[cowofzot]

THE AXIS

An alliance of the two countries, Germany and Italy. Benito Mussolini, the dictator of Fascist Italy, first used the term in 1923 when he wrote 'The axis of European history runs through Berlin.' After his meeting with Hitler in October, 1936, at Berchtesgaden, he used the term again in a speech at Milan in November when he said "This vertical line between Rome and Berlin is not a partition but rather an axis round which all European states animated by the will to collaboration and peace can also collaborate." (The grave of Mussolini is in the San Cassiano Cemetery in Predappio)

http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/facts.html

[killim]

This is partly true. The axis term is much older in military strategy/tactics, but was missused to label the alliance firstly by Mussolini afaik.

[Varilion]

Mussolini was a journalist with no military/strategy skills or formation. IMHO The sentence of 1923 refers to the cartesian axis of time, the history. Then from 1936 he used the term Axis to label the alliance with Germany. This not due to some particular meaning of the term but just because it was more "edible" for the italian people (and for the king).