Orlando, Vittorio Emanuele, << awr LAN doh, veet TAW ryoh EH mah noo EE leh >> (1860-1952), served as prime minister of Italy from 1917 to 1919. He took office just after the Italian Army suffered a terrible defeat at Caporetto (now in Slovenia) in World War I. His efforts to restore civilian morale and army discipline helped keep Italy in the war, on the side of the Allies, until the Allied victory in 1918. After the war, he led the Italian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. He temporarily left the conference in protest after the Allies refused to meet Italy’s claims to the port of Fiume in Yugoslavia and former Austrian territories. His opponents in Parliament later forced him to resign as prime minister.
Orlando supported Benito Mussolini when Mussolini became prime minister of Italy in 1922. But Orlando denounced him in 1925 when Mussolini began openly to create a dictatorship. In 1946, when Italy’s monarchy was abolished, Orlando helped establish the Italian republic.
Orlando was born on May 19, 1860, in Palermo. A law professor, he began his political career in the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 1897. He died on Dec. 1, 1952.
