@@JabzyJoe can you tell us the sources of Italian ambitions on the interland of lybia, Cameroon and Angola in WW1 and on the ambitions in WW2? Like books, documents, etc
Italy's long and poor political presence prior to WW1 wasn't something reversible hence a more realistic and humble perspective on gaining lands would've turned out better
@@tootlingturtle7254It always involved the native people being killed, it is human nature to fight invaders. I saw a mouse got killed today another mouse, invasion of territory plain and simple.
Actually one of the main reasons why italy looked at tunisia as a possible colony was because at the time tunisia was an highly italianized area of north africa and (also due to the fact that it is quite close to the coasts of sicily and southern italy) many Italians lived there, it was already percieved as a part of the country. That's why the french conquest had such an impact on the italian public opinion
@@bokonoo77 guys like @Marco Castelli have a "Karen Blixen" vision of history. They are so steeped into an eurocentric/colonialistic mindset that they can, without blushing, say that Tunisia was italianised as if the indigenous arabo-berber population, 95 % of the inhabitants didn't exist.
There were more Italians living in French Tunisia than Frenchmen, in fact. At the time, it was one of Africa’s most European colonies, at around 9% white settlers. It’s not at all far-fetched for Italy to imagine it coming under its grasp at the time.
Full blooded Eritrean here. Raised in the states, but visited Eritrea as a teenager. It's crazy how much our capital city of Asmara looks so similar to Rome. It's to bad the Ethiopians did everything they could to destroy it during our 30 year war of independence against from from 1961-1991 (which we won by the way!).
@@Monkofthecaribbean I could take a certain time out of evey country in the world's existence and say it was far worse here than it was there. Every nation and people write their own narrative. What was America doing in 1803 (the distance of years from when America got her independence in comparison to distance from when Eritrea got independent in 1993 to present (29 years)? Probobly not a whole much either. Anywhere any place in the world has its negatives, as it does its positives.
@@CautionCU I've lived in the states since I was 21 months old as an infant. I'm in my thirties now. We're both in America. What part? I'm representing that greater Pacific NorthWest America baby!
Very amazingly done. Italy as an ally of Germany during WWII was often overlooked as being an insignificant player. Your video actually shows how ambitious they were in idealizing their desire for a Mediterranean empire - Mare Nostrum. Although Italy was not successful, it was still interesting to learn the kind of influence they enjoy in Europe, Latin America and the Islamic world before preforming so terribly during war.
Italy was not "insignificant" and not "terrible" if not for utter ignorant like you (korean am I wrong?) Had about 450.000 dead in second world war and 650.000 in the first, and many heroic deeds, so learn before speaking and now STFU!
Performing so terribly? Like China against Japan? Look, pal, Italy was already exausted from the wars against Ethiopia (wrong and anti-historical, but won) and Republican Spain (Franco owes his victory largely to Italy, but all remember Guadalayara defeat)......the alliance with Germany was a mistake. A terrible one. And after all, Italy lasted longer than France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway.....
Italy conquered 5 countries, was awarded the territory they won in France, and won the Spanish civil war vs. the Communist. Aside from Russia and Germany no other European country performed better, or stated another way, Italy was the 3rd best performing European country of the war.
The fact that they were ambitious doesn't mean they were not insignificant They, in the grand scheme of things - were insignificant because of their ineptitude. Even Finland with a fraction of the economy and population was more influental on the war.
You are by far my favorite history channel on the platform. Apart from the value of the topics you cover, the quality of production is top notch as well. Good work man, you deserve many more subs.
The reason Italy started to look for colonies after its unification as very little to do with the ancient past (propaganda aside) and much more to do with the age Italy finally became a united entity. It was the age of colonialism and any aspiring european power thought they needed colonies to compete with their neighbours. Italy was no different, although it was far weaker than nations like France, England, Germany and even the Austro-Hungarian empire. As for WWII involvement, Mussolini's choice was basically down to political miscalculation. He and his generals were well aware Italy was not ready for war but, after the nazis overwhelmed the French and the English he thought he just needed to declare war to an already defeated France to gain territory (he was famously quoted claiming "I just need an handful of dead bodies to throw on the peace table"). In practice even this minimal effort went badly (Italy lost quite a few troops when trying to invade France) and later on the idea that the war was basically over proved to be completely wrong. The funthing is, if the allied forces had not been so soundly defeated by the Germans Mussolini would have never declared war and history could have developed in a radically different manner.
1. Show me where that Mussolini quote exists and CONFIRMED. 2. It was the GERMANS who tricked Mussolini into WORLD war breraking the Pact of Steel only 4 months later never telling him they intended to invade Poland. 3.Italy conquered 5 countries, was awarded the territory they won in France, and won the Spanish civil war vs. the Communist. Aside from Russia and Germany no other European country performed better, or stated another way, Italy was the 3rd best performing European country of the war.
No it was not the age of colonialism ended in the 1600s they would get more land in 1884 but after that Europeans rarely ever did any true colonialism after the United States became the new superpower of the world
Not really. Mussolini was always going to be aligned with Germany politically. And then there's Hitler's famous line to Mussolini "Either you're with us, or we're coming for you"
@@ivanmargosdoesEverything.2923 the age of colonialism goes up until at least the scramble for africa. The U.S also was not the worlds superpower until 1945 and the only superpower until 1991 when the USSR fell. You're points dont really correlate much and the first part was just incorrect
Count Galeazzo Ciano was Mussolini's son in-law. The Ciano Diaries 1939 - 1943. He was the Italian Foreign Minister from 1936 to 1943. I enjoy your work, thank you very much.
@@alexzero3736 in fact, Ciano voted in favor of Italy allying with the Americans and “impeaching” Mussolini from government. He was captured and killed in 1945 by the Nazis.
I really hope that when Italy gets a rework in HOI4 that the anti-German path gets Balbo as the leader and not Mussolini, and we get the option to have all the territory shown in the end as the end goal of the tree
Closest thing we have it’s La Vittoria è Nostra mod that gives Italy a big focus tree and you can go whatever ideology. And there’s a secret focus tree with the Papal States or you can go fascist and do either Roman Empire or Italian empire. Edit:oh I forgot to mention that all the possibilities that were mentioned in this video (the fascist ones) there are in the focus tree such as the Latin Entente. And I hope they rework CAS in the next DLC Edit: well now they announced the new Italian dlc soo yea
@@nikoclesceri2267 That‘s my main motivation to play HOI IV. Selecting some country and imagining an alternative history. That‘s why I love Road to 56, because it offers alternative ideologies for most major nations (and lots of small ones).
I can imagine a world where italy, spain, france, yugoslavia and hungary could have existed separately from the nnazis. Would be an interesting setting for an alternate history book.
This could be real, if Mussolini never changed his stance as protector of Austria, or if he was persuaded to join the allies again. But France and Uk not offered anything this time.
@Nenenin Donu we don't need Corsica, I am not sure if the people living there are even able to speak in italian, or they just talk in french or another dialect. Plus it brings back bad memories of Napoleon and french occupation, especially in North Italy 😅 and as an island it is not even close to be as big and beautiful as Sardegna or Sicilia are anyway (pretty sure both of them have way more tourists than Corsica, and not just from Italy)
Corse language is a variety from the Italic group of languages. I don't know if they have less torusim than Sardinia, but good for them: people say that Corsica is more beautiful because have more mountains, it's good to preserve it from mass torusim
This video was simply perfect: perfect music, perfect tone of voice, perfect speed, perfect thought, perfect style... Make more like this one because it was super interesting and a joy to watch!!!
Colonialism was such a weird fever dream, especially the new imperialism overstretch before WW1. As an anecdote about how pervasive the idea was during the time, there was a movement among Finnish upper classes to acquire "Amboland" in Northern Namibia to be a Finnish colony.... It was reasoned through the longtime missionary efforts in the area and the requirement for a European country to have a colony in order to be properly independent. All this during the 1920's when our country was less than a decade old and South Africa already firmly in charge there. It seems ridiculous and crazy today of course, and even then it wasn't a proper mainstream idea, but it does show that truly no country with a sea access in Europe could completely resist the contagion.
IMHO Garribaldi should do more in politics. He greatly assisted to unification under Sardinian king, but opposing to his dreams Italy turned conservative, as Sardinia-Piedmont just expanded on whole peninsula. Garribaldi s friend Mazzini was against monarchy btw. Sardinia-Piedmont was best bet as unifier but people movement led by Garribaldi could still demand reforms.
@@alexzero3736 Actually it has been Garibaldi the one to fight in the South Italy, the Savoy didn't even want to declare war because they couldn't know what would happen. Garibaldi understood that fighting for the Savoy would be the only way to unify Italy. Moreover, for a while he ruled in South Italy but he didn't know no one and he often trusted of the wrong people. He didn't really like politics and he wasn't good in politics as in war
Great research on the topic! As an Italian I can mostly agree on what you’ve said, I do disagree however on the post ww1 territorial gains of Italy. In the “Pact of London” signed by ,if I’m not mistaken, the Uk, France and the Russian Empire. This document stated that Italy could not seek any separate peace with the Central Powers and that she would be rewarded with: Trent, Istria,Dalmatia,a portion of southern Anatolia, a southern expansion of Libia, some German colonies in Africa and an expansion of the Tianjin concession. Of all of this what did Italy gain for her massive struggle, in one of ,if not the most, brutal fronts of the war? Trent,Istria and a southern expansion of Libia; no german colonies were gained and lands that were explicitly promised in the above mentioned treaty like Dalmatia were given to Yugoslavia. So I think that it’s expectable for a country promised so much for a common and brutal struggle against tyranny and then be rewarded with the leftovers of Versailles to be outraged and to feel backstabbed
Yeah it's interesting, I think because Italy had failled to move the front very much that was the main reason that not much was given but certainly there were some huge losses. One of the colonies could probably have been given, all in all though I doubt it would have changed much, ambitions seem to have considerably exceeded anything that might have realistically been accomplished or given. Plus looking at how Lybia, Eritrea and Somalia turned out it would not necessarily have been a good thing...
