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Fascist Foreign Policy - Lecture Notes - Lecture notes, lectures 7 - 11
Module: European Fascisms (V12282)
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University: University of Nottingham
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Fascist Foreign Policy
Fascist and Nazi Foreign Policy – Some basic questions
•What were the goals of Fascist and Nazi foreign policy?
•What methods did they use to achieve their goals?
•To what extent was foreign policy in both countries motivated by ideology?
•Did the Fascist and/or Nazi regimes seek to ‘export fascism’, create a ‘fascist international’?
ITALIAN FASCIST FOREIGN POLICY
Mussolini quotes suggest a fetishism of war – aim of regime
The ‘decade of good behaviour’ (1922-1935)
•Domestic consolidation, not foreign adventurism, was the priority when Mussolini took power.
•1924: Secured Fiume through negotiation with Yugoslavia.
•1925: Locarno Treaties saw Italy become joint guarantor with Britain of the Franco-German border.
•1928: Italy signs the Kellogg-Briand Pact renouncing the use of war.
•At the same time: covertly Mussolini offered support for right-wing and revisionist groups
throughout Europe and sought to extend Italy’s influence. For instance: supporting Croatian fascists
who challenged the Yugoslav state, murdered King Alexander 1934; or funding Italian fascist groups
abroad
TOWARDS A FASCIST INTERNATIONAL? The Montreux conference (1934)
•Comitati d'Azione per l'Universalità di Roma (CAUR) established in 1933 to act as a network for a
‘Fascist International’ analogous to the Comintern.
•Identified ‘fascist’ movements in 39 countries throughout the world (including in every country in
Europe except Yugoslavia).
•A ‘fascist world conference’ held on 16 December 1934 in Montreux with participants from 13
European countries (including Romania, Norway, Greece, Ireland and Spain) but representatives of
Nazi Germany and the BUF were notable by their absence.
•Clashes over the relationship between National Socialist and Fascist ideologies, and the importance
of race and anti-Semitism – e.g. Codreanu insistent that anti-Semitism be defined as key component
of ‘universal fascism’
•Follow-up meetings in April 1935 unable to overcome these differences.
•CAUR unable to come up with an agreed definition of what constituted a ‘fascist’ movement or
bridge the gap between those who advocated national unity through corporatism and those who
insisted on the centrality of race.
•Bilateral exchanges, visits, delegations between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, and between both
Fascist and Nazi regimes and fascist movements in other countries, continue to suggest existence of
a ‘fascist international’ – with further initiatives during Second World War
•Attempt to put Italy at the forefront of world politics
The invasion of Ethiopia
•With opportunities for expansion in Europe limited, Mussolini’s ambitions turned towards Africa.
•1923-8: Consolidation of Libya and Somalia through brutal means including concentration camps
and poison gas.
•Military build-up in Eritrea and Italian Somaliland throughout 1935.
