Italy+1930-1940

Allie Slattery Madelyn Warner Kevin Gilbert Story American History II 9 January 2013



__Timeline__ 1931-Professors were required to swear oath to fascism 1935-Italy invaded Ethiopia 1936-Mussolini sent troops to fight with Francisco Franco -Italian colonies in Africa were introduced to the apartheid legislation 1938-Mussolini declared Jews, African Americans and Arabs did not belong 1939-Alliance between Italy and Germany was made 1940-Italy declared war on France



The Italian leader during the 1930s and World War II was Benito Mussolini. Mussolini was a dictator who wanted a fascist government. His goals as leader of Italy were to create a New Italy. He wanted to reconstruct Italy to be a fascist nation.He encouraged people to get married and have large families to increase population. Mussolini was in support of businesses; government would mainly stay out of business matters but when they were called to get involved in most cases they would side with the business rather than the employee.Mussolini ran a very strict country. He censored the press, had a very high alert military and organized fascist youth groups. Mussolini was cautious of the perception of Italy so when the Catholic church started to disagree with what was going on in Italy, Mussolini made a treaty called the Lateran Treaty of 1929 to make amends with church in hope for their support of his fascist changes ( "Benito Mussolini." People ;"Italy.")

Italy’s intentions during the 1930’s had great contributions in WWII. Italy’s strong foreign policy had them frequently involved in foreign affairs. Mussolini and his loyalty to fascism, as well as his alliance with the Nazis played a major role in this. In 1935 Italy invades Ethiopia. This was Italy's first involvement in the War. A few years later, in 1939, Italy and the Nazis made an alliance. This had a major impact in Italy. Italy scientists began to believe in benefits of the Aryan race. Jews living in Italy were now deprived of their rights and livelihood, and some even had their lives taken away. Professors in schools were forced to swear oaths of alliances to Fascism, influencing the younger generations of Italians. From this point on, Italy had ties with the Nazis and were constantly involved in Nazi affairs ("Italy").

The United States of America played a very limited role in Italy during the era. The United States foreign policy took the economic situation of the country into consideration. Due to this, their foreign policy was considered to be in a state of Isolation, in which “ a state’s deliberate policy of extensive withdrawal and seclusion from some forms of interaction in the international system” (Isolationism). During the decade, the USA was not playing any significant roles in Europe due to the economic issues back home.

In Italy during the war period of 1930-1940, many significant events took place. To redeem themselves from defeat in the nineteenth century, Italy invaded Ethiopia and its holdings in East Africa. This conquest was a huge moment for Benito Mussolini, but others argue that this act was the first fall towards the disaster of World War II. In the following year, Mussolini sent his troops to help fight with Spain and Francisco Franco("Italy"). This is pivotal because it helped the rebel position, siding with the fascists. Also the alliances were extremely important for viewing Italy’s position in WWII. In 1939 the alliance between Italy and Germany was finalized, which is the start of the creation of the Axis Powers("Italy"). On June 10, 1940 Italy declared war on France to help out their ally Germany(Harrison). Italy’s alliances were solely Germany and Japan, so there was no direct connection with Great Britain or the United States at that time period. The U.S remained neutral for most of the war( Eysturlid) .





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