Editing Foreign relations of Italy (section)

===Fascism and World War II ===
{{see also|Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Italian Civil War}}
[[File:RegioniIrredenteItalia.jpg|thumb|left|Italian ethnic regions claimed in the 1930s by [[Italian irredentists]]:
* Green: [[Italian irredentism in Nice|Nice]], [[Italian irredentism in Switzerland|Ticino]] and [[Italian irredentism in Dalmatia|Dalmatia]]
* Red: [[Italian irredentism in Malta|Malta]]
* Violet: [[Italian irredentism in Corsica|Corsica]]
* [[Italian irredentism in Savoy|Savoy]] and [[Corfiot Italians#Corfiot Italians and the Risorgimento|Corfu]] were later claimed.]]

The [[National Fascist Party|Fascist]] government that came to power with [[Benito Mussolini]] in 1922 sought to increase the size of the Italian empire and to satisfy the claims of [[Italian irredentists]]. Italian Fascism is based upon [[Italian nationalism]] and imperialism, and in particular seeks to complete what it considers as the incomplete project of the [[unification of Italy]] by incorporating ''[[Italian irredentism|Italia Irredenta]]'' (unredeemed Italy) into the state of Italy.<ref name="autogenerated1922">Aristotle A. Kallis. ''Fascist ideology: territory and expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922–1945''. London, England, UK; New York City, USA: Routledge, 2000, pp. 41.</ref><ref name="autogenerated3">Terence Ball, Richard Bellamy. The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought. Pp. 133</ref> To the east of Italy, the Fascists claimed that [[Italian irredentism in Dalmatia|Dalmatia]] was a land of Italian culture whose Italians, including those of Italianized [[South Slavs|South Slavic]] descent, had been driven out of Dalmatia and into exile in Italy, and supported the return of Italians of Dalmatian heritage.<ref>Jozo Tomasevich. War and Revolution in Yugoslavia 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration. Stanford, California, USA: Stanford University Press, 2001. P. 131.</ref> Mussolini identified Dalmatia as having strong Italian cultural roots for centuries, similarly to [[Italian irredentism in Istria|Istria]], via the [[Roman Empire]] and the [[Republic of Venice]].<ref>Larry Wolff. Venice And the Slavs: The Discovery of Dalmatia in the Age of Enlightenment. Stanford, California, USA: Stanford University Press, P. 355.</ref> To the south of Italy, the Fascists claimed [[Italian irredentism in Malta|Malta]], which belonged to the United Kingdom, and [[Corfiot Italians#Corfiot Italians and the Risorgimento|Corfu]], which instead belonged to Greece; to the north claimed [[Italian irredentism in Switzerland|Italian Switzerland]], while to the west claimed [[Italian irredentism in Corsica|Corsica]], [[Italian irredentism in Nice|Nice]], and [[Italian irredentism in Savoy|Savoy]], which belonged to France.<ref>Aristotle A. Kallis. ''Fascist Ideology: Expansionism in Italy and Germany 1922–1945''. London, England; UK; New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 2000. P. 118.</ref><ref>''Mussolini Unleashed, 1939–1941: Politics and Strategy in Fascist Italy's Last War''. Cambridge, England, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986, 1999. P. 38.</ref> The Fascist regime produced literature on Corsica that presented evidence of the island's ''italianità''.<ref name="Davide Rodogno 2006. P. 88">[[Davide Rodogno]]. ''Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation during the Second World War''. Cambridge, England, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006. P. 88.</ref> The Fascist regime produced literature on Nice that justified that Nice was an Italian land based on historic, ethnic, and linguistic grounds.<ref name="Davide Rodogno 2006. P. 88" />
[[File:Italian Colonial Empire (orthographic projection).svg|thumb|Areas controlled by the [[Italian Empire]] during its existence{{Legend|#4a9447|Kingdom of Italy}}{{Legend|#CBFE75|Colonies of Italy}}
{{Legend|#666666|Protectorates and areas occupied during World War II}}]]

