Mussolini's Early Diplomacy

Description

In October 1922 Mussolini became the constitutional head of the Italian government; by late 1926 he had imposed a Fascist dictatorship on Italy. Professor Cassels, who argues that Mussolini's policies in the 1930s, the era of the Rome- Berlin axis, were foreshadowed by those of the 1920s, traces the stages by which Mussolini took control of Italy's foreign relations. Within the period 1922-1927, Mussolini, biased against democratic states, moved away from Italy's wartime alliance with Britain and France to a policy in favor of authoritarian force. France became the moral rival; and the Anglo-Italian entente, calculated to insure British good will, soon cooled as Mussolini sought to realize an Italian empire in the Mediterranean basin. Italy's career diplomats, who at first had tried to restrain Mussolini's adventurism, by 1927 were totally in the background. Mussolini emerges, therefore, as a more radical and far less conventional Italian statesman than he is usually depicted in other historical studies. Originally published in 1970. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905. Contents Preface Abbreviations Introduction: The Reception of Fascism 1. The Lausanne Conference 2. Reparations 3. Italian Irredentism on a Leash 4· The League of Nations and Corfu 5· The Acquisition of Fiume 6. Mussolini and German Nationalism 7. Eastern Europe 8. Fascism Outside Italy: The United States and France 9. The Western Mediterranean, France, and Spain 10. Colonial Aspirations 11. The Matteotti Affair 12. Grandi and Contarini 13. Settlement of War Debts 14. Locarno and the Alto Adige 15. The Anglo-Italian Colonial Entente 16. Decisions in the Balkans 17. Revisionism on the Danube 18. Mussolini's Quarrel with France 19. Ideology and Foreign Policy 20. The Napoleonic Year, and Stocktaking Bibliographical Note Index