Germany's To Blame For WWII

In 1941, Italy invaded Greece against Hitler’s advice. On October 28, 1940, similar to Albania, Italy issued Greece and ultimatum, which was rejected by the Greek dictator Metaxas and soon after the Italian forces invaded Greece. Italy later invaded Yugoslavia in 1941, joined the invasion of the USSR without declaring war, and finally, declared war on the USA on December 11, 1941. But rather then this being Italy’s decision, all the choices are said to be Il Duce’s: it was Mussolini’s

After World War I and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 the Italian and German economies plunged into turmoil. Germany inherited all war-responsibility in the form of severe monetary reparation, while Italy found itself left out of consideration for war reparation payments. For these reasons the Treaty of Versailles had a severe weakening effect on the German and Italian States after World War I, which created the need for change in those countries. As Arthur Koestler, a former member of the communist party during the 1930s wrote, they were "Ripe for it [Change]". (Backman, 217) Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler used this to their advantage and were able to overthrow the existing governments with the backing of the common

In Italy, the “Northern states for example such as Milan and Lombardy were relatively wealthy, while large parts of Southern Italy still relied on heavily agricultural economies and were relatively poor” (Sailus, 2016). This shows that Italy was a self-sufficient country and used modern ways to succeed as a country. Before world war 1 Italy declared itself neutral in the conflict, despite its membership in the “Triple Alliance” alongside Germany and Austria-Hungary since 1882. But in 1915, Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary, entering the war on the side of the Allies Britain, France and Russia. They carefully considered how to gain the greatest benefit from participation in the war. The decision to join the fight on the side of the Allies was based mostly on the promises Italy received in the Treaty of London, signed in April 1915. The war ended in 1918 and “600,000 Italians were dead, 950,000 were wounded and 250,000 were crippled

War is inevitable, as it is simply the manifestation of the strength and vigour of the Italian people that wishes to expand itself, never looking back. Peace was considered as merely a “mask to surrender and cowardice.” Mussolini stressed that Italians required “forces, duty, and sacrifice” in order to rise again to their former greatness, that of the Roman Empire. This is also Mussolini’s rationale for harsh and severe actions against any who would resist or try and undermine fascism.

The document on Italy’s entry into WWI seems as if it would be a primary source specking from a time when Italy and it crisis were occurring. Giovanni Papini speaks in favor of fascism in italic government. He acknowledges that those who govern Italy are useless and weakened a once great power. Papini introduces fascism as a new generation that is more gifted, stronger, spirited, cultured, an honest than those who are now governing. Giovanni Papini voices that he believes fascist should have the right to rule in Italy because they will improve the damaged society. Papini approves of Italy going to war but says it will not be enough to save society and we will have to be done afterwards. The reason according to Papini for entry into war is to

While Italy was first in triple alliance 1882 made up with Austria-Hungary and Germany, Italy had signed the secret Treaty of London. In this treaty Britain had offered Italy large sections of territory in the Adriatic Sea region – Tyrol, Dalmatia and Istria. Britain and France wanted Italy to join in on their side so that a new front could open up the south of the Western Front. As a result, Italy switched sides and started to fight against Central Powers. As the time transferred to WWII, Italy was criticized for their disappointing performance on every aspects of the war. Mussolini’s lack of leadership, key resources shortage, and lack of military force were the main causes. In my opinion, Italy entered World War II for economy

Along with the Fascist Party, came the idea of a "perfect" race of man, and persecution. Hitler’s idea of a non-Jewish race appealed to Mussolini. Before the war began, Benito Mussolini and his army started their persecution of the Jews in Italy. This did not last long, however, because Mussolini’s popularity began to fall. As his popularity among his people began to decline, so did his relations with many European nations. Much of Italy’s foreign relations depended solely on treaties and pacts. (5) As Germany and Italy moved together towards a uniform society, the strength and honor of the treaties were in jeopardy.

