Why did Italