Germany doesn't go for Danzig,Can Italy invade Yugoslavia without starting a European-wide war

Say Hitler dies after occupying the rest of Czechoslovakia or decides to hold off on demanding Danzig or whatever.

Could Italy invade Yugoslavia during the early 1940s without causing Britain and France to the enter the war.
 
short answer Italy will not go to war.

this is more interesting thinking what's going on in Germany
Himmler%2C_Heinrich_and_Goering%2C_Hermann.jpg

one of these guys will take over

Joseph gurgles and Rudolf Hess don't have a chance

but for your scenario I am assuming Heinrich Himmler supporting Hermann Goring exchange for basically a blank check with the SS. Goring will probably demand Danzig but not declare war when Poland says no He won't feel like he's politically stable enough to go to war and probably drag his feet all the way to 1944 and by that point I have no idea
 
Say Hitler dies after occupying the rest of Czechoslovakia or decides to hold off on demanding Danzig or whatever.

Could Italy invade Yugoslavia during the early 1940s without causing Britain and France to the enter the war.

that kind of war is likely to stalmate quickly at land considering the terrain and the armies involved; so maybe there are pressures from france, uk.....but not direct involvement or any dow from the begining, particularly if the casus belli is some dispute regarding the adriatic frontier.

at sea the reggia marina would try to blockade yugoslavia, I do not know if that would be totally allowed by france and the uk - if they intervened in the crisis, they woul start there probaby.
 
Given Bulgarian and Hungarian involvement is likely, Would there still be a stalemate ?
You can even get the Germans into the fray due to claims on Slovenia. Yugoslavia can maybe fight Italy on somewhat equal grounds due to geography, but not when distracted with other fronts.
 
Given Bulgarian and Hungarian involvement is likely, Would there still be a stalemate ?

it depends on the casus belli. if it is a exclusive italian affair, forced by mussolini for certain reason, internal politics, raise people with fiume etc i think no one would jump in from the begining, neither hungary nor bulgaria (because also romania and greece are there). Too risky for everyone because the league of nations is still around and there would be the recent case of sudetenland, where the powers of Europe have reached and agreement (in this TL). the whole thing is likely to finnish in a negotiated table.

I find diificult a preventive alliance between italy and other powers to launch a coordinated attack to yugoslavia with everything going unnoticed for the rest of the world, unless something strange is already happening inside yugoslavia (civil war, the croats trying to split...in that case it would be more likely, but from the tl i understand this is an italian thing)
 
Say Hitler dies after occupying the rest of Czechoslovakia or decides to hold off on demanding Danzig or whatever.

Could Italy invade Yugoslavia during the early 1940s without causing Britain and France to the enter the war.

Yes. Yugoslavia wasn't an ally of either. The little Entente was defunct. Romania wouldn't help Yugoslavia, while Hungary would probably jump in, and Germany and Bulgaria, with regard to their respective border regions, might behave like Poland with regard to Cieszyn.
France and Britain would enact worse sanctions than in the Ethiopian case, virtually severing the link with that Italian colony, and reducing the Italian economy to shambles. But they wouldn't go to war, especially not with Germany on the back burner.

There are two problems, though:

1. Mussolini's main strategy was opportunism. If Germany has gone non-aggressive and there isn't another war going on, he's very unlikely to attack Yugoslavia.

2. Italy can attack Yugoslavia from two directions (including Albania) and from the sea, but even so it's rough going as to the terrain and it's where the Yugoslavians are waiting. This makes the probable and possible help from other directions, mentioned above, more important. Another very useful contributing factor would be a Croatian insurrection, which would also contribute in terms of a casus belli, and would disrupt the Yugoslavian situation, mobilization and resupply. Without either those other powers helping, or (preferably and) upheaval in Zagreb, the Italian offensives might well peter out after limited advances on both fronts.
 
Could Italy try to intimidate Yugoslavia into giving Italy a Hong-Kong style 99 year lease on islands or coastal areas like Ragusa/Dubrovnik? Some kind of population transfer that sees the Slavs moved out of Istria into Yugoslavia proper could also be advantageous for Italy in the long run.
 
Could Italy try to intimidate Yugoslavia into giving Italy a Hong-Kong style 99 year lease on islands or coastal areas like Ragusa/Dubrovnik? Some kind of population transfer that sees the Slavs moved out of Istria into Yugoslavia proper could also be advantageous for Italy in the long run.

That sounds exotic for the 30-40's europe.I think the likely scenarios are as described above, a italian opportunity attack to get minor corrections on the border, or a multicountry attack precluded by internal turmoil in yugoslavia...in that last case outright annexations are the eventual outcome, without any future claim, as frontiers of yugoslavia where still quite fresh. For that same reasons i do not think any forced expelling would be attempeted - just assimilation.
 
That sounds exotic for the 30-40's europe.I think the likely scenarios are as described above, a italian opportunity attack to get minor corrections on the border, or a multicountry attack precluded by internal turmoil in yugoslavia...in that last case outright annexations are the eventual outcome, without any future claim, as frontiers of yugoslavia where still quite fresh. For that same reasons i do not think any forced expelling would be attempeted - just assimilation.
Would Stalinist-style internal exile be more plausible? Assimilation would be faster if the Istrian Slavic communities were dissolved in a sea of Italian-speakers, either by resettlement throughout the Italian peninsula or spread among the various Italian colonies?
 
Would Stalinist-style internal exile be more plausible? Assimilation would be faster if the Istrian Slavic communities were dissolved in a sea of Italian-speakers, either by resettlement throughout the Italian peninsula or spread among the various Italian colonies?

South tyrol style, I guess. promote italian emigration to the zone, forced italianization...at least in frontier parts of slovenia and dalmatia with some link with italian past. but i do not see population expellings likely.
 
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