of Mussolini's newly formed political movement, the Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria in 1914, who called themselves Fascisti (Fascists). At this time, the Fascists did not have an integrated set of policies and the movement was small, ineffective in its attempts to hold mass meetings, and was regularly harassed by government authorities and orthodox socialists. Antagonism between the interventionists versus
25080-477: The border with Albania; five infantry divisions faced Bulgaria and five more with the cavalry division were in general reserve. Greek army divisions were triangular and held up to 50 per cent more infantry than the Italian binary divisions, with slightly more medium artillery and machine-guns but no tanks. Most Greek equipment was still of First World War issue, from countries like Belgium, Austria, Poland and France, all of which were under Axis occupation, cutting off
25300-595: The bulk of their mobilized army to push the Italians back into Albania – an advance which culminated in the Capture of Klisura Pass in January 1941, a few dozen kilometers inside the Albanian border. The defeat of the Italian invasion and the Greek counter-offensive of 1940 have been called the "first Axis setback of the entire war" by Mark Mazower , the Greeks "surprising everyone with the tenacity of their resistance". The front stabilized in February 1941, by which time
25520-408: The campaign open. On the next day, Badoglio and acting Army Chief of Staff Mario Roatta met with Mussolini, who announced that his objective was the capture of the entire country and that he would contact Bulgaria for a joint operation. Roatta advised that an extension of the invasion beyond Epirus would require an additional ten divisions, which would take three months to arrive and suggested limiting
25740-593: The central sector, the Siena Division moved in two columns onto the area of Filiates , while the Ferrara Division moved in four columns against the main Greek resistance line at Kalpaki with the aim of capturing Ioannina. On the Pindus sector, the Julia Division launched five columns aiming to capture Metsovo and cut off the Greek forces in the Epirus sector from the east. With the onset of
25960-463: The change was to increase the administrative overhead of the army, with no corresponding increase in effectiveness, as the new technology of tanks, motor vehicles, and wireless communications was slow to arrive and was inferior to that of potential enemies. The dilution of the officer class by the need for extra unit staffs was made worse by the politicisation of the army and the addition of Blackshirt Militia. The reforms also promoted frontal assaults to
26180-533: The coastal sector in Thesprotia . The swamps of the Kalamas river, especially before Kalpaki, formed a major obstacle not only to armoured formations, but even to the movement of infantry. A further battalion and some artillery were detached to the Preveza area in the event of an Italian landing, but as this did not materialize, they were swiftly moved to reinforce the coastal sector. By the night of 29/30 October,
26400-469: The coming conflict with Germany, and saw in a potential Greek alliance only a drain on their own resources. With British encouragement, Metaxas made diplomatic overtures to Italy in August, and on 12 September, Mussolini wrote to Metaxas, assuring him that if he entered the war, Italy would respect Greek neutrality, and that Italian troops based in Albania would be pulled back about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from
26620-465: The common people of Italy to be participating members in what would be Italy's first national war. Thus he claimed that the vast social changes that the war could offer meant that it should be supported as a revolutionary war. As Mussolini's support for the intervention solidified, he came into conflict with socialists who opposed the war. He attacked the opponents of the war and claimed that those proletarians who supported pacifism were out of step with
26840-434: The completion of mobilization. With the completion of partial mobilization of the frontier formations, the plan was revised with variants "IBa" (1 September 1939) and "IBb" (20 April 1940). These modified the role of the main Greek force in the region, the 8th Infantry Division (Major-General Charalambos Katsimitros ). Plan "IB" foresaw it covering the left flank of the bulk of the Greek forces in western Macedonia, securing
27060-578: The conflict in Greece's favour. As late as March 1941, when the German intervention was looming, an Italian officer summed up the Greeks' attitude for Mussolini with the words of a captured Greek officer: "we are sure that we will lose the war, but we will give you the spanking you need". In the Epirus sector, the XXV Ciamuria Corps consisted of the 23rd Infantry Division "Ferrara" (12,785 men, 60 guns and 3,500 Albanian auxiliary troops),
27280-475: The continuation of the struggle in which he was engaged ... But assuming these modifications did take place ... he always wanted to give the appearance of still being a socialist, and he fooled himself into thinking that this was the case. After being ousted by the Italian Socialist Party, Mussolini made a radical transformation, ending his support for class conflict and joining in support of revolutionary nationalism transcending class lines. He formed
