How successful was Mussolini's foreign policy between 1922 and 1939

My Mussolini exam is this week and while I don't find domestic policy so bad, I'm really struggling on Foreign Policy.

I understand he wanted to make Italy 'Great, repsected and feared' and I understand his involvement in the Spanish Civil War.

I'm just really unclear on things like the Stresa Front, his war on Abysynnia/Eithopia and the L.O.N's sanctions, what are they? Etc.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm freaking out a little.

Reply 1

Lacrymosa

Also, I know he had no grand master plan, but what were his aims in FP apart from making italy great respected and feared?

Reply 2

urbandervish

Very successful :top:

I recommend watching 'Lion of the Desert' [1981], directed by Moustapha Akkad, [produced the Halloween series] with Anthony Quinn as the Libyan "Freedom Fighter" Omar Mukhtar who took on Mussolini's powerful army with primitive weapons and guerilla warfare.

The film was banned by Italy for obvious reasons :wink:

Reply 3

| Jamie |

His foreign policy aims were largely to do with boosting the country's prestige and, as you said, making it "great, respected and feared" - largely it was all to do with propaganda, as opposed to lfighting in order to gain resources/territory etc. Apart from that, the restoration of the Roman Empire was a key aspect in his foreign policy campaigns and you could mention that his expansionist ideas were the actions to start it off. Also, what with the 'mutilated victory' in 1917 (Italy's rewards for fighting in WW1, seen as a let down to many Italians) and little colonial gain, invading other countries now would make up for it. With the invasion of Abyssinia in particular, it acted as revenge for the Italian's humiliating defeat at Adowa in 1896. Most of these were just secondary objectives though - his main aim was to make Italy (and himself) look good.

I'm just really unclear on things like the Stresa Front, his war on Abysynnia/Eithopia and the L.O.N's sanctions, what are they? Etc.

The Stesa Front was a pact between Britain, France and Italy, signed in 1935, that basically reinforced the Treaty of Versailles and guaranteed no more breaches. This was in response to Hitler's claim that he planned to create an army five times the size laid down by Versailles (100,000 men). The result was that Mussolini and Italy were seen as respected enough to be included in the act, and that they shared the status of European peace keepers, gaining prestige in other words.

The War with Abyssinia in 1935 occured mainly because Mussolini saw it as an easy target - it was one of the last countries in Italy that wasn't a European colony and it was bordered by two Italian colonies already - Etritrea and Italian Somaliland. He sent 500,000 troops over there and basically trashed the place. The Ethopians were disorganised, had little military training or experience and used old rifles. Mussolini also ordered the dropping of deadly mustard gas on towns and other civillian occupied areas - seen as one of the great atrocities of the thirties. Nevertheless, it resulted in a huge popularity boost for Mussolini back home- "Italy has her Empire!".

The League of Nations imposed some sanction as a result, but they weren't particularly hard-hitting: they banned the export of arms and military equipment to Italy, but kept trade on oil, steel and other important resources. Also, the Suez Canal was kept open to Italian fleets - a key body of water that allowed supplies to be transferred between Italy and Africa. The LoN were wary because they wanted to keep Italy on their side over the growing suspicions that war would soon be breaking out. Apparently Italy was intimidating enough to be feared.

I'd also recommend looking up the Austrian Anschluss in 1934, the Munich Conference of 1938, the Rome-Berlin Axis of 1936, the Pact of Steel in 1939 and the period of 'non-belligerence' up until 1940 as they all feature heavily in Italian-German relations which is likely to appear on the exam tomorrow. All can be found on Wikipedia, you just need a summary of what they were and more importantly what results they had for Italy.

Hope this helps :smile:

Reply 4

Wedgie

Italy's foreign policy was split into 2 eras really...queit years and then the turning point with Abyssina in 1936.
In the quiet years I'd say he was pretty successful he achieved things through bullying and like jamie said used propaganda to make his victories and participation in things seem far more important than it actually was. E.G. Kellog Briand Pact and Lacarno Treaty. But I'd only mention this period as a paragraph and concentrate on the stuff later on which Jamie has pretty much covered...
Only other thing I would add are his territorial demands on France 1938/9 when he got a tad big for his boots and was demanding Nice among other places. Also his invasion of Albania was a response I'd say to Hitler going off and invading places etc

Hope that helps kind of kept it simple so you can use it to find some more stuff out

Reply 5

eDDeboo

Also, he thought he had an unofficial nod of the head from France and England to invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and they were prepared to help Mussolini if it wasn't for the public of those two countries protesting as Abyssinia was in the L of N.

Didn't Mussolini loose loads of his own troops though? But with the use of propaganda, the Italian people saw it as a complete victory

Reply 6

eDDeboo

| Jamie

I'd also recommend looking up the Austrian Anschluss in 1934, the Munich Conference of 1938, the Rome-Berlin Axis of 1936, the Pact of Steel in 1939 and the period of 'non-belligerence' up until 1940 as they all feature heavily in Italian-German relations which is likely to appear on the exam tomorrow. All can be found on Wikipedia, you just need a summary of what they were and more importantly what results they had for Italy.

Hope this helps :smile:

Any reason you believe foreign policy will be in the exam tomorrow?

Assuming its Edexcel

Reply 7

desmondmac

Would I be right in arguing that his foreign policy was crap, especially after Abyssinia? I'd say this because he blundered the whole makeweight postiion he had going at Stresa Front by isolating himself from Britain and France. Yes he got in with Germany and perhaps felt some power/greatness from that but ultimately he could only be the 'junior partner' as far as hitler was concerned. I mean, the fact that Nazi dude didn't even bother to tell him about Anschluss and Czechoslovakia.