Mare Nostrum Mediterranean Fleet, with bases in UK-controlled Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Egypt, and Mandatory Palestine remained the only threat to Italian naval power in the Mediterranean. The invasions of Albania, Greece and Egypt, and the Siege of Malta sought to extend Axis control over the Sea. This policy was so far-reaching and potentially intrusive, that it threatened neutral nations like Turkey, a threat that İsmet İnönü, the president of Turkey at the time of war, countered by promising to enter the war only if the Soviet Union joined the Allies. Mussolini dreamed of creating an Imperial Italy in his "Mare Nostrum" and
Mare Nostrum (video game) around Sicily and main land Italy. The first public release of the modification was on 1 March 2008. Subsequent additional releases quickly came to address software bugs and gameplay issues with the 1.1 release on 8 March 2008 and 1.2 release on 23 March 2008. On October 17, 2008, "Mare Nostrum" was released on Steam. Due to Steam's automatic update feature, version numbers were dropped and all further versions were released exclusively on Steam. On December 11, 2009 "Mare Nostrum" received a large content update through Steam which added Steam Achievements, making it the first Red Orchestra mod to do