The problem was not about some colonies, the most outrage was provoked by giving Rijeka and 90% of Dalmatia to Yugoslavia/Serbia. Rijeka had Italian speaking majority and Dalmatian coast was crucial to control Adriatic sea. Italy aimed to replace Austria-Hungary as dominant player in the region, but got another rival instead. British and USA disapproval of London pact after the war made Italy stay as limited regional power. Also D Annuzio march to Fiume was instrumental for rising popularity of fascism. Why Italy was not given Dalmatia for a multiple reasons, Woodrow Wilson promoted nation self-determination and believed that Dalmatia must be Yugoslavian. Britain and France were disappointed by pact with Italy due to low military efficiency of Italian army, as was told, Italy would get what it conquered by arms. Actually Italian defeat at Caporetto did pull some french and British divisions from Western front. And later after victory at the Piave river, Italy delayed counterattack as much as possible. Battle of Vittorio Veneto come to late to actually help Western front. Also Britain wanted to limit both Italian and French ambitious to just don't get a new rival right after the war.
Trying to revive the Roman Empire was like trying to restore a decayed corpse to life. You can try to sew it back together but it's not really going to live again, except perhaps as a shambling zombie
I'd love to see what an Italian Africa, the Italian Balkans and an Italian Levante would have looked like. Which wars would we have been able to avoid, which new ones would we have gotten instead.
@@stevej71393 They controlled Libya for 30 years fighting off rebellions all the way including the 'Lion of the Desert' only losing it and the rest of their conquests to the Allies.
"Italy has a large appetite but poor teeth", Bismarck famously said. Perhaps the most tragic of Italy's colonial misfortunes is how they were handled by the Allies after WW1... they hemmed and hawed and repudiated treaties made with Italy, proposed commissions, Wilson was particularly obnoxious (and racist, as usual) and you know, in the end *after* paving the way for Mussolini to take power over the "mutilated victory" - they gave in to most of the Italian demands, ceding them Istria, the Julian March, Zadar, many of the Dalmation islands plus a "Free State of Fiume" that was soon annexed by Italy. They could've saved themselves a lot of future trouble if they just honored their treaties in the first place.
Well Italy didn't get the Dalmatian coast, anything in Turkey, or any new colonies. It was a pretty poor showing. Anyways, the reason they got sidelined at the peace conference was their incredibly poor showing during the war.
@@NoName-hg6cc You are huffing copium. Italy had the worst performance of every power in the whole of the war. Even the ottomans managed to beat the Brits and Russians a few times. Italy spent the whole war slamming their head against the Isonzo, until the very end when Austria Hungary was already collapsing from within.
@@NoName-hg6cc Italy did famously shitty in WWI. They bashed their heads into the brick wall that was Isonzo over and over again until said brick wall fell on them at Caporetto, and was only saved from complete destruction when they got the French and British aid they begged for at the last second. The average Italian soldier was no doubt brave and made great sacrifices, but the generalship was cruel, vindictive, and useless.
Sto video è super di parte. La gente ci prende in giro solo perché ci hanno bullizzati. Letteralmente siamo sempre stati presi per il culo come il Giappone.
Mussolini also said: "Germans are too strong, they are destined to win the war against the Allies and the Soviets, and after that, they will look at us. We must be stronger, and resist. Survive, because despite their strength, Germans won't last forever, they will decay one day, and we must last until that day. "
@Daniele Fabbro wow so Mussolini was aware that there was a chance Hitler and the N azi would have attacked their ally Mussolini and fascist Italy eventually after every other enemy had been defeated...also that sentence about the Germans is half-prophetic, at the very least
@@vados8500 yeah, indeed. Mussolini have read Hitler's Mein Kampf and knew that Nazi saw Italians, as like every other countries of the time, as a mixed race, not pure. So not worthy. Since the nazi had no regards for human life, he perfectly knew that our destiny was bounded on their eventually benevolence if we showed enough dedication in their cause. If not, our destiny would have been the same as everyone else. In the flames. He was already of that conviction before the war, because he not wanted the nazi to expand further, plus he was in search of the Allies support in case of war. But Britts denied it with no exceptions. We Italians was literally pushed in the hands of the Nazi. There was no other chance due to the fact that Hitler not respected even the neutral countries. So... Even neutrality was an option. Maybe during ww1, not in WW2. Maybe we could had some chances to form an alliance with the Soviets since we had actually some good relationships with them but... The ideological differences was a huge obstacle and Stalin would have not see this as a prop in case of Nazi attack. He would have rather fight alone instead of allowing the fascists to help him. It was a huge propagandist issue. From 1919 to 1941 saying that fascism and Capitalism was the main enemies and then having a fascist regime as major allied? No way. So in order to get an ipotethical alliance with them, we Italians would have get rid of Mussolini and the whole fascist regime. Unthinkable. Moreover, we was also deeply unprepared for whatever war wasn't played on the Alps against France. So... Again, another major issue. Mussolini knew all these things and had no chances than join the Axis and show to his cursed student that he and Italy was worthy of surviving the purge of the Nazi. We could have hoped to become some kind of slaves for the nazi, but at least, we would have also survived. And through surviving we would have also put the basis for our revenge. Since every country that won too easily starts to underestimate threats, then also Germans would have underestimated us. That was the plan of Mussolini. Survive no matter what. And we indeed survived. Turn of events granted us a situation unclear when our country was officially knocked out of the war, so our army and irregular troops was able to fight back without the chance for Nazi to accuse us of doing purposely something against them. Officially, post war Kingdom of Italy was hostile to the nazi, but also officially no troops was sent to fight. Unofficially instead, we had thousands of soldiers and partisans in irregular formations that actively tried to kill, destroy and crippling their war machine in Northern Italy after 1943. Unfortunately we had also many under their command. Having taken hostage the entire Northern Italy, the people there was forced to obey in order to not see mass murders between civilians. And between them there was also the fanatics of the fascist regime or even those who really wanted to become germans/nazi. People that in time we made disappear in the void. Nobody's escape here. That's why there wasn't a Nurnberg for Italians. You know it's a thing of the family, everything must remain in the family. So our criminals, except the most notorious and difficult to hit, was one by one canceled by our state. You don't see real fascists around or people that proudly say "my grandpa was a fascist", well, except for Alexandra Mussolini of course. 🤣🤣🤣 That's because there are also many more others that are instead sons or grandsons of partisans or monarchist loyalists. In those years of chaos, many disappeared without leaving any trace. But, by the way, we was able to liberate Northern Italy and, thanks to our efforts, international community and especially America saws in us a valuable allied as we are today. Of course the idea that we was traitors followed us for all these years. For example, in Somalia we was busy keeping peace and disarming the population after the Britts, in WW2, have basically filled them with any kind of weapons. Not to mention also the Soviets that was busy in building uprisings in every countries controlled or influenced by the west. In 1993, one year before the American "Black Hawk Down", we had the same experience. But instead of fighting an entire city of rebels, and perhaps kill them all just to obtain some vague and irrelevant goal, we managed to keep the peace by simply talking with these people and dealing agreements with them. It was a huge success, we had free way to return to our duty, Somalian was quite satisfied, food and medicines was prontly brought to the city and everything was quite normal. For one year, then with the arriving of the Americans, they had to challenge the city in a deadly combat. 😑 We basically lost everything we managed to build from the '50s to 1994. Same story in Libya when in 2014 or whatever Britts and French had to enter the country, kill Gheddafi, bomb the shit out of the libyans and then call momma America for help. Ruining in the process everything we had made to stabilize that country and to make Gheddafi talk with us and agree with our plans, plans that would have made him a quite good leader, instead of just a dictator of a third world country. In both cases French, Britts and Americans called us "traitors" because our foreign policy wasn't the same as theirs. That means "bombs, destroy everything, kill whatever it moves" etc. They have yet to realize that they can't dominate this world again and in order to secure their border they have not only respect those countries, even if they are weaker than us, but also deals with them in a civil way. That's the way Italy is moving from the second post-war to today. We send our armies to foreign countries but we give the army tasks that are unconventional: protect civilians, reconstruct stuff, train police forces, teach civilians so they can find a job, etc. The job of our armed forces in these last three decades is one of the most underrated, unknown and surprisingly most efficient jobs ever made by military forces in the modern era. Many, even in Italy, don't know it and they just reason for stereotypes about not the second, but even the first world War, believing that wars are still fight in trench. Instead, wars are fight in fields of culture, civil engineering, technological development, economical development, trade agreements, the best you are in dealing diplomatocally with other countries, the best you can win a war. Armies are just a tool to make it possible. But in Europe we still have countries like France, that believes in wars like what Napoleon did. Fools. Nature premiate smart people, not stupid bulls that charges heads down.
