Building Italian Menton, 1940-1943: Urban planning and Italianization

Abstract

The Italo-French armistice of July 1940 brought an end to the brief period of conflict between Italy and France that had taken place after Mussolini's declaration of war in June of the same year. Disappointing Italian military performances left Italy with only a small strip of territory on the Italo-French border to occupy until the expansion of the occupation zone in November 1942. This article will explore urban planning projects in the largest of the Italianoccupied towns, Menton. It will argue that Italian urban planning projects formed a crucial layer of the long-term Italianization of the town and were indicative of wider Italian plans in the event of an Axis victory. It will demonstrate that hitherto underexplored post-war plans reveal not only how Italian planners hoped to reshape the region, but also how planners hoped that these changes would bind territories physically to Italy.