Italian propaganda during World War I

Italian propaganda during World War I was mainly directed against Austria-Hungary and developed slowly until the 1917 Battle of Caporetto. The great Italian defeat left part of northeastern Italy under enemy occupation and provoked an ideological shift aimed at boosting the morale and mobilizing the nation against an enemy invasion.

Austro-Hungarian propaganda

Austria-Hungary became the early frontrunner in terms of effectiveness. Austria-Hungary desired to affirm to the Italians the strength of the Central Powers and how Italy was on the losing side of the war. The Austria-Hungarians attacked the Italians' pride and their political and military leaders. They also attack Italy for being in the war for purely-imperialistic reasons, blamed the Italian government's desires to claim Trento and Trieste as their true war aims and charged that Italian leaders were sacrificing blood for their own greedy interests. To disgrace the Italians further, the war goals of the Italian leaders not being achieved. The goal of the leaflets was not to embarrass the Italian soldiers but to convince them that their government was betraying their true interests.

Austria-Hungary also spread propaganda against Italy's allies, especiallt the British. Rivalry between the Italians and the British was exploited by the Austro-Hungarians, who spread propaganda that portrayed the British as having even greater imperialistic goals for the war and using the Italians just as another means of achieving those ends. The Austro-Hungarians argued that the British had already been given opportunities to end the war but were continuing it so that they could gain more territory and influence. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George had not helped by stating that "if necessary Italy's war aims will be abandoned without consideration". The Austro-Hungarians also warned that if the Italians continued to borrow supplies and resources from the British, the Italians' postwar debt would only continue to rise, forcing them to pay the British for continuing a war that should have already ended.

Italian propaganda

Padua Commission

In order to strike back against Austro-Hungarian propaganda, representatives from other Allies of World War I were forced to meet with Italy and to come up with propaganda techniques against Austria-Hungary. The Padua Commission was a military-civilian agency that was formed in 1918 to co-ordinate a propaganda offensive that was led mostly by the Italians. The late war commission designed and put into action the Italian led Allied propaganda campaign against Austria-Hungary. While Italy had been attempting to spread propaganda throughout Austria-Hungary, its previous efforts had been fairly ineffective and so a new front was needed. One of the major leaders in the commission was a delegate named Ugo Ojetti. Ojetti, an Italian, worked together with the Yugoslav Committee and came up with a plan to appeal to the minority groups within Austria-Hungary and to encourage a desire to create independent nations for the minority groups, especially the idea of an independent Yugoslavia. The plan included the spread of pamphlets, manifestos and flyers to promote an independent Yugoslavia. The appeal hoped to cause the Austro-Hungarian troops to become so demoralized that they would surrender to Italian troops or even begin fighting against Austria-Hungary from within its borders.

Appeals to minority groups

Between May 15 and early November 1918, around 60 million copies of 643 different manifestos and almost 2 million copies of 80 news sheets were spread over Austria-Hungary; the Italian propaganda was a result of the Padua Commission. The amount of propaganda spread was three times greater than the amount of propaganda spread over Germany by the British during the entire war. Austria-Hungary immediately took note of the new campaign and grew concerned over the disturbances that may be caused on the front lines but also domestically. Austria-Hungary was forced to divert some of its attention from acting as a proponent of propaganda to establishing defences and anti-propaganda campaigns. Immediately after the initiation of Italy's propaganda campaign, pro-independence leaflets were finding their ways to the front lines. Cases quickly arose of soldiers then bringing the leaflets home and sharing them with their household or community.

The majority of the leaflets were aimed at Croats, Slovenes and Serbs to rise against the Habsburg monarchy and to establish their own independent nation. One leaflet, targeting Slovenes and Croats, stated, "The decisive battle has begun. Either justice will conquer and the sun of freedom for all nations will shine, or the coarse, brutal force of German militaristic barbarism will conquer, which would signify: further slavery. At this greatest moment it is the duty of every Serb, Croat and Slovene not only not to fight on the Austrian side, but to thrust their bayonets into Magyar and German chests". On the battlefield, Austro-Hungarian soldiers began surrendering to the Italian military and to carry the pamphlets with them in the hope of better treatment. While soldiers brought the pamphlets with them when they surrendered, most of them stated that they surrendered by hunger and the lack of supplies, rather than for the reasons intended, and the propaganda was only an opportunity to abscond. The Austro-Hungary military pursued a tough anti-propaganda campaign by holding massive investigations into any discovered propaganda. When even a single leaflet of propaganda was found, the military would create harsh interrogations to discover where the propaganda had been found, why the soldier had it, how many leaflets were in the area and other investigative questions.

Anti-German propaganda

In response to Austria-Hungary's attacks on Italy's ally, Britain, a series of propaganda was designed by Italy to attack Germany. During the stalemate between Italian and Austria-Hungarian troops, the only time that any land was gained by either side was Germany supplying Austria-Hungary with troops, which causing a slight advancement of the Central Powers' troops. Once Germany began the tumble that led to its defeat, its troops were pulled from Austria-Hungary, which caused the Italians to reply with similar tactics to the Austro-Hungarian anti-British campaign. The Italians were quick to spread news from the front that portrayed the Germans as being obliterated by the British, French, and Americans on the Western Front. Pro-Allied publications from within the Central Powers were being spread by Italian propagandists stating that 'an awful abyss yawns under the feet of the German people', and that Habsburg soldiers ought to break their own chains immediately if they were not to suffer the same dismal fate".

In addition to the spread of dread across Austria-Hungary, the Italians wanted to continue to encourage the Austro-Hungarian minority groups to join their cause. The Italians proclaimed that the Allies were advocates of freedom, liberty and justice. The Yugoslav Committee would praise the treatment of Italians of their prisoners-of-war and how the Italians were incredibly supportive of the formation of an independent Yugoslavia. While there may have been some truth to the claims, most manifestos proclaiming Italy's determination to assist in the creation of an independent Yugoslavia stretched the truth and overplayed Italy's desire to create an independent Yugoslavia. The formation of an ally in an independent Yugoslavia was hoped for but was not seen as a necessary goal in terms of Italy's war aims.

See also

• Propaganda in World War I

Further reading

• Pisa, Beatrice: Propaganda at Home (Italy) , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
• Cornwall, Mark. The Undermining of Austria-Hungary: The Battle for Hearts and Minds. London: Macmillan, 2000.
• Courriol, Marie-France. "Looking Back on the Myth of the Great War: Anti-rhetoric, War Culture and Film in Fascist Italy." Media, War and Conflict, 7, 3 (2014): 342–64.
• Row, Thomas. "Mobilizing the Nation: Italian Propaganda in the Great War." The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, 24, Design, Culture, Identity: The Wolfsonian Collection (2002): 141–169.