Francesco Coppola

Who was Francesco Coppola?

Francesco Coppola was prominent Italian journalist and politician in the twentieth century who associated with Italian nationalism and later Italian Fascism.

From 1904 to 1908 Coppola wrote for Il Giornale d'Italia, a Rome newspaper in which he was known for expressing anti-democratic and anti-socialist sentiments. In 1908, Coppola moved to writing for the Rome newspaper La Tribuna where he began to strongly support Italian nationalism and imperialism. Two years later Coppola became one of the founders of the nationalist political party called the Italian Nationalist Association and with the support of two other prominent nationalists, Enrico Corradini and Luigi Federzoni, he launched the party's official newspaper, L'Idea Nazionale. Coppola strongly supported Italy's actions in the Italo-Libyan War which resulted in the capture of Libya from the Ottoman Empire.

During World War I, Coppola demanded that Italy join the war. In 1916, Coppola fought on the front in the Italian army. From 1917 to 1918 he undertook various nationalist propaganda missions. Coppola attended the Paris Peace Conference and was enraged with the territorial settlement that Italy received, accusing the Italian government and the Allies of giving Italy a "mutilated victory".