Mussolini's foreign policy.

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Mussolini’s foreign policy.

Foreign and military policy were the key activities of the Fascist state. Martin Clarke.

Such was Mussolini’s belief in the importance of foreign policy that apart form a brief period from 1922 to 1936 he acted as his own Foreign Minister and thereafter retained control his son-in-law Count Galeazzo Ciano. Mussolini’s style abroad, as at home, was that of the bully rather than the negotiator and here too he firmly believed that in politics it was more advantageous to be feared rather than liked. In foreign policy he challenged other countries one after the other to create the impression of being a difficult person who had to be bought off with victories of prestige. Running about biting everybody was how the South African leader, Smuts, described him at the end of 1923. While he told foreigners that his policy was one of peace a co-operation, at the same time he told Italians that his aim was national grandeur.

During its first year of rule, Fascism gave the world the opportunity to judge its ideas on world policy, not only by official declarations but by actual proof. On the 27th of August 1923 an opportunity fell to Mussolini to show that Italian foreign policy was powerful and dynamic. An Italian general and four members of his staff were shot while working on frontier arrangements between Greece and Albania for the League of Nations. Two days after the murders, the Italian government presented an ultimatum to the Greek government which demanded an official apology and the payment of an indemnity of 50 million lire within five days. When the Greeks refused Mussolini ordered a naval bombardment and occupation of the island of Corfu. The Greeks appealed to the League who with the help of the Council of Ambassadors succeeded in finding a solution. Italy received an apology and the 50 million lire in compensation. The Corfu incident appeared to suggest that aggression did pay and was seen as a triumph by Italian nationalists.

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Only weeks after the Corfu incident, Mussolini sent a military officer to govern the city of Fiume, which he claimed was falling into anarchy. Mussolini managed to secure an agreement with Yugoslavia in January 1924 in the Pact of Rome in which Fiume was annexed to the Italian state. However, as the city was cut off from its surrounding countryside it did not develop its potential and proved to be a financial drain. Yet it did prove that Mussolini could use the traditional methods of diplomacy when it was necessary. In the 1920s Mussolini also showed himself anxious to ...

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This is a knowledgeable and well written account that provides lots of information but lacks analytical points to directly address the question. The chronological structure does not make it easy for the author to evaluate the importance of events. 3 out of 5 stars.