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The term "Axis" was first coined by Mussolini in a speech he gave in Milan, Italy on November 1, 1936. In this speech, he referred to the Rome/Berlin alliance as a Axis in which all European countries would revolve around. This alliance, however, was a result of forced isolation from the rest of Europe, rather than a sincere Italo-German partnership of mutual respect.
In fact, 1934 was a year in which Italy almost went to war with Germany over
the potential German attempt at annexing Austria.
Austria's independence was immediately threatened when Hitler assumed power in Germany. He made it clear that expansion was his goal, with Austria's large German speaking population as the logical choice. But this did not sit well with Mussolini and his fascist goverment. In 1934, Austria was protected by Italy and it's Chancellor, Engelbert Dollfuss, was a friend of Mussolini. Even if Austria was a small nation, it provided a buffer between the borders
of Germany and Italy. To Mussolini, this border was to be maintained at all
costs, and he vowed to protect Austia's independence with military force.
The first meeting between Hitler and Mussolini occurred on June 13, 1934. Mussolini understood some German so he refused a translatorfor this meeting.
Hitler was advised not to wear a uniform, in order to appear more as a diplomat, rather than the war monger as perceived by the Italians. He appeared wrinkled and untidy compared to the authoritive, tailored unform of Mussolini. Hitler advised Mussolini to stop trying to protect Austria and that he wanted Chancellor Dollfuss replaced. Mussolini replied that the persecution of Jews was folly. Neither dictator may have understood what each was saying.
Hitler returned to Berlin assuming that the German acquisition of Austria was approved by Italy and Mussolini returned distrusting the Germans even
more. On July 25, 1934, Nazi assassins killed Chancellor Dollfuss in his office. The day he was killed, Chancellor Dollfuss was scheduled to fly to Italy for a metting with Mussolini. His family was already there waiting for him. Once word spread of his murder, Mussolini had the difficult task of telling his family in Rome.
Mussolini was well aware that Chancellor Dollfuss was murdered by Nazi operatives. He then made two bold steps. He ordered Italian troops mobilized
on the Austrian border and sent a wire telegram to Austria promising Italy's help in the defense of her independence. Mussolini expected France and England
to send the same message, but that never happened. Mussolini was confronting Germany alone.
Germany was not yet prepared for war and Mussolini's bold stand was enough
for Hitler to abruptly change his plans.
The Nazi press, which prepared a special edition to announce Dollfuss' assassination and the fall of Austria, ordered a last minute cancellation
of the publication and revised it with statements from Hitler condemning Dollfuss' murder. Hitler had the assassins arrested and deported to Austria
for trial. He also recalled the German ambassador to Austria and sent in
a replacement with instructions to seek better relations.
Mussolini emerged as a hero and won the admiration from England and France.
Mussolini felt very confident in his position in the political world. He used this to advance his prospect of a new Roman Empire. This admiration, however, would soon to replaced by international embargo. The isolation of Italy began with their invasion and annexation of Ethiopia.
Although Italy fought with the allies in World War I, it did not
feel that it received an equal share of the spoils of the Central
Power's defeat. Mussolini considered it a great injustice that France and Great Britain could increase their
colonialization, yet Italy only receive minor gains. Ethiopia was always considered in the sphere of Italian influence.
It was also one of the few remaining countries of Africa which still preserved its empire free of European domination.
Ethiopia was also the only country to defeat a European power in combat. This occurred in Adwa in 1896 when the Italians
suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Ethiopians. |
Haile Selassie
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| Fueled by the need for revenge and expansion by colonization, Mussolini sent his
newly mechanized legions under the command of Field Marshal Rodolfo Graziani
across the Abyssinia border from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea on October 3, 1935. In 3 days, Adowa was engulfed
and within a month, Italians were 80 miles into Abyssinia. Resistance was heavy throughout the country, so
Graziani began to rule with an iron grip. He destroyed the Intelligentsia, and killed many of the Coptic
Church in reprisal for partisan
attacks. Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio (1871-1956) took command later in 1935 and immediately resorted to mustard and other poisonous gases on a number of occassions to quell the unrest. |
Field Marshall Pietro Badoglio
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By early 1936, his hard hitting campaign crushed all organized resistance in the country. On May 5, 1936, the Italian army marched into the capital of Addis Ababa and Ethiopia surrendered. On June 30, 1936, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, who escaped the invading Italians, spoke before the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, in protest of the attack. He was an emperor
without a nation. "It is us today. It will be you tomorrow." he warned. The
League of Nations decided not to respond militarily and gave minor economic
sanctions against Italy. These sanctions did nothing to cripple the Italian economy and were lifted two weeks
after Emperor Selassie spoke to the League.