27500-460: The country. Albania was a territory that Italy could acquire for " living space to ease its overpopulation" as well as a foothold for expansion in the Balkans. Italy invaded France in June 1940, followed by their invasion of Egypt in September. A plan to invade Yugoslavia was drawn up, but postponed due to opposition from Nazi Germany and a lack of Italian army transport. Italy had captured
27720-490: The danger of a totalitarian evolution. As Prime Minister, the first years of Mussolini's rule were characterised by a right-wing coalition government of Fascists, nationalists, liberals, and two Catholic clerics from the People's Party . The Fascists made up a small minority in his original governments. Mussolini's domestic goal was the eventual establishment of a totalitarian state with himself as supreme leader ( Il Duce ),
27940-553: The development of warriors and future rulers of the state. The idea behind Mussolini's foreign policy was that of spazio vitale (vital space), a concept in Italian Fascism that was analogous to Lebensraum in German National Socialism. The concept of spazio vitale was first announced in 1919, when the entire Mediterranean , especially so-called Julian March , was redefined to make it appear
28160-723: The directorate of the Italian Socialist party because he advocated a kind of active neutrality on the part of Italy in the War of the Nations against the party's tendency of absolute neutrality, he withdrew on the twentieth of that month from the directorate of Avanti! Then on the fifteenth of November [1914], thereafter, he initiated publication of the newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia , in which he supported—in sharp contrast to Avanti! and amid bitter polemics against that newspaper and its chief backers—the thesis of Italian intervention in
28380-478: The discussion only Badoglio voiced objections, pointing out that stopping after seizing Epirus—which he conceded would present little difficulty—would be an error, and that a force of at least twenty divisions would be necessary to conquer the whole country, including Crete , through he did not criticize Prasca's plans. Badoglio also stated he believed it was very unlikely that Britain would send forces to Greece and wanted an Italian offensive into Egypt to be timed with
28600-410: The east, around Korçë , would initially remain passive in the direction of western Macedonia. On 18 October Mussolini sent a letter to Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria inviting him to take part in the coming action against Greece, but Boris refused, citing his country's unreadiness and its encirclement by hostile neighbours. This was not regarded as a major setback, as the Italian leadership considered that
28820-590: The elderly cruiser Georgios Averof , two modern destroyers , four slightly older Italian destroyers and four obsolete Aetos -class destroyers . There were six old submarines, fifteen obsolete torpedo boats and about thirty other auxiliary vessels. On 22 October 1940, six days before the Italian invasion of Greece, despite the Italian invasion of Egypt, the RAF Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Middle East in Cairo
29040-507: The exclusion of other theories, dropping the previous emphasis on fast mobile warfare backed by artillery. Prior to the invasion Mussolini let 300,000 troops and 600,000 reservists go home for the harvest. There were supposed to be 1,750 lorries used in the invasion but only 107 arrived. The possibility that Greek officials situated in the front area could be corrupted or would not react to an invasion proved to be mostly wishful thinking, used by Italian generals and personalities in favor of
29260-625: The extent of the Italian demobilization. Both generals urged Mussolini to replace the local commander, Lieutenant-General Sebastiano Visconti Prasca , with someone of greater seniority and experience. Mussolini seemingly agreed but also insisted on the attack going ahead at the determined date, provisionally under Prasca's command. Badoglio and Roatta seemed unconvinced that the operation would take place, as with similar projects against Greece and Yugoslavia. The following day Mussolini called another conference, with Badoglio, Roatta, Visconti Prasca, Ciano, and Jacomoni. Neither Admiral Domenico Cavagnari of
29480-452: The failures of Marxist determinism and social democratic reformism , and believed that Nietzsche's ideas would strengthen socialism. Mussolini's writings came to reflect an abandonment of Marxism and egalitarianism in favour of Nietzsche's übermensch concept and anti-egalitarianism. When World War I began in August 1914, many socialist parties worldwide followed the rising nationalist current and supported their country's intervention in
29700-586: The fall of Epirus, with "five or six divisions". The meeting ended with an outline plan, summed up by Mussolini as "offensive in Epirus; observation and pressure on Salonika, and, in a second phase, march on Athens". The British historian Ian Kershaw called the meeting at the Palazzo Venezia on 15 October 1940 "one of the most superficial and dilettantish discussions of high-risk military strategy ever recorded". The Greek historian Aristotle Kallis writes that Mussolini in October 1940 "was overpowered by hubris",
