Why did Italy participate in World War I and World War II?
Keywords: two world wars, Italian fascism
As an imperialist country, Italy participated in two world wars. In the fierce war, the Italian army has been defeated repeatedly, which is in sharp contrast with the armies of other countries. What made Italy so weak and vulnerable in the war? This paper attempts to explain the reasons for Italy's repeated wars and defeats by combining its own factors in the two world wars and the international environment at that time.
First, economic factors-economic backwardness and lack of resources.
In modern wars, whether the supply of strategic materials can be guaranteed is one of the important factors for the victory or defeat of the war. Once the source of strategic materials is exhausted, the army will lose its ability to act. The fatal weakness of fascist Italy is precisely the weak economic foundation and lack of resources. Almost all the raw materials needed by the military industry depend on imports.
At the beginning of the 20th century, capitalist countries such as Britain and France began to colonize and expand in various places, and their spheres of influence spread rapidly. They plundered a lot of wealth for the development of capitalism. At this time, the real economic development area of Italy was only concentrated in a small area in the north. The vast rural areas in the south not only have a large population and a low level of productivity, but also become sales places in the north, and the regional economic development is unbalanced. The domestic rulers not only failed to take measures, but also passed on the financial difficulties caused by years of war to the working people. Social unrest has emerged and is getting worse. Italy's domestic commercial liberal bourgeoisie not only wants to push its products from a narrow market to the international market, but also wants to obtain raw materials from vast overseas to develop capitalism. Italy began colonial expansion under the pretext of economic interests, but its economic strength was not as good as that of Britain and France. Italy's achilles heel is precisely its weak economic foundation and lack of resources. If you don't make good economic preparations, you will embark on the road of colonial expansion and will inevitably encounter setbacks. In the First World War, Italy paid a huge price, but at the Paris Peace Conference, Britain and France refused to strengthen their strength in the Mediterranean and the Balkans and refused to fulfill their commitments. At the meeting of "President Wilson's Arbitration" (in Orlando), most of the spoils were seized by Britain and France. Italy got 654.38+million square miles of land, Britain got 2.5 million, and France got 1 10,000.
After World War I, Italy experienced economic recession, political chaos and near paralysis of the central government. The economic crisis of 1929-1933 made Italy worse. In order to get rid of this passive economic situation, Italy decided to implement the "self-sufficiency plan" as early as 1937, but the implementation of this plan failed to narrow the gap between Italy's raw material production and other big countries. Take the production of important strategic materials such as coal, steel and oil as an example. In 1938, Italy only produced inferior coal1480,000 tons, while the coal output of the United States, Britain, France and Germany in the same year. Italy produced 2.377 million tons of copper, while the United States, Britain, France and Germany produced 50 million tons, 6.5438+0.4 million tons, 6 million tons and 23 million tons respectively. Italy's oil production is even worse. 1938, it only produced 153265 tons of crude oil, while it consumed 4 million tons of oil every year in peacetime and 8 million tons in wartime. Almost all the oil consumed is imported from abroad. In sharp contrast, the crude oil output of the United States was 65,438+700 million tons, and both Britain and France gradually formed oil fields with abundant reserves, so the crude oil output was also high. In addition, Italy also lacks non-ferrous metal resources such as copper, nickel, lead and tin. Among them, the better copper. 1938 only produced 2963 tons, while the copper output in the United States in the same year was 580 thousand tons.
The lack of raw materials makes Italy's industrialization level far behind other European and American powers. For example, in 1938, the fascist leader Mussolini took various measures to increase the automobile production in order to realize the mechanization and rapidity of the army, thus promoting the development of the Italian automobile industry, but it still could not be compared with the automobile production of the above countries. On September 1 day, l939, World War II broke out in an all-round way, and Italy's main strategic material reserves had been exhausted. At that time, steel was enough for 14 days, coal was only enough for 50 days, and iron ore with better conditions was only enough for 180 days, thus solving the problem of shortage of strategic resources.
