2K - Changing balance of power: the ambitions of Italy, Japan and Germany
Learn how Italian, Japanese and German ambitions challenged the post-war order, why their aims and methods differed, and how their growing influence changed the choices facing other powers by 1935.
Power and revision of the settlement
A balance of power changes when states gain military capacity, alter alliances or persuade rivals that resisting them will be too costly. Economic size alone is therefore an incomplete measure. Germany had considerable industrial potential, Italy could influence Mediterranean and Alpine security, and Japan was a leading military power in East Asia. Each could exploit weaknesses in the arrangements made after the First World War.
Revisionism
An effort to change an existing international settlement. Revision might involve negotiation or coercion; a wish to change a treaty does not by itself identify the means or the ultimate extent of a state's ambitions.
Italy and Japan had fought on the winning side in 1914–18, whereas Germany had been defeated. Italian nationalists argued that Italy had received less than it deserved, describing the peace as a mutilated victory. Japanese leaders resented racial discrimination and restrictions on their naval strength, even though Japan had gained territory and a permanent League Council seat. Germany challenged military restrictions, territorial losses and its treatment as a defeated power.
These grievances did not produce a single alliance automatically. Italy initially feared German expansion into Austria, while Japan's immediate priorities lay in China rather than Europe. Their later cooperation must be explained through changing interests and decisions. By 1935 the international order faced challenges in more than one region, making collective resistance harder for powers with worldwide responsibilities.
Italian prestige and Mediterranean ambition
Mussolini wanted Italy recognised as a great power whose wishes could not be ignored. Fascist ideology praised conflict, national prestige and an imperial destiny. Expansion could also strengthen his authority at home by presenting the regime as the remedy for the supposed humiliations of the liberal state.
Italy's interests focused on the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, the Balkans and Africa. The bombardment and occupation of Corfu in 1923 showed Mussolini using force after the killing of Italian officials attached to a border commission. Italy withdrew after securing compensation, illustrating both coercion and the limits of an early confrontation. Acquisition of Fiume in 1924 and growing influence in Albania, reinforced by agreements in 1926 and 1927, extended Italian power near the Adriatic.
Yet Mussolini also participated in diplomacy. Italy guaranteed the Locarno settlement in 1925. An independent Austria formed a buffer against a powerful Germany directly on Italy's northern frontier. When Austrian Nazis killed Chancellor Dollfuss during the attempted coup of July 1934, Mussolini moved troops towards the Brenner frontier and signalled opposition to German intervention. In April 1935 he joined Britain and France at Stresa in condemning German treaty violations and affirming Austrian independence. Italian official diplomatic documents identify Austrian independence, relations with France and Ethiopia as linked concerns in 1934–35.
Italy's intention to conquer Abyssinia, or Ethiopia, created a contradiction. Mussolini wanted Britain and France to recognise Italian imperial claims while working with him against Germany. Ethiopia offered the prospect of joining Italy's East African possessions and avenging the Italian defeat at Adwa in 1896. A frontier clash at Wal Wal in December 1934 supplied a pretext, not the whole cause, for plans which led to invasion in October 1935.
Thus Italy could defend part of the European status quo while attacking the sovereignty of an African League member. Ideology mattered, but geography and bargaining explain why Mussolini did not simply support every action by another dictatorship.
Japanese resources and regional dominance
Japan's ambitions combined an existing imperial presence with fears about economic vulnerability and regional security. Japan controlled Korea and held interests in Manchuria, including the South Manchuria Railway and leased territory. Army leaders regarded Manchuria as a strategic buffer against China and the Soviet Union, as well as a source of land, minerals and industrial opportunities.
The Depression weakened silk exports and intensified rural hardship. Economic pressure reinforced the appeal of controlling resources and markets, but Japanese expansion did not begin in 1929. Chinese nationalism threatened existing Japanese privileges. Within Japan, the armed forces had considerable autonomy, and officers in the Kwantung Army could act beyond the immediate control of civilian ministers.
In September 1931 the Kwantung Army used the Mukden railway incident to launch its conquest of Manchuria. Creation of Manchukuo in 1932, with the former Chinese emperor Puyi as its nominal ruler, provided a claim of local independence while preserving Japanese control. Civilian government did not reverse the conquest. Japan's withdrawal from the League, announced in 1933, showed that it was prepared to reject international criticism rather than abandon a major territorial gain.
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