29920-502: The fall of Hohenzollern and Habsburg monarchies and the repression of "reactionary" Turkey would create conditions beneficial for the working class, and that the mobilisation required for the war would undermine Russia's reactionary authoritarianism and bring Russia to social revolution. He said that for Italy the war would complete the process of Risorgimento by uniting the Italians in Austria-Hungary into Italy and by allowing
30140-415: The fifty Fiat G.50bis , Italian first all-metal fighters, available at the opening of the hostilities. Sixty CANT Z.1007s Alcione (Halcyon) represented the bulk of the Italian bomber force. Of wooden construction, these three-engined aircraft could endure a lot of punishment and were highly manoeuvrable. Other trimotors were also based on Albanian airfields: 72 Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 Pipistrello (Bat),
30360-694: The flanks of the Greek forces in western Macedonia, and to avoid offering resistance if it left his forces depleted. Katsimitros had already decided to defend his line, however, and disregarded these instructions, but detached some forces to cover its right along the Aoös River . On 1 November, the Italians managed to capture Konitsa and the Comando Supremo gave the Albanian front priority over Africa. The scheduled Italian amphibious assault on Corfu did not materialize due to bad weather. The Italian navy commander, Admiral Domenico Cavagnari , postponed
30580-403: The general staff. Since 05:30 this morning, the enemy is attacking our vanguard on the Greek-Albanian border. Our forces are defending the fatherland. In 1936, the 4th of August Regime came to power in Greece, under the leadership of Ioannis Metaxas . Plans were laid down for the reorganization of the Greek armed forces, including building the " Metaxas Line '", a defensive fortification along
30800-472: The goal of restoring order to the streets of Italy with a strong hand. The blackshirts clashed with communists, socialists, and anarchists at parades and demonstrations; all of these factions were also involved in clashes against each other. The Italian government rarely interfered with the blackshirts' actions, owing in part to a looming threat and widespread fear of a communist revolution. The Fascisti grew rapidly; within two years they transformed themselves into
31020-400: The hardest for the invasion of Greece as he saw conquering Greece (an invasion that would have to be launched from Albania) as a way of showing off just how well run Albania was under his rule. On 10 August 1940, Ciano met Mussolini to tell him the story of the Albanian bandit Daut Hoxha, whom Ciano presented to Mussolini as a pro-Italian Albanian patriot murdered by the Greeks. In reality, Hoxha
31240-468: The idea first developed by Enrico Corradini before 1914 of the natural conflict between " plutocratic " nations like Britain and "proletarian" nations like Italy, Mussolini claimed that Italy's principal problem was that "plutocratic" countries like Britain were blocking Italy from achieving the necessary spazio vitale that would let the Italian economy grow. Mussolini equated a nation's potential for economic growth with territorial size, thus in his view
31460-453: The improvement of Italian–Greek relations, something that Metaxas too desired—despite his anglophile stance, Grazzi considered him "the only real friend Italy could claim in Greece"—but he was in the awkward position of being ignorant of his country's actual policy towards Greece: he had arrived with no instructions whatsoever, and was constantly left out of the loop thereafter, frequently receiving no replies to his dispatches. Tensions mounted as
31680-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn
31900-511: The interventionist newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia and the Fascio Rivoluzionario d'Azione Internazionalista ("Revolutionary Fasces of International Action") in October 1914. His nationalist support of intervention enabled him to raise funds from Ansaldo (an armaments firm) and other companies to create Il Popolo d'Italia to convince socialists and revolutionaries to support the war. Further funding for Il Popolo during
32120-427: The invasion of Greece. Roatta suggested that the schedule of moving troops to Albania would have to be accelerated and called for two divisions to be sent against Thessaloniki as a diversion. Prasca pointed out the inadequacy of Albanian harbours for the rapid transfer of Italian divisions, the mountainous terrain, and the poor state of the Greek transport network, but remained confident that Athens could be captured after
32340-416: The landing to 2 November, but by that time Visconti Prasca was urgently demanding reinforcements, and Mussolini ordered that the 47th Infantry Division "Bari" , earmarked for the operation, be sent to Albania instead. Mussolini proposed a landing at Preveza on 3 November to break the emerging impasse, but the proposal met with immediate and categorical refusal by the service chiefs. The main Italian attack on
32560-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write
32780-491: The late 1920s and early 1930s, Mussolini sought diplomatically to create "an Italian-dominated Balkan bloc that would link Turkey , Greece, Bulgaria, and Hungary". Venizelos countered the policy with diplomatic agreements among Greek neighbours and established an "annual Balkan conference ... to study questions of common interest, particularly of an economic nature, with the ultimate aim of establishing some kind of regional union". This increased diplomatic relations and by 1934
