After the War
In Italy the Second World War ended on 25 April 1945. The violence did not. In the Northern and Central regions it continued for more than a year. Its magnitude did not pass unobserved to historians but the engagement of social scientists with the topic of post-conflict violence in general has been limited. This paper aims to fill this gap through a structured comparison. Focusing on two provinces of the Emilia-Romagna region, Modena and Reggio Emilia, I argue that existing explanations of post-conflict violence cannot fully account for its spatial variations in the Italian case. I offer an alternative argument: rather than a way of dealing with the past, violence in postwar Italy aimed to influence the country’s political future. The strategic calculations and political preference of former resistance leaders determined its spatial distribution. Although Italy was hit hard, with some aid from the west, it recovered rather quickly. Also, despite inroads, Communism never took hold in the area. The nation was rebuilt. Today, Italy has recovered, being prosperous in many areas as seen in the pictures below, though the Southern half of the country is poorer than the Northern part due to increased gangs and crime that has taken over the area.