The 1936 map presents Austria as an Italian client or protected state. An Italian frontier deployment initially helped deter German action, showing that Mussolini could still block expansion southward. Hitler moved into Austria only after securing Mussolini's consent. In this interpretation, the concession was strategically costly; control of Austria, Romanian oil, and Czechoslovak industry might instead have made Italy the stronger Axis partner. Those outcomes are explicitly counterfactual, but they expose the resource gap between Fascist ambitions and Italy's actual empire.
Chapter · 55:21-57:09
Italy abandons its Austrian buffer to German expansion
Italy initially checked German pressure on Austria, but Mussolini later consented to German expansion and surrendered a potential source of strategic and industrial strength.