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Mussolini's foreign policy was based on the fascist doctrine of "''[[Spazio vitale]]''" ("living space"); which aimed to expand Italian possessions. In the 1920s, he ordered the [[Pacification of Libya]], the bombing of Corfu over an [[Corfu incident|incident with Greece]], and annexed [[Fiume]], after [[Treaty of Rome (1924)|a treaty]] with [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]. In 1936, [[Italian Ethiopia|Ethiopia]] was conquered following the [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War]] and merged into [[Italian East Africa]] (AOI) with [[Italian Eritrea|Eritrea]] and [[Italian Somaliland|Somalia]]. In 1939, Italian forces [[Italian invasion of Albania|annexed Albania]]. Between 1936-39, Mussolini ordered an [[Italian military intervention in Spain|intervention in Spain]] in favour of [[Francisco Franco]], during the [[Spanish Civil War]]. Mussolini initially tried to retain the [[Treaty of Versailles|Versailles]] status quo by sending troops to delay [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s [[Anschluss]], and taking part in the [[Treaty of Lausanne]], [[Four-Power Pact]] and [[Stresa Front]]. However, he alienated the democratic powers as tensions grew in the [[League of Nations]], which he left in 1937. Now hostile to France and Britain, Italy formed the [[Axis alliance]] with [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Empire of Japan|Imperial Japan]].
The wars of the 1930s cost Italy enormous resources, leaving it unprepared for the Second World War. Therefore, when Poland was invaded in September 1939, Mussolini declared Italy's non-belligerence. However, in June 1940, believing Allied defeat imminent, he joined the war on Germany's side, to share the spoils. After the tide turned, and the [[Allied invasion of Sicily]], King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Mussolini as [[head of government]] and placed him in custody in July 1943. After the king agreed to an armistice with the Allies, in September 1943 Mussolini was rescued in the [[Gran Sasso raid]] by Germany. Hitler made Mussolini the figurehead of a puppet state in German-occupied north Italy, the [[Italian Social Republic]], which served as a [[collaborationism|collaborationist]] regime of the Germans in their fight against the Allies, including the Kingdom of Italy, and the [[Italian resistance]].
== Early life ==
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