Antonio Salandra (13 August 1853 – 9 December 1931) was Prime Minister of Italy from 21 March 1914 to 18 June 1916, succeeding Giovanni Giolitti and preceding Paolo Boselli.
Biography[]
Antonio Salandra was born in Troia, Apulia, Two Sicilies in 1853, and he obtained a law degree from the University of Naples in 1872. He took up a chair in administrative law in Rome in 1879, where he came to believe in the necessity of the rule of law and the authority of the state. He entered the Chamber of Deputies in 1886 as an opponent of Giovanni Giolitti. He was Minister of Agriculture from 1899 to 1900, of Finance in 1906, and of the Treasury from 1909 to 1910. As Prime Minister, he initially favored Italy's neutrality during World War I, but subsequently came to favor military intervention on the side of the Allies. Following a series of military disasters against the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1916, he was forced to resign. He supported Benito Mussolini's rise to power, but retired from active political life in 1925 and died in 1931.