How to Take a Country to War.

Propaganda methods are always the same.

In May 1915, young Italians demonstrated in the streets to ask the government to send them to die in humid trenches (left image). In March 2025, old Italians demonstrated in the streets to ask the government to send young Ukrainians to die in humid trenches (right image). Sometimes, history repeats itself even too much.

As Tolstoy never said, sane countries are all sane in the same way, but the weird countries are all weird in different ways. Italy has been a peculiar country since it burst into the international scene in 1861, leading the way for some nefarious ideas such as Fascism. A peculiar characteristic of Italy is how it pioneered propaganda techniques. In 1915, we saw one of the triumphs of modern propaganda when it managed to convince Italians that it was a good idea to join the Allies in World War I, declaring war on Austria-Hungary.

It is a story that is not well known outside Italy, so it is worth retelling it in this moment in which it is being repeated. I wrote an entire book on this subject: “La Linea d’Ombra della Storia” — it is out of print right now, but I am working on a new version. I also discuss this story in detail in my recent book “Exterminations”

In both books, I tried to understand what demon had taken possession of Italians’s minds so that they rushed into that madness. I didn’t find an answer, but the demon seems to be alive and taking possession of people’s minds again.

As you know, WWI began in July 1914. It was a domino effect in which the European countries joined the fight one after another. But, at the beginning, Italy seemed to remain safe. It had no ambition of dominion; it was not threatened by anyone; it was one of the poorest European countries; the Catholic Church, Socialists, workers, and most people, including the Italian parliament, all were against the war. And yet, less than one year later, on May 24th, 1915, the Italian government declared war on Austria-Hungary.

That May of 1915 was later termed the “radiant May” (Maggio Radioso), a term that described the intoxication that had overtaken just about everybody to make them think that a radiant future was in store for Italy by going to war. It was described as the moment in which Italians took their destiny into their hands and forced an inert and reactionary government to listen to them and act decisively on the path of glory.

But joining the war was not a spontaneous decision of the people. It was the result of a press campaign paid by industrial and political lobbies which had an interest in the business of re-arming Italy and, at the same time, by foreign secret services which were interested in having Italy on the side of the Allies.

We don’t know exactly when the campaign was programmed, but it must have been no later than a few months after the war started in 1914. A group of socialists and radicals favorable to Italy’s entry into the war created the "Fascio rivoluzionario d'azione internazionalista” using the fascio (“bundle”) as a symbol from an idea by the Italian literate and politician Gabriele D’Annunzio. In October 1914, a young socialist politician working as a journalist, Benito Mussolini, joined the Fascio Rivoluzionario after having been expelled from the Italian Socialist Party because of his pro-war statements. Then, Mussolini went on to start a newspaper, “Il Popolo d’Italia,” that was a fundamental tool for the campaign.

Mussolini’s action was not isolated: it was part of a major propaganda campaign that saw him as one of the leaders. Nobody knows why he was selected for the task; I have a personal theory that it was the work of Margherita Sarfatti, an intellectual coming from a rich Jewish family who had contacts all over Europe and perfectly knew how propaganda works. She was also Mussolini’s lover. But that is not the point; another person could have taken Mussolini’s role, and little would have changed. Propaganda has its own momentum, which is simply proportional to the amount of money available.

Where did the money come from? We don’t know the exact details, but historians mention Freemasonry, industries such as Ansaldo (a heavy metallurgical company), the Sugar industry, the electrical industry, as well as the French and British governments, along with sectors of the Italian government. Plenty of financing may have been provided secretly, so we don’t know the total amount. In any case, it was serious money. Just for the Popolo d’Italia, the sums reported correspond to 10 -20 million dollars in current money, and it could have been much more. And, surely, more money was spent on parallel propaganda activities. Money was needed to buy politicians and journalists, pay activists, organize demonstrations in the streets, and more. Money is the best propaganda in favor of itself.

The pro-war propaganda campaign was a progression that went from a relatively moderate position, “active neutrality,” to one that actively pushed for war. Incredibly, it didn’t take much more than six months to turn the public opinion in favor of war. In May 1914, crowds of young Italians demonstrated in the streets to ask the government to send them to die in humid trenches in the mountains. And the government obliged.

It was the start of the Italian Odyssey in World War One. It was a success in military terms, but it cost the country the lives of some 600,000 soldiers, one or two hundred thousand civilians, plus more than one million people crippled forever. In 1917, the “Spanish Flu” hit a population already debilitated by the scarcity of food and caused at least two more million casualties. Finally, the war paved the way for Fascism and another terrible disaster for the country: World War 2. Italy is still reeling from the consequences of these events.

More than one century later, history seems to be willing to show that it doesn’t just rhyme, but it actually repeats. On March 15, 2025 (“Radiant March”?), an Italian journalist and left-wing politician named Michele Serra called for a popular demonstration to support the European Commission’s plan to rearm Europe.

Of course, organizing a major political demonstration requires money, and it is not clear who paid for the one in Rome. Historians will debate that in the future. In any case, the result was not as spectacular as the series of demonstrations of May 1915. Still, some 30,000 -50,000 people with European Flags collected in Rome. It was a mixed bunch: mostly old people, some of whom were carrying the peace flag, apparently convinced that they were demonstrating for peace and not for war. But it seems clear that it was just a start.

All the Italian media are now pressing the public in favor of re-arming. The idea is to convince Italians that spending money for war is a better investment than in infrastructure, education, or health care. Propaganda has the magic capability to convince people to do things that harm themselves. They can be easily convinced to vote for candidates who promise to beggar them.

Is it a coincidence that this new campaign follows so closely the steps of the 1914-1915 campaign that pushed Italy into WW1? We cannot say, but there is a difference between the radiant May of 1915 and the radiant March of 2025. The country’s demographic profile has changed, and Italy is no longer the “proletarian nation” that was one century ago. Now, it is a country of old people who mostly care about their pensions.

So, in 1915, young Italians were asking the government to send them to die in humid trenches. In 2025, old Italians were asking the government to send young Ukrainians to die in humid trenches. Will young Ukrainians accept to die in those trenches because elderly Italians asked them to? It makes no sense in rational terms, but Propaganda is a harsh master of human minds.