Mussolini Comes Into Power
After several liberal governments failed to rein in these threats, and the fascists had increased their public profile by highly visible punishment expeditions to supposedly crush the socialist threat, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy invited Benito Mussolini to form a government on October 29, 1922. The fascists maintained an armed paramilitary wing, which they employed to fight anarchists, communists, and socialists.
Within a few years, Mussolini had consolidated dictatorial power, and Italy became a police state. On January 7, 1935, he and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval signed the Franco–Italian Agreement giving him a free hand in the Abyssinia Crisis with Ethiopia, in return for an alliance against Hitler. There was little international protest. He then sent large Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, the two colonies of Italy that bordered Ethiopia.
Britain attempted to broker peace but failed; Mussolini was bent on conquest. Britain then declared an arms embargo on both Italy and Ethiopia. Britain also cleared its warships from the Mediterranean, further allowing Italy unhindered access. Shortly after the League of Nations exonerated both parties in the Walwal incident, Italy attacked Ethiopia, resulting in the Second Italo–Abyssinian War.
Shortly after Italy conquered Ethiopia, the Spanish Civil War began. During the Spanish Civil War, seen by many as a testing ground for the Second World War, he provided troops, weapons and other aid to Francisco Franco's nationalists.
On April 7, 1939, Italy invaded Albania. After a short campaign Albania was occupied and joined Italy in a personal union.
Read more about this topic: Events Preceding World War II In Europe
Famous quotes containing the words mussolini and/or power:
“I often think how much easier the world would have been to manage if Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini had been at Oxford.”
—Edward F. Wood, Viscount Halifax (1881–1959)
““Come unto me,” [Krokowski] was saying, though not in those words, “come unto me, all ye who are weary and heavy-laden”.... He spoke of secret suffering, of shame and sorrow, of the redeeming power of the analytic. He advocated the bringing of light into the unconscious mind.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)