Alternate History Challenge: Mussolini in the Allied Powers:

How is it possible for Fascist Italy to wind up being one of the Allies in WWII? I mean it's not necessarily like Mussolini and Hitler had any love lost between them, Mussolini *was*, after all, the only man in pre-war Europe to successfully deter Hitler. Would having the Fascists in the Allies be more of a hindrance or a disaster?
 
Fall Gelb fails, or never goes ahead in the first place. France and BEF move east in the summer of 1941, when they reach the Weser Mussolini moves into Austria.

Whilst Mussolini probably preferred Hitler to the western democracies, he didn't really care as long as his allies were certain of victory.
 
Depends on when you want the POD to be. Once Fall Weiss starts, it's pretty much impossible, as Italy was tied too close to Germany economically by that point. Before that, I'd recommend having Britain not cutting off coal to Italy as a response to the Abyssinian invasion, which won't make Italy rely on German coal as much. Perhaps France and Britain can also cede small areas that Italy wanted like Malta and Djibouti, nothing as big as Tunisia, Corsica, or Egypt though.
 
It's the focus of my TL, Giovinezza.

https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=201358

Essentially, Musso mistrusts Hitler, and when a German nationalist kills the King of Italy in 1934, Mussolini starts to cozy up to powers like Britain and France. They let his invasion of Abyssinia go on, and eventually, a mini Cold War in Spain begins between the Germans and Italians (Musso supports the nationalists, Hitler supports the Republicans so that the Republic of Spain keeps Italy busy later on). World War II starts and Mussolini remains neutral under the French promises of recieving Djibouti, Tunisia, and Corsica. Upon the fall of France, France cedes several border regions to Italy as a buffer-zone.

In late 1942, Mussolini is planning to attack Germany through the Alps to take advantage of most of their troops being in Russia. Mussolini plans the invasion for early 1944, but is caught by surprise when the Germans suddenly attack in late 1942. World War II continues from there.
 

yourworstnightmare

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Avoid the Abyssinian war. Mussolini don't get that sweet taste of conquest, and doesn't start to believe in his own rhetoric. It would also prevent the collapse of the Laval government in France, and a continuation of the Stresa front. Next: avoid the Spanish Civil War, and Mussolini will not fall in love with Hitler, and still consider Hitler some obscure Communist. And the result is a Mussolini in the Allied camp. This will lead to butterflies of course. WW2 could very well start over Austria if Mussolini tries to block an Anschluss as he did in '34.
 
Funny thing. I'm just now writing a paper about the twist in Italy's foreign policy in 1935. In the 20's Italy's foreign policy was quite calm, even pro-western, to a degree. But from 1935 onwards, Italy got extremely aggressive and expansionist. One theory on why this might be is that Benny's internal power grew stronger and stronger, until he had absolute control over everything inside of Italy. Thus, he turned to increase his power outwards, on the global stage. France and the UK wouldn't let him upset the world's balance of power, so he turned to Germany, instead. I don't suppose you can just prevent a fascist from seeking more power, but if for whatever reason the British and French would be more than willing to let Italy rule the Mediterranean and oppress whoever the hell they want, and Italy would keep worrying about an Anschluss, than Mussolini might get really pissed if Germany does annex Austria and try to drag the whole of Europe into a war against it. Mussolini was very flexible, really, and could change policies and official position without any delays. He wouldn't mind fighting fellow fascists if it meant Italy would have its interests in Austria fulfilled.

Also another theory is that Italy's liberal values and institutions were gradually replaced by authoritarian values and institutions, until it was completely fascist and thus was ready for an aggressive, non-relenting foreign policy. I don't really know what to say about that, but I suppose grinding Italy's pre-WWI liberalism into totalitarianism is inevitable under Mussolini.
 
Mussolini take immediately the deal about the division of Abyssinia, no embargo, no reason to rely on Germany about resource and Benny take a little personal blow to his prestige and his position a little more shaky at least before the king.
When the decision will come to go to war, he will probably be obliged to follow the court and the gerarchi suggestion to remain neutral (at least for now) because the impreparation of the armed forces; by the time he can muster enough support for the declaration of war things will not seem so easy so as the usual opportunist he will wait for the right time to get the best deal.
When Germany will face her doom Italy will declare war trying to get more land possible in the balkans and block any soviets aspirations in Austria or Greece.
 
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