Caroline RothsteinVerified account

For example, in 1923, Mussolini bombarded the small Greek island of Corfu claiming it was compensation for Italians that had been killed mapping the Albanian border. Perhaps more damage was caused when in 1935, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia,

bearing the ideas for expansion and prestige through conquest and colonization in mind. It claimed to be revenge for the Italian defeat in Adowa in 1896, in a hope to currently link the Italian colonies of Eritrea and Somalia.

War in Africa distracted Italy from her own domestic dilemmas. By June 1936, the conquest was complete and Mussolini enthroned Victor Emmanuel as the new emperor. The Ethiopian War gave the illusion that Italy was more powerful under the control of Mussolini.

Mussolini also involved his troops in the Spanish Civil War. However, the ultimate impact that his foreign policy had on Italy was minimal and can only be seen as negative as it would ultimately drive Italy into World War II.

It was the treaty signed with Germany in 1936 and Italy’s entering the war on Germany’s side in 1940 that would destroy Italy and seal Mussolini’s negative impact on the country. Italy was defeated in the war as Allied forces invaded Italy from the south.

Italian forces were left inadequate from both the Ethiopian War and the Italian involvement in the Spanish Civil War. Finally, Victor Emmanuel called for Mussolini to resign in 1943.

After living in northern Italy until the war’s end in a “Fascist Republic” that he had created on German occupied lands, Mussolini was killed trying to escape in 1945 and his corpse was set on display in the center of Milan.

Mussolini had neither a specific nor adequate plan in his attempt to create a Fascist Italy. His impact on the country may be seen as remotely positive and slightly effective in that he established a positive relation between church and state.