33000-547: The local Socialist Party, and edited its newspaper L'Avvenire del Lavoratore ( The Future of the Worker ). Returning to Italy, he spent a brief time in Milan , and in 1910 he returned to his hometown of Forlì, where he edited the weekly Lotta di classe ( The Class Struggle ). Mussolini thought of himself as an intellectual and was considered to be well-read. He read avidly; his favourites in European philosophy included Sorel,
33220-524: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek
33440-482: The military authoritarianism of Garibaldi, and the nationalism of Mazzini. In 1902, at the anniversary of Garibaldi's death, Mussolini made a public speech in praise of the republican nationalist. Mussolini was sent to a boarding school in Faenza run by Salesians . Despite being shy, he often clashed with teachers and fellow boarders due to his proud, grumpy, and violent behaviour. During an argument, he injured
33660-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and
33880-606: The murder of an Italian general on the Greco-Albanian border as a pretext to bombard and temporarily occupy Corfu , the most important of the Ionian Islands . The Greek defeat in Anatolia and the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) ended the expansionist Megali Idea . Henceforth Greek foreign policy was largely aimed at preserving the status quo . Territorial claims to Northern Epirus (southern Albania),
34100-468: The nation into a one-party dictatorship . Within five years, Mussolini established dictatorial authority by legal and illegal means and aspired to create a totalitarian state. In 1929, Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty to establish Vatican City . Mussolini's foreign policy was based on the fascist doctrine of " Spazio vitale " ("living space"), which aimed to expand Italian possessions. In
34320-421: The nation, but the one cannot eclipse the other. The class struggle is a vain formula, without effect and consequence wherever one finds a people that has not integrated itself into its proper linguistic and racial confines—where the national problem has not been definitely resolved. In such circumstances the class movement finds itself impaired by an inauspicious historic climate. Mussolini continued to promote
34540-467: The need of a revolutionary vanguard elite to lead society. He no longer advocated a proletarian vanguard, but instead a vanguard led by dynamic and revolutionary people of any social class. Though he denounced orthodox socialism and class conflict, he maintained at the time that he was a nationalist socialist and a supporter of the legacy of nationalist socialists in Italy's history, such as Giuseppe Garibaldi , Giuseppe Mazzini , and Carlo Pisacane . As for
34760-554: The new government of Eleftherios Venizelos . This policy culminated with the signing of a treaty of friendship on 23 September 1928. Mussolini exploited this treaty, as it aided in his efforts to diplomatically isolate Yugoslavia from potential Balkan allies. An offer of alliance between the two countries was rebuffed by Venizelos but during the talks Mussolini personally offered "to guarantee Greek sovereignty" on Macedonia and assured Venizelos that in case of an external attack on Thessaloniki by Yugoslavia, Italy would join Greece. During
34980-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks
35200-500: The offer. On 4 February 1939, Mussolini addressed the Fascist Grand Council on foreign policy. The speech outlined Mussolini's belief that Italy was being imprisoned by France and the United Kingdom and what territory would be needed to break free. During this speech, Mussolini declared Greece to be a "vital [enemy] of Italy and its expansion." On 18 March, as signs for an imminent Italian invasion of Albania as well as
35420-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as
35640-505: The opinion of the assembled. Jacomoni agreed that the Albanians were enthusiastic but that the Greeks would fight, likely with British help, while Ciano suggested that the Greek people were apathetic and would not support the "plutocratic" ruling class. Prasca offered assurances that the operation was as perfectly planned as "humanly possible", and promised to finish off the Greek forces in Epirus (which he estimated at 30,000 men) and capture
35860-619: The other sectors the situation had already turned to the Greeks' favour. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ ) is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of
36080-598: The outbreak of war consisted of 22 infantry battalions and 22 artillery batteries (seven heavy). The Pindus sector was covered by the "Pindus Detachment" ( Απόσπασμα Πίνδου ) (Colonel Konstantinos Davakis ) with two battalions, a cavalry company and 1.5 artillery batteries. The Royal Hellenic Air Force ( Ellinikí Vasilikí Aeroporía , RHAF) had to face the numerically and technologically superior Regia Aeronautica . It comprised 45 fighters, 24 light bombers, nine reconnaissance aircraft, about 65 auxiliary aeroplanes and 28 naval cooperation aircraft. It consisted of
36300-413: The port of Preveza in ten to fifteen days. Prasca regarded the campaign as an opportunity to win fame and achieve the coveted rank of Marshal of Italy by conquering Athens. He was relatively junior in his rank and knew that if he demanded more troops for the Albanian front, it was likely that a more senior officer would be sent to command the operation, earning the accolades and promotions instead. During