When General Francisco Franco fascist troops invaded Spain in July 1936 with the purpose of overthrowing the young and unstable Republic, he knew he would need help. On 20 July, 1936, General Franco sent emmisaries to Hitler and Mussolini requesting military aid and technical assistance. Mussolini promptly accepted the offer. He initially sent 12 planes escorting troopships from Africa to Spain, but eventually, 37,000 men and every spare aircraft he could afford poured into Spain. Many Spaniards considered these Italian "volunteers" as invaders, and fought back with arms and propaganda. The Germans followed suit and also sent some aircraft and the Condor Legion.
| The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) allowed Italy to exercise its use of its
weapons, especially the Air Force and Army, but more importantly, it allowed
the Germans and Italians the opportunity to coordinate its military forces
in combat. What would later prove to be one of its deficiencies, Italy utilized
the "true and tested" method of combat, while Germany embraced a new radical
method of war.
The Spanish Civil War and the Ethiopian conquest was a large drain on the Italian economy and this would haunt them in the years to come. |
The Claw of Italian Invaders Will Enslave Us |
The invasion of Ethiopia and Italian assistance in the Spanish Civil War
black listed Italy from the Western powers. Mussolini found himself into
a forced cooperation with Germany. This time when Hitler asked for Italy's
approval for an invasion of Austria to "restore order", Mussolini endorsed
it. On March 12, 1938, German tanks rolled into Austria unopposed. Hitler
was overjoyed. He was quoted saying to an aide "Tell Mussolini I will never
forget him for this." "Never, never, never, whatever happens..."
But Mussolini noticed his standing with Hiltler diminish in the late 1930's.
With Germany's annexation of Austria and Czech Sudetenland, Italy was becoming
a minor Axis partner. To prove Italy's worth as a military power and to prevent
Germany from gaining influence in the Balkans, Mussolini set his gaze on Albania.
| In the early 1900's, Albania was swept in political and social
instability. Albania's King Zog was in need of financial aid and economic support to get his country back
on track. In order to help his country, King Zog signed a number of accords with Italy, which had a long
standing political and financial interest in Albania. Mussolini used this debt as a reason for annexation.
In March of 1939, Mussolini sent foreign Minister Ciano to Albania to meet with King Zog and review a list
of demands made by Mussolini. This list, according to Ciano, was impossible to accept. |
King Zog and Ciano |
Not suprisingly, King Zog reviewed these demands and denied them. Rome then sent King Zog an ultimatum to accept those
demands by 12:00 PM April 6, 1939.
On Friday, April 7, 1939, the Italian fleet was off the coast of Albania. By the end of that day, 2 divisions of 4 Bersaglieri regiments and a battalion
of tanks led by General Guzzoni land throughout the coast of Albania. Resistance was weak and sporadic. On April 8, 1939, King Zog along with his wife and son escape to the Greek authorities in Florina and were granted asylum by Athens. Albania surrendered to Fascist Italy and on April 16, 1939, King
Victor Emmanuelle III united the crown of Albania to that of Italy and the
Ethiopian Empire.
Italy was faced with an outdated airforce and WWI grade artillery. She was
outgunned in military might by Germany in a number of ways. First, Germany
had a vast amount resources to pull from, ranging from iron ore to petroleum.
Second, they started their military buildup from scratch. Germany was severily
beaten in World War I, so when Hitler started the German remilitarization,
his war machine was modern and efficient. In a strange way, it is easier
to start over than attempt to maintain or refurbish obsolete weaponry.
