9 - Italy at war, 1915–1918

Summary

Introduction

Italy had long nursed the ambition to complete its national unification by annexing the territories held by Austria around Trento and Trieste before the Great War. Yet Italy's diplomacy and armed forces reached war unprepared. It will be argued in this chapter that this reflected international constraints as well as domestic political and social forces before 1914, and it will be shown how these influenced the Italian war effort.

As an economic power Italy is most easily compared with the Habsburg Empire, her chief adversary in World War I. These two powers were both economically of middle size and development level, but the Italian economy was a little smaller and also somewhat more developed than the Austro-Hungarian economy. Thus Italy's prewar population numbered 36 million compared with Austria-Hungary's 51 million, while Italy's real GDP was roughly 90 per cent of Austria-Hungary's. Thus the average citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was roughly 25 per cent poorer than the average Italian (see Tables 1.1 and 1.2). In turn, Italians were substantially poorer than the Germans, French, or British. In a war fought only between Italy and Austria-Hungary it is not clear which would have had the greater military potential, since Italy's demographic disadvantage was offset by a higher development level. But in World War I Italy held a clear strategic advantage since Austria-Hungary fought on several fronts and Italy only on one.

Italy, we are frequently told, was a divided country. More accurately, it had never been united.