In 1934, the central goal of Italy's military-industrial development was to achieve domestic self-sufficiency wherever possible. If Benito wanted to fulfill Italy's ambition of rising to become a great power in Europe and even the world, he had to establish an independent military industry.
For Italy, this was an exceptionally difficult challenge. Its research and development in military technology was not poor, but its resource shortages were far too glaring.
Italy's sources of industrial raw materials could aptly be described as being cobbled together from every corner of the world.
Strategic resources such as coal, oil, iron ore, copper, rubber, and cotton all relied heavily on imports. Even basic food production faced problems.
Taking energy as an example, Italy's domestic coal output was extremely low, and its quality was poor. In 1934, Italy mainly maintained the operation of its industry by importing coal from Germany, East Africa, the Soviet Union, and Britain.
Germany did not lack coal resources and was relatively close to Italy, so German coal was Italy's most important import.
Then came East Africa. In its coal exports to Italy, East Africa mainly acted as a middleman, transporting coal from South Asia and Australia to Italy for sale.
Trade between East Africa and Italy had always been good. After all, since the last century, East Africa had begun conducting grain trade with Italy.
Relying on the grain trade, the scale of trade between East Africa and Italy had steadily expanded, while the range of goods had also continued to grow, covering numerous agricultural products and minerals, such as rubber, coffee, tea, cotton, coal, iron ore...
Then there was the Soviet Union. Trade between the Soviet Union and Italy was likewise not disturbed by the ideologies of the two nations. After all, Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and other countries