In a word, by the time Italy entered the war in June 1940, the Italian economy was far from ready for war, which can be confirmed by the diary of Italian Foreign Minister Chano. 1On April 7th, 940, Chano inspected the strategic material reserve accompanied by Italian general Favagorosa who was in charge of military production. Chano wrote in his diary that day: "I made a rough survey of China's metal reserves with him. The result is very frustrating. " But what makes him even more uneasy is that Favagrosa reported that "Italy is losing all its foreign markets. Even if our gold reserves are small, we can't buy the metals we need. " In addition, from the domestic situation, Italy is extremely short of resources, and the collection of scrap metal has reached its limit. It's over. "And said," as far as material reserves are concerned, our present situation is actually worse than last September. The existing supplies are only enough for a few months. "After listening to Favagorosa's remarks, Chano wrote in his diary:" How dare we go to war in such a situation! ? "Italy has a shortage of domestic resources and a weak economic foundation, which cannot be compared with countries in the world such as Britain and France. The fundamental reason for Italy's defeat in the war was that it rushed into the war without preparation.
Second, military factors-backward equipment and low quality of the army.
The lack of strategic materials and economic weakness have greatly affected Italy's military strength. After the beginning of World War II, the lightning-fast military victory of Nazi Germany gave Mussolini unlimited hope, and he regarded World War II as a good opportunity to gain power. 1June, 940, Germany attacked France. On June 10, Mussolini declared war on Britain and France despite repeated warnings from the United States. Thirty-two divisions of the Italian army attacked the French army, and France was caught between Scylla and Charybdis.
Although the Italian Defense Minister boasted that he could mobilize 6.5438+million people, due to the lack of weapons and equipment, by the time Italy entered the war on June 654.38+0940 10, the total number of its troops was only 450,000, consisting of 74 binary army divisions. According to Marshal Badorio, who was then the chief of staff of the Army, he said afterwards: "On the day when fascist Italy entered the war, among the 74 binary divisions. Only the 19 division is fully staffed and fully equipped. " At that time. Infantry is the main body of the Italian army. It accounts for about 80% of the army's general education, but its weapons and equipment are surprisingly backward. Most soldiers have 9l rifles used in World War I.. Although automatic rifles have been produced, the number is extremely limited. The backwardness of infantry is also manifested in the lack of motor vehicles. According to the regulations, each soldier carries a 35 kg backpack. So the speed of travel is very slow, with an average of only 30 kilometers per day. After Italy decided to join the war, infantry divisions began to implement the so-called "small mechanization", that is, each division was equipped with a small number of cars and bicycles as "supplementary equipment". Bicycles are used to carry backpacks, and soldiers take turns marching by car. Although this slightly improved the marching speed, it increased the contradiction between the teams and relaxed the discipline of the troops. The infantry division is equipped with 34 100 mm field guns, 30 8 1 mm mortars and 8 47 mm anti-tank guns. During the First World War, a considerable number of such guns were seized from the Austrian ... Most of the rest were assembled with old-fashioned parts produced before and after the First World War. It is not difficult to see that the artillery used by the Italian army can no longer meet the requirements of modern warfare. The worst weapon is an engineer. At that time, the main equipment from the engineering department was the old searchlight with backward function. The soldiers had shovels and pickaxes in their hands. The army's three tank divisions are slightly better equipped. The total number of tanks is 1200. Among them, Jin 1 100 is a 3 ton 13 light tank. Armor is very thin, and rifle bullets can penetrate. Its biggest feature is that it has no artillery, and its main weapon is a machine gun. Some soldiers joked that this pocket tank, which had already been eliminated by Britain, France and Germany, was a "rouge box", and some people did so. "Canned sardines" can't actually be used in combat. It can only be used as an auxiliary tool for transporting ammunition in wartime. There are also 6-ton 100 medium-sized tanks. These tanks can't go to the front for the time being, because their gun sights are faulty and need to be overhauled. At that time, most of the British tanks were equipped with medium-sized tanks with 13 tons or more, so it seems that these tank divisions also existed in name only. 1939, marshal graziani was appointed as the army chief of staff, and found that the army's equipment and combat level were extremely poor. Mussolini told him not to worry, and said that on the battlefield, the army just posed and did not rely on the army to fight. The situation of the Italian navy and air force is different from that of the army. After Mussolini came to power, he attached great importance to the development of the navy and air force, so he was boasted by the fascist propaganda machine. The Italian people think that their navy and air force are world-class. Mussolini regarded the navy as an important tool to realize his expansion ambition. He said that Italy is a peninsula extending to the Mediterranean Sea. Dominating the Mediterranean is Italy's demand. General Favagorosa, who is in charge of military production, said that from the perspective of weapons and equipment, Italy can only withstand two to three months of war.
Third, political factors-Mussolini was overjoyed and incompetent in command.