36520-541: The predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation
36740-738: The predominantly Greek -inhabited Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean Sea from the Ottoman Empire in the Italo-Turkish War of 1912. It had occupied them since, after reneging on the 1919 Venizelos – Tittoni agreement to cede them to Greece. When the Italians found that Greece had been promised land in Anatolia at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 , for aid in the defeat of the Ottoman Empire during
36960-463: The presence of British warships in Crete and other Greek islands and claimed that a British base had been established at Milos . The allegations were overblown but not entirely unjustified: in January 1940, bowing to British pressure, Greece concluded a trade agreement with Britain, limiting its exports to Germany and allowing Britain to use the large Greek merchant fleet for its war effort, marking Greece
37180-409: The press campaign as a means to intimidate Greece, rather than a prelude to war. On 15 August 1940 (the Dormition of the Theotokos , a Greek national religious holiday), the Greek light cruiser Elli was sunk by the Italian submarine Delfino in Tinos harbour. The sinking was a result of orders by Mussolini and Navy chief Domenico Cavagnari allowing submarine attacks on neutral shipping. This
37400-451: The problem of poverty in Italy could only be solved by winning the necessary spazio vitale . Though biological racism was less prominent in Italian Fascism than in National Socialism , right from the start the spazio vitale concept had a strong racist undercurrent. Mussolini asserted there was a "natural law" for stronger peoples to subject and dominate "inferior" peoples such as the "barbaric" Slavic peoples of Yugoslavia. He stated in
37620-485: The proletarians who had joined the rising interventionist vanguard that was preparing Italy for a revolutionary war. He began to criticise the Italian Socialist Party and socialism itself for having failed to recognise the national problems that had led to the outbreak of the war. He was expelled from the party for his support of intervention. A police report prepared by the Inspector-General of Public Security in Milan, G. Gasti, describes his background and his position on
37840-420: The resignation of liberal Prime Minister Luigi Facta and the appointment of a new Fascist government. On the morning of 28 October, King Victor Emmanuel III , who according to the Albertine Statute held the supreme military power, refused the government request to declare martial law , which led to Facta's resignation. The King then handed over power to Mussolini (who stayed in his headquarters in Milan during
38060-402: The second phase as ending on 28 December 1940; as the historian Ioannis Koliopoulos comments, this seems more appropriate, as December marked a watershed in the course of the war, with the Greek counter-offensive gradually grinding to a halt, the German threat becoming clear, and the beginning of British attempts to guide and shape Greek strategy. According to Koliopoulos, the final three months of
38280-449: The short-term prospects, noting that "Greece is not fighting for victory. It is fighting for glory. And for its honour. ... A nation must be able to fight, if it wants to remain great, even with no hope of victory. Just because it has to." On the other hand, this pessimism was not shared by the population at large, whose enthusiasm, optimism, and the almost religious indignation at the torpedoing of Elli , created an élan that helped transform
38500-431: The side of the Allies and utilised the Società Dante Alighieri to promote Italian nationalism. Italian socialists were divided on whether to support the war. Prior to Mussolini taking a position on the war, a number of revolutionary syndicalists had announced their support of intervention, including Alceste De Ambris , Filippo Corridoni , and Angelo Oliviero Olivetti . The Italian Socialist Party decided to oppose
38720-402: The signature of the Balkan Pact between Greece, Yugoslavia, Turkey and Romania, which was a counter to Bulgarian revisionism. The Second Italo-Ethiopian War marked a renewal of Italian expansionism, and began a period where Greece increasingly sought a firm British commitment for its security. Although Britain offered guarantees to Greece (as well as Turkey and Yugoslavia) for the duration of
38940-404: The sinking of the Greek light cruiser Elli by the Italians on 15 August. On 28 October, Mussolini issued an ultimatum to Greece demanding the cession of Greek territory, which the Prime Minister of Greece , Ioannis Metaxas , rejected. Italy's invasion of Greece, launched with the divisions of the Royal Army based in Italian-controlled Albania , badly armed and poorly commanded, resulted in
39160-451: The spoils before the war was won. In July 1940, Mussolini was forced under German pressure to cancel a planned invasion of Yugoslavia (an important source of raw materials for the Reich ), which was frustrating to him as he long had designs on Yugoslav territory. Italian military forces harassed Greek forces with air attacks on Greek naval vessels at sea. On 12 July, while attacking a British petrol carrier off Crete, Italian aircraft based in