Mussolini promised to bring Italy back as a [[great power]] in Europe, building a "New [[Roman Empire]]"<ref>{{cite book|last=Stephen J. Lee|title=European Dictatorships, 1918–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u-mm5UDlzBEC&pg=PA157|year=2008|publisher=Routledge|pages=157–58|isbn=978-0-415-45484-1|access-date=2023-07-06|archive-date=2024-02-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240211001320/https://books.google.com/books?id=u-mm5UDlzBEC&pg=PA157#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> and holding power over the [[Mediterranean Sea]]. In [[Propaganda in Fascist Italy|propaganda]], Fascists used the ancient Roman motto "''[[Mare Nostrum]]''" ([[Latin]] for "Our Sea") to describe the Mediterranean. For this reason the Fascist regime engaged in [[interventionism (politics)|interventionist foreign policy]]. In 1923, the Greek island of [[Corfiot Italians#Corfiot Italians and the Risorgimento|Corfu]] was [[Corfu incident|briefly occupied by Italy]], after the assassination of [[Enrico Tellini|General Tellini]] in Greek territory. In 1925, Italy forced Albania to become a ''[[de facto]]'' [[protectorate]]. In 1935, Mussolini [[Second Italo-Abyssinian War|invaded Ethiopia]] and founded [[Italian East Africa]], resulting in an international alienation and leading to Italy's withdrawal from the [[League of Nations]]; Italy [[Pact of Steel|allied with Nazi Germany]] and the [[Tripartite Pact|Empire of Japan]] and strongly supported [[Francisco Franco]] in the [[Spanish Civil War]]. In 1939, Italy [[Italian invasion of Albania|formally annexed Albania]]. Italy entered World War II on 10 June 1940. The Italians initially advanced in [[Italian conquest of British Somaliland|British Somaliland]], [[Italian invasion of Egypt|Egypt]], the [[Balkan Campaign (World War II)|Balkans]] (establishing the [[Governorate of Dalmatia]] and [[Italian governorate of Montenegro|Montenegro]], the [[Province of Ljubljana]], and the puppet states [[Independent State of Croatia]] and [[Hellenic State (1941–1944)|Hellenic State]]), and eastern fronts. They were, however, subsequently defeated on the [[Italian participation on the Eastern Front|Eastern Front]] as well as in the [[East African campaign (World War II)|East African campaign]] and the [[North African campaign]], losing as a result their territories in Africa and in the Balkans.

An [[Allied invasion of Sicily]] began in July 1943, leading to the [[Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy|collapse of the Fascist regime and the fall of Mussolini]] on 25 July. In the north, the Germans set up the [[Italian Social Republic]] (RSI), a Nazi [[puppet state]] with Mussolini installed as leader after he was [[Gran Sasso raid|rescued]] by German paratroopers. Some Italian troops in the south were organised into the [[Italian Co-belligerent Army]], which fought alongside the Allies for the rest of the war, while other Italian troops, loyal to Mussolini and his RSI, continued to fight alongside the Germans in the [[National Republican Army]]. Also, the post-armistice period saw the rise of a large anti-fascist resistance movement, the ''[[Resistenza]]''.<ref name=Resistenza>G. Bianchi, ''La Resistenza'', in: AA.VV., ''Storia d'Italia'', vol. 8, pp. 368-369.</ref> As result, the country descended into [[Italian Civil War|civil war]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.istitutobiggini.it/storia_pisano.pdf |title=Storia della guerra civile in Italia |access-date=2023-07-06 |archive-date=2022-10-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221013183444/https://www.istitutobiggini.it/storia_pisano.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>See the books from Italian historian [[Giorgio Pisanò]] ''Storia della guerra civile in Italia'', 1943–1945, 3 voll., Milano, FPE, 1965 and the book ''L'Italia della guerra civile'' ("Italy of civil war"), published in 1983 by the Italian writer and journalist [[Indro Montanelli]] as the fifteen volume of the ''Storia d'Italia'' ("History of Italy") by the same author.</ref> the Italian resistance fought a [[guerrilla war]] against the [[Operation Achse|Nazi German occupiers]] and [[Italian Fascist]] forces,<ref name=Resistenza /> while clashes between the Fascist RSI Army and the Royalist Italian Co-Belligerent Army were rare.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pavone |first=Claudio |title=Una guerra civile. Saggio storico sulla moralità della Resistenza |location=Torino |publisher=Bollati Boringhieri |year=1991 |isbn= 88-339-0629-9 |language=it |page=238}}</ref> In late April 1945, with total defeat looming, Mussolini attempted to escape north,<ref>{{Citation |first=Marino |last=Viganò |title=Un'analisi accurata della presunta fuga in Svizzera |journal=Nuova Storia Contemporanea |volume=3 |year=2001 |language=it}}</ref> but was captured and [[Death of Benito Mussolini|summarily executed]] near [[Lake Como]] by Italian partisans. His body was then taken to [[Milan]], where it was hung upside down at a service station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/28/newsid_3564000/3564529.stm |title=1945: Italian partisans kill Mussolini |access-date=17 October 2011 |work=BBC News |date=28 April 1945 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111126075555/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/28/newsid_3564000/3564529.stm |archive-date=26 November 2011}}</ref> Hostilities ended on 29 April 1945, [[Surrender of Caserta|when the German forces in Italy surrendered]].