@@mattia6387 per scriverlo poco. Per raccogliere tutte queste informazioni diversi anni. È incredibile notare che solo da dieci-quindici anni in Italia si comincia ad usare la rete correttamente. Prima di allora, non esistevano quasi informazioni riguardanti l'Italia di quel periodo. E per lo più erano tutte su carta ed in italiano. Gli stranieri vanno avanti pensando che tutto ciò che la propaganda di guerra britannica corrisponda a verità ed hanno così sviluppato una immagine piuttosto falsata del nostro paese e della nostra gente.
@@mattia6387 il bello dei revisionisti è che non sanno di cosa parlano . Mussolini , che guidava una nazione devastata dalla 1 guerra mondiale e dalle sanzioni impostegli a causa delle ''imprese coloniali '' , divenne alleato di hitler per accaparrarsi il bottino di guerra (come dice Ciano nei suoi diari ) . L'unico problema (al netto dei principi etici e morali ) fu che l'italia non riuscì ad armare ed a vestire nemmeno 350k soldati mentre le altre nazioni contavano su eserciti formati da milioni di soldati armati fino ai denti .
Thousands of Italians and Germans immigrated to Latin America in the late 1800s. This is why you see a lot of Italian last names today especially in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile.
Hello Jabzy, I love this video. It give a great view on what claims Italy had in their history. You included claims I had never heard of. Great job. I would like to see a video for all Dutch claims and their dreams. As a Dutchman myself, I know we had claims all over the globe. It might be a lot of work but I would definetly watch it. Keep up the good work.
TLDR : west bank of the Rhine, parts of Sudan to connect subsahara to the Indian ocean, a good chunk of india, and maybe more control over south china's economy
37:40 Tunisia was first under German occupation, not italian, who joined them fleeing from the eastern desert, and that wasn’t until November 1942 in response to Operation Torch.
Well when the Germans, and later Italians, first started sending troops there to Tunisia in late 1942 it was still under French colonial control and loyal to the pro-German Petain regime. Then as Italy reeled from the defeat in Egypt at El Alamein, they tried to help boost sinking morale by officially annexing the long-coveted Tunisia, Italy’s “fourth shore” with its huge Italian settler population and garrisons of Italian and German troops, in December 1942, merging it with Italian Libya to form Italian North Africa. Of course all of Libya was then lost within weeks, after having been Italian since 1911, a crushing blow, and then Tunisia was lost a few months later in May 1943, having been part of Italy’s empire for just 6 months.
Interesting! That said, I wish someone makes an uchronia where Italiens found the major oil field in Cyrenaica that Will only je round in 1959 in out timeline. Or even the smaller oil fields in Albania.
They Found them but the American where the only One to Own augers that could go that Deep. the negotiations between Italians and American expired for the invasion of Poland
Oil fields were found in Libia by Ardito Desio in 1939. Unfortunately the war broke out some months later, and that discovery could not be used in italian favour.
@@theend6966 yes, actually, if the right peaple are in charge, and, anyhow, radical nationalism worsens judgement ability on this matter, so it makes it easier to enter disastrous war and thinking it will be easy. Just think of the suicidal expansionism of the Axis Powers that led them to enemies they could not overcome or alternatively of the US, a traditionally very patriotic country, that has countinously lost guerrilla wars in the Third World that The thought they could win in a minute (or simply DIDN'T think at all).
LET'S BE OBJECTIVE!! The main military powers that fought for years in WW2 were six :On one side Germany ,Italy and Japan .On the other side USA ,Russia,UK .That's it .Italy fought on two continents and four seas with 3.400.000 men (considering army ,navy ,aviation ,auxiliaries).Let's see some points: 1)First of all this video doesn't explain that before the ww2 Italy had two war campaignes in Ethiopia(1935-1936) and Spain civil war(1936-1939) and used a lot of resources to fight and finish those campaignes, for this reason wasn't ready in 1940. 2) REGIA MARINA:The Italian fleet was the fourth in the world in 1940, it had the same tonnage of navy like France .The Littorio Class was the backbone of the navy with the 3 huge battleships: Littorio ,Vittorio Veneto and Roma(in 1940 they were considered the most powerful battleships in the world like artillery.). The Regia Marina had very great successes with submarines ,they fought in fourth different seas:Mediterranean Sea, in the Red Sea,in the Persian Gulf and in the Atlantic Ocean. ,with 1750 missions and the sinking of 132 merchant ships and 18 military ships,Italy lost 128 submarines of the totaly 172.The X Mas ,was a special unit of assault and raid of the Regia Marina ,with great success of sinking to the Royal Navy. 3)REGIA AERONAUTICA:The Italian Air Force had in 1940: 1300 medium bomber ,1160 fighter aircaftt, 500 recoinassence aircraft .It had very good warfighters like Macchi 202 and Macchi 205,Fiat G 55 and the Reggiane RE 2005 (maybe the most beautiful airplane of the WW2) .Italy built from (1940 to 1943) 11508 airplanes(always less in comparison with the othern nations). Only the fourth squadron destroyed 585 airplanes plus 215 probably .The SM 79 was an amazing medium bomber ,very effcient as torpedo bomber ,infact sinked a lot of military ships (Fearless ,Bedouin ,Nestor ,Foresight,Pozarica ecc).The sum of the official ranking of the(only) flying aces is of 1225 shooting down aircrafts.(The highest is Franco Lucchini with 26). 4)REGIO ESERCITO AND SPECIAL FORCES The Italian Army fought in Russia,Yugoslavia,Greece,North Africa ,and South -East Africa with 1.800000 soldiers in 75 divisions(not all well-equipped). Very good were the machine guns Breda 30 and 36, the mortar 81mm, Beretta 38 submachine .Italy built very good armoured cars like the autoblinda 40 and 41 and the SPA Viberti AS 42 ,and only the the tank 105/25 m43.The Special forces like Folgore ,Bersaglieri ,Alpini ,The X Mas ecc were very combative .The Folgore fought in North Africa for 3 years stopping the best English troops. 5)VICTORIES AND HEROIC BATTLE: - El Alamein in the 1942 -The last charge of Izbusenskij of the cavalry Savoy in Croazia in the 1942 - The sinking of the Queen Elizabeth and Valiant by the X Mas in the 1941 -Pantelleria air-naval battle with the sinking of the Burdwan ,Chan and Kentucky and the damage of many others in the 1942 -The battle of August 1942 with the sinking of Manchester ,Cairo and the damage of Nigeria ,Kenya ,Brisbane ecc -The sinking of York and Pericles in the Sudan Bay by the X Mas 1941 - Italian conquest of British Somalia - 1940 -Italian conquest of Cassala,Gallabat and Kurmuk (British-Egypt Sudan)1940; So there are a lot of victories of Italy in ww2(i have wrote only some) ,but Italy lost the war and the winners write the history for this reason there are a lot of fake videos like this .For sure Italy wasn't so bad, but don't worry you can read books(as "Courage Alone" of Chris Dunning) and check on internet .And don't forget ITALY was the first nation to use airplanes in combat in Libia in 1911 and to built the first jet plane Campini Caproni without propeller. Also did a lot of world air records in the 30s .Bye
The Portuguese were not neutral, the fought on the allied side in world war 1. It's documented heavily that their expeditionary force fought on the Western front and the navy participated in convoy duty
Absolutely full compliments on your most excellent documentary! A real pleasure to give compliments so well deserved by your top coverage of the whole story of Italy especially post WW1. For example, a trivial minor example perhaps to many if not most, that of Jubaland: you make mention of it first as a « possibility », claims etc and so thought I, fair enough where so many others that compile « dossiers » on the rise and fall of Mussolini, ignore it…and more likely are ignorant, aye repeat,are ignorant of it…at least he /aka you mention it (so if you might make no further mention of it, « I would let you off any criticism (😇) « )…But no! You do not let yourself down, you close the final buckle and come back to its final transfer in 1924..! Bingo and well done for the detail…so essential in documentaries…where so many just « gloss over » more out of either pure ignorance or mental laziness and it’s difficult to know which! So many elsewhere really ought to bow their craniums in respect towards your documentary because they cast prétentions over their wanton coverage like a major highway (the subject documentary) left unrepaired of the holes in its surface thinking no one will know the difference…etc etc. Am impressed by your total coverage, others ought to make the effort to follow your example. Your vocal delivery deserves praise as well, as balanced, unhurried yet purposeful and respectful in tone of the items under reference. Excellent and I wish you well with sincere thanks for your study and efforts made available to us all!
I loved this video but something tjst dose i terest me is that in 1942 (i think) Hitler offered to guarantee the British empire for peace. So i'd be interested to see of Britain considering this plan where offered any kind of co concessions for such a peace.
@@alexzero3736 from what iv heard there was attempts might have been in 41 but there was more than the attempted peace after the fall of France and the German attempts in 45.
@@The_Alt_Vault the offer was made immediately following the fall of france so late 1940. By 1942 hitler had mostly dismissed britain until the U.S joined and was almost entirely focused on invading the USSR
A Jewish state in Ethiopia isn't implausable. There is a region around Gondar (Split between Amhara and Tigray regions) named Beta Israel where many Ethiopian Jews have resided for millenia. Those Jews practice a sect closer to Karaite Judaism than the mostly Talmudic settlers of Israel though so there might be a bit of internal conflict.
