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Italy joined the Allies by signing the Treaty of London on March 23rd, 1915. With this pact, Italy was obliged to betray its former alliances and join the Allies. The pact granted Italy a share of territories after the war. -
At the end of the war, Italy was amid a brewing political tension surrounded by riots, anarchy, endless strikes, aggression, and violence in any form. -
Benito Mussolini found the PNF (Partito Nazionale Fascista) as the political expression of Italian Fascism and as a reorganization of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. -
Mussolini marched his army to Rome, the capital city of Italy. -
Victor Emmanuel II, the king of Italy, named Benito Mussolini as the prime minister. Soon Mussolini was simply called Il Duce [Il Dooché] or the Leader. -
On November 22, 1927, there was signed in Tirana the Treaty of Defensive Alliance between Albania and Italy. -
In September 1928, Albania was proclaimed a monarchy and he acceded to the throne as Zog I, King of the Albanians. -
Seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. By 1937 Japan controlled large sections of China, and war crimes against the Chinese became commonplace.
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On November 22nd, 1934 an Ethiopian force of some 1000 men arrived at the fort at Wal Wal and demanded that the fort be handed over to them. The garrison commander refused. The risk of armed conflict seemed to die down when an Anglo-Ethiopian border commission arrived at the fort the following day. -
1935: Beginning of the Abyssinian Crisis
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1st May 1936: The defeat of Abyssinia (End of the Abyssinian Crisis) -
Pierre Laval, the French Foreign minister, had verbally promised Mussolini that France would not interfere with Italy’s actions in Abyssinia. Additional source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4323317. -
The Stresa Front was an agreement made in Stresa for three countries - Britain, France, and Italy - to establish a diplomatic front against Germany. French prime minister Pierre-Étienne Flandin (with Pierre Laval), British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald, and Italian prime minister Benito Mussolini were attending on April 14, 1935. -
An unofficial League of Nations ballot resulted in 10 million out of 11 million votes backing the use of economic sanctions in a case of Italian aggression. Source for date: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/thirties-britain/votes-peace/. -
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Hoare-Laval Pact was a secret plan to offer Benito Mussolini most of Ethiopia (then called Abyssinia) in return for a truce in the Italo-Ethiopian War. -
The Second London Naval Treaty was an international treaty signed in London. However, Italy did not participate. -
The Spanish Civil War was a civil war in Spain fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalists. Italy was deeply involved in Spain. Italy sent thousands of Italian troops and large quantities of weapons were sent in support of nationalist Franco's forces. Mussolini's hope was that France would become involved which did not happen.
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Rome-Berlin Axis was, Coalition formed in 1936 between Italy and Germany. An agreement formulated by Italy's foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano informally linking the two fascist countries was reached on October 25, 1936. -
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Without informing Germany, Italy sent an ultimatum to Zog and his government demonstrating that Italy wanted almost complete control over the country. -
Italy sent 30,000 soldiers to Durrës and other ports. -
All of Albania was occupied. Albania was annexed to Italy and Italy’s king was now King of the Albanians, as well as Emperor of Ethiopia.
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The Pact of Steel formally known as the Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy was a military and political alliance between Italy and Germany. -
The invasion of Poland was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. -
On June 10, 1940, after withholding formal allegiance to either side in the battle between Germany and the Allies, Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, declares war on France and Great Britain. -
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The assassination of Benito Mussolini by a communist revolutionary.