From the Memoir of Benito Mussolini, Published 1972
Why the War Started
The dream of Greater Italia was brought to fruition with a cascade of events in the late 1930s, particularly when we liberated Abyssinia for Greater Italia, and defeated that Pezzonovante Hitler. From my earliest recollection, I disliked the German state, and the Nazi Party. Their annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia only infuriated the Western Powers, as well as the Italian people. I had met with leaders from both sides of the conflict before the war. Hitler probably brought me years closer to my death, his Greater Germany dream a joke, compared to Greater Italia. Every attempt in German history to make a Greater Germany had utterly failed. The Holy Roman Empire, the German Empire, and now the Third Reich would go down in history as utter failures to unite the German speaking idea. Unlike the German Monarchs, however, Hitler as an antagonist, someone you can't like.
When I met with Chamberlain before the war, I warned him that Hitler would try to get Poland before the end of the decade. Only if he had heeded my warning, we could have stopped Hitler at Munich, before the deaths of millions of Italians, and millions of others.
It all started with Italy when we declared our neutrality immediately after the war started. France and Britain, as proud as they were to fight for the defense of Poland, were incapable of holding their ground. The Italian military was busy elsewhere, in Albania, and for preparations to expand into Yugoslavia and Greece. Poland fell within weeks, and the Soviet Union quickly entered the war in Poland, but the Western Allies, not wanting to gain another enemy, chose not to condemn Stalin.
When France fell, I was only in awe. The French however wanted to cause chaos, and handed over parts of Southern France, Corsica, and Tunisia to Italian control, rather than letting it fall to Hitler's hand. We accepted this offer, knowing that these lands would be better in Italian hands, than German hands. When Hitler's Axis spread to Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria, we decided to implement years of military training to invade Yugoslavia and Greece, rather than see the Germans on all of our frontiers.
In August of 1940, the Italian Empire invaded Yugoslavia, ending all German attempts to have her join the Axis. The following month, we invaded Greece, ending our campaigns by the end of the year with the Battle of Athens. We allowed the Greek Royal Family to remain for the sake of letting them briefly keep their national identity, but it saved Italy in the long run with the threat of the two nations falling to the Axis peacefully over. If Hitler wanted the Balkans, he would have to go through the might of the Italian Empire.