Mussolini's Foreign Policy
Mussolini considered foreign policy to be so important that he acted as his own Foreign Minister. After 1936 he gave it to his son in law Count Ciano. Through him, Mussolini still retained control. His foreign policy was expansionist and was also used to sort out domestic problems. Frequently he sought to distract attention from internal problems while at the same time trying to impress Italians with success abroad. Mussolini tended to be the aggressor rather than the conciliator, believing it was better to be feared than liked. The main areas of planned Fascist expansion were to be the Balkans, North Africa and the Mediterranean was to become an Italian lake. His methods to win power and glory for Italy were erratic and inconsistent.
His first military involvement was in Corfu. In 1923, 5 Italian officers were shot by Greeks while drawing up a border between Greece and Albania. Mussolini used this as an excuse to attack and occupy Corfu. The League of Nations ordered Mussolini to evacuate but the Greeks were forced to pay 50 million lira. This showed that aggression did pay. Only weeks after the Corfu incident, Mussolini sent a military officer to govern the city of Fiume, which he claimed was falling into anarchy. He made an agreement with Yugoslavia and Fiume was finally annexed to Italy. Yet another triumph for Italy. Libya was an Italian colony where Mussolini ordered a ‘hard-hitting’ policy. Free speech and other liberties were withdrawn and in 1926 Mussolini made a visit with 2 battleships and 15 naval vessels. There followed a protracted and expensive war that ended uneasily in 1932.