increased military spending, and began to pursue an alliance with Britain and the Soviet Union. With a rapidly recovering economy, the increased military spending, and a commitment from Britain, France believed to be in a position of strength once again. In the 30’s, France lost her will and direction and became a defensive, conservative society, split by social and political conflicts, but just before the war she revived herself. The reason this revived France went to war in 1939 was not Poland, it was to save her honor and status as a great power. (Overy, Road, 105-142)At the end of WWI, Italy was in economic chaos, and political crisis. In this crisis, Fascism became popular with Benito Mussolini as an important leader. He believed in the doctrine of action, and wanted to create a new, vigorous Italian Empire. In October 1922, he was asked by the King to form a government. Mussolini wanted Italy to be respected as one of the great powers of the status quo in Europe. In the ten years after he gained power, his attempts to do this mostly failed, and in 1934 he decided on a new direction: to build an empire in areas of historic Roman expansion – Asia and Africa. In October 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia. This, and Italy’s actions in the Spanish Civil War, alienated France, Britain, and the League, and moved Mussolini closer toward Hitler. In early 1939, Mussolini made the decision to complete his Roman Empire plan, but he needed Hitler’ s help both economically and militarily since Italy had been weakened by all of Mussolini’s military adventures. Italy was moving closer to Germany both economically and ideologically, but when Mussolini found out about Hitler’s plans for Poland in 1939, he decided on neutrality until Italy was more ready militarily. In 1940, Italy faced the same problem as in 1914: she wanted to become a great power, but her ambitions were greater than her resources. ...
