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| 1930–35 |
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| The economic depression, aggravated for Italy by lack of basic raw materials and constant adverse trade balance. Great efforts were made to increase the production of food and to reclaim swamp areas for agricultural exploitation (Pontine marshes, for example), as well as to develop hydroelectric power. Industrial production was increased and cost of production reduced by cuts in wages and other devices. Italy, like many other countries, tried to stave off the worst effects of the depression by the conclusion of trade pacts, rigid control of foreign exchange, conversion of the public debt, and so on. The result was almost complete government control of finance and industry. | 1 |
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| 1931, May 15 |
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| The pope issued the encyclical Quadragesimo anno, to supplement the famous encyclical Rerum novarum of Leo XIII (1891). The pope called for social and economic reform, condemned the maldistribution of wealth, and strongly urged fundamental changes to give the workers a fairer share in the product of their labor. At the same time he once more condemned communism and socialism. | 2 |
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| 1933, Jan |
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| The advent of the National Socialist government in Germany at once raised the prospect of Italo-German cooperation, which would have involved an immeasurable strengthening of Italy's position with respect to Great Britain and France. | 3 |
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| 1934 |
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| Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936), novelist and dramatist, was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. | 4 |
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| Nov. 10 |
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| Establishment of the Central Corporative Committee, a type of economic parliament intended to complete the structure of the corporative state. | 5 |
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| Dec. 5 |
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| CLASH OF ITALIAN AND ETHIOPIAN TROOPS AT UALUAL, on the disputed Ethiopian-Somaliland frontier. This was seized upon by the Italian government as the point of departure for the conquest of Ethiopia (See 1934, July). | 6 |
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