Italy establishes the colonies of Nordägypten and Sueskanal out of the northern halve of Egypt. plus Corsica, part of Croatia, and a small section of Southeastern France including Nice aswell as Switzerland particularly the Swiss canton of Ticino and Grisons Other territories include Greece, most of the former Yugoslavia, Crete, Cyprus, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Ethiopia, and Somalia
Full-blooded American of Sicilian ancestry here. I can tell you from my many sojourns to Italy 🇮🇹 that no average Italian cared one spaghetti noodle about any of that stuff. The Roman military culture died out in the 5th Century, and nothing ever replaced it. Their successors, the French, the Germans, and eventually even the British learned what the Italians learned before them. Conquering the world 🌍 never works out, and it just isn’t worth it. Italian soldiers and sailors were not cowards, just unmotivated. Like the cavalrymen and Native American of “F Troop.” they weren’t mad at anybody.
You mentioned that Hungary wanted some of Romania, and besides for the fact that they wanted all their land back even the 1 little village which voted to stay in Hungary yet was given to Austria, it wasn't wanting part of another country it was wanting part of their country that had just been taken from them. And they did go to war with basically everyone to try to get it back, meaning that even without Hitler there would've been a WW2
The Italians were good allies and they were smart. They knew we had no real interest in Africa so had we won the whole continent would have belonged to Italy
@@fasuto8656 You don't go war with ideal partners, you go to war with whoever you can find. And in fairness to Italians they came to Berlin in 1935 and said they wouldn't be ready for war until 1940. But if we had waited until then Britain and France could have potentially built up their forces.
We don't what would happen if Hitler delayed the war, rearmament was in progress in all major countries. But what s more important system of international alliances was in change, as German influence was growing and French, British influence lowered. Germany could establish different alliances, most profitable ones would be German-Polish or German-Turkey alliances. With it Germany would have enough manpower to actually take down USSR.
I would never said it before, yet this video made me feel sorry for Mussolini. Imagine: you're going to show for your people a "third path", the only righteous and good thing at all in modern politics - or whatever you like portraying it - then some sort of fanboy mimics you and achieves your political success just as well as you did. He tried to attack your sphere of influence first, but you had kept him at bay, only to be your successes turned upside down in the next few years, as well as it happened with your own position - from being the master with successful and shrewd apprentice, you ended up to being a mere servant of the latter one. No wonder now why did Victor Emmanuel III approved a coup against the misery Mussolini induced upon Italy.
11:59 "Link to the Atlantic Ocean" through Libya and Cameroon? The straight-line distance is 1890 miles, across the Sahara Desert and through savanna and jungle. Building a railroad there would be a massive construction project, something like building half of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Can you imagine how much cost it would add to anything shipped end-to-end? Not just the rail portion, but unloading and reloading freight at each end?
It could have been glorious! ... And quickly fall back apart like Germany, Japan and the USSR. But for a moment, it would've been cool to see a Neo-Roman Empire.
Fun Fact: Only 2,83% of the population of Austrian Dalmatia were Italian Speakers according to the 1910 census. More than half of them residing in the city of Zara. So talking about a “large number” in the early 20th Century is a bit misleading.
@E Nice I would have multiple explanations: 1. Do you count Istria as part of Dalmatia? Cause I don’t. Also I didn’t include Hungarian Dalmatia though only Fiume had any significant amount of Italians there. 2. Some Italians might have spoken Croatian or Serbian and said such in the census. 3. Some might have claimed to be Italian or claimed Italian ancestry to escape Communism. But honestly, the major part might honestly be Istria.
@@pilum3705 Right, it's not like the Habsburg actively pursued the eradication of the Italian culture from those lands, is it? Central and Southern Italian dialects are part of a sub-branch of Romance languages called Italo-DALMATIAN. I'll let you figure this out by yourself. Plus, Dalmatia was promised to Italy anyway for joining the Entente during WWI: it works like this in international matters. If it didn't, we should immediately reclaim Nice and Savoy from France, but we don't.
@Matteo Bertotti It is indeed true that the Linguistic Category has this name but the problem is that the Dalmatian Language itself already became extinct in the 19th Century. The closest related language “Istriot” is still existent though (Though with currently less 1.000 Speakers). This comes back to my main point though: Outside of coastal cities like Zara and Fiume (which were in fact majority Italian in the early 20th Century) Dalmatia just didn’t have a big linguistically Italian Population anymore. They were mostly present in Istria which Italy actually obtained after WW1. Apart from that: Yeah, Italy definitely got scammed by the Entente. (Fun Fact btw: Austrian Vorarlberg had a bigger percentage of Italian Speakers in 1910 than Austrian Dalmatia. Should have claimed that instead)
Couple Mistakes - Nice and Savoy are mislabeled. And I said Straits of Messina, not the Straits of Sicily.
It Is called Stretto di Messina in Italy
@@luigidavidemicca4278 I meant the strait in the south of sicily - opposite Tunisia
@@JabzyJoe Please talk about the history of human rights violations in Egypt and its use of Islam to cover up their crimes
@@JabzyJoe Your follower from the stricken Egypt
@@JabzyJoe can you tell us the sources of Italian ambitions on the interland of lybia, Cameroon and Angola in WW1 and on the ambitions in WW2? Like books, documents, etc
Italy's long and poor political presence prior to WW1 wasn't something reversible hence a more realistic and humble perspective on gaining lands would've turned out better
Idk if would necessarily consider 43 years a "long" political presence.. *shrug*
But it was definitely of a poor quality.
Colonialism Light..... now with half the genocide.
"Realistic and humble" and Mussolini were on different planes of existence...
@@ohno8569 I mean colonialism didn’t always equal genocide
@@tootlingturtle7254It always involved the native people being killed, it is human nature to fight invaders. I saw a mouse got killed today another mouse, invasion of territory plain and simple.
Actually one of the main reasons why italy looked at tunisia as a possible colony was because at the time tunisia was an highly italianized area of north africa and (also due to the fact that it is quite close to the coasts of sicily and southern italy) many Italians lived there, it was already percieved as a part of the country. That's why the french conquest had such an impact on the italian public opinion
Did the Tunisians view themselves as italians? I guess not,
@@felixmbandandayitabi4536 yeah, who cares about tunisians
italy cared about italians not tunisians
@@bokonoo77 guys like @Marco Castelli have a "Karen Blixen" vision of history. They are so steeped into an eurocentric/colonialistic mindset that they can, without blushing, say that Tunisia was italianised as if the indigenous arabo-berber population, 95 % of the inhabitants didn't exist.
@@felixmbandandayitabi4536think he is referring to the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. The Hautevilles ruled Tunisia for around 50 years
There were more Italians living in French Tunisia than Frenchmen, in fact. At the time, it was one of Africa’s most European colonies, at around 9% white settlers. It’s not at all far-fetched for Italy to imagine it coming under its grasp at the time.
Full blooded Eritrean here. Raised in the states, but visited Eritrea as a teenager. It's crazy how much our capital city of Asmara looks so similar to Rome. It's to bad the Ethiopians did everything they could to destroy it during our 30 year war of independence against from from 1961-1991 (which we won by the way!).
Whats the point of your “win” in independence when now Eritrea is far worse than where it was before “independence”?
@@Monkofthecaribbean I could take a certain time out of evey country in the world's existence and say it was far worse here than it was there. Every nation and people write their own narrative.
What was America doing in 1803 (the distance of years from when America got her independence in comparison to distance from when Eritrea got independent in 1993 to present (29 years)?
Probobly not a whole much either. Anywhere any place in the world has its negatives, as it does its positives.
@@Monkofthecaribbean why don't you become my property, you'll have a good time.
Cool. Thanks for this post. Regards from America.
@@CautionCU I've lived in the states since I was 21 months old as an infant. I'm in my thirties now. We're both in America. What part? I'm representing that greater Pacific NorthWest America baby!
Very amazingly done. Italy as an ally of Germany during WWII was often overlooked as being an insignificant player. Your video actually shows how ambitious they were in idealizing their desire for a Mediterranean empire - Mare Nostrum. Although Italy was not successful, it was still interesting to learn the kind of influence they enjoy in Europe, Latin America and the Islamic world before preforming so terribly during war.
Italy was not "insignificant" and not "terrible" if not for utter ignorant like you (korean am I wrong?) Had about 450.000 dead in second world war and 650.000 in the first, and many heroic deeds, so learn before speaking and now STFU!
Latin Europe was no better France and Italy were useless
Performing so terribly? Like China against Japan?
Look, pal, Italy was already exausted from the wars against Ethiopia (wrong and anti-historical, but won) and Republican Spain (Franco owes his victory largely to Italy, but all remember Guadalayara defeat)......the alliance with Germany was a mistake. A terrible one.
And after all, Italy lasted longer than France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway.....
Italy conquered 5 countries, was awarded the territory they won in France, and won the Spanish civil war vs. the Communist. Aside from Russia and Germany no other European country performed better, or stated another way, Italy was the 3rd best performing European country of the war.
The fact that they were ambitious doesn't mean they were not insignificant
They, in the grand scheme of things - were insignificant because of their ineptitude. Even Finland with a fraction of the economy and population was more influental on the war.
You are by far my favorite history channel on the platform. Apart from the value of the topics you cover, the quality of production is top notch as well. Good work man, you deserve many more subs.
The reason Italy started to look for colonies after its unification as very little to do with the ancient past (propaganda aside) and much more to do with the age Italy finally became a united entity. It was the age of colonialism and any aspiring european power thought they needed colonies to compete with their neighbours. Italy was no different, although it was far weaker than nations like France, England, Germany and even the Austro-Hungarian empire.