When Italy annexed Albania, Greece began to feel threatened. It was believethat Italy would make Greece her next target. Italian bases were already
in the vicinity with their installations on the Dodecanese Islands and Greece
was well aware that Italy would soon install bases in Albania. There was
a fear that Italian bombers would soon land at the airports of Maleme and
Crete and Italian submarines would soon infest the waters of the Suda Bay,
the port of Alexandria and Suez Canal. In an attempt to curb German as well
as Italian expansion, Paris and London furnished Greece the same guarantee
given to Poland; any aggression on your nation will be met with all the military help possible. This statement forced Italy to look at the Axis alliance with Germany and try to incorporate it into a military pact. Mussolini was prepared to forge a military alliance with Germany and even to go to war with France. He felt his only need would be economic and material aid.
At this point in history, France was more likely to go into war with Italy
than with Germany. Setbacks occurred on the 12 March, 1939 in Franco-Italian
negotiations dealing with the Red Sea and Spain. Italian naval vessels in
the Mediterranean as well as military installations in occupied Libya put
a stanglehold on the French Mediterranean fleet. To make matters worse, Mussolini would taunt the French Ministry of Council, President Edouard Daladier, in front of his news reporters.
There were a few problems in concluding a military pact with Germany. First was the issue of Japan. Mussolini wanted Japan in this alliance, but Hitler distanced himself from having Japan involved. He felt that allowing Japan in this military alliance would pull the United States out of its isolationist stance and towards the allies. The second problem was the issue of the Nazi attack of Catholicism, in order for the people of Italy to feel comfortable with an Italo-German military alliance, they would have to soften their stance against the Catholic religion. This was accepted by German foreign minister Von Ribbentrop without question. The final issue was Conte Ciano's fear of an alliance with Germany. In his diaries, Conte Ciano writes about the dangers of a military alliance with Germany.
"(Ribbentrop) has in his head the idea of war...he wants war, his war. He doesn't have a precise direction to go, or atleast he doesn't mention it. He mentions no enemy or no objective But he wants a war in 3 or 4 years. I am being reserved, but I did make it clear to him that we have other problems to resolve and other concessions that may have to be made."
Conte Ciano admitted in his diaries that Mussolini was given an inflated
number of men in the army, and the amount of divisons were multiplied. The
artillery is old and the anti-aircraft and anti-tanks weaponry left much
to be desired. The Major General of Aviation declared that Italy had 3,006
available aircraft, but the Informational Services declared only 982 ready
aircraft...a gross exageration. It was a bluff to Mussolini, and a tragic
bluff. Needless to say, Mussolini was upset at the lack of preparedness of
the Italian Esercito (Army) and the Regia Aeronautica (Air Force).
Italian Foreign Minister Ciano with German Foreign
Minister Von Ribbentrop
Mussolini concluded that a period of peace was needed for Italy in order
to incorporate the following agendas.
A) Organize Libya and Albania and settle the unrest
in Ethiopia to the point of obtaining 500,000 army volunteers.
B) Complete construction and modernization of 6 Battleships
C) Modernize existing medium and large caliber artillery pieces.
D) Repatriate all Italians working in France for military and moral reasons.
E) Terminate the trasferrence, already in progress, of all wartime industries from the Po Valley to Meridial Italy.
F) Bring Germany and Italy closer together, not just in government, but also as a people. A existence between Church and Nazism.
Italy knew that war in Europe was inevitable, but Ciano convinced Mussolini not to hurry the timing. It was also possible that war between Japan and China may be over by the time these agendas are completed. If war with Germany and Poland would start before the 3-4 year time period, and if it was localized between those two countries, Italy would supply Germany with all the political and material aid it could muster. But if France and England should come to defend Poland, Italy would have to claim neutrality until its forces are prepared for a lengthy war.
Ribbentrop agreed to this new Italian policy and stated that Germany had no intentions of starting a war in 3-4 years. On May 21, 1939, Ciano flies to Berlin and the Pact of Steel is signed the next day.
Raeder, Ribbentrop, Ciano, Hitler and Goring after the signing of the Pact of Steel
In September of 1939, Germany invades Poland and Europe goes to war.
Sources:
World War II : 4,139 Strange and Fascinating Facts ,
Storia Controversa della Seconda Guerra Mondiale; Vol 1. Il Duce:
The rise and fall of Benito Mussolini by Richard B. Lyttle.
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