Why did Hitler engage Italy as his primary ally?

Question

Esp. when the contribution of Italian troops were below satisfaction in terms of troops' fighting spirit and poor training and old equipments.

Answer 1

He was never very kind in his comments about the fighting ability of the Italians but Mussolini was useful because he was also a fascist dictatorand the position of Italy in the Mediterranean gave him an advantage in any confrontation with France or Britain

Answer 2

The alliance was based primarily on ideology--both Hitler and Mussolini were fascist dictators, making them more likely to see a friend in each other,

Another reason is that both Germany and Italy were looking for any allies they could find. Hitler obviously could not turn to France, Great Britain, or the USSR for an alliance (he hated communists, and wanted revenge against France and GB).

Italy had become a pariah on much of the world stage after its invasion and conquest of Ethiopia. The League of Nations placed an oil embargo on Italy, and the other nations of Europe were unhappy with Italy's actions.

So, both were looking for friends, and they weren't going to find them in other parts of Europe. Spain might have been another candidate, but it was busy with its own civil war. So, Italy and Germany were an obvious match.

Answer 3

Just like why he chose japan as an ally, germanys army in the early stages of the war were not as powerful as hitlers aggressive tactics let the rest of the world believe, his tanks and aircraft off the start were not superior to the allied versions, but he played his cards right and took one down at a time, italy had a powerful navy (5th in the world) which were suppossed to have been used to control the meditarranean from southern attacks and stop british sea domination and help cut britain off from the usa and the rest of her commonwealth in africa and beyond, just like japan was drawing allied forces to singapore and tying up british divisions in australia and new zealand, he needed allies at this point. If his dream had of continued he would have incorparated italy into germay but he needed them off the start. Believe it or not at the start of the war hitler was a decent tactition and understood it would take time to build up his might. Eventaully Italy bled german resources by continaully failing against the british in the desert, Rommel could have been better employed in Russia or in complete domination in other theatres. This took much needed resources away from the invasion of Britain first and Russia second. Continued gambling eventually lost him the war and insanity led to his downfall.

Answer 4

Adolf Hitler had been inspired by Mussolini's achievements and once he gained power in Germany he sought a close relationship with Italy. In October 1936 the two men signed a non-military alliance.

Answer 5

Benito was prime for the target for manpower, for the area, the Mediterranean. For the jumping off point for North Africa.
For the oil fields that were to come later on in the Southern Russia and the Balkans. He needed Spain also. Then it would have been Turkey and then Greece. He would have had control of the entire Southern Europe, Russia would have been surrounded.

Answer 6

because Italy had a dictatorship and mussolini and hitler looked like best buds

Answer 7

SINCE ITALY HAD ALREADY CONQUERED ETHIOPIA HE PROBABLY FIGURED IT WOULD GIVE HIM AN ENTRY INTO AFRICA. AS IT TURNED OUT HE DIDN'T NEED IT.

Answer 8

probably because it was hard for him to get decent pizza in berlin....