This article is part of the series The Road to World War II .

The Rome-Berlin Axis¹ was not a military agreement. Rather, it was a mutual condemnation of the League of Nations and an understanding over common foreign policies, covering Austria, Abyssinia and Spain.

Mussolini’s motives

Italy was politically isolated after a) her invasion of Abyssinia and b) her involvement with Nazi Germany in the Spanish Civil War. The latter had also weakened her until then good relations with the Soviet Union. With the agreement Mussolini hoped to steer Italy out of political isolation.

Hitler’s motives

Mussolini’s resistance of Hitler’s invasion of Austria following the assasination of Dollfuss convinced Hitler that he needed Italian support for his plans to annex Austria.

Also Hitler was in need of an ally in Europe to keep his back free from Britain and France. Mussolini and his Fascist Italy were a natural ideological ally and Hitler wanted to draw Mussolini closer to Nazi Germany and align him with German policies.

Consequences

With Italian blessing, Hitler was now free to annex Austria. With Italian backing, he could now do so without worrying about international resistance — Britian and France as he guessed rightly would yet again be unwilling to act.

In addition, it meant a reverse of Italian-German relations. Up until then it was Hitler that following Mussolini, for example when he tried to emulate Mussolini’s coup d’état with his “Beer Hall Putsch”, or when he backed down under Mussolini’s pressure after the assasination of Dollfuss.

Roles were now reversed: from now on Hitler would lead and Mussolini follow. This manifested itself in

• continued Italian intervention in the Spanish Civil War
• Italy joining the “Anti-Comintern Pact” (with Japan, 1937) and her departure from the League of Nations (1937)

Also, the “Rome-Berlin Axis” paved the way for the “Pact of Steel” – the military understanding that eventually resulted in the wartime alliance.

¹ October 1936