Italy was one of the cradles of the Second World War, but its position in the war was far inferior to that of the German Nazi clique and even the militaristic Japan. Mussolini, the leader of Italian fascism, was ambitious and limited in strength. He likes to throw his weight around, and his actual combat ability is quite virtual. He was headstrong and indecisive, and Mussolini's incompetence in command was an important factor in the failure of the Italian war.
1923, Mussolini determined the expansion steps, took the big and weak Ethiopia as the primary goal of expansion, and clamored that Ethiopia must be conquered and a veritable colonial empire established. However, it was not until 1935 that Mussolini decided to go to war. 6543810.2, Mussolini announced the general mobilization of the war in Venice Palace, arrogantly declaring: "We have endured 13 years ... we can't stand it any longer!" The well-equipped Italian army invested more than 200,000 troops, hundreds of tanks and a large number of planes in the north and south lines, ready to win Egypt in one fell swoop. At that time, the weapons of the Egyptian army were only rifles, thousands of machine guns and hundreds of old-fashioned light artillery, and there were no tanks or combat aircraft at all. The strength of the two countries is very different. However, things went beyond Mussolini's expectations. After the Italian army quickly captured several cities, it was repeatedly blocked by the Egyptian army, so that the unexpected minister Chano said pessimistically: "This war is impossible to win." 1936 In May, crazy Italian fascists used chemical weapons such as gas bombs and mustard gas bombs to dump poison into rivers, lakes and fields in Egypt, and occupied Addis Ababa, the capital of Egypt, and established a short-lived "East African Empire".
1939 September, Nazi Germany "lightning" attacked Poland, and the European war broke out in an all-round way. Italy first waited for a favorable opportunity to go to war on the grounds of domestic economic difficulties and insufficient military preparations. Before Mussolini's recovery, Nazi Germany's "lightning" action had swept through Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. 1940 in may, the Germans quickly invaded France and approached Paris. 10 In June, Mussolini thought that the time had come and ordered Prince umberto, commander of the Western Army Group, to command 325,000 troops to be stationed on the Italian-French border for standby. /kloc-in 0/7, the newly established French petain government called for a truce, and Hitler invited Mussolini to meet in Munich. Mussolini succeeded in acquiring part of the ceded land in France. However, Mussolini felt that such a victory was beneath his dignity and suddenly decided to launch a blitzkrieg against the French army on 2 1 and 22/before the armistice agreement was formally signed. As a result, in the Alps, the lightning attack of the Italian army did not make the weak six French divisions take a step back, but was hit head-on by the French army and suffered heavy losses. 63 1 person died, 5,206 people were injured and 626 people were missing. Prince umberto was forced to declare a truce.
1June, 940, more than 200,000 British expeditionary forces were disarmed in Dunkirk and defeated by the British Isles. At this time Mussolini thought it was time to rob the British African colonies. At that time, the main force of the British army was in Europe, with only 65,438+10,000 British troops stationed in Africa and the Middle East, while Italy stationed nearly 600,000 troops in Africa. The Italian army tried to attack British Somalia with the East African army and control the southern port of the Red Sea. Attack Egypt with North African troops and seize the Suez Canal. Once the goal is achieved, the Mediterranean may become "the inner lake of the new Roman Empire". But Mussolini completely overestimated himself. In less than half a year, tens of thousands of British troops stationed in North Africa captured more than 300,000 Italian troops in several beautiful battles, including 100 generals. After the defeat in the battlefield in North Africa, Mussolini not only failed to reflect on himself, but also blamed Germany for its untimely rescue and cursed that "they (Germans) should remember that they made us lose an empire".