As for WWII involvement, Mussolini's choice was basically down to political miscalculation. He and his generals were well aware Italy was not ready for war but, after the nazis overwhelmed the French and the English he thought he just needed to declare war to an already defeated France to gain territory (he was famously quoted claiming "I just need an handful of dead bodies to throw on the peace table"). In practice even this minimal effort went badly (Italy lost quite a few troops when trying to invade France) and later on the idea that the war was basically over proved to be completely wrong. The funthing is, if the allied forces had not been so soundly defeated by the Germans Mussolini would have never declared war and history could have developed in a radically different manner.
1. Show me where that Mussolini quote exists and CONFIRMED.
2. It was the GERMANS who tricked Mussolini into WORLD war breraking the Pact of Steel only 4 months later never telling him they intended to invade Poland.
3.Italy conquered 5 countries, was awarded the territory they won in France, and won the Spanish civil war vs. the Communist. Aside from Russia and Germany no other European country performed better, or stated another way, Italy was the 3rd best performing European country of the war.
No it was not the age of colonialism ended in the 1600s they would get more land in 1884 but after that Europeans rarely ever did any true colonialism after the United States became the new superpower of the world
Not really. Mussolini was always going to be aligned with Germany politically. And then there's Hitler's famous line to Mussolini "Either you're with us, or we're coming for you"
@@targaflorio3239 hahaha...BS, Hitler never said that.
@@ivanmargosdoesEverything.2923 the age of colonialism goes up until at least the scramble for africa. The U.S also was not the worlds superpower until 1945 and the only superpower until 1991 when the USSR fell. You're points dont really correlate much and the first part was just incorrect
Count Galeazzo Ciano was Mussolini's son in-law. The Ciano Diaries 1939 - 1943. He was the Italian Foreign Minister from 1936 to 1943. I enjoy your work, thank you very much.
As side note, just as Balbo, Ciano was not happy with Germany as ally.
@@alexzero3736 in fact, Ciano voted in favor of Italy allying with the Americans and “impeaching” Mussolini from government. He was captured and killed in 1945 by the Nazis.
Great job and amazing research you've done. Also appreciate the historical impartiality with which is presented.
I really hope that when Italy gets a rework in HOI4 that the anti-German path gets Balbo as the leader and not Mussolini, and we get the option to have all the territory shown in the end as the end goal of the tree
Closest thing we have it’s La Vittoria è Nostra mod that gives Italy a big focus tree and you can go whatever ideology. And there’s a secret focus tree with the Papal States or you can go fascist and do either Roman Empire or Italian empire.
Edit:oh I forgot to mention that all the possibilities that were mentioned in this video (the fascist ones) there are in the focus tree such as the Latin Entente. And I hope they rework CAS in the next DLC
Edit: well now they announced the new Italian dlc soo yea
As an Italy main, the italian tree sucks so bad that it's good, due to simplicity.
@@jetmaster2315 it just lacks the alt-history that I like in the other trees. I like seeing new flags and formables
Maybe a bit too much land
@@nikoclesceri2267 That‘s my main motivation to play HOI IV. Selecting some country and imagining an alternative history. That‘s why I love Road to 56, because it offers alternative ideologies for most major nations (and lots of small ones).
I can imagine a world where italy, spain, france, yugoslavia and hungary could have existed separately from the nnazis. Would be an interesting setting for an alternate history book.
It’s called TNO
@@B1345-q2s Do you even know what France looks like in TNO?
@@concept5631 well it almost all makes sense bar France
@@B1345-q2s Yugoslavia doesn't exist in TNO.
This could be real, if Mussolini never changed his stance as protector of Austria, or if he was persuaded to join the allies again. But France and Uk not offered anything this time.
Expectation ; Reviving the Roman empire
Reality ; Not even owning Corsica
@Nenenin Donu we don't need Corsica, I am not sure if the people living there are even able to speak in italian, or they just talk in french or another dialect. Plus it brings back bad memories of Napoleon and french occupation, especially in North Italy 😅 and as an island it is not even close to be as big and beautiful as Sardegna or Sicilia are anyway (pretty sure both of them have way more tourists than Corsica, and not just from Italy)
@@vados8500 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corsican_language#Examples_of_the_main_Corsican_varieties_compared_with_standard_Italian_and_Elba's_Tuscan_dialect
Corse language is a variety from the Italic group of languages. I don't know if they have less torusim than Sardinia, but good for them: people say that Corsica is more beautiful because have more mountains, it's good to preserve it from mass torusim
@@sergicb1533 more mountains of Sicily? Etna is 3000.
Not even taking malta
This video was simply perfect: perfect music, perfect tone of voice, perfect speed, perfect thought, perfect style... Make more like this one because it was super interesting and a joy to watch!!!
Colonialism was such a weird fever dream, especially the new imperialism overstretch before WW1. As an anecdote about how pervasive the idea was during the time, there was a movement among Finnish upper classes to acquire "Amboland" in Northern Namibia to be a Finnish colony.... It was reasoned through the longtime missionary efforts in the area and the requirement for a European country to have a colony in order to be properly independent. All this during the 1920's when our country was less than a decade old and South Africa already firmly in charge there.
It seems ridiculous and crazy today of course, and even then it wasn't a proper mainstream idea, but it does show that truly no country with a sea access in Europe could completely resist the contagion.
"If Italy ever became tyrannical, I wouldn't hesitate to turn my sword against her" Giuseppe Garibaldi
IMHO Garribaldi should do more in politics. He greatly assisted to unification under Sardinian king, but opposing to his dreams Italy turned conservative, as Sardinia-Piedmont just expanded on whole peninsula. Garribaldi s friend Mazzini was against monarchy btw. Sardinia-Piedmont was best bet as unifier but people movement led by Garribaldi could still demand reforms.
@@alexzero3736 *should have done
Please link some sort of a source I cannot find anything suggesting he said this
@@alexzero3736 Actually it has been Garibaldi the one to fight in the South Italy, the Savoy didn't even want to declare war because they couldn't know what would happen.
Garibaldi understood that fighting for the Savoy would be the only way to unify Italy. Moreover, for a while he ruled in South Italy but he didn't know no one and he often trusted of the wrong people.
He didn't really like politics and he wasn't good in politics as in war
A real patriot and Italian
Great research on the topic! As an Italian I can mostly agree on what you’ve said, I do disagree however on the post ww1 territorial gains of Italy.
In the “Pact of London” signed by ,if I’m not mistaken, the Uk, France and the Russian Empire. This document stated that Italy could not seek any separate peace with the Central Powers and that she would be rewarded with: Trent, Istria,Dalmatia,a portion of southern Anatolia, a southern expansion of Libia, some German colonies in Africa and an expansion of the Tianjin concession. Of all of this what did Italy gain for her massive struggle, in one of ,if not the most, brutal fronts of the war? Trent,Istria and a southern expansion of Libia; no german colonies were gained and lands that were explicitly promised in the above mentioned treaty like Dalmatia were given to Yugoslavia. So I think that it’s expectable for a country promised so much for a common and brutal struggle against tyranny and then be rewarded with the leftovers of Versailles to be outraged and to feel backstabbed
Yeah it's interesting, I think because Italy had failled to move the front very much that was the main reason that not much was given but certainly there were some huge losses. One of the colonies could probably have been given, all in all though I doubt it would have changed much, ambitions seem to have considerably exceeded anything that might have realistically been accomplished or given. Plus looking at how Lybia, Eritrea and Somalia turned out it would not necessarily have been a good thing...
@@tomriley5790 Italian army arrived in Austria's capital tho, what about allied troops on the western front?
The problem was not about some colonies, the most outrage was provoked by giving Rijeka and 90% of Dalmatia to Yugoslavia/Serbia. Rijeka had Italian speaking majority and Dalmatian coast was crucial to control Adriatic sea. Italy aimed to replace Austria-Hungary as dominant player in the region, but got another rival instead. British and USA disapproval of London pact after the war made Italy stay as limited regional power. Also D Annuzio march to Fiume was instrumental for rising popularity of fascism.
Why Italy was not given Dalmatia for a multiple reasons, Woodrow Wilson promoted nation self-determination and believed that Dalmatia must be Yugoslavian. Britain and France were disappointed by pact with Italy due to low military efficiency of Italian army, as was told, Italy would get what it conquered by arms. Actually Italian defeat at Caporetto did pull some french and British divisions from Western front. And later after victory at the Piave river, Italy delayed counterattack as much as possible. Battle of Vittorio Veneto come to late to actually help Western front.
Also Britain wanted to limit both Italian and French ambitious to just don't get a new rival right after the war.
@@lorenzo4408 The Italian army did not reach Vienna or Budapest
You do realise italy performance was very poor and didnt tip the balance of power
Trying to revive the Roman Empire was like trying to restore a decayed corpse to life. You can try to sew it back together but it's not really going to live again, except perhaps as a shambling zombie
@@gloomsouls we did and still do we just didn’t want to act like the Germans
It’s really cringe larp they need to stop
A shambling zombie is better then none
zombies roman empire sounds like an interesting film idea.
@@couldbeanybody2508 no
This is great and accurate. It's great to see Italian history content in English, glad to see I am not alone in this.
Awesome stuff. Love to hear about the politics and ambitions during the interwar period. Glad to stumble upon the channel.
A way better video than I was expecting considering how poor the discussion on Italy in the 1st half of the 20th century is.
Amazing video, watched it a couple of times and doesn't seem to get old to me. I really don't know why but I find italian history so interesting.
