Mussolini and up to 30,000 supporters from across the country, the Blackshirts, embarked on a calculated and audacious march to Rome to seize power.
21st June 1919: The German High Seas naval fleet is scuttled at Scapa Flow
21st June 2019
Both Hitler and Mussolini were concerned about the risk of the Spanish Civil War escalating into a European-wide conflict, so at first their support for the Nationalists was small-scale and consisted mainly of transporting existing Spanish troops from Morocco to the mainland. As the war progressed their involvement grew.
Giacomo Matteotti, an Italian socialist politician, was kidnapped and then murdered by members of the Fascist party.
The Spanish Civil War began in July 1936 after a military coup by Spanish forces in North Africa failed to secure complete control over the country.
Although directed against the Communist International, the organisation that sought to create a worldwide communist republic, the Anti-Comintern Pact was in reality against the Soviet Union.
Seen by many as the ultimate act of failed appeasement, the Munich Agreement was tabled on 29 September and signed in the early hours of the next day.
More than 89% of eligible Italian citizens voted in the referendum, with 54.3% voting in favour of turning the country into a republic.
Mussolini, who was determined to restore the glory of the Roman Empire following the ‘mutilated victory’ of the First World War, had formed the precursor to the Fascist Party in 1919.
When Abyssinia was finally captured on 5 May, all the sanctions were dropped.
On the 26th July 1936, Adolf Hitler informed General Francisco Franco that Germany would support his Nationalist rebellion in Spain.
HistoryPod Extra: The Myth of Gavrilo Princip’s Sandwich
28th June 2015
11th November 1918: WW1 Armistice of Compiègne is signed
11th November 2022
11th November 1918: WW1 Armistice of Compiègne is signed
11th November 2022
9th November 1989: East Germany opens the Berlin Wall
9th November 2019