In order to change his supporting role in the fascist axis countries, 1940, 10/October 28th, Mussolini launched an all-round attack on Greece with 87,000 troops, 163 tanks, 686 cannons and 380 planes. However, the Italian army did not meet Mussolini's expectations. 165438+1October 4th, the Greek government assembled only 15 divisions, and it took a week to drive the Italian army out of the border. 2 1 day, Mussolini temporarily changed his command and sent 14 division to launch a new round of general attack. The Greek army skillfully used the terrain and fought tenaciously, but the Italian army never recovered. Mussolini was in a hurry, blaming the general staff for the fiasco, then replacing the general staff, and at the same time demanding a truce in Greece through Hitler. But it was too late, the Greek army had launched an attack on all fronts, and the Italian army suffered heavy casualties. All ace divisions were wiped out, 5 generals were captured and 1 generals were killed. Italians are fooled. They don't know what happened. Mussolini rushed to Germany and sat nervously in front of Hitler, asking for help like a schoolboy who made a mistake. Hitler agreed to send troops and spent two hours teaching Mussolini strategy and tactics. After Mussolini returned to China, he still hoped to defeat Greece on his own before Germany and save face. He ordered the urgent recruitment of new recruits and the formation of a 500,000-strong reinforcement force. 194 1 on March 2, 2008, he personally supervised the war as the supreme commander, but he still failed. Mussolini couldn't figure out why the Italian army, which was superior in numbers and weapons, couldn't break the Greek defense. The World War I in Greece further exposed the weakness of the Italian fascist regime, and also made Italy a second-rate country in the Axis Group, which could only play a "supporting role" in the subordinate war with the German army. After the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, Hitler wanted to "go it alone". Mussolini thought that the Germans would win, and if they fought together, they would get trophies. So he begged Hitler to allow the Italian army to participate in the war against the Soviet Union. As a result, the 220,000 Italian elite troops sent to the Soviet Union were equally vulnerable. Half of the soldiers were killed, injured or captured, and the other half fled back to Italy early. Most of the soldiers lost more than 80% of all kinds of weapons.
The repeated defeats of the Italian army on the battlefield have caused a serious political, economic and social crisis in China, and people's anti-war and anti-fascist sentiments are extremely high. 1On July 25th, 943, a coup took place in Italy, Mussolini was arrested and the fascist regime fell. Mussolini in custody never admitted his mistake, but blamed the failure on "Italy's weakness." In fact, the main reason why the Italian army, known as "the most elite colonial army in the world", has been defeated repeatedly is the incompetence of Italian leaders. Mussolini was headstrong, indecisive, lacked command ability, distrusted military command, and refused to listen to suggestions and exhortations on operational issues. However, he often deprived the General Staff of the military decision-making power as the supreme commander, and often suddenly changed the military plan and acted arbitrarily. Besides, Italian generals are mediocre and incompetent. In this way, the premature collapse of Italian fascism can be imagined.
Fourth, human factors-low morale, general war-weariness.
Mussolini believes that the failure of the Italian army is due to "Italians are weak and don't like bold actions", saying that "they are not descendants of ancient Romans, but descendants of foreign slaves, serfs and hybrids". In fact, the main reason for the failure is not the low quality of the Italian nation, but the low morale of the people. They have long been tired of this war. As the Greek newspaper Thesnos commented: "It is incorrect to assert that the Italian army is not good at fighting. They are veterans, but perhaps this war has not inspired their enthusiasm. " Sumner, an American expert on international issues? Wells. /kloc-in the winter of 0/939, he visited Rome as the personal representative of President Roosevelt. He noticed. In Italy. A few fascist leaders. Almost all influential forces are opposed to war. Although this is mainly due to people's general fear and hatred of Nazi Germany, it is also due to people's general belief that no matter how many artificial frictions there are between Italy and Britain and France. A large part of public opinion is against the war because they realize that the war has even made a big mistake. No matter who wins or loses, Italy will gain nothing and lose everything. 1940 June 10. After Mussolini declared war, the Italian people were deeply disturbed. On this night in Rome, it seems that the coming disaster has been predicted. The street is unusually quiet. At night, every household is closed, which is really scary. The Italian army fighting the Greek army on the Albanian front was in a miserable situation and its morale was low. A captured Italian officer recorded this in his diary. Although the officer was a fascist, he expressed his strong dissatisfaction and hatred against the Italian military in his diary. He complained that the Italian army was told that the Greeks were cowards and dared to fight after drinking brandy. The army knows nothing about the outside world. The propaganda machine claimed that the Italian army was successfully marching into Yugoslavia. There was a revolution in Greece, but in fact it was not like this at all. A deadly emotion gradually breeds: we are no match for the enemy. It is impossible to resist them. ".
Verb (abbreviation of verb) Diplomatic factor-vacillating diplomatic position
After the First World War, great changes have taken place in the world political map. Britain lost its arbitration ability in those years, and the October Revolution in Russia caused the opposition between Europe and the world. Due to the disintegration of Austria-Hungary, the defeat of Germany and the exclusion of Russia, the traditional balance of power in Europe has been unable to be rebuilt. The upsurge of the Eastern National Liberation Movement first impacted the old European empire of traditional colonialism. The rise of two non-European powers, the United States and Japan, makes the hegemony of great powers more acute and complicated.
