Orlando, Vittorio Emanuele

Orlando, Vittorio Emanuele

Orlando, Vittorio Emanuele (vēt-tôˈrēō āmänwĕˈlā ōrlänˈdō), 1860–1952, Italian statesman and jurist. He held several cabinet posts from 1903 to 1917 and was premier from 1917 to 1919. At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, he demanded the fulfillment of the secret Treaty of London of 1915, by which the Allies had promised Italy ample territorial compensation in Dalmatia for its entry into World War I. Meeting stubborn opposition from Woodrow Wilson and failing to secure British or French support, he dramatically left the conference in Apr., 1919, but returned in May. Even then no solution satisfactory to Italy was found; Orlando resigned and was succeeded as premier by Francesco Nitti. Opposing Fascism, Orlando gave up (1925) his seat in parliament and devoted himself to teaching and writing.

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Orlando, Vittorio Emanuele

 

Born May 19, 1860, in Palermo; died Dec. 1, 1952, in Rome. Italian statesman; a leader of Italian liberalism. Founder of the Italian school of public law.

Orlando headed the government from October 1917 to June 1919 and led the Italian delegation at the 1919–20 Paris Peace Conference. Underestimating the danger of Fascism for liberal institutions and seeing it only as a tool for suppressing the revolutionary movement, he collaborated with the Fascists until 1925.

After Mussolini’s speech of Jan. 3, 1925, on the destruction of the Italian constitutional government, Orlando went over to the opposition. In 1943 he played a prominent role in Mussolini’s downfall, effected “from above” by military and monarchical circles. In 1948 he became a senator. Orlando’s position on a number of issues of foreign and domestic policy was close to that of progressive circles.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.