Mare Nostrum started to be used as an expansionist politics term since the unification of Italy. When Mussolini got to power, he had Mare Nostrum as a goal as well, and it suited his fascist politics perfectly well. This was a term used that basically mean that Italy is a successor of the Roman Empire and it should conquer all of the territories that the ancient empire had, thus to become a strong and large imperial power. Since France's threat was removed, and with only the British a threat in the Mediterranean, the Italians started to occupy territories, such as Greece, Albania, Malta, Egypt, and that was suppose to go on until all of the Mediterranean was conquered, making an ''Italian lake''.