The world is rising. However, when concluding a peace treaty with the defeated country, the victorious country only uses its dominant position that still exists after the war or gained through the war to try its best to establish a post-war structure that is beneficial to itself, regardless of whether this structure is suitable for the changed world situation. There was a fierce struggle between them: Britain tried to maintain the original world hegemony and dominate Europe, and tried to weaken Germany and maintain an inseparable Germany for the sake of complex balance; France is trying to compete for European leadership and is eager to solve the German problem once and for all. Wilson's "fourteen-point plan" is to use the economic advantage of the United States to compete for world leadership; Italy hopes to establish its dominant position in the surrounding areas of the Mediterranean; The Japanese aim is to monopolize China and dominate the Asia-Pacific region. Italy in the Versailles pattern is a specific force that wants to maintain and correct the status quo. European powers want to draw them into their own camp in the new round of struggle for world hegemony and safeguarding hegemony. Italy has become the chosen object that seems to be both right and wrong on the international stage. On the other hand, Italy's national strength is relatively weak, belonging to a second-rate country, and it has no independent strength to achieve its hegemonic goal. Instead, we can only rely on a group of powerful countries to realize our ambitions by taking advantage of the cracks brought about by the hegemony of powerful countries. The Treaty of London promised all its ambitions: to achieve "national reunification" by acquiring Tyrol and Estella, to gain a dominant position in the Adriatic Sea, and to be recognized as a powerful country in the Near East and colonial affairs. Italy, as a victorious country, participated in the post-war spoils sharing conference, but it was regarded as an insignificant second-class role in Paris, and the London Treaty was not recognized. Although Italy acquired some islands along the coast of Estella, Trieste, Trentino, Dalmatia and South Tyrol through the Treaty of Saint-Germain, the Italian-Austrian border moved northward to Brenner Pass, which realized most of Italy's territorial claims in Europe, Britain and France did not satisfy Italy's wishes for the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa: in Asia Minor, Italy got nothing; In Africa, no former German colony was appointed to Italy. Versailles has therefore become synonymous with "deception" and a painful memory in the hearts of Italians. They felt that Italy had won an "incomplete victory". "Italy won the war, but lost peace. Despite its achievements, Italy is still an dissatisfied country at the peace conference. " Versailles brought Italy a sense of loss like a great shame. "
Mussolini took advantage of the Italian sense of loss, made a promise of revenge for the humiliation of Versailles under the banner of revisionism, and seized power. The Versailles system contributed to Italy's dual policy choice, and the relative stability of the Versailles system throughout the 1920s determined that Italy did not need to make any new choices. This special and contradictory dual policy has been running through Italian diplomacy in the 1920s.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the world was violently shaken by the economic crisis, and the peace structure of Versailles was crumbling. The nationalist forces lurking in the relatively stable period of the 1920s revived with new energy, especially in Germany. At the conference on disarmament, the German government put forward the demand of equal rights with other big countries, and the voice of rearmament is increasing day by day. Then Hitler came to power, and his policy of breaking the contract and expanding the army made Europe uneasy under the Versailles system. In the relatively stable Versailles pattern, Italy is only a second-class role, which has not been paid enough attention by the powers, but the turbulent Versailles pattern makes it the object of contention by the powers. As early as Mein Kampf and the second book, Hitler had regarded Italy as the object of struggle and a useful ally. Britain believes that "at this stage, Italy does not seem to be the main threat", and compared with "Nazi rule of Germany, it is not so aggressive and pervasive", which should be fought for. There are even some British politicians who think that Italy is as detached from the Franco-German conflict as themselves, calling it "the key to peace in Europe". Although France has contradictions with Italy, the relationship between the two countries has been discordant in the 1920s, but in the face of Germany's aggressive breach of contract and expansion, it also wants to win over Italy. Fascist Italy seems to have two sides on the European stage.
In the ever-changing world, there are no eternal enemies and friends. Due to the limitation of its own strength, Italy always tends to avoid direct confrontation with other big countries. What it is best at is to carefully choose its alliance partners and profit from them. Like Italian foreign policy expert Paolo? Cremona said in 1938: "Italian foreign policy has never been dominated by abstract ideas, and nowhere has Machiavelli's epigrams been more widely applied to pure politics than in his motherland." This kind of fence-riding diplomacy was vividly interpreted by Italy in the two world wars. This policy is also an important reason why Italy could not determine its position in the two world wars and eventually failed or even withdrew from the war.