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Kronzypantz t1_j26e11q wrote

Staying neutral would have benefited Italy the most, selling goods to both sides and avoiding a war it just wasn’t ready for.

Joining the Central Powers would just be entirely suicidal. Italy was dependent on French and British colonial possessions just to import enough food for Italy, let alone importing industrial resources to modernize their military.

A Franco-British blockade and bombardment of Italian port cities would have meant Italy starts 1915 in famine.

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heihyo t1_j28wkxb wrote

But by chosing the winning side they received more territory which wouldn‘t have been the case by staying neutral

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MC1065 t1_j28x8gw wrote

The Italians were very upset that they didn't get more and for years thought they were backstabbed.

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Kronzypantz t1_j297c78 wrote

They were under the false assumption that such gains would benefit them the way such changes in territory reflected strength and success in past decades. But the cost was far too high, both in lives and political unrest.

If territory was so important, Austria actually offered more concessions than what Italy eventually got in the peace, and that was just for remaining neutral. Their leaders could have played a much smarter game, but got caught up in Napoleonic ideas of glory and assumed easy victory.

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Medieval-Mind t1_j2abfw2 wrote

>got caught up in Napoleonic ideas of glory and assumed easy victory

Along with pretty much everyone else in Europe.

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Kronzypantz t1_j2af2ml wrote

True, but they saw how every other power’s plans for quick and glorious victory fell apart and still deluded themselves into pulling that trigger

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