Less than Nations

Less than Nations
Author: Giuseppe Motta
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2013-12-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1443854611

Less than Nations: Central-Eastern European Minorities after WWI represents the result of research that the author has carried over recent years, and was facilitated by the 2008 PRIN project (Programmi di Ricerca di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale) and the 2010 Sapienza Research funds. The book analyses the conditions of national minorities after World War I, when the geo-political map of Central-Eastern Europe was redefined by international diplomacy. The new settlements were based on the principle of national self-determination and were conditioned by the geographic reality of Central-Eastern Europe, where states and nations rarely coincided. As a consequence, the minority question emerged as one of the most troublesome issues during the interwar period, and affected international relations and the internal conditions of many states. The minority question was discussed by historiography and by international observers, and became an integral part of the system which was centred around the League of Nations. This work begins with the study of the relationships between the states and their minorities, and of the international dimension of this question, which animated the fight between revisionist and anti-revisionist states. The documents of the Italian Army’s General Staff and of the League of Nations represent the main historical sources of this book, which carries out a complete study of the difficult situation of 1918–1920, when the new states annexed many “contested regions” within their frontiers, and of the numerous controversies concerning the application of international treaties and national regulations in relation to the protection of minorities.

Mussolini's Propaganda Abroad

Mussolini's Propaganda Abroad
Author: Manuela Williams
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2006-11-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134244401

This is the first major study in English of Fascist Italy’s overseas propaganda. Using rare Italian and French captured documents, this is also the first investigation into the relationship between Mussolini’s regime and Arab nationalist movements This new account covers propaganda and subversive activities engineered by the Italian government in the Mediterranean and the Middle East from 1935 until 1940, when Italy entered the war. It assesses the nature of the challenge brought by the Fascist regime to British security and colonial interests in the region. Fascist propaganda, in particular in the Arab Middle East, must be regarded as an expression of Mussolini’s foreign policy and his attempts to build an Italian empire that would stretch beyond the Mediterranean, gaining control over the exits, Gibraltar and Suez, which were in the hands of the British and the French. The activities of individual agents and organizations are carefully reconstructed and analyzed to highlight the seemingly contradictory objectives of the Italian government: on the one hand, Rome was courting the Arab nationalist movements in Egypt and Palestine, which were seeking the support of external forces capable of providing political, financial and military backing needed to overthrow foreign rulers; on the other, the regime was promoting further territorial expansion in Africa. These aspects build into an excellent picture of this fascinating period of modern history. This book will be of great interest to all students and scholars of politics, media, Italian history and propaganda.