Fascist Ideology: Territory and Expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922-1945

by Kallis,Aristotle

• ISBN13: 9780415216111
• ISBN10: 0415216117
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-08-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Kallis provides a comparative investigation of fascist expansionism by focusing on the close relations between ideology and action under Mussolini and Hitler. With an overview of the ideological motivations behind fascist expansionism and their impact on fascist policies, this book explores the two main issues which have dominated the historiographical debates on the nature of fascist expressionism: whether Italy's and Germany's particular expansionist tendencies can be attributed to aset of generic fascist values, or were shaped by the long-term, uniquely national ambitions and developments since unification; whether the pursuit of expansionism was opportunistic or followed a grand design in each case. This book is a fascinating study of the expansionist visions of Hitler and Mussolini and it enlightens our understanding of the dynamics and evolution of the fascist policies of Italy and Germany to the end of the Second World War.

Author Biography

Aristotle A. Kallis is Tutor in the Departments of Politics and History at the University of Edinburgh.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
List of abbreviations	ix
Introduction	1	(2)
The validity of a comparative approach to fascism: Italy and Germany	3	(2)
Ideology and action: a puzzling relation	5	(4)
The plan of the study	9	(2)
Italian and German expansionism in the longue duree	11	(16)
`Late-comers' and the symbolic significance of territory	12	(3)
The radicalisation of expansionist arguments: irredentism, continental expansion versus colonial expansion, conquest versus economic infiltration	15	(7)
The experience of the First World War: inflated territorial ambitions and frustrated hopes	22	(5)
Fascist ideology and territorial expansion	27	(34)
Fascist ideology and the analysis of the past: the `self-historicisation' of fascism	29	(9)
Beyond national unification: justifying the right to expand	38	(9)
Choosing targets: fascist expansionism and the notion of living space	47	(10)
Expansionist ideology in practice: the unity of thought and action in fascism	57	(4)
Foreign policy decision-making processes under fascist rule	61	(43)
The concept of `minimum consensus'	63	(2)
Foreign policy decision making, fascist leaderships and traditional elites: the emergence of a leader-oriented system	65	(28)
Fascist parties and leaderships: totalitarianism versus authoritarianism	93	(11)
Fascist expansionism in practice: foreign policy making (1922--39)	104	(34)
Revisionism: the legacy of the Peace Treaties and the juridical argument for territorial expansion	105	(10)
Irredentism: the distortion of an argument	115	(7)
From border to space policy: towards large-scale fascist expansion	122	(16)
Between co-operation and rivalry: relations between the two regimes	138	(21)
Internationalisation of fascism: the difficult course of Italo--German rapprochement	139	(12)
The evolution of Italian--German relations and the radicalisation of fascist expansionist policies (1938--9)	151	(8)
Fascist expansionism and war (1939--45)	159	(34)
Germany's decision to launch the war	160	(8)
Italy's decision to enter the war	168	(7)
Towards the guerra fascista: Mussolini's parallel war in the Mediterranean and the collapse of Italian Fascism	175	(6)
Launching the Nazi `ideological war': Operation Barbarossa and defeat	181	(12)
Conclusions	193	(12)
The study of fascist expansionism: ideology and other factors	193	(4)
`National' traditions and `fascist' innovations: the continuity debate	197	(2)
Leaders, `fascist' values and `national' interest	199	(3)
Dealing with differences: the limits of a generic definition of fascist expansionism	202	(3)
Notes	205	(53)
Select bibliography	258	(19)
Index	277