Would it be better for Mussolini to stay neutral and not to go

>>926674
>Why even war in the first place?

GLORY
GLORY

NEW ROMAN EMPIRE

>>926674

Yeah. I did that in Hearts of Iron 3. I stayed neutral and just invaded Yugoslavia and Greece before they joined the Allies. Then let Germany lose to the Soviets.

>Why even war in the first place?
Mussolini underestimated British resilience. He planned to stay neutrel, and then the Battle of France happened. He expected Germany to emerge as a European hegemon, and sought to enter the war both to ingratiate himself to the Germans, and to build strength against them.

Even up until 1941, the Italian's persued a notion of "parallel war", hence the Invasion of Greece.

He invisioned an axis victory looking something like the allied victory: Two co-beligerents carving out spheres to protect against the other.

The Italian military failed miserably though, and he ended up being a dependency of Germany, the exact situation he sought to avoid.

Italy got little territory (according to them) after WWI, that's why they become so anti-Allies.

Italy always felt cheated after their full territory claims were ignored at Versailles.

Yes, Mussolini would probably have still been in power into the 60s had he not gone to war.

>>926753
eh, until 1936 or so it looked likely Italy would be in the Allies again.

>>926773
Mussolini would probably be dead by then.

Italy wasn't ready for war until 1942. Mussolini underestimated his power by invading Greece and declaring war with Britain, which turned out to be a disaster.

>>926785
and British war doctrine was pretty much suited for fighting an enemy like Italy.

>>926784
He'd be like Franco. He'd have power until the 1970s.