"Mussolini's foreign policy was completely successful in the years 1922-35" - How far do you agree?

Alternatively, despite the foreign polices not achieving complete success there is some accomplishment to be gained from them. Specifically, in expanding influence into south eastern Europe which focused on the aim of maintaining control as well as Mussolini’s key goal of gaining a greater influence in Europe. Through backing King Zog’s I accession to president in January 1925 and self-proclamation in 1928 Italy became protected by Albania. This meant Italy was gaining support along with significance amongst the European nation. Furthermore, the success of this policy was heightened when Mussolini undermined Yugoslavia and supported nationalist and Croatian movements that aimed to sperate themselves from the Yugoslav state and later assassinated the Yugoslav king Alexander with financing from the Italian fascists. Because of this policy, through interference in the Yugoslav state, it extended Italy’s influence in southern eastern Europe and aided the foreign policies success. However, like the rest of the foreign policy it wasn’t completely successful as Italy didn’t gain any influence with great powers but with the lower positioned nations; also, theoretically it was beneficial but practically it wasn’t as in no way did Italy expand their empire or acquire new land but instead gave funds to Croatian terrorists with no gain in material.

Critically, it is clear to see that although the foreign polices had some successful aspects its failure outweighed it largely as Mussolini’s actions for foreign policy were typically opportunistic for himself instead of Italy and typically had consequences for Italy. For example, the pacification of Libya between 1929-32. Due to the Libyan rebellion in Italy’s colony Mussolini decided to continue the liberal government’s war through a brutal means such as the use of poisonous gas, use of concentration camps and starvation this continued until 1932 and caused 40,000 people to die just in/while being transported to Italian concentration camps. This was, believed to be, a success for Italy as they had overcome a rebellion and maintained control however it achieved one goal, but it failed to be a military success as it took a long period for them to overcome this, exposing Italy’s lack of strength and force to overcome this rebellion efficiently. Additionally, this continuation of control was at a large expense of Libyan lives but also Italy’s forces and resources as they were using aircraft, motor transport all to maintain control. Therefore, this policy was unsuccessful as it achieved “success” but at the consequence of Libyan and Italian soldier lives along with resources that could have been used to claim newer land or to help occupy the Mediterranean Sea from Britain.

Overall, it is clear that Mussolini’s foreign policy failed to be completely successful between 1922-35. It is accurate that many of his polices were successful for Mussolini domestically and achieved a certain level of success. The expansion in south eastern Europe affairs was successful but wasn’t aimed at expanding the empire or acquiring new lands or territories which it had the potential to achieve. Given Mussolini’s strong use of policies as propaganda it is hard to judge whether Mussolini’s policies were in fact intended to be a success to benefit himself rather than Italy. However, when he tried to meet his foreign aims through his policies it didn’t bring a material gain for Italy therefore not a large success for Italy. Despite being unsuccessful for Italy they were successful for Mussolini as it increased his popularity within Italy and acknowledged him as a dynamic ruler. To conclude Mussolini’s foreign policy wasn’t completely successful as it lacked any beneficial impact on Italy but was partly successful in helping Mussolini secure his dictatorship by increasing his popularity and cementing his power in Italy.