I'd love to see what an Italian Africa, the Italian Balkans and an Italian Levante would have looked like. Which wars would we have been able to avoid, which new ones would we have gotten instead.
@@stevej71393 They controlled Libya for 30 years fighting off rebellions all the way including the 'Lion of the Desert' only losing it and the rest of their conquests to the Allies.
Real.
It’s never too late to realize those same goals
@@romanc1382 facts
@@stevej71393 They would've kept Eritrea and Libya, and probably would've italianized Libya
Liking these longer vids.
19:08 wait so Macedonian separatists actually brought Greece and Turkey onto the same side for once?!
So did Bulgaria in the Second Balkan War
The Ottoman Empire was in a transition phase towards Turkish nationalism. So, yes
Yes, Greeks are our wives and we support our wives even though they are a little bitchy.
Back then they were not even called Macedonians
Not "separtists". Irridentists.
I've never knew a lot of things in this video, as an italian! Excellent work
Very well made and analyzed video. Superb. I love your work.
"Italy has a large appetite but poor teeth", Bismarck famously said. Perhaps the most tragic of Italy's colonial misfortunes is how they were handled by the Allies after WW1... they hemmed and hawed and repudiated treaties made with Italy, proposed commissions, Wilson was particularly obnoxious (and racist, as usual) and you know, in the end *after* paving the way for Mussolini to take power over the "mutilated victory" - they gave in to most of the Italian demands, ceding them Istria, the Julian March, Zadar, many of the Dalmation islands plus a "Free State of Fiume" that was soon annexed by Italy. They could've saved themselves a lot of future trouble if they just honored their treaties in the first place.
Exactly
Well Italy didn't get the Dalmatian coast, anything in Turkey, or any new colonies. It was a pretty poor showing.
Anyways, the reason they got sidelined at the peace conference was their incredibly poor showing during the war.
@@pax6833 Italy didn't because the Entente betrayed her
Italy did well during WW1, better than uk and France
@@NoName-hg6cc You are huffing copium. Italy had the worst performance of every power in the whole of the war. Even the ottomans managed to beat the Brits and Russians a few times.
Italy spent the whole war slamming their head against the Isonzo, until the very end when Austria Hungary was already collapsing from within.
@@NoName-hg6cc Italy did famously shitty in WWI. They bashed their heads into the brick wall that was Isonzo over and over again until said brick wall fell on them at Caporetto, and was only saved from complete destruction when they got the French and British aid they begged for at the last second.
The average Italian soldier was no doubt brave and made great sacrifices, but the generalship was cruel, vindictive, and useless.
Thanks for the work and research.
Man this is a interesting topic, I wonder what Spanish plans were?
During WW2 or earlier?
@@JabzyJoe I would love to see what Francos plans were because it appears that fascist dictators have a lot of plans
@@o-pitamask4698 see I was debating doing one on the conquistadors and like, their plans on China, Cambodia etc.
@Tartessic Kingdom interesting I will definitely look up some stuff
@@JabzyJoe I would personally love to see that one but do it only if it is profitable in a way cause is still business
Great video Jabzy! Please make more on videos on ancient china and governership of it and more videos about Venice
It's not true that Italy didn't have any enemy. The Austro-Hungerian Empire for Italy was like Germany for France.
Sto video è super di parte. La gente ci prende in giro solo perché ci hanno bullizzati. Letteralmente siamo sempre stati presi per il culo come il Giappone.
@@giovannigobbi4832 Italy switched sides on both world wars…. coincidence?
@@kaliningradtoczechrepublic8162 Con te non inizio nemmeno, sta storia del cambio é una minchiata, sopratutto nella prima
@@giovannigobbi4832 dont speak italian sorry
This is ww2 not ww1...
Mussolini also said: "Germans are too strong, they are destined to win the war against the Allies and the Soviets, and after that, they will look at us. We must be stronger, and resist. Survive, because despite their strength, Germans won't last forever, they will decay one day, and we must last until that day. "
@Daniele Fabbro wow so Mussolini was aware that there was a chance Hitler and the N azi would have attacked their ally Mussolini and fascist Italy eventually after every other enemy had been defeated...also that sentence about the Germans is half-prophetic, at the very least
@@vados8500 yeah, indeed. Mussolini have read Hitler's Mein Kampf and knew that Nazi saw Italians, as like every other countries of the time, as a mixed race, not pure. So not worthy. Since the nazi had no regards for human life, he perfectly knew that our destiny was bounded on their eventually benevolence if we showed enough dedication in their cause. If not, our destiny would have been the same as everyone else. In the flames.
He was already of that conviction before the war, because he not wanted the nazi to expand further, plus he was in search of the Allies support in case of war. But Britts denied it with no exceptions.
We Italians was literally pushed in the hands of the Nazi. There was no other chance due to the fact that Hitler not respected even the neutral countries. So... Even neutrality was an option. Maybe during ww1, not in WW2. Maybe we could had some chances to form an alliance with the Soviets since we had actually some good relationships with them but... The ideological differences was a huge obstacle and Stalin would have not see this as a prop in case of Nazi attack. He would have rather fight alone instead of allowing the fascists to help him. It was a huge propagandist issue. From 1919 to 1941 saying that fascism and Capitalism was the main enemies and then having a fascist regime as major allied? No way. So in order to get an ipotethical alliance with them, we Italians would have get rid of Mussolini and the whole fascist regime. Unthinkable.
Moreover, we was also deeply unprepared for whatever war wasn't played on the Alps against France. So... Again, another major issue.
Mussolini knew all these things and had no chances than join the Axis and show to his cursed student that he and Italy was worthy of surviving the purge of the Nazi.
We could have hoped to become some kind of slaves for the nazi, but at least, we would have also survived. And through surviving we would have also put the basis for our revenge. Since every country that won too easily starts to underestimate threats, then also Germans would have underestimated us. That was the plan of Mussolini. Survive no matter what. And we indeed survived.
Turn of events granted us a situation unclear when our country was officially knocked out of the war, so our army and irregular troops was able to fight back without the chance for Nazi to accuse us of doing purposely something against them.
Officially, post war Kingdom of Italy was hostile to the nazi, but also officially no troops was sent to fight.
Unofficially instead, we had thousands of soldiers and partisans in irregular formations that actively tried to kill, destroy and crippling their war machine in Northern Italy after 1943.
Unfortunately we had also many under their command. Having taken hostage the entire Northern Italy, the people there was forced to obey in order to not see mass murders between civilians. And between them there was also the fanatics of the fascist regime or even those who really wanted to become germans/nazi. People that in time we made disappear in the void. Nobody's escape here.
That's why there wasn't a Nurnberg for Italians. You know it's a thing of the family, everything must remain in the family. So our criminals, except the most notorious and difficult to hit, was one by one canceled by our state. You don't see real fascists around or people that proudly say "my grandpa was a fascist", well, except for Alexandra Mussolini of course. 🤣🤣🤣
That's because there are also many more others that are instead sons or grandsons of partisans or monarchist loyalists. In those years of chaos, many disappeared without leaving any trace.
But, by the way, we was able to liberate Northern Italy and, thanks to our efforts, international community and especially America saws in us a valuable allied as we are today.
Of course the idea that we was traitors followed us for all these years.
For example, in Somalia we was busy keeping peace and disarming the population after the Britts, in WW2, have basically filled them with any kind of weapons. Not to mention also the Soviets that was busy in building uprisings in every countries controlled or influenced by the west.
In 1993, one year before the American "Black Hawk Down", we had the same experience. But instead of fighting an entire city of rebels, and perhaps kill them all just to obtain some vague and irrelevant goal, we managed to keep the peace by simply talking with these people and dealing agreements with them.
It was a huge success, we had free way to return to our duty, Somalian was quite satisfied, food and medicines was prontly brought to the city and everything was quite normal. For one year, then with the arriving of the Americans, they had to challenge the city in a deadly combat. 😑 We basically lost everything we managed to build from the '50s to 1994.
Same story in Libya when in 2014 or whatever Britts and French had to enter the country, kill Gheddafi, bomb the shit out of the libyans and then call momma America for help. Ruining in the process everything we had made to stabilize that country and to make Gheddafi talk with us and agree with our plans, plans that would have made him a quite good leader, instead of just a dictator of a third world country.
In both cases French, Britts and Americans called us "traitors" because our foreign policy wasn't the same as theirs. That means "bombs, destroy everything, kill whatever it moves" etc.
They have yet to realize that they can't dominate this world again and in order to secure their border they have not only respect those countries, even if they are weaker than us, but also deals with them in a civil way. That's the way Italy is moving from the second post-war to today.
We send our armies to foreign countries but we give the army tasks that are unconventional: protect civilians, reconstruct stuff, train police forces, teach civilians so they can find a job, etc.
The job of our armed forces in these last three decades is one of the most underrated, unknown and surprisingly most efficient jobs ever made by military forces in the modern era. Many, even in Italy, don't know it and they just reason for stereotypes about not the second, but even the first world War, believing that wars are still fight in trench. Instead, wars are fight in fields of culture, civil engineering, technological development, economical development, trade agreements, the best you are in dealing diplomatocally with other countries, the best you can win a war. Armies are just a tool to make it possible.
But in Europe we still have countries like France, that believes in wars like what Napoleon did. Fools. Nature premiate smart people, not stupid bulls that charges heads down.
