Mussolini and Hitler: The story of the formation of the fascist alliance

At first glance, it seems that the two leaders share many similarities. Both are of humble origins and came from relatively remote areas. Both possessed charisma. Both rose to power using a combination of political violence and what appeared to be legal means of controlling power in their countries in a climate akin to civil war. Each of them constantly focused on their masculine qualities and military tendencies. Both promised to unite the masses behind them and transform their countries into global powers. Both attempted, to varying degrees, to maintain a balance between repression and creating popular consensus. Both were harsh and determined to establish what they saw as a new world order through war and invasion. Both adopted domestic and foreign policies aimed at war, with fundamentally different outcomes, considering the divergent economic performances of their nations and their distinct political cultures. However, their relationship was not only fraught with tensions but also with some ideological contradictions and personal rivalry, and it was also shaped by very different national contexts in which they operated. Hitler had a solid and clearer ideology, based on anti-Semitism and expansion according to the Lebensraum theory toward annexing Eastern European territories, compared to Mussolini. It is clear that anti-Semitism was a central issue for Hitler and the Nazis, leading to the Holocaust massacres, while in Italy, local racism built on the segregation practiced in Italian colonies became more apparent only as Fascist-Nazi relations solidified in the mid and late 1930s. Meanwhile, their relationship, which seemed unlikely given that the two leaders fought on opposite sides in the World War I that Germany lost, concealed the fact that neither man was friendly nor trustworthy. Mussolini pretended to be the head of the family in Italy, while Hitler portrayed himself as someone deeply devoted to the German nation.