Mussolini as Empire-Builder: Europe and Africa, 1932–36

255 Pages·1977·22.138 MB·English

by  Esmonde M. Robertson (auth.)

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Mussolini as Empire-Builder
Europe and Africa, 1932-36
Esmonde M. Robertson
© Esmonde M. Robertson 1977
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, without permission.
First published 1977 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Associated companies in New York Dublin
Melbourne Johannesburg and Delhi
ISBN 978-0-333-19318-1 ISBN 978-1-349-15803-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-15803-4
This book is sold subject to the standard
conditions of the Net Book Agreement.
The paperback edition of this book is sold subject to the condition
that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired
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Contents
Preface vii
Introduction
The Reshuffle of July - August 1932 7
2 Europe and Mrica, 1932-33 22
3 Strained Relations with Germany over Austria, 1933 44-
4 Mussolini and Disarmament, 1933 54
5 Disenchantment in Europe, October, 1933 - March 1934 59
6 The Assassination of Dollfuss 70
7 The Marseilles Assassinations and their Mtermath 84
8 Mussolini Decides on War 93
9 The Mobilisation of Italian Troops 114
10 The Stresa Interlude 125
II Towards a Detente with Germany 132
12 The Confrontation with Britain, June-July 1935 144
13 The Anglo-French Compromise of August 1935 155
14 Towards the Outbreak of War 168
15 The Sequel 184
ChroT/()logical Table 190
Bibliograpjry 205
Notes and References 214
Index 236
MAP Ethiopia in 1935 viii
The cover illustration of Mussolini is reproduced by permission of the
Radio Times Hulton Picture Library.
Preface
lowe a great debt to scholars who have recently completed, or who are
in the process of writing, monographs on topics related to my own. Dr
D. Rotunda, Dr C. A. MacDonald, Dr M. Poulain, Mr M. Passmore,
Dr Antoinette ladarola and Dr Rosaria Quartararo.
I have greatly profited from detailed criticisms by Professor W. N.
Medlicott and J. Petersen, of the German -Italian Institute in Rome,
from P. Kent who has studied the I tali an documents in Rome; from Drs
A. Adamthwaite, R. Bullen and A. Polonsky. Mr Felix M. Pryor has
helped me with stylistic improvements, and Mr Lalit Adolphus has
been most generous in helping me with final revisions of the academic
apparatus.
Miss Anne Ably, the Librarian of St Antony's College, Oxford;
Fraulein Gertrud Fichtbauer of the Staatsbibliotek Munich; and the
staff of the Institut fur Zeitgeschichte Munich; Mrs Mary Dysch and the
Secretaries of the Department of International History of the London
School of Economics have gone out of their way to be helpful.
Above all, lowe a special debt to Frau Ilse von Hassell, widow of the
late Herr Ulrich von Hassell, German Ambassador in Rome 1932-7
and hanged for the part he played in the conspiracyof2oJuly 1944. Her
perceptive memory of events and of the character of the leading
personages concerned is unique.
E.M.R.
L.Aboyo
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Introduction
MUSSOLINI'S character and policy have given rise to almost as much
controversy as Hitler's. \Vas he the supreme opportunist who played off
Italy's opponents against each other and who waited for the occasion to
drive a wedge between them and grab new territory for Italy (or to
spread Italian influence) without having to fight a major war? Can
Ranke's theory of the primacy offoreign over domestic policy be upheld
with reference to Italy under Mussolini? If Mussolini adhered stead
fastly to the hotch-potch ideas proclaimed in the Fascist Manifesto of
March 1919, Italy, having renounced imperialism, would have had to
content herself with the acquisition of territory on the coast of Dalmatia
and in Asia Minor.1 But if Mussolini from the start considered himself
the heir of his nationalist predecessors and looked to Africa, rather than
to Europe, for the realisation of Italy's imperial glory, then the aim of
expansion in Europe was merely to secure Italy's land frontiers in order
to expand overseas. The number of options open to Italy can be
attributed to her geographical position quite as much as to Mussolini's
mercurial character. Italy, situated in the Mediterranean, stood on the
circumference of a circle. Her position differed from that of Germany
who stood on a point in a straight line facing East.
Although there were many differences of opinion within Italy over
the direction which expansion should take, the Fascists (who looked to
the Duce as leader) and most of the Nationalists (whose loyalty lay with
either the King or the Pope) were at one in believing that Italy's so
called 'demographic problem' had to be solved. Italy's population in
193 I stood at 42 million. Within fifteen years this figure would have
risen to 50 m"illion by which time most Italians would be living well
below the subsistence leveJ.2 Little, so it was mistakenly thought, could
be done to raise agricultural production at home; and emigration to the
United States, advocated by the liberals, had been regarded by an
earlier generation of Italian imperialists as a 'perpetual haemorrhage
thereby revealing the mentality of slaves'.3 It was in any case, after the
passage of the immigration laws in the United States in 1924, only