@@danielefabbro822 Complimenti per la tua conoscenza, non sapevo molte cose che hai scritto. Quanto ci hai messo a fare sto commento? 😂
@@mattia6387 per scriverlo poco. Per raccogliere tutte queste informazioni diversi anni. È incredibile notare che solo da dieci-quindici anni in Italia si comincia ad usare la rete correttamente. Prima di allora, non esistevano quasi informazioni riguardanti l'Italia di quel periodo. E per lo più erano tutte su carta ed in italiano. Gli stranieri vanno avanti pensando che tutto ciò che la propaganda di guerra britannica corrisponda a verità ed hanno così sviluppato una immagine piuttosto falsata del nostro paese e della nostra gente.
@@mattia6387 il bello dei revisionisti è che non sanno di cosa parlano . Mussolini , che guidava una nazione devastata dalla 1 guerra mondiale e dalle sanzioni impostegli a causa delle ''imprese coloniali '' , divenne alleato di hitler per accaparrarsi il bottino di guerra (come dice Ciano nei suoi diari ) . L'unico problema (al netto dei principi etici e morali ) fu che l'italia non riuscì ad armare ed a vestire nemmeno 350k soldati mentre le altre nazioni contavano su eserciti formati da milioni di soldati armati fino ai denti .
That’s a great rendition of the M13/40 tank. Incredible video, thanks as always.
Thousands of Italians and Germans immigrated to Latin America in the late 1800s. This is why you see a lot of Italian last names today especially in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile.
Thousands? 🤣🤣🤣
MILLIONS!!!!!
Southern Brazil have a large Italian and German heritage as well
Great video very informative keep up the good work
I would love to see a video like this but for germany and multiple possible scenarios great video btw
Hello Jabzy, I love this video. It give a great view on what claims Italy had in their history. You included claims I had never heard of. Great job. I would like to see a video for all Dutch claims and their dreams. As a Dutchman myself, I know we had claims all over the globe. It might be a lot of work but I would definetly watch it. Keep up the good work.
I hope Paradox is taking notes. This is their goldmine for a Mare Nostrum DLC. So many alt history faction possibilities.
Definitely do more of these potential empire videos. Would love to see one for France.
TLDR :
west bank of the Rhine, parts of Sudan to connect subsahara to the Indian ocean, a good chunk of india, and maybe more control over south china's economy
I think the french colonial empire has been a little bit more than potential...
The portugese youth groups werent giving "nazi salutes" they were giving roman salutes which also happened to be used by the nazis.
You should make videos on unknown recent wars such as the 2 congo wars, nepalese civil war, sri lankan civil war and tajik civil war
37:40 Tunisia was first under German occupation, not italian, who joined them fleeing from the eastern desert, and that wasn’t until November 1942 in response to Operation Torch.
Well when the Germans, and later Italians, first started sending troops there to Tunisia in late 1942 it was still under French colonial control and loyal to the pro-German Petain regime.
Then as Italy reeled from the defeat in Egypt at El Alamein, they tried to help boost sinking morale by officially annexing the long-coveted Tunisia, Italy’s “fourth shore” with its huge Italian settler population and garrisons of Italian and German troops, in December 1942, merging it with Italian Libya to form Italian North Africa.
Of course all of Libya was then lost within weeks, after having been Italian since 1911, a crushing blow, and then Tunisia was lost a few months later in May 1943, having been part of Italy’s empire for just 6 months.
Interesting! That said, I wish someone makes an uchronia where Italiens found the major oil field in Cyrenaica that Will only je round in 1959 in out timeline. Or even the smaller oil fields in Albania.
They Found them but the American where the only One to Own augers that could go that Deep. the negotiations between Italians and American expired for the invasion of Poland
Oil fields were found in Libia by Ardito Desio in 1939. Unfortunately the war broke out some months later, and that discovery could not be used in italian favour.
This proofs that playing both sides doesn't necerssarily mean you always come on top, more often you just upset both sides and get beat the shit out.
Also underestimation of enemy is bad thing. In both World wars Italy expected an easy walk.
@@alexzero3736 yes, that really shows the disaffection from reality nationalism can bring.
@@antoniomariamacri7500 all wars are like that, do you really think a country that expects a long bloody war would start it in the first place?
@@theend6966 yes, actually, if the right peaple are in charge, and, anyhow, radical nationalism worsens judgement ability on this matter, so it makes it easier to enter disastrous war and thinking it will be easy. Just think of the suicidal expansionism of the Axis Powers that led them to enemies they could not overcome or alternatively of the US, a traditionally very patriotic country, that has countinously lost guerrilla wars in the Third World that The thought they could win in a minute (or simply DIDN'T think at all).
Exactly what caesar did! Lmao!
Good video.
I think you've labeled Savoy as Nice and vice versa though.
Cool video, Japan, Spain, or France would be good follow ups.
LET'S BE OBJECTIVE!! The main military powers that fought for years in WW2 were six :On one side Germany ,Italy and Japan .On the other side USA ,Russia,UK .That's it .Italy fought on two continents and four seas with 3.400.000 men (considering army ,navy ,aviation ,auxiliaries).Let's see some points:
1)First of all this video doesn't explain that before the ww2 Italy had two war campaignes in Ethiopia(1935-1936) and Spain civil war(1936-1939) and used a lot of resources to fight and finish those campaignes, for this reason wasn't ready in 1940.
2) REGIA MARINA:The Italian fleet was the fourth in the world in 1940, it had the same tonnage of navy like France .The Littorio Class was the backbone of the navy with the 3 huge battleships: Littorio ,Vittorio Veneto and Roma(in 1940 they were considered the most powerful battleships in the world like artillery.). The Regia Marina had very great successes with submarines ,they fought in fourth different seas:Mediterranean Sea, in the Red Sea,in the Persian Gulf and in the Atlantic Ocean. ,with 1750 missions and the sinking of 132 merchant ships and 18 military ships,Italy lost 128 submarines of the totaly 172.The X Mas ,was a special unit of assault and raid of the Regia Marina ,with great success of sinking to the Royal Navy.
3)REGIA AERONAUTICA:The Italian Air Force had in 1940: 1300 medium bomber ,1160 fighter aircaftt, 500 recoinassence aircraft .It had very good warfighters like Macchi 202 and Macchi 205,Fiat G 55 and the Reggiane RE 2005 (maybe the most beautiful airplane of the WW2) .Italy built from (1940 to 1943) 11508 airplanes(always less in comparison with the othern nations). Only the fourth squadron destroyed 585 airplanes plus 215 probably .The SM 79 was an amazing medium bomber ,very effcient as torpedo bomber ,infact sinked a lot of military ships (Fearless ,Bedouin ,Nestor ,Foresight,Pozarica ecc).The sum of the official ranking of the(only) flying aces is of 1225 shooting down aircrafts.(The highest is Franco Lucchini with 26).
4)REGIO ESERCITO AND SPECIAL FORCES The Italian Army fought in Russia,Yugoslavia,Greece,North Africa ,and South -East Africa with 1.800000 soldiers in 75 divisions(not all well-equipped). Very good were the machine guns Breda 30 and 36, the mortar 81mm, Beretta 38 submachine .Italy built very good armoured cars like the autoblinda 40 and 41 and the SPA Viberti AS 42 ,and only the the tank 105/25 m43.The Special forces like Folgore ,Bersaglieri ,Alpini ,The X Mas ecc were very combative .The Folgore fought in North Africa for 3 years stopping the best English troops.
5)VICTORIES AND HEROIC BATTLE:
- El Alamein in the 1942
-The last charge of Izbusenskij of the cavalry Savoy in Croazia in the 1942
- The sinking of the Queen Elizabeth and Valiant by the X Mas in the 1941
-Pantelleria air-naval battle with the sinking of the Burdwan ,Chan and Kentucky and the damage of many others in the 1942
-The battle of August 1942 with the sinking of Manchester ,Cairo and the damage of Nigeria ,Kenya ,Brisbane ecc
-The sinking of York and Pericles in the Sudan Bay by the X Mas 1941
- Italian conquest of British Somalia - 1940
-Italian conquest of Cassala,Gallabat and Kurmuk (British-Egypt Sudan)1940;
So there are a lot of victories of Italy in ww2(i have wrote only some) ,but Italy lost the war and the winners write the history for this reason there are a lot of fake videos like this .For sure Italy wasn't so bad, but don't worry you can read books(as "Courage Alone" of Chris Dunning) and check on internet .And don't forget ITALY was the first nation to use airplanes in combat in Libia in 1911 and to built the first jet plane Campini Caproni without propeller. Also did a lot of world air records in the 30s .Bye
I love this kind of content, keep it up! 😉
06:00 You got Nice and Savoy flipped.
So basically Roman Empire 2.0
What a great video!
The Portuguese were not neutral, the fought on the allied side in world war 1. It's documented heavily that their expeditionary force fought on the Western front and the navy participated in convoy duty
Italy did have a natural enemy: Austria. It’s even in their national anthem
7:45 Risk™ meets Monopoly™
😔
Nobody
Jabzy:"And the likes"
absolutely fantastic video
Absolutely full compliments on your most excellent documentary! A real pleasure to give compliments so well deserved by your top coverage of the whole story of Italy especially post WW1. For example, a trivial minor example perhaps to many if not most, that of Jubaland: you make mention of it first as a « possibility », claims etc and so thought I, fair enough where so many others that compile « dossiers » on the rise and fall of Mussolini, ignore it…and more likely are ignorant, aye repeat,are ignorant of it…at least he /aka you mention it (so if you might make no further mention of it, « I would let you off any criticism (😇) « )…But no! You do not let yourself down, you close the final buckle and come back to its final transfer in 1924..! Bingo and well done for the detail…so essential in documentaries…where so many just « gloss over » more out of either pure ignorance or mental laziness and it’s difficult to know which!
