Editing The World Wars (section)

===Rise of Authoritarians: Italy ===
See [[Fascist Italy]]. Shortly put though, as the Italians are not entirely to blame, this guy named Mussolini created a new ideology that seemed pretty snazzy, called Fascism<sup>1</sup>, that combined big government and ultra-nationalist militarism into another toxic ideology that advocated the strength and growth of the state. Italian Fascism is found in a manifesto of sorts written by Giovanni Gentile in the seminal work "The Doctrine of Fascism" for those interested in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T_98uT1IZs&t=1s&ab_channel=RyanChapman|further research]. He also ruled for far longer than Hitler did, taking over as "Prime Minister" in 1922 until his removal in 1943.

The Italians conquered Ethiopia to reclaim their national honor after getting wrecked by them, and had a general foreign policy of attempting to promote international fascism. By which of course the end result would be an Italian sphere of influence. This is represented in HOI4 by the Albania tree, the attempts at Turkish influence, and their intervention in the Spanish Civil War along with the Germans. For all intents and purposes, Mussolini seemed very genuine in his intent to promote Fascism across the globe to not only promote Italian interests but to correct the "failures of liberalism" and counter those filthy Communists<sup>2</sup>. It also helps that the leader of such a movement could become wealthy and powerful as a result.

<small><sup>1</sup>Fascism with a capital "F" refers specifically to Italian fascism. With a little "f", it is a noun describing a broad ideology. [[Tzeentch|Nazism is fascist, but not "Fascist".]] [[What|Savvy?]]</small>

<small><sup>2</sup>Fascism was a reaction against the Russian Revolution and the chaos of post-war Italy. Mussolini came to power by leading a bunch of nationalist thugs that beat up Socialists and Communists in Northern Italy and eventually the Italian King and the old-school conservatives made him Prime Minister as he seemed to be effective against them.</small>