AHC: Mussolini's Mare Nostrum

How far could Mussolini's Fascist Italy go in his so called dream of Mare Nostrum, or the conquest of a Neo-Roman Empire along the shores of the Mediterranean? In conquests, and if you want longevity of the conquests.

Most likely in the areas of North Africa, the Middle East, Balkans and if possible the Western Med. POD can be from 1922.
 
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There are a whole bunch of “Axis Wins” TLs that cover more than I can in a post.

Neutral Italy that joins allies in 1943-44:

Italy gains a few bits of Austria.
Keeps Albania as protectorate.
Active policies to increase the Italian population in Libya.
Probably can’t keep East Africa.
Italy becomes the senior member of a Fascist block with Spain and Greece. NATO and Warsaw Pact grudgingly give them leeway to avoid the fascists supporting the other side.
Communists spark a 1950’s civil war in Yugoslavia. The country splinters with a few bits falling under Italy’s sphere of influence.
Rivalry with Egypt leads Italy to become the leading supporter of Israel.
Fascist block sends peacekeepers to Lebanon when it falls apart.
That’s about all I could think of without too much ASB.
 
Italy organises other Balkans countries to rip Yugoslavia to shreds (Bulgaria, Hungary etc), thus succeeding in all their traditional irredionist demands, while adding Montenegro to its protectorates. It therefore creates an allied Fascist Slovenia and Croatia under the Ustase, leaving a broken Serbia as the rump state. The Italians proceed to create a 'Little Axis' of Mediterranean countries (Spain, Portgual, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey) united by their common nationalist and authoritarian societies mixed with Anti-Communism. This completely shuts the Mediterranean down to the Soviets in the future.

Italy makes a deal in 1940 to purchase Tunisia but doesn't go to war, until it jumps on top of Germany in a gangpile. From there, they take Austria and proceed to add that to their Little Axis Union as a Fascist state. While never powerful enough to become the third bloc of the Cold War, it keeps a relatively friendly relationship with the West against the Soviets. Israel is closely associated with the bloc but doesn't join owing to its commitment to Democracy. Instead, Mussolini think Israel will be a great Colonial ally and proceeds to totally fund their war against the Arabs, leading to the wildest dreams of the Israelis coming true: the whole Trans-Jordan mandate falls into their hands. Of course, that turns out to be a curse since the land is so vulnerable to attack that it neccessitates close co-operation with Italy to survive. This sets off an apocalyptic reaction in the Arab World which is rendered inert by the overwhelming military might of the Fascist bloc with the tacit support of the West). Eventually, the Arab outrage takes on a particularly sectarian nature, leading to Lebanon to descend into bedlam, forcing intervention by the Fascist bloc again. Rather than simply restore order, they turn Lebanon into a Christian Israel to escape the waves of persecution the religion is receiving in the Middle East. This adds fuel to the fire, and Lebanon's imposed Fascist government proceeds to swamp the country with Christian refugees and encourages emigration of the native Muslims. Nasser tries to take on everyone but it fails, leading to Egypt's military obliteration and humbling, losing the Suez to Israel (there are more living Jews to immigrate in with less German occupations). Italy's creation of a Nuclear Weapon in the 1950s ensures their status as an international titan.

Lastly, Mussolini begins to massively encourage not only Italian but other European immigration to his colonies, particularly Tunisia and Libya, which receive hundreds of thousands of migrants, enough to make them majority Italian in the 1960s. Ethiopia was always going to be a disaster, but by playing divide and rule, Italy convinces Eritreans and Somalians to accept their rule to protect them from encroaching Ethiopian vengeance. Thus, with the exception of Ethiopia, Italy keeps her colonial Empire intact. With the Italian example, France probably keeps a few holdouts in Algeria, and Spain may keep the Western Sahara.

Eventually the 80s/90s hits and the Fascist bloc slowly disintegrates as democracy comes into vogue, but they keep a close connection for real-politik's sake.

Thus, Italy is an internationally respected, nuclear power with its own bloc in the Cold War, with almost total control over the Mediterranean between the Fascist powers and their friendly-democratic allies. It has huge amounts of Libyan and Somalian oil, a veto in the UN, a proactive foreign policy (in the Middle East especially) and has never been as powerful since the Roman Empire.

