STRIKE AT AFRICA

Mussolini envisaged building an empire to rival Ancient Rome. Once he’d established his grip on Italy, he set his sights on Abyssinia as the place to begin

‘Fascism repudiates the doctrine of Pacifism. War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the people who have the courage to meet it. The Fascist conceives of life as duty and struggle and conquest.’

By the time Benito Mussolini wrote these words in 1932, he had been in power for less than a decade. In that short time, however, he’d both expanded Italy’s armed forces and established a cult of militarism at the heart of national life.

When the self-styled Duce first grabbed power in 1922, Italy was in turmoil. It may have ended up on the winning side during the First World War, but the conflict had almost broken the country. Its society was deeply polarised and its economy was in free fall. By pumping up the military, Mussolini hoped to reduce unemployment and boost national pride. In the short term, it would help him crush opponents of his regime at home and enforce a greater sense of unity. In the longer term, his aim was to use it to transform Italy into a colonial superpower to rival the Roman Empire over which he’d preside as its black-shirted Caesar.