ABSTRACT
Fascism had important repercussions for Italians and for the world. In discussing Fascist foreign policy, historians debate whether the aims and policies of fascism represented an essential continuation of pre-Fascist Italy's foreign policy or a radical departure. With Mussolini, Italian foreign policy changed because fascism's ideology affected foreign policy. In the Italo-German talks concerning an alliance, Mussolini and Ciano made it abundantly clear that Italy would not be prepared for a major war. Italy's extreme unpreparedness, in addition to military errors made by the Duce or generated by Fascist ideology, explains the poor Italian performance in World War II. Mussolini's behavior has puzzled observers because he could have refused to convoke the Fascist Grand Council, as he had refused to do since December 1939, and because he seems to have been particularly passive during the attempt to remove him. Many Italians who fought in the Resistance believed it would be the starting point of a social revolution.