So many elsewhere really ought to bow their craniums in respect towards your documentary because they cast prétentions over their wanton coverage like a major highway (the subject documentary) left unrepaired of the holes in its surface thinking no one will know the difference…etc etc.
Am impressed by your total coverage, others ought to make the effort to follow your example. Your vocal delivery deserves praise as well, as balanced, unhurried yet purposeful and respectful in tone of the items under reference.
Excellent and I wish you well with sincere thanks for your study and efforts made available to us all!
Awesome! Definitely interested in more of these
10/10 video, please do more
I loved this video but something tjst dose i terest me is that in 1942 (i think) Hitler offered to guarantee the British empire for peace. So i'd be interested to see of Britain considering this plan where offered any kind of co concessions for such a peace.
In 1942? There were efforts for peace talks in 1940. In opposite in 1942 there was naval invasion of Diep.
@@alexzero3736 from what iv heard there was attempts might have been in 41 but there was more than the attempted peace after the fall of France and the German attempts in 45.
@@The_Alt_Vault the offer was made immediately following the fall of france so late 1940. By 1942 hitler had mostly dismissed britain until the U.S joined and was almost entirely focused on invading the USSR
very interesting video, more stuff like this from other countries perspectives would be nice, such as a polish or russian one
i love these longer videos so much
A Jewish state in Ethiopia isn't implausable. There is a region around Gondar (Split between Amhara and Tigray regions) named Beta Israel where many Ethiopian Jews have resided for millenia. Those Jews practice a sect closer to Karaite Judaism than the mostly Talmudic settlers of Israel though so there might be a bit of internal conflict.
Thank you from Italy 🇮🇹
I ve stopped the video to say to you: I really appreciate you showed how italian cultures were already inclined to colonization
Italy establishes the colonies of Nordägypten and Sueskanal out of the northern halve of Egypt.
plus Corsica, part of Croatia, and a small section of Southeastern France including Nice aswell as Switzerland particularly the Swiss canton of Ticino and Grisons Other territories include Greece, most of the former Yugoslavia, Crete, Cyprus, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Ethiopia, and Somalia
27:58 Roman salute*, not nazi salute. The Nazi's were not the first to use it, and it was a symbol of Fascism before the Nazi's used it as well.
Pure pedantry
Full-blooded American of Sicilian ancestry here. I can tell you from my many sojourns to Italy 🇮🇹 that no average Italian cared one spaghetti noodle about any of that stuff. The Roman military culture died out in the 5th Century, and nothing ever replaced it. Their successors, the French, the Germans, and eventually even the British learned what the Italians learned before them. Conquering the world 🌍 never works out, and it just isn’t worth it. Italian soldiers and sailors were not cowards, just unmotivated. Like the cavalrymen and Native American of “F Troop.” they weren’t mad at anybody.
There weren't many Italians in Dalmatia at all. Those which were in Dalmatia were in cities mostly and didn't make up majority.
Wonder why...
@@animeXcaso Because they never lived there naturally rather just settled it when they took power
In the thumbnail, I bet when Caesar saw Mussolini he was like : Hey, who's this bald head next to me? "
I think it would be interesting if you did this for all of the Axis
Yes, more please!
Would love to see ones for Tsarist or American plans for after WW1
this was a very good video.
You mentioned that Hungary wanted some of Romania, and besides for the fact that they wanted all their land back even the 1 little village which voted to stay in Hungary yet was given to Austria, it wasn't wanting part of another country it was wanting part of their country that had just been taken from them. And they did go to war with basically everyone to try to get it back, meaning that even without Hitler there would've been a WW2
Really accurate. My compliments. I left a like and subscribed.
I would love to see this style again but for Japan
Should be Germany in ww1 then Japan.
Great job!
The Italians were good allies and they were smart. They knew we had no real interest in Africa so had we won the whole continent would have belonged to Italy
they weren't good nor smart lol, germany carried them the whole war
@@fasuto8656 You don't go war with ideal partners, you go to war with whoever you can find. And in fairness to Italians they came to Berlin in 1935 and said they wouldn't be ready for war until 1940. But if we had waited until then Britain and France could have potentially built up their forces.
We don't what would happen if Hitler delayed the war, rearmament was in progress in all major countries. But what s more important system of international alliances was in change, as German influence was growing and French, British influence lowered. Germany could establish different alliances, most profitable ones would be German-Polish or German-Turkey alliances. With it Germany would have enough manpower to actually take down USSR.
Yep and Italy sent some help divisions to the germans on the eastern front
The video literally said otherwise lol
Excellent, may have to listen several times.
Socialism and Benito Mussolini destroyed the Eagle symbols and everything that Rome represented
wow. I didn't know Italy wasn't Italy until the Victorin era! thx❤
ATATÜRK, SEN bu yüz yilin gördüğü büyük bir adam ve büyük bir Lidersin.
Extremely well done video.
I love your channel keep up the great stuff!
they also were a victim of Germany's successes, but not how pretty much all the other victims were.
Well done research and the lack of PC in interpretation. Thank you.
Coming out of this video I'm most interested in what the less simplified differences between Nazis and Fascists are.
All Nazis were fascists but not all fascists were Nazis
Fascism is built around the nation as a ideal, religion and culture while Nazism is built around shared blood.
@@curtisthomas2670
Not all Nazis are fascist.
Nazis can be communist, anarchist, Republicans or democrats.
@@jasonbuford496 Except the communist ones all get killed as internal enemies*
*refer to strasserism
@@bluemethetys9267
And if the strassites one Nazis Germany would have been communist
Great video.
I would never said it before, yet this video made me feel sorry for Mussolini. Imagine: you're going to show for your people a "third path", the only righteous and good thing at all in modern politics - or whatever you like portraying it - then some sort of fanboy mimics you and achieves your political success just as well as you did. He tried to attack your sphere of influence first, but you had kept him at bay, only to be your successes turned upside down in the next few years, as well as it happened with your own position - from being the master with successful and shrewd apprentice, you ended up to being a mere servant of the latter one. No wonder now why did Victor Emmanuel III approved a coup against the misery Mussolini induced upon Italy.
Really interesting synthesis of a complex subject. Thanks
Wow, Italy had its own manifest destiny “spazio vitale”
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
11:59 "Link to the Atlantic Ocean" through Libya and Cameroon? The straight-line distance is 1890 miles, across the Sahara Desert and through savanna and jungle. Building a railroad there would be a massive construction project, something like building half of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Can you imagine how much cost it would add to anything shipped end-to-end? Not just the rail portion, but unloading and reloading freight at each end?
Ciano was not his son. he was his son-in-law
Great stuff. I never heard most of this before.
Why triste vidéo is not subtitle in french ?
I learnt a lot from this, great stuff.
It could have been glorious!
... And quickly fall back apart like Germany, Japan and the USSR.
But for a moment, it would've been cool to see a Neo-Roman Empire.
If they win why they would fall apart?
@@alexzero3736 mismanagement and infighting
@@okaywhatevernevermind that yes but the integration adopted worked even with Europeans the Greeks in the Dodecanese still have positive view of us
@@okaywhatevernevermind just shut it up
I think Nice and Savoy are the wrong way around. I've been to nice and remember the beach
Yeah, you're right.
Vichy France, Spain and Italy actually uniting right under Hitler's nose would be an interesting Alt-History topic
Fun Fact: Only 2,83% of the population of Austrian Dalmatia were Italian Speakers according to the 1910 census. More than half of them residing in the city of Zara. So talking about a “large number” in the early 20th Century is a bit misleading.
So explain how did 340k Italians emigrated from there after ww2! I’m curious they just magically appeared?
@E Nice I would have multiple explanations:
1. Do you count Istria as part of Dalmatia? Cause I don’t. Also I didn’t include Hungarian Dalmatia though only Fiume had any significant amount of Italians there.
2. Some Italians might have spoken Croatian or Serbian and said such in the census.
3. Some might have claimed to be Italian or claimed Italian ancestry to escape Communism.
But honestly, the major part might honestly be Istria.
@@pilum3705 Right, it's not like the Habsburg actively pursued the eradication of the Italian culture from those lands, is it? Central and Southern Italian dialects are part of a sub-branch of Romance languages called Italo-DALMATIAN. I'll let you figure this out by yourself. Plus, Dalmatia was promised to Italy anyway for joining the Entente during WWI: it works like this in international matters. If it didn't, we should immediately reclaim Nice and Savoy from France, but we don't.
@Matteo Bertotti It is indeed true that the Linguistic Category has this name but the problem is that the Dalmatian Language itself already became extinct in the 19th Century. The closest related language “Istriot” is still existent though (Though with currently less 1.000 Speakers). This comes back to my main point though: Outside of coastal cities like Zara and Fiume (which were in fact majority Italian in the early 20th Century) Dalmatia just didn’t have a big linguistically Italian Population anymore. They were mostly present in Istria which Italy actually obtained after WW1.
Apart from that: Yeah, Italy definitely got scammed by the Entente. (Fun Fact btw: Austrian Vorarlberg had a bigger percentage of Italian Speakers in 1910 than Austrian Dalmatia. Should have claimed that instead)
because the dalmatians were assimilated in the slavs and austria wanted all that to negate italian claims of dalmatia, for sure, same in istria