After Mussolini came to power, he also handled Italy's internal affairs well. Although he was not as good as Mustache, he also gained a good reputation in the country. However, the economic crisis in 2029 made him realize that if Italy could have enough
Overseas colonies will definitely be able to better pass on the country's crisis and enhance Italy's strength.
However, the Italian Prime Minister looked around the map and found that although the world is big, there is no place to intervene. South America is too far away, and the British and American forces there are not even Italy dares to touch; Asia is not close, and there is no place to occupy it.
With this South China Sea Federation, it controlled all of southeastern Asia. West Asia was the legacy of Britain and France.
Italy's unified sphere of influence was beyond Italy's reach; in the end, only Africa was left, but at this time, there was no good place in Africa for all countries to carve up. Only to the west of Italian Somalia, there was one African country with no one.
Occupied, this country was called the Abyssinian Empire, which would later become Ethiopia.
But this is the traditional sphere of influence of Britain and France. If you want to attack Ethiopia, you must obtain the consent of Britain and France. So how to obtain the consent of these two countries? Mussolini just had a way. At this time, France was secretly flirting with Italy and planned to win over Italy.
In order to deal with the slowly rising Germany, when the Italian government expressed interest in Ethiopia, a poor place, the French government quickly acquiesced.
Although the British government was worried that Italy's actions would threaten the security of British East Africa, it considered that stopping Italy's actions might make the British government hostile to the Italian government and push Italy into an alliance with Germany. Therefore, it also forced
I reluctantly agreed.
Without external interference, Mussolini found an excuse to attack Ethiopia in 1935. The two sides were not equal opponents at all. Although Ethiopia had more than 400,000 troops, the army of an African country never
Fundamentally, it is determined that it cannot be strong, because the country is too poor, and a strong army can only be guaranteed by three soldiers and an old gun.
Italy invested a total of more than 200,000 troops, and within 7 months, it defeated the resistance of Ethiopia and connected Italian Etrilia and Italian Somalia. As a result, Italy finally gained 5 times the power in East Africa.
A colony of its own size. This also made Mussolini's reputation among the Italian people unprecedentedly high, because the Italian government has been thinking about this land for more than a day or two, and now it has finally achieved its long-cherished wish.
The Italians gained dignity and benefits in 1935, and the Germans also made small gains in this year. First, the Saarland region occupied by France passed a referendum. With a vote rate of more than 90%, it was announced that it had returned to the embrace of Germany. Then the small
Beard also abolished the fifth part of the "Contract of Versailles" and expanded the army from 100,000 to
600,000, and also established a navy and an air force. After discovering that Britain and France had taken no actual action except condemning them countless times, they secretly reached a secret agreement with Britain. Mustache did not know what method he used to confuse the British government.
, the British actually agreed to allow the German Navy to possess 45% of the tonnage of the British Navy.
With soldiers in hand and money in his pocket, Mustache became more and more confident. In 1936, the German army entered the Rhineland for the first time since World War I and announced that it had taken back this German territory. And this territory was mentioned in "Versailles"
"Contract" was a demilitarized zone, which was stationed by the four countries of Britain, the United States, France and Belgium. However, the troops of the United States, Britain, and Belgium all withdrew one after another, leaving only France to support it independently. In the end, it could not withstand the pressure of Germany and withdrew.
Gone.
Conquering the homeland is a glorious achievement for that leader, enough to be recorded in the history of the nation. For a nation, this is also a major event that greatly inspires national self-esteem and self-confidence. The mustache is not only economical
He revitalized Germany and gave the German people self-esteem. This fully fulfilled the promise he made to the German people when he took office as prime minister. As a man of his word, his reputation in Germany is unmatched for a while.
The success of the previous small actions also made Mustache more confident in himself and Germany. So after the Spanish Civil War began, Germany very decisively joined the ranks of supporting the National Army, sent troops together with Italy, and directly entered Spain to participate in the war. This
Not only did it give the generals of the German Army an opportunity to test their capabilities in actual combat, it also allowed Hitler to see the many contradictions among the Allied Powers and the weakness of the League of Nations.
In order not to let themselves be too lonely in Europe, Hitler and Mussolini, two ambitious patriots, signed a secret agreement at the end of 1936, agreeing that the two countries should take concerted actions to advance and retreat together on major international issues.
, and strengthened military cooperation between Germany and Italy, and the "Berlin-Rome" axis began to take shape.
In fact, before that, Liu Fu also signed a secret agreement with Mustache. Different from the Berlin Agreement between Germany and Italy, this South Germany Agreement only stipulated that the South China Sea Federation would support Germany's actions in Europe.
Germany supports the actions taken by the South China Sea Federation in Asia and achieves partial sharing of military technology. It does not agree on a closer relationship of advancing and retreating together. It is more like a comprehensive cooperation agreement, and the core of the agreement puts more emphasis on the two countries themselves.
Benefit.
In addition to the rapid economic and military progress, Mustache also performed a living political seesaw for Liu Fu. Since 1935, Germany has intensified its contacts with the Soviet Union, either overtly or covertly. The two countries have expressed their intention to strengthen economic complementarity and
Cooperation, and then whether to let France and the Czech Republic
The result was that Britain, France and the Soviet Union were confused. At one moment, they were afraid that Germany and the Soviet Union were too close, so they had to tolerate some of Germany's actions. At another moment, they happily celebrated the failure of the negotiations between Germany and the Soviet Union, and the measures they took
The policy of using Germany to control the Soviet Union was quite effective.
They knew that this was a deliberate show by Mustache to show them. He wanted to use the Soviet Union as a bargaining chip for Germany. While winking, he pretended to intend to become the Soviet Union's first friend so that he could get the Soviet Union's oil and market share;
It also rejected the Soviet Union's loan request at a critical moment, proving Germany's independent attitude to Britain, France and other countries.
As a result, after more than three years of performance, Germany did not resist even the Soviet Union, and took advantage of Britain, France and other countries. Germany also rose at a rocket-like speed. By the end of 1937, Germany was no longer a country.
The cripple with injuries all over his body after the war is no longer the poor boy who couldn't eat enough potatoes in 1929. Now it has become a force in Europe, and Britain and France no longer dare to provoke it easily.
In 1938, Mustache took his first step in foreign expansion, which was to invade and annex Austria.
Austria was a country that did not exist before World War I. It was a newly formed country after the division of the defeated Austro-Hungarian Empire from a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that was originally close to Germany. Its capital is Vienna.
Austria is geographically located in the center of Europe. It borders Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Czechoslovakia and Hungary to the east, Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west, and Italy and Yugoslavia to the south. It is the European continent from south to north and from east to west.
intersection.
Since most people in Austria speak German, this region originally planned to break away from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and merge with Germany after World War I. Later, with the intervention of Britain, France and other countries, an independent country was established. However, after independence, Austria
The standard of living has not improved, but has declined year after year due to the economic crisis. The original republican government was also overthrown and became the second fascist government on the European continent. As a result, the relationship between Germany and Austria became even more tense.
Where is the mustache from? The correct answer is Austrian. Think about it, if an Austrian can become Chancellor of Germany, can Germany and Austria still be called two countries? In early 1938, the Austrian government held a referendum to
The right to decide whether to be independent or to be integrated into Germany was given to all Austrians. The results of the vote were very unanimous, with 99.7% of Austrians in favor of Austria becoming part of Germany.
In March 1938, the German army entered Austria and was welcomed by the Austrian people. The "Contract of Versailles" clearly stipulated that Austria, which could not be annexed to Germany, became a German territory openly. (To be continued...)
