Abstract
Galeazzo Ciano’s first task upon assuming control of fascist foreign affairs was to consolidate the burgeoning Italian friendship with Berlin. During the course of his initial encounter with Ulrich von Hassell he stressed his ‘friendly inclination’ towards Germany, and indicated that rumours of Rome’s supposed backing for a restoration of the Hapsburg dynasty in Austria were just that, rumours. Such gossip, he warned, amounted merely to ‘attempts to upset the German-Italian rapprochement which our opponents felt to be a danger’. Once the League had lifted sanctions, Ciano added, it would be most useful for Italy if the German government were officially to recognise Italian sovereignty over Ethiopia, when the moment was right to do so.1
We want to renew The great Empire of Rome Marching on the path Which the Duce has shown us
(fascist marching song, Abyssinia campaign, 1935–36)
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Notes
DGFP, C, V, 381; ‘Conversation with the German Ambassador’, 18/6/1936, Ciano, Diplomatic Papers (Odhams Press: London, 1948), pp. 5–6.
DDI, 8, IV, 766; for the British dimension of Egypt’s defence see Steven Morewood, ‘Appeasement from Strength: The Making of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of Friendship and Alliance’, Diplomacy and Statecraft, 7, 3 (1996), pp. 530–62.
Luccardi to SIM, 20/7/1936, in A. Rovighi and F. Stefani, La partecipazione italiana alla Guerra Civile spagnola, 4 vols. Tomo 1, Documenti e Allegati (hereafter USSME, La partecipazione, Documenti) (USSME, Rome, 1992), p. 22.
L. Bolin, Spain: The Vital Years (Lipincott, Philadelphia, 1967), p. 168.
Luccardi to SIM, 22/7/1936; USSME, La partecipazione, vol. 1, Documenti. E. Canevari, La guerra italiana: Retroscena della disfatta, Vol. I (Tosi, Rome, 1948), pp. 462–3.
De. Felice, Lo stato totalitario, p. 365; J. F. Coverdale, Italian Intervention in the Spanish Civil War (Princeton University Press, 1975), pp. 72–4.
P. Preston, ‘Mussolini’s Spanish Adventure: From Limited Risk to War’, in P. Preston and A. Mackenzie (eds.), The Republic Besieged Civil War in Spain, 1936–1939 (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1996), pp. 36–42; a more recent analysis does not discuss the minutiae of Mussolini’s decision to intervene, prefering to focus more on the role ofHitler. See
W. C. Frank Jr., ‘The Spanish Civil War and the Coming of the Second World War’, in P. Finney (ed.), The Origins of the Second World War (Arnold, London and New York, 1997), pp. 381–99.
G. Bottai, Diario 1935–1944 (Rizzoli, Milan, 1994) 31/10/1936.
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© 2003 Robert Mallett
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Mallett, R. (2003). A Brutal Friendship. In: Mussolini and the Origins of the Second World War, 1933–1940. The Making of the 20th Century. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4039-3774-2_6
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