Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

160 DER FUEHRER1918, Italy felt herself humiliated by her fellow victors. She had made apoor showing in the World War; the English and French had barelysaved her from annihilation at the hands of the enemy. In Versailles shehad raised excessive imperialistic claims; for instance, to Dalmatia andparts of the defeated Turkish Empire. In addition, Italy had strongclaims against France; among them in the North-African province ofTunisia, which actually did have a large Italian population. In 1915,when Italy entered the still uncertain war, stating her price inbusinesslike terms, France had made promises concerning Tunisia, andin 1919 they had not been entirely kept.Among the intellectuals of Italy all these experiences aroused afeeling of national disgrace, which largely contributed to the rise ofItalian Fascism. It was a feeling somewhat related to that of post-warGermany and it has even been claimed that the German Free Corps of1919, the secret army of murderers, were the prototype of the ItalianFascist leagues. There was a difference, however; German fascism — asfar as it had its roots in foreign politics — had sprung from a woundedfeeling of frustrated self-determination; Italian fascism from frustratedimperialism.But the deeper cause of these conflicts was older than the VersaillesTreaty. It was simply the presence of a first-rate power (France) in theMediterranean; while England, with Gibraltar, Malta, Suez, and Cyprus,controlled, so to speak, the source and outlet of this sea in which theItalian peninsula swims and breathes like a cell in living plasma. Italy,in the opinion of her intellectuals, would have to achieve absolutedomination of the Mediterranean — 'mare nostrum' (our sea) — orremain permanently dependent on France and England. Bismarck hadused this Italian problem to forge a German-Italian alliance in 1882; thealliance finally failed, for as long as Austria, Germany's other ally,survived, she remained, despite everything, Italy's prime enemy. Nowthat the Austrian Empire was dead, Italian ambitions and Italianenmities were focused on the Mediterranean. She began to turn angryeyes on France. If Italy should ever have to choose, her claims againstFrance would outweigh her resistance against the Austrian Anschluss —especially if Germany could give her substantial assurance