Fascism and empire: Fascist Italy against republican Spain

Abstract

From 1931 onward, Fascist Italy tried to influence Spanish politics through a combination of formal diplomatic action and clandestine support for monarchist conspirators. Spain did not, however, become an axis of Italy's foreign affairs until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936. Supporting Franco was a way of helping to destroy international Communism and the democratic challenge and also served Mussolini's claims to Italian hegemony in the Mediterranean. From the point of view of domestic politics, helping Fascism in Spain would help to maintain the mobilization of the Italian people. In Italy's participation in the Spanish Civil War imperial Fascism, defined as foreign aggression, ideological imperialism, and domestic revolution, found its best expression.