Mussolini's foreign policy Flashcards
what position did Mussolini start in?
- needed strong foreign policy to overcome the shame of the mutilated victory
- Italy’s military position was weak
What were Mussolini’s aims?
- opportunistic, often focusing on his own prestige
- assert position as a world power
- consolidate rule and expand imperialism in Africa
- sphere of influence in balkans/Mediterannean
- Spazio vitale
how did Mussolini’s approach develop?
- 1920s: cautious while he consolidated power
- early 1930s: concerned by Hitler’s power
- late 1930s: more aggressive
What happened in Greece/Corfu?
- 1923
- 27 August: Italian general Tellini and 4 staff assassinated in Greece
- Mussolini blamed Greek gov and demanded full apology and 50m lire compensation
-31 August: bombarded Corfu without warning
How was Greece/Corfu a success?
- celebrated by nationalists
- received 50m lire
- M showed self as decisive leader
How was Greece/Corfu a failure?
- LoN forced him to leave Corfu on 27 December
- Did not receive apology
- forced to accept Italy’s position
What happened in Yugoslavia and Albania?
- January 1924 - Yugoslavia recognized Fiume as part of Italy
- 1924: Italians sponsored Ahmed Zog takes power in Albania. Is a satellite state by 1926.
-1934, Croation terrorists assassinate Yugoslavian king
How was Yugoslavia a success?
- Diplomatic success
- achieved what the liberal government could not
How was Yugoslavia a failure?
- Fiume’s significance was merely symbolic
- Italy had to recognize Yugoslavian rule at Susak
- no material gains
What were the Locarno treaties? Were they a success?
- 1925
- Br, Fr, Gr and Italy settle border disputes
- Italy appears a major power (propaganda)
-Failed to get concessions on border with Austria. Unimportant in meeting
What was the ‘pacification of Libya’?
- poison gas, mass execution and concentration camps killed 1/3 of Libya’s population
- slow progress, but Italy put down Libyan rebellion in 1932
- details kept quiet in the press
what were Mussolini’s goals regarding relations?
-wants good relations with great powers, but still wants to challenge them and show his own power
How were Mussolini’s relations with Britain successful?
- good terms with Chamberlin and Churchill
- Revaluation of the lire depended on funding from Br
How were Mussolini’s relations with Britain a failure?
- Br back LoN during corfu incident
- They dominate Mediterannean
- -> tried to undermine them by funding pro-Italian groups in Malta
How were Mussolini’s relations with France successful?
-worked together on Locarno pact
How were Mussolini’s relations with France a failure?
- open hostility/ambivalence
- OVRA ran agents and operations in France
- France controlled Tunisia and was worried about Italian intentions
- unsuccessful anti-french alliance attempt with Gr Spain and Hungary
How were Mussolini’s relations with Germany successful?
- funded nationalistic groups in WR (including the Nazis)
- in early years, wanted good relations
How were Mussolini’s relations with Germany a failure?
- initially hostile and worried about Anschluss
- helped Austrian Nazi coup fail
- little respect for WR
What was the Stresa front? Were they a success?
- Italy, Fr and Br meet to declare a desire for peace and commitment to the LoN
- M claimed they met an agreement on his goals in N Africa but they deny this
- Abyssinia caused conflict…
Why did desire for Prestige drive Mussolini to invade Abyssinia?
- needed victory to avenge humiliating defeat at Adwa in 1896 and to boost cult of Il Duce
- believed that colonies were part of Italy’s historic destiny (Roman empire)
How did economic matters drive Mussolini to invade Abyssinia?
- raw materials from Abyssinia could aid autarky
- military glory on the cheap
- would need to produce arms, equipment and transportation for war
How did domestic problems drive Mussolini to invade Abyssinia?
- satisfies PNF members who want a more fascist direction
- domestic policies so far had disappointing results
How did the desire to achieve a great power status drive Mussolini to invade Abyssinia?
- rise in power of the Nazis had transformed the European situation
- wants a growing empire
- -> already has colonies in eritrea and Somaliland (convenient location)
what was the pretext for the Abyssinian war?
- 1929: Italian soldiers began to occupy disputed land
- 1930: built a fort on Abyssinian land
- Dec 1934: Skirmish left 30 Italian troops killed
- Mussolini demanded a full apology and compensation
When did Mussolini invade Abyssinia and what happened?
- October 1935: launched invased of 400,000 men
- Badoglio was brutal - mass aerial bombings, illegal use of chemical warfare
- 500,000 Abyssinians killed
When did the invasion of Abyssinia end?
-5th may 1936: victorious army enter Addis Ababa
How was the Abyssinian invasion a success?
- Dec 1935: Gold for Patria
- sanctions were propaganda coup
- M looked like the new Ceaser establishing empire (20m listen to his radio broadcast)
- weak sanctions: still has Suez canal
How was the Abyssinian invasion a failure?
- lira devalued by 40%
- autarky failed
- many Italians were unenthusiastic
- brutal war changed perception overseas
what was the effect of the Abyssinian invasion on the international situation?
- highlighted the weakness of the league of nations
- -> M saw it as a sign that Br and Fr were weak
-move closer to Gr began
What happened with the Spanish civil war in 1936?
-In July, Mussolini committed 50,000 troops and 600 planes to the war on the side of Franco
- long war. 3,266 Italian soldiers killed
- cost 14b lire, so taxes had to be increased
What was the effect of the Spanish civil war (1936)?
- pushed Italy closer to economic dependence on Germany
- Italian army were even weaker by 1939, shown by defeat at Guadalajara (by antifascist volunteers)
-damaged prestige
What was the Hoare-Laval pact’s significance?
- caused public outcry in Br, and the new foreign secretary openly disliked M
- 1938: Italians sunk 11 British ships
- 1937: gentlemen’s agreement showed diplomacy with Br still
How did Italy drift closer to Germany 1936-1937?
- Rome-Berlin axis 1936
- Anti-cominterm pact 1937
- Withdrew from LoN December 1937 (stresa front collapses)
What was the effect of Anschluss 1938?
- Hitler did not consult the Duce first, damaging M’s prestige
- Is clearly the submissive partner
-in 1938 M is still rejecting a full scale military alliance with Hitler, wanting to remain in Britain’s good books
Why is the Munich conference significant?
- turning point
- afterwards, M made it clear to parliament that he wanted to dominate the Mediterranean
- Nice, Corsica and Tunis were to be annexed from France
What was happening at home by 1938?
- people were increasingly disillusioned
- quest for autarky was lowering standard of living
- invasion of Albania in 1939 was meant to restore reputation
- -> victory with very little fighting
- ->But pushed Italy further from GB and Fr
What was the pact of steel, May 1939?
- between Gr and Italy
- clause that committed Italy to support Germany if it CHOSE TO go to war
- Ciano expressed concern that Italy would not be ready until 1943, but Ribbentrop claimed Gr would not go to war before then anyway
When was Ciano told that Germany planned war with Poland?
- 11 August 1939
- Italy were trapped