39380-465: The start of the Italian invasion of Egypt , led to the postponement of Italian ambitions in Greece and Yugoslavia: on 22 August, Mussolini postponed the attack on Greece for the end of September, and for 20 October on Yugoslavia. On 7 October, German troops entered Romania, to guard the Ploiești oil fields and prepare for Operation Barbarossa . Mussolini, who had not been informed in advance, regarded it as an encroachment on Italy's sphere of influence in
39600-421: The start of the campaign (some 150,000 men against 120,000) but concerns grew over the vulnerability of the left flank. The 29th Infantry Division "Piemonte" was diverted from the attack in Epirus to bolster XXVI Corps in the Korçë area, while the 19th Infantry Division "Venezia" was ordered south from its position along the Yugoslav border. In 1936 General Alberto Pariani had been appointed Chief of Staff of
39820-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of
40040-431: The supply of spare parts and ammunition. Many senior Greek officers were veterans of a decade of almost continuous warfare, including the Balkan Wars of 1912–13, the First World War , and the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–22 . In Epirus, the 8th Infantry Division was already mobilized and reinforced with a regiment and the staff of the 3rd Infantry Brigade , fielding 15 infantry battalions and 16 artillery batteries. At
40260-422: The talks) by asking him to form a new government. The King's controversial decision has been explained by historians as a combination of delusions and fears; Mussolini enjoyed wide support in the military and among the industrial and agrarian elites, while the King and the conservative establishment were afraid of a possible civil war and thought they could use Mussolini to restore law and order, but failed to foresee
40480-403: The threat of Bulgarian intervention alone would compel the Greek High Command to commit most of its army in eastern Macedonia and Thrace. It was not until 24 October that Badoglio realized that not only were the Greeks already mobilizing, but that they were prepared to divert most of their forces to Epirus, leaving only six divisions against Bulgaria. Prasca would still have numerical superiority at
40700-497: The time of the Italian attack, the 2/39 Evzone Regiment was moving north from Missolonghi to reinforce the division. The western Macedonia sector was held by the Western Macedonia Army Section (TSDM), based at Kozani (Lieutenant-General Ioannis Pitsikas ), with the II Army Corps (Lieutenant-General Dimitrios Papadopoulos ) and III Army Corps (Lieutenant-General Georgios Tsolakoglou ), each of two infantry divisions and an infantry brigade. The total forces available to TSDM on
40920-411: The titles Emperor of Ethiopia and King of the Albanians). The Italian war aim was to establish a Greek puppet state , which would permit the Italian annexation of the Ionian Islands and the Sporades and the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea , to be administered as a part of the Italian Aegean Islands . The islands were claimed on the basis that they had once belonged to the Venetian Republic and
41140-421: The ultimatum with the words " Alors, c'est la guerre " (French for "then it is war"). In this, he echoed the will of the Greek people to resist, a will that was popularly expressed in one word: " ochi " (Όχι) ( Greek for "no"). Within hours, Italy attacked Greece from Albania. The outbreak of hostilities was first announced by Athens Radio early in the morning of 28 October, with the two-sentence dispatch of
41360-447: The various stages of the Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than
41580-529: The vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in the early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between
41800-454: The war after anti-militarist protestors had been killed, resulting in a general strike called Red Week . Mussolini initially held official support for the party's decision and, in an August 1914 article, Mussolini wrote "Down with the War. We remain neutral." He saw the war as an opportunity, both for his own ambitions as well as those of socialists and Italians. He was influenced by anti-Austrian Italian nationalist sentiments, believing that
42020-425: The war against the militarism of the Central Empires. For this reason he was accused of moral and political unworthiness and the party thereupon decided to expel him ... Thereafter he ... undertook a very active campaign in behalf of Italian intervention, participating in demonstrations in the piazzas and writing quite violent articles in Popolo d'Italia ... In his summary, the Inspector also noted: He
42240-445: The war came from French sources, beginning in May 1915, in part from French socialists who wanted Italian intervention on France's side. Britain, and possibly Russia and the United States, also subsidized the paper. On 5 December 1914, Mussolini denounced orthodox socialism for failing to recognise that the war had made national identity and loyalty more significant than class distinction. He fully demonstrated his transformation in
42460-662: The war offered Italians in Austria-Hungary the chance to liberate themselves from rule of the Habsburgs . He eventually decided to declare support for the war by appealing to the need for socialists to overthrow the Hohenzollern and Habsburg monarchies in Germany and Austria-Hungary who he said had consistently repressed socialism. Mussolini further justified his position by denouncing the Central Powers for being reactionary powers; for pursuing imperialist designs against Belgium and Serbia as well as historically against Denmark, France, and against Italians, since hundreds of thousands of Italians were under Habsburg rule. He argued that
