Italy, Kingdom. A Fascist "Mare Nostrum" (Our Sea) Italian Naval League Medal

In bronze, obverse illustrating a triangular flag in the foreground, an insignia incorporating a life preserver inscribed "MARE NOSTRVM", backed by an anchor bearing a fasces and a large star and surmounted by the Royal crown on the flag, three ships in the background, engraver marked "S.J." (Stefano Johnson), reverse illustrating the same insignia as that used on the flag on the obverse, surrounded by the inscription "LEGA NAVALE ITALIANA" (Italian Naval League), measuring 30.3 mm in diameter, spotting, contact marks, very fine.

Footnote: Italian Mare Nostrum was the name given during the Second World War by Benito Mussolini and his fascist propaganda to the Mediterranean Sea, when was under the control of the Kingdom of Italy. The Mediterranean was called Mare Nostrum (Latin for "Our Sea") during the centuries of the Roman Empire, an empire that Fascism intended to recreate after the conquest of Ethiopia in 1936. Mussolini wanted to re-establish the greatness of the Roman Empire and believed that Italy was the most powerful of the Mediterranean countries after the First World War. He declared that "the twentieth century will be a century of Italian power" and created one of the most powerful navies of the world in order to control the Mediterranean Sea. However, the nation that really dominated the Mediterranean in 1940 was the United Kingdom, as the British had strong naval bases in Gibraltar, Malta and Cyprus. The British also controlled the Suez Canal, along with the French; the French Third Republic had a relatively powerful navy, and controlled the African Maghreb. Only after the conquest of Greece and Yugoslavia, in April 1941, Mussolini started to talk about an Italian dominated Mediterranean sea. In 1942, Mussolini dreamed of creating a Greater Italia in his "Mare Nostrum" and promoted the fascist project, to be realized in a future peace conference after the expected Axis victory, of an enlarged Italian Empire, stretching from the Mediterranean shores of Egypt to the Indian Ocean shores of Somalia and eastern Kenya. All these projects disappeared with the final Italian defeat of September 1943.