C. M. Settimana del Balilla 5–10 Dicembre XIV Genova (Balilla youth movement week, December 5–10, 1936 Genoa). 1935
The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini recognized the importance of preparing Italy’s boys for their future roles as soldiers and colonizers, and his regime took every opportunity of reminding the members of the Balilla—a youth group named for the boy who was said to have begun the eighteenth-century revolt against Italy’s Hapsburg occupiers—of their duty to become active participants in Italy’s expanding empire. This poster is dominated by a Balilla holding a rifle and wearing the organization’s uniform of blue neckerchief, black shirt, and khaki shorts; he gazes up toward a shining map of Italy’s new East African colonies.
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