42680-436: The war were militarily of little significance as they did not alter the situation of the two combatants, but were mostly dominated by the diplomatic and political developments leading up to the German invasion. Italian forces invaded Greece in several columns. On the extreme Italian right, the coastal group moved south in the direction of Konispol with the final aim of capturing Igoumenitsa and thence driving onto Preveza. In
42900-447: The war. In Italy, the outbreak of the war created a surge of Italian nationalism and intervention was supported by a variety of political factions. One of the most prominent and popular Italian nationalist supporters of the war was Gabriele d'Annunzio who promoted Italian irredentism and helped sway the Italian public to support intervention. The Italian Liberal Party under the leadership of Paolo Boselli promoted intervention on
43120-476: Was a cattle-thief with a "long history of extreme violence and criminality" who had been beheaded by a rival gang of Albanian bandits. As intended, Ciano's story worked Mussolini into a state of rage against the Greeks, with Ciano writing in his diary: "The Duce is considering an 'act of force because since 1923 [the Corfu incident] he has some accounts to settle and the Greeks deceive themselves if they think he has forgotten'". On 11 August, orchestrated by Ciano and
43340-797: Was a devout Catholic schoolteacher. Given his father's political leanings, Mussolini was named Benito after liberal Mexican president Benito Juárez , while his middle names, Andrea and Amilcare, were for Italian socialists Andrea Costa and Amilcare Cipriani . In return his mother required that he be baptised at birth. Benito was followed by his siblings Arnaldo and Edvige . As a young boy, Mussolini helped his father in his smithy. Mussolini's early political views were strongly influenced by his father, who idolised 19th-century Italian nationalist figures with humanist tendencies such as Carlo Pisacane , Giuseppe Mazzini , and Giuseppe Garibaldi . His father's political outlook combined views of anarchist figures such as Carlo Cafiero and Mikhail Bakunin ,
43560-515: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or
43780-536: Was a working reporter while preparing for the March on Rome, and wrote for the Hearst News Service until 1935. Mussolini was so familiar with Marxist literature that in his writings he would not only quote from well-known Marxist works but also from the relatively obscure works. During this period Mussolini considered himself an "authoritarian communist " and a Marxist and he described Karl Marx as "the greatest of all theorists of socialism." In 1913, he published Giovanni Hus, il veridico ( Jan Hus, true prophet ),
44000-423: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of
44220-442: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe
44440-443: Was an Italian dictator who founded and led the National Fascist Party (PNF). He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922, until his deposition in 1943, as well as Duce of Italian fascism from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919, until his summary execution in 1945 . As a dictator and founder of fascism , Mussolini inspired the international spread of fascist movements during
44660-493: Was arrested by Bernese police because of his advocacy of a violent general strike, spent two weeks in jail, and was handed over to Italian police in Chiasso . After he was released in Italy, he returned to Switzerland. He was arrested again in Geneva, in April 1904, for falsifying his passport expiration date, and was expelled from the canton of Geneva . He was released in Bellinzona following protests from Genevan socialists. Mussolini then returned to Lausanne, where he entered
44880-407: Was born on 29 July 1883 in Dovia di Predappio , a small town in the province of Forlì in Romagna . During the Fascist era, Predappio was dubbed "Duce's town" and Forlì was called "Duce's city", with pilgrims going to Predappio and Forlì to see the birthplace of Mussolini. Benito Mussolini's father, Alessandro Mussolini , was a blacksmith and a socialist, while his mother, Rosa (née Maltoni),
45100-454: Was compromising with his personal and political honesty by making use of every means—no matter where they came from or wherever he might obtain them—to pay for his newspaper, his program and his line of action. This was his initial line. It is difficult to say to what extent his socialist convictions (which he never either openly or privately abjure) may have been sacrificed in the course of the indispensable financial deals which were necessary for
45320-464: Was fooled and the sinking of Elli outraged the Greek people. Ambassador Grazzi wrote in his memoirs that the attack united a people "deeply riven by unbridgeable political differences and old and deep-running political hatreds" and imbued them with a firm resolve to resist. Grazzi's position was particularly problematic: a firm believer in Italian–Greek friendship, and unaware of Ciano's shift towards war, he tried his best to smooth over problems and avoid
