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Britain and the Middle East in the 1930s pp 41–60Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Italy’s Mediterranean Strategy, 1935–39

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Part of the book series: Studies in Military and Strategic History ((SMSH))

Abstract

The men of the Risorgimento bequeathed to the Italian Kingdom dreams of ‘primacy’ and ‘mission’: ‘All Italians from 1860 to 1945 had their lives severely affected by the myth that Italy was a Great Power and therefore must needs behave as did other, Greater, Powers.’1 Alfredo Oriani, whom Mussolini regarded as the sole precursor of Fascism, translated Mazzini’s concept of ‘mission’ into the language of imperialism: ‘All our millennial struggles to found the nation, the blood of our heroism and the tragedies of our genius aimed but at this day, on which Italy had re-entered history as an immortal actress after her long confinement, and once more sails the seas, the bearer of a new civilisation.’2

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Notes

  1. R. J. Bosworth, Italy and the Approach of the First World War (London: Macmillan, 1983), p. 141.

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  25. For details see J. F. Coverdale, Italian Intervention in the Spanish Civil War (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975), pp. 37–54.

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  29. Italian Collection/St Antony’s College, Oxford/Segreteria particulare del Duce Hob 1/000039-46. For a detailed analysis of the speech cf. R. De Felice, Mussolini il duce. II: Lo Stato totalitario 1936–1940 (Turin: Einaudi, 1981), pp. 321–6.

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  30. For details see R. De Felice, Mussolini Valleato. I: L Italia in guerra 1940–1943 (Turin: Einaudi, 1990), pp. 198–276

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

    Meir Michaelis (Professor)

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  1. Meir Michaelis
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© 1992 Michael J. Cohen and Martin Kolinsky

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Michaelis, M. (1992). Italy’s Mediterranean Strategy, 1935–39. In: Britain and the Middle East in the 1930s. Studies in Military and Strategic History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11880-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11880-9_3

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-333-53514-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-11880-9

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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