That made Mussolini seek out an alliance with Germany, but he held back on a full alliance because he was concerned about the weaknesses in the Italian economy and military (Farrell, 2003). He knew these had to be adjusted to make sure he would not end up in a weak position, and risk being taken over by the very country he was attempting to form an alliance with. When WWII officially began, there were some negotiations to address. The French government was interested in attacking Italian forces in Libya, and Britain wanted Italy on its side against Germany (Farrell, 2003). That had been the case in WWI, but Mussolini did not see it as being practical anymore. In June of 1940, Italy declared war on Britain and France (Farrell,

However, the Italian government had a vision to restore the glories of the Roman Empire. And while the war did not have the full support from its citizens, joining the allied forces cultivated a young group of supporters. Emilio Lussu, an Italian soldier who recalled his time on the warfront in A Soldier on the Southern Front, was studying law in college when the war began and was strong in the conviction that Italy needed to join the allied powers to fight for democracy and complete the national unification. Italian artists, writers, and thinkers, known as futurists, joined Lussu’s voice in calling for entry into the war as a source of liberation. In April 1915, the Italian signed the secret Treaty of London with the Allies. Britain promised the Italian-speaking regions of the Alps as well as other territories belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy entered a war it was woefully unprepared

The first World War left the entire world in a state of chaos, suffrage as well as separation; this was all mainly centred in Europe. The European countries were most effected by this war because it was so close to home. Italy, being such a new country saw these effects in an extreme way. The already regionalised country became more and more separated and saw all the crippling societal results of this war. Benito Mussolini was able to capitalize on the state the country found itself in. Mussolini and his fascist ideals were able to overthrow Italy and turn it into a dictatorship and lead it into the second World War behind Hitler’s Germany. Mussolini was able to successfully turn Italy into a dictatorship under a fascist regime because

In 1915, Italy was fully unified except for the region of Trento, which was occupied by the Austrians. Returning Trentino to Italy became a common goal for citizens and also helped to give rise to the age of nationalism. Norberto Bobbio, an italian philosopher of political science and a historian, said “ the objectives of the great war were for the liberty of all, in fact the participation of Italy with the Triple Entente against the Duple Alliance wasn’t seen as a new beginning of the Italian Empire but as the last war of the Risorgimento.”. Every single different political group wanted Italy completely unified. Nationalism was fairly new in Italy because of it’s just recent unification, but even though it was new, in the beginning of the 20th century the shipowners, farmers, and the blacksmiths all favoured the nationalists. In the 23rd of May, the day that Italy declared war against Austria, all the italians celebrated. In fact in Civitavecchia the whole town accompanied and celebrated the soldiers who were going to the

Shortly after the initiation of World War I, on August 2nd, 1914, Italy declared neutrality, a sentiment which most members of Il Partito Socialista Italiano or the Italian Socialist Party shared. William Welk (1938, 7-9), observes that in this conflict, Mussolini made his first divergence from the socialist party, repudiating the stance of the PSI, by speaking openly in favor of intervention. Hereafter, Mussolini established himself as an incendiary figure in favor of the interventionist objective. This ultimately led to his expulsion from the party in November of 1914, as well as being relieved of his role as editor of Avanti. He then started his own paper Il Popolo d’Italia and continued to exert his influence in Italian media, this time outside of the bounds of the Socialist Party. After Italy’s declaration of war on Austria in 1915, Mussolini enlisted

A fundamental corner stone in Fascist ideology was the desire to expand into new territories and re-obtain old ones; which makes us then question the populations willing association with it when the regime brought them to the brink of the second world war in 1938. As far as Italy’s justification for joining the war, it was the opportunity the regime had been waiting for, to take part in a war and achieve a glorious victory for the Father-land. As Philip Morgan explains “ The only justification for entering the war was to win it”. In fact, the Fascist slogan during the war war “Vincere, vincere, sincere” - Win, win, win. As early as 1940 it was apparent that the war was unpopular across Italy, as is made clear by the lack of volunteers and the

On October 28 1940, after Ioannis Metaxas rejected Mussolini’s ultimatum demanding that the Greek dictator allow the Italian army free passage in order to occupy strategic sites in the country, fascist Italy declared war on Greece. The Greco-Italian war lasted six months and ended with the invasion of Nazi Germany in Greece in April 1941 and the division of the country in three zones of occupation, with the Italian forces occupying almost two thirds of the country until September 1943 when the Italian-occupied territories were taken over by the Germans following the Italian armistice. Although the war crimes perpetrated against the civilian population by the Italian occupation forces in Greece were not less savage than those of their German allies, these memories somewhat disappeared from the mainstream narrative for a number of reasons that shall be explored as the discussion on the depiction of the Italians unfolds.

'I want to make Italy great, respected and feared' said Mussolini in 1925. Mussolini's foreign policy included a number of positive and negative factors which all contributed to the rise, and the ultimately to the downfall, of both Mussolini and the Italian empire. Mussolini was intent on revising the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles and was very keen to show off Italy's power. He felt that Italy had been hard done by at the end of world war one and sought to claim what he felt Italy deserved. Mussolini's foreign policy clearly reflected his ambition to reinstate the Italian empire.