45540-409: Was forced to comply with Italian demands. In June 1923, the government passed the Acerbo Law , which transformed Italy into a single national constituency. It also granted a two-thirds majority of the seats in Parliament to the party or group of parties that received at least 25% of the votes. This law applied in the elections of 6 April 1924 . The national alliance , consisting of Fascists, most of
45760-411: Was ordered to prepare squadrons for Greece, based on Ultra decodes and other sources that an Italian invasion of Greece was imminent. The RAF first sent 30 Squadron , consisting of one flight of Blenheim IF night fighters and one flight of Blenheim I light bombers, that were based at Athens-Eleusis airfield. Soon afterwards, six Vickers Wellington medium bombers were detached from 70 Squadron and
45980-574: Was promoted to the rank of corporal "for merit in war". The promotion was recommended because of his exemplary conduct and fighting quality, his mental calmness and lack of concern for discomfort, his zeal and regularity in carrying out his assignments, where he was always first in every task involving labor and fortitude. Mussolini's military experience is told in his work Diario di guerra . He totalled about nine months of active, front-line trench warfare. During this time, he contracted paratyphoid fever . His military exploits ended in February 1917 when he
46200-405: Was resistant to "all forms of territorial revisionism". Venizelos adroitly maintained a principle of "open diplomacy" and was careful not to alienate traditional Greek patrons in Britain and France. The Greco-Italian friendship agreement ended Greek diplomatic isolation and led to a series of bilateral agreements, most notably the Greco-Turkish Friendship Convention in 1930. This process culminated in
46420-427: Was right to follow an imperialist policy in Africa because he saw all black people as "inferior" to whites. Mussolini claimed that the world was divided into a hierarchy of races (though this was justified more on cultural than on biological grounds), and that history was nothing more than a Darwinian struggle for power and territory between various "racial masses". Mussolini saw high birthrates in Africa and Asia as
46640-429: Was roughly 150 kilometres (90 mi) wide in mountain terrain with very few roads. The Pindus mountains divided it into two theatres of operations, Epirus and western Macedonia . The Italian forces in Albania were organised accordingly: the XXV Ciamuria Corps (Lieutenant-General Carlo Rossi ) in the west was charged with the conquest of Epirus, while the XXVI Corizza Corps (Lieutenant-General Gabriele Nasci ) in
46860-424: Was taken up by De Vecchi, who ordered the Delfino ' s commander to "sink everything in sight in the vicinity of Tinos and Syros ", giving the impression that war was imminent. On the same day, another Greek steamship was bombarded by Italian planes in Crete. Despite evidence of Italian responsibility, the Greek government announced that the attack had been carried out by a submarine of unknown nationality. No-one
47080-514: Was the ideal editor of Avanti! for the Socialists. In that line of work he was greatly esteemed and beloved. Some of his former comrades and admirers still confess that there was no one who understood better how to interpret the spirit of the proletariat and there was no one who did not observe his apostasy with sorrow. This came about not for reasons of self-interest or money. He was a sincere and passionate advocate, first of vigilant and armed neutrality, and later of war; and he did not believe that he
47300-427: Was turned down because of his radical Socialism and told to wait for his reserve call up. He was called up on 31 August and reported for duty with his old unit, the Bersaglieri . After a two-week refresher course he was sent to Isonzo front where he took part in the Second Battle of the Isonzo, September 1915. His unit also took part in the Third Battle of the Isonzo, October 1915. The Inspector General continued: He
47520-410: Was unable to find a permanent job. During this time he studied the ideas of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche , the sociologist Vilfredo Pareto , and the syndicalist Georges Sorel . Mussolini also later credited Charles Péguy and Hubert Lagardelle as influences. Sorel's emphasis on the need for overthrowing decadent liberal democracy and capitalism by the use of violence, direct action ,
47740-453: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect
47960-424: Was withdrawn from circulation after Mussolini made a truce with the Vatican. He had become one of Italy's most prominent socialists. In September 1911, Mussolini participated in a riot, led by socialists, against the Italian war in Libya . He bitterly denounced Italy's "imperialist war," an action that earned him a five-month jail term. After his release, he helped expel Ivanoe Bonomi and Leonida Bissolati from
48180-410: Was wounded accidentally by the explosion of a mortar bomb in his trench. He was left with at least 40 shards of metal in his body and had to be evacuated from the front. He was discharged from the hospital in August 1917 and resumed his editor-in-chief position at his new paper, Il Popolo d'Italia . On 25 December 1915, in Treviglio , he married his compatriot Rachele Guidi, who had already borne him
48400-450: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage
#483516