What were the causes and consequences of Italy's involvement in the Spanish Civil War?

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What were the causes and consequences of Italy’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War?

For all countries involved and those who abstained from the Spanish Civil War it was expected to be a memorable war that divided the European nations. All of the major nations took a stand point whether it was to support the right like Germany or Italy, or the left like Russia or a preference towards the left like France, or even if it was of non-intervention like Great Britain they all took a stand. It was clear from the start that to have any chance of winning both the rebels and the republicans would need international help, it was the rebels who were the first to need help as the republicans controlled the navy and many of the rebels were stuck in Morocco with no route to get home unless foreign aid came to the rescue. This foreign aid eventually came in the form of Italy and Germany.

        Italy’s relationships with the other countries provided them with a reason to become involved in the SCW; in particular it was Mussolini’s need to show Europe that he was a power to be feared. Much of this was in retaliation to the League of Nations intervention in the invasion of Abyssinia, especially Britain and France. This was retaliation by Italy aimed at Britain as Britain was adamant that there should be no foreign intervention in the Spanish Civil War as this was essentially a Spanish matter. By not adhering to Britain’s views showed Britain that Italy did not fear them an example of this is they signed the non-intervention pact and proceeded to break it soon after. It was retaliation towards France as they had recently elected a popular front Government, to which fascist Italy was opposed, into power and despite signing a non-intervention pact with Britain, France showed open, mainly passive support, for the Republicans in Spain so by supporting the rebels showed France that they were not afraid to oppose their views as they were a strong country.

Italy’s fear of communism is innately involved in their reasoning of wanting to become involved in the SCW, Italy knew Russia would become involved in the war on the side of the republicans, Italy feared that if the republicans won it could become a communist outlet for Russia, this was especially terrifying as Spain bordered with France who was already showing minor communist tendencies, Italy feared if Spain became communist then there was a much more significant chance that France to would become communist, which would mean that Europe would begin to be surrounded by Communist countries. By becoming involved in the SCW Italy could go some way to ensuring that Spain would not become communist. As Germany was already showing signs of wanting to become involved and this would also decrease the chances of Spain becoming a communist outlet for Russia as between them they could provide much more military aid to the rebels than Russia could to the republicans.

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Italy’s relationship with Germany was interpreted differently from each side, the Italians saw Germany as a country to impress and the Spanish Civil War was a significant opportunity to do this and show themselves as an ‘iron military strength.’1 Germany on the other hand saw Italy as an ally against Communism and was prepared to manipulate their ally in order to ensure that Germany succeeded in its foreign aims. This can be seen in Italy’s lack of action over the annexation of Austria in 1938 which was carried out suddenly despite promises from Hitler that they would be warned in ...

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