WI: Increased Italian Aggression in the 20s and 30s?

What if Fascist Italy had been much more aggressive and expansionist in the 20s and 30s? Could this see her going to war with countries such as Albania, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, Turkey and/or Greece? If so, what would this look like? What effects would this have on Italy and the world around her?
 
Basically, to be aggressive, you also need to be confident you can pull this off - both diplomatically and militarily.

Neither really applies to Fascist Italy, despite powerful declarations; the closest would be an escalation of the Corfù Crisis, or a similar incident where Mussolini can go disproportionate retribution as he's not formally the aggressor.
 
If Italy tried this it gets smacked down hard and early . However, even a strutting buffoon like Mussolini knew this which is why he didn't do so.
 
If Italy tried this it gets smacked down hard and early . However, even a strutting buffoon like Mussolini knew this which is why he didn't do so.

By Who?
French and British were uninterested in doing so OTL, so why would they in the '20s if Italy take a chunk from Yugoslavia and or Albania?
 
French and British were uninterested in doing so OTL, so why would they in the '20s if Italy take a chunk from Yugoslavia and or Albania?
It'd make sense that the Anglo-French alliance wouldn't care about Albania, considering it was already an Italian protectorate by the end of World War 1. However, isn't Yugoslavia different as a result of concluding defense pacts with Paris?
 
It'd make sense that the Anglo-French alliance wouldn't care about Albania, considering it was already an Italian protectorate by the end of World War 1. However, isn't Yugoslavia different as a result of concluding defense pacts with Paris?

The French were tired of occupying a tiny bit of Germany, and you think were willing to start a real war with Italy?

The Average Frenchman had no appetite for 'On to Rome'

They had their fill of that in WWI
 
think you highlighted the only plausible target in an earlier thread (Yugoslavia) https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/wi-earlier-italian-invasion-of-yugoslavia.447624/ (besides Albania)

do not think that would be an easy conflict for Italy and not certain they would or would want to occupy the entire country? and in the aftermath, especially if they become involved in the Spanish Civil War, Italy likely a neutral in WWII?
How about an earlier Greco-Italian War?
 
think you highlighted the only plausible target in an earlier thread (Yugoslavia) https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/wi-earlier-italian-invasion-of-yugoslavia.447624/ (besides Albania)

do not think that would be an easy conflict for Italy and not certain they would or would want to occupy the entire country? and in the aftermath, especially if they become involved in the Spanish Civil War, Italy likely a neutral in WWII?

How about an earlier Greco-Italian War?

already offered my opinion that Yugoslavia was the plausible target, Greece would have Italian navy operating out into the Med and draws too much attention from GB and France. (they had schemed to invade Yugoslavia but were waved off by Hitler, showing that was the preferred target)
 
The French were tired of occupying a tiny bit of Germany, and you think were willing to start a real war with Italy?

The Average Frenchman had no appetite for 'On to Rome'

They had their fill of that in WWI

Perhaps, perhaps not. From what I read most diplomats and military personnel figured out that Italy's military wasn't anything to brag about. They might well be willing to risk a quick war to get Italy in line. Italy's military was pretty crappy and most governments knew it.
 
Perhaps, perhaps not. From what I read most diplomats and military personnel figured out that Italy's military wasn't anything to brag about. They might well be willing to risk a quick war to get Italy in line. Italy's military was pretty crappy and most governments knew it.

No, they really didn't know that

After 1940, sure, but that wasn't apparent in the '20s
Italy rearmed earliest of all the great powers, so that put them up a notch over most others.

The Fiat Biplanes were world class in the '20s, same for their bombers.
 
Perhaps if the king of Yugoslavia died earlier, the Croatian fascists take power sooner, or Eritrean sepretists split off from addais abbaba.
 
Perhaps if the king of Yugoslavia died earlier, the Croatian fascists take power sooner, or Eritrean sepretists split off from addais abbaba.
Can you elaborate here? Which Yugoslav King? Also - Eritrean separatists? Eritrean independence movements didn't start manifesting until the 50s and 60s.
 
No, they really didn't know that

After 1940, sure, but that wasn't apparent in the '20s
Italy rearmed earliest of all the great powers, so that put them up a notch over most others.

The Fiat Biplanes were world class in the '20s, same for their bombers.

That lasted until the 1930's at the latest. If they have a war in the 1920's Italy's military ineptitude will show up then. At the very least you could expect their opponents to be sold weapons by the French and British at a low price.
 
As long as they don't attack allies of Britain or France (which means Yugoslavia's out)... but that's still no guarantee for a win.
 
And who's gonna fight those wars? The Italian public was always very wary of wars, because Mussolini had promised greatness and pies-in-the-sky, not another bloodbath. Just look at the political climate shifting during OTL WW2: Mussolini might roar and growl, but the Italians really don't care about fighting to get more clay.
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
I'd be interested in seeing Mussolini somehow miscalculate with aggression in the 1920s, even if he gets smacked down or destabilizes his own regime in the process, and then just see the knock-ons and butterflies for the 20s and 30s from there.

What would Italy escalating the Corfu Crisis to the max look like?

On practical difficulty on the Italian side I think was that they were still having to wage some pretty active pacification campaigns to bring Libya under control in the 1920s.

Random thought- Could Mussolini intervene in Spain in 1931, to prop up Primo De Rivera, and suppress the emergence of the Spanish Republic?
 
Top