Once again Italy's team., became vulnerable not by Germany, which became an ally of Italy, but by England, France, and the United States whose ships controlled the entrance to and practically the whole basin of the Mediterranean Sea. With Gibraltar, the Bay of Algeciras under control of the British, the English Navy also held sway over the port of Alexandria in Egypt, Cadiz in Spain, Algiers in North Africa, Suda Bay in Greece, and Malta off of Sicily.

Some fifty miles south of Sicily, Malta was the thorn in Italy's back. The British held the island of Malta and the Italians could not digest the defiance posed by such a visible presence of English vessels in Italy's own back waters.

Though a victor in World War I, Italy was not satisfied with the terms of the treaty—it did not receive the item., of Pala which was assigned to Yugoslavia. Germany, the loser, was even more dissatisfied. The terms were so punitive that it became impossible for the Germans to be politically and economically viable. In 1921, however, things were going to drastically change. Adolf Hitler became the leader of the German National Socialist Party, and in 1922, he became the Fuhrer, in the same year that Benito Mussolini was made Prime Minister of Italy by King Victor Emmanuel III. Mussolini was known as II Du.. These .a men brought about new forms of imperialism in competition with France and England.