ABSTRACT

From the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 through to the waning months of the World War II in 1945, Fascist Italy was at war. This Fascist decade of war comprised an uninterrupted stretch of military and political engagements in which Italian military forces were involved in Abyssinia, Spain, Albania, France, Greece, the Soviet Union, North Africa and the Middle East. As a junior partner to Nazi Germany, only entering the war in June 1940, Italy is often seen as a relatively minor player in World War II. However, this book challenges much of the existing scholarship by arguing that Fascist Italy played a significant and distinct role in shaping international relations between 1935 and 1945, creating a Fascist decade of war.

chapter |10 pages

Introduction

A Fascist decade of war? The impact of the Italian wars on the international stage, 1935–1945

part I|58 pages

The international dimension

chapter 1|15 pages

An opportunity missed

Britain and the Abyssinian Crisis

chapter 3|15 pages

Repubblica Sociale Italiana and Spain

An ideological relationship in the decade of war

chapter 4|12 pages

A new deal for Italy

Rethinking Britain’s punitive attitude and the making of the Allied policy in occupied Italy, 1944

part II|50 pages

A fascist warfare?

chapter 5|14 pages

Blind faith

Rethinking the Italian intervention in Spain, 1936

chapter 6|10 pages

The conquest of Albania

The real beginning of World War II in Italy

chapter 7|12 pages

‘The despicable fighting qualities of the Wops’

The East African campaign and the British Commonwealth’s victory over Fascist Italy

chapter 8|12 pages

From occupiers to comrades-in-arms

Italian fighters in the ranks of the Greek People’s Liberation Army

part III|60 pages

Ideology and propaganda for the empire at war

chapter 9|13 pages

A new navalism for a Fascist empire

Navy, geopolitics, propaganda and radicalization (1934–1940)

chapter 10|15 pages

Revisiting the ‘colonial hypothesis’

The policies and language of the Italian Army in Ethiopia and Yugoslavia

chapter 11|16 pages

What ‘new order’?

Fascist expansionism and the Jews: the case of south-eastern France, 1942–1943

chapter 12|14 pages

Radio propaganda during the war

The Mediterranean scenario in Radio Bari’s broadcasts (1940–1943) 1

part IV|26 pages

A decade of war?

chapter 13|8 pages

Fascist Italy chooses endless war, 1935–1936

Continuity and break

chapter 14|16 pages

Changing perspectives

Italian studies on Italy in World War II