Recent comments in /f/history

imgrandojjo t1_j26v4hq wrote

Reply to Did Italy made a mistake by joining the Entente in 1915 during World War One? by Top_Moment4144

All Italy joining the central Powers would have done is give the Franco-British fleet something to actually attack. Italy is extremely vulnerable to an enemy who can gain naval superiority, as she found out in WWII, and a joint Italian-Austrian naval axis would be no match for the Franco-British one. With Germany mostly hiding its surface fleet from Britain, Franco-British assets could have easily been transferred to the mediterranean, perhaps overcoming an Austro-Italian flotilla trying to check access through the Strait of Gibraltar, and have no shortage of targets to easily bombard and docked fleets to destroy piecemeal.

One of the only things stopping that from happening in WWII is that the Regio Aeronautica was actually pretty good early in the war. Easily Italy's best fighting branch with good planes and great pilots in reasonable numbers that could stand up to the British on their own at first. That combined with the neutralization of the French fleet, delayed the Franco-British ability to pummel Italia for a few years.

Italy would have had no similar protection, however, in 1915, and nearly the whole coastline was vulnerable to coastal raiding,bombardment, and eventually invasion, as the US-British naval coalition eventually proved. Minus the US but plus France, which at the time was a major naval player in its own right, Britain would have easily achieved the same success even with the small, technologically backward Austro-Hungarian fleet muddying the waters a bit.

So with that being siad it was impossible to imagine aligning with the Central Powers ending well for Italy. They simply had no ability to properly aid them in the one theater that mattered -- the Mediterranean naval theater. Thus Italy had a choice between staying out of the war or picking the side that was astronomically more likely to rule the Mediterranean during and after the war, which was the Entente.

Sacroegoismo was simply a reasonable argument that if they sided with the Entente they might get some desired territory out of it, and that self interest aligned them with the security of the seas offered by the Entente, which was essential to Italian survival. Since they only had 2 options they chose the one that gave them the best chance to gain. Simple enough.

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Kronzypantz t1_j26tfko wrote

Reply to comment by TarienCole in Did Italy made a mistake by joining the Entente in 1915 during World War One? by Top_Moment4144

A bigger issue for their navy would have been why it would bother to leave port against the French and British. Those 2 were their biggest trade partners, and effective close off the Mediterranean to the Italians.

The only potential trade partner to protect a trade route to would be the Ottomans, and they had little to offer.

The Italian navy would thus be stuck in port, or maybe blocking off the Adriatic for what little benefit it would give.

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oztea t1_j26sywy wrote

Reply to Did Italy made a mistake by joining the Entente in 1915 during World War One? by Top_Moment4144

An outcome that really isn't explored all that much would be Austria-Hungary bribing Italy with land concessions just to stay neutral. Or selling them Trieste for military supplies, and not having to burn all that blood and treasure on the pointless Italian front could have given Austria-Hungary a lifeline for a few more months so they could pick up slack for Germany on the Russian front, and Germany might have gotten to Paris.

Really, with the power of hindsight I bet the central powers would have rather just conceded the ground to Italy if they could have shut down one whole front.

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