The Weight of History

1933-1940 Italian Expansionism and Foreign Policy

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, Fascist Italy

1933-1940: Italian Expansionism and Foreign Policy

📕 Further Reading

  • European Dictatorships, 1918-1945, by Stephen J. Lee
  • Mussolini and the Origins of the Second World War, by Robert Mallett, 1983
  • Mussolini’s Fascism: What extent Italian Fascism represented of style over substance, by Thomas Meakin, History Review, 2007

Background: 👤 Mussolini

  • 1918: Italy won WW but was not granted territories promised to it in the 1915 Treaty of London
  • post-war years were turbulent
    • severe internal divisons due to regional, political, economic issues even before its entry into the war
      • participation in WWI → greater financial and social strain
      • 📉 promises made to 2 million soldiers (e.g. farmland ownership) not fulfilled + huge amounts owed to banks and industrialists
    • after the war: riots, strikes, violence, dysfunctional parliament, religious interference by the Catholic Church, spread of communism, etc.
      • (poor Italy)
  • 👤 Mussolini and the Black Shirts were financed by ==industriliasts, bankers and other conservatives==
    • intent was to fight and be anti-communist
    • overlap with Nazi Germany’s right-wing ideology
  • 1922: Mussolini threatened to march on Rome and seize the government; the King named him Prime Minister (position he held until 1943)
    • Mussolini became known as Il Duce (The Leader)
    • Mussolini’s political party, the National Fascist Party (NFP), came to be the only political party allowed with internal dissent suppressed
      • (i think i’ve seen this film before… and i didn’t like the ending)

Features of Fascism

Quote

“Either Fascism will absorb the State, or the State will absorb Fascism.”
–Mussolini, Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism

Fascism (is)…

  • anti-communist
  • anti-socialist
  • anti-democratic
  • certainly authoritarian

    “The foundation of Fascism is the conception of the State. Fascism conceives of the State as an absolute.”

    • totalitarian; the state has influence or control over ==all aspects of society==
    • people are subservient to the state
    • “Obedience, not discussion.” –Mussolini
  • promoted territorial expansion as “an essential manifestation of vitality”
  • nationalist
    • view of the nation state, its culture and history, as a unifying force
    • desire to remove foreign influences
    • own nation seen as superior to other nations
  • militarist
    • promotion of political violence and war as a method of revitalizing society
    • violence seen as necessary in order to progress
      • it’s giving “Revolution is not a dinner party.” –Mao
    • development of paramilitary organizations (e.g. the SS)
  • socially darwinist
    • belief that races have evolved as superior to other races
    • “survival of the fittest”
      • belief that in international relations, the strongest states thrive and survive and the small states get eaten up
      • justifies the use of violence through any means
  • socially united
    • opposes class-based division in society, promotes national collective national society
      • yet the corporative state proved to be modus operandi between PNF and Italy’s bourgeoisie → ‘second wave’ of Fascism was supposed to get rid of this relationship between party and big business
        • ‘fascismo-regime’ was short on inspiration & idealism → Mussolini supplied these qualities via militarism and empire

Mussolini’s foreign policy

  • unlike Hitler, Mussolini had no foreign policy goals when first taking power
  • contrast with the Liberal approach to foreign policy, motivated by irredentism in reclaiming territories to the North and certain deserts in Africa
  • up until the 1935 Abyssinian Crisis, Italian foreign policy was mainly conducted via diplomatic process
  • 1924: Mussolini claimed to be anti-bolshevik, and yet clamored to be the first Western state to accord the USSR de jure recognition
  • 1925: Mussolini developed a programme of action with the following aims
    1. increase national pride and prestige (because of his disappointment with the 1919 Treaty of Versailles)
      • the “Look! I’m here!” portion of his foreign policy took up the entire first decade of Fascism
      • Italy was oft-derided as the "sixth wheel of European diplomacy" (Cassels) because of its earlier re-unification via foreign arms
        • not in syllabus
    2. achieve parity of treatment (equal status) with Britain and France
    3. consolidation of domestic support for his regime
    4. revise post-war settlement of 1919-1920
    5. Dominate the Balkans (Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Yugoslavia)
      • geographical and geopolitical value: located at the crossroads of three previously-major empires (Russian, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian) with access to several important waterways
    6. Dominate the Mediterranean
      • geographical value: one of Europe’s inland seas, linking the continent with the rest of Eurasia and more immediately the Middle East and Africa
      • historical value: superhighway of transport, trade and cultural exchange considered the heart of the Roman Empire
      • control of the Mediterranean = key to Mussolini’s vision of Italy as “the heir of Rome”
        • Mussolini believed that Fascist Italy would become the next Roman Empire
          • “bro’s roman empire IS the roman empire” –Allora, 2024
          • his propaganda painted him as “the latest Caesar”
    7. build an Empire – gain “living space” + expand territories in Africa
    8. foster the spread of Fascism in other countries
  • fascism advocated War and Empire – but Mussolini was BROKE → had to be CAUTIOUS
    • 1926: Mussolini brokers a conclusion of a war-debt agreement with Great Britain
      • allows Rome greater access to foreign capital → greater spending on armaments
    • Italy remained heavily dependent on imported staple raw materials from Britain, France, U.S.A on coal, petroleum, etc. → couldn't risk an embargo/sanctions (e.g. on fuel/food)
    • Mussolini attempted to reduce reliance on imports (who is bro battling???). Overall, more Ls than Ws and “unwise, unpanned and disorganized” (–Meakin).
      • 1923: Battle of the Marshes
        • designed to:
          1. increase availability of agricultural land
          2. demonstrate Fascist dynamism
          3. provide employment
        • huge swathes of land in previously-uninhabitable and -malaric marshlands (e.g. Pontine Marshes) drained
        • W: newly-created cities of Aprilla, Latina and Sabaudia won the regime international praise
          • “Fascist land reclamation is not only defence against malaria, it is the new duty of the state!” –Fascist textbook, 1938
        • 📉 Only 80,000 hectares reclaimed – not the 1/6th of Italy the government promised
      • 1925: Battle for Grain, imposing high tariffs on imported foreign cereal goods while government subsidies were made available to assist in purchase of machinery and fertiliser
        • 📉 imports fell by 75%
        • 1940: Italy almost achieved self-sufficiency
          • 📉 exports fell and import of fertilisers failed to keep pace
        • propaganda and agricultural benefits were soon outweighed by a decline in the quality of the Italian diet + further reductions on quality of life esp. in the poorer south
  • primarily opportunist – e.g. the 1923 Corfu disaste

👤 Dino Grandi (Foreign Minister 1929-1932)

  • former squadrista
  • 1925: made into under-secretary for foreign affairs, hailing from the “nationalist segment of Liberal society deeply exercised by Italy’s indifferent diplomatic status” (Cassels)
  • 1929: raised to Foreign Minister
    • garnered publicity for himself and Italy by attending the League of Nations, constantly participating in conferences on naval and general disarmament, reparations and war debts
    • contrasted the attentive reception won at Geneva with disparagement once accorded to the spokesman of Liberal Italy
  • 1930: London Naval Conference, where a “moral victory” was won (Cassels)
    • Fascist Italy stood alone
  • early 1930s: Mussolini and 👤 Hitler re-oriented national methods and goals in world politics
  • 1931 July: 👤 U.S. Secretary of State Stimson visited Italy, a “noteworthy diplomatic success” (Cassels)
  • 1932 February: Mussolini found it “superfluous to say how satisfied” he was with Grandi’s work (Grandi’s diary)
  • 1932 July 20: Grandi dismissed by Mussolini, Mussolini resumes personal direction of the foreign ministry
    • typically considered a result of “the Duce’s dislike of Grandi’s un-Fascist deference to diplomatic formality, his excessive Anglophilia and his attachment to the allegedly pacifist League of Nations” (Cassels / De Felice, Mussolini il duce / Mack Smith, Mussolini)
    • Mussolini tolerated these lapses and even encouraged Grandi’s policy
    • posited that it’s because Grandi was content with great power, and didn't put forth the need for a drastic turn to ensure territorial gains (Cassels)

==Effect of the 1929-1943 Great Depression==

Inf

Italy depended upon export of manufactured goods to pay for food fuel and raw material imports (for industries).

  • main trading partners – Britain, France, U.S.A. – erected trade barriers as part of protectionist policy
    • to survive, Italy turned away from the West and began trading extensively with Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania – which all exported raw materials and food, allowing Italy to export manufactured goods back at them
    • remember the link between Italian economy and foreign Policy!!
      • Italy had less fear of economic retaliation to its policies than before → more freedom to operate foreign policy in line with its fascist philosophy
  • ‘corporate state’: expansion of government control over industries
    • 📈 all major industries survived the Great Depression
  • deficit spending: when a government spends more than it collects in terms of revenue
    • borrowed a lot of money + made large orders with cooperating industries
      • typically, ordered military equipment (e.g. trucks, tanks, ships, aircraft, rifles, tyres, shells, engines)
  • discontent at home increased → “laid to rest” via “recourse to adventure abroad” (Cassels)

Summar

  • Italy became less reliant on Western Europe & the U.S.A.
  • Italian government now had better/greater control of industry and was now producing large amounts of military equipment
  • thanks to the Great Depression, Italy was better prepared for a more aggressive foreign policy → Mussolini could realize his fascist goals
  • 1933: Mussolini re-organized his government to fit better with this new reality
    • he made himself the Minister of War, Air and Navy, while also serving as Minister of Interior and Foreign Affairs (until 1936) and Prime Minister
      • he’s basically Taylor Swift’s credit list on every music video

Foreign Policy Goals by Fascist Principles

  1. Nationalism
    • restoration of Italian privilege an honor
  2. Militarism
    • militarist values & ethos
    • survival of the strong
    • war as an essential component of foreign policy
  3. Imperialism
    • Italy as an imperial power
    • concerned with taking over other/weaker states
    • territorial expansion
      • Asia
      • Africa → 1935 Abyssinian Crisis (Ethopia)
        • prior to crisis: Anglo-Italian relations generally good
        • post-crisis: Anglo-Italian relations strained
      • Middle East
  4. Irredentism
    • concerned with the restoration of former territories
    • restoration of 'former' glory
      • can date back into time
      • may also be allusion to myths & legends of glorious times
    • e.g. along the Dalmatian Coast, along the Mediterranean
  5. Anti-Communist
    • Britain and France needed Italy as an ally to counter Stalin
    • Nazis were also supposedly anti-communist → ^^nazi-soviet pac
  6. (ONLY 1933-1939 Hitler’s foreign Policy) Racism

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