Whew, that's about as crazy as I can get. Pity for all the poor people who perished in the Colonial madness I described (although good for the Jews who weren't sent to the camps).
 
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Here is a map of your scenario

Dark Green: Italian Territory
Green: Italian Puppets
Light Green: Italian Sphere/Allies

Thank you so much!
Whew, that's about as crazy as I can get.
 
The only way Italy is getting Tunisia from the French is by military force.

Greece and Italy had competing interests and an active rivalry. Greece was a strong ally of Britain, so much so that Britain's famous guarantee to Poland, which led to ww2, was also issued to Greece as well. Just because both nations had fascistic governments doesn't mean they were, or could be, friends; at least not without other major changes.
 
View attachment 357374

Here is a map of your scenario

Dark Green: Italian Territory
Green: Italian Puppets
Light Green: Italian Sphere/Allies

Thank you so much!

Thanks, although I’d give Macedonia to Bulgaria. Also I think Hungary would declare war on the Soviets so they would probably not survive long enough to be in the Fascist bloc. It’s still a great map.
 
Thanks, although I’d give Macedonia to Bulgaria. Also I think Hungary would declare war on the Soviets so they would probably not survive long enough to be in the Fascist bloc. It’s still a great map.

I'll edit it now then.

themedsea.png


Fixed!


The only way Italy is getting Tunisia from the French is by military force.

Greece and Italy had competing interests and an active rivalry. Greece was a strong ally of Britain, so much so that Britain's famous guarantee to Poland, which led to ww2, was also issued to Greece as well. Just because both nations had fascistic governments doesn't mean they were, or could be, friends; at least not without other major changes.

That is true actually. Greece and Britain had been allies for a very long time, and its an understated bond in modern history between Greeks and Brits.
 
The only way Italy is getting Tunisia from the French is by military force.

Greece and Italy had competing interests and an active rivalry. Greece was a strong ally of Britain, so much so that Britain's famous guarantee to Poland, which led to ww2, was also issued to Greece as well. Just because both nations had fascistic governments doesn't mean they were, or could be, friends; at least not without other major changes.

Italy could buy Tunisia from Vichy France in return for more supplies to the Nazis. Obviously it’ll be a bit of a sore spot when the war is over but still...
 
Italy could buy Tunisia from Vichy France in return for more supplies to the Nazis. Obviously it’ll be a bit of a sore spot when the war is over but still...
for that, Vichy has to be willing to sell, which they were not...
 
Map is great.
As a concept all the different nations in a block is neat, but what scenario is required to make them stick together?
Bulgaria annexing Macedonia will create friction between with Greece
I recognize the Turkey was moving secular, but fascist support of an enlarged Israel and Christian Lebanon will make it hard to keep Turkey from aligning with NATO.
Could NATO bungling in Yugoslavia be enough to drive all those traditional rivals together?

Would love to see somebody develop this into a full TL.
 
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Map is great.
As a concept all the different nations in a block is neat, but what scenario is required to make them stick together?
Bulgaria annexing Greece will create friction between those two.
I recognize the Turkey was moving secular, but fascist support of an enlarged Israel and Christian Lebanon will make it hard to keep Turkey from aligning with NATO.
Could NATO bungling in Yugoslavia be enough to drive all those traditional rivals together?

Would love to see somebody develop this into a full TL.

Have NATO extremely strict about being democratic. This thus puts the Anti-Communist dictatorships into their own collective security unit to ward off Communist inseurrection. If Turkey is animated by Turkish nationalism as opposed to Islamism then it’s moves against the Arab World can be explained.
 
Agreed
Perhaps softening the red scare would create a NATO less tolerant of authoritarian regimes.
“He might be an evil SOB, but he’s OUR evil SOB.”

A WWII with things worse for the Soviets might do it.
Give them a smaller occupation zone in Germany and avoid Czechoslovakia going Communist. NATO might get bold enough to push for free elections in Poland, thus making them more focused on spreading democracy vs. containing Communism.
 
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