FASCIST FOREIGN POLICY AND OFFICAL ITALIAN VIEWS OF ANTHONY EDEN IN THE 1930s

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between Anthony Eden, British minister for League of Nations' affairs (1935) and foreign secretary (1935–8), and Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime within the context of Italian foreign policy in the later 1930s. It outlines the precise aims and objectives of Mussolini's expansionist policies over the period 1935–8, assesses the accuracy of Eden's interpretation of them and, in turn, discusses official Italian diplomatic perceptions of Eden. It specifically challenges Renzo De Felice's view that for Mussolini, the Italian conquest of Ethiopia (1935–6) marked the limit of Fascist expansionism. Furthermore, it contests his theory that the dictator did not pursue an Italo–German alliance that would drive an Italian imperialist war against Britain and France in the Mediterranean and Red Sea. Anthony Eden had been fully aware of such an intention, and had been targeted by the regime as Italy's ‘public enemy number one’, precisely because he fully comprehended what lay at the heart of Mussolini's brand of Fascism.