Hitler and Mussolini are known for their involvement in causing the Second World War as the Axis Alliance. But if we look into the alliance of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany we see two leaders who were really not the best of friends. In fact the two leaders had times when they were ready to go to war with one another. Their alliance was full of intentional secrets like Italy’s invasion of Albania which was a response to Germany’s unannounced takeover of Prague. Nevertheless, the two nations remained allies throughout the late part of the 1930’s until both of their regimes would fall to the Allied powers in World War II. How did the relationship of these two dictators change from their first meeting in 1934 to the invasion of Poland in September
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By the 1930’s almost every nation in Africa was a colony of a European empire, with the British and the France controlling much of the continent. The one exception to this was the nation of Abyssinia which still remained independent. If Mussolini could get past interference from France, Britain, and the League of Nations, he could easily take Abyssinia by force. Getting past Britain and France was not a hard task for Mussolini. There was a long tradition of diplomatic agreement over the one remaining African state not under Western domination, a tradition entirely favorable to Italy . The only concern of the British was that the Blue Nile be allowed to flow freely from Lake Tana to the Sudan. The only concern of French Prime Minister Pierre Laval was that French interests in the railroad from Djibouti to Addis Ababa remain secure. In fact Prime Minister Laval was enthused by Italian action in Africa as it was “better the Italians occupied in Africa that stirring up commotion across the Adriatic …show more content…
Until the situation in Spain; Hitler and Mussolini were not that close of friends. With Mussolini coming to power a decade before Hitler, he had to work with other powers. Initially Mussolini favored France and Britain, the two nations Italy had fought side by side with during the First World War. Relations between Germany and Italy also remained cold because of the failure of the 1934 meetings of the two leaders. This would change though in late 1935 as it would be Hitler who encouraged Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia, not Britain or France. Not yet allies at this point, Hitler did offer Italy “benevolent neutrality, economic cooperation, words of assurance that he respected Austrian independence, and an agreement that attacks on each other in their controlled presses would cease” . This would bring the two leaders closer and would allow them to agree on things like stopping the spread of communism, especially in
By the 1930’s almost every nation in Africa was a colony of a European empire, with the British and the France controlling much of the continent. The one exception to this was the nation of Abyssinia which still remained independent. If Mussolini could get past interference from France, Britain, and the League of Nations, he could easily take Abyssinia by force. Getting past Britain and France was not a hard task for Mussolini. There was a long tradition of diplomatic agreement over the one remaining African state not under Western domination, a tradition entirely favorable to Italy . The only concern of the British was that the Blue Nile be allowed to flow freely from Lake Tana to the Sudan. The only concern of French Prime Minister Pierre Laval was that French interests in the railroad from Djibouti to Addis Ababa remain secure. In fact Prime Minister Laval was enthused by Italian action in Africa as it was “better the Italians occupied in Africa that stirring up commotion across the Adriatic …show more content…
Until the situation in Spain; Hitler and Mussolini were not that close of friends. With Mussolini coming to power a decade before Hitler, he had to work with other powers. Initially Mussolini favored France and Britain, the two nations Italy had fought side by side with during the First World War. Relations between Germany and Italy also remained cold because of the failure of the 1934 meetings of the two leaders. This would change though in late 1935 as it would be Hitler who encouraged Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia, not Britain or France. Not yet allies at this point, Hitler did offer Italy “benevolent neutrality, economic cooperation, words of assurance that he respected Austrian independence, and an agreement that attacks on each other in their controlled presses would cease” . This would bring the two leaders closer and would allow them to agree on things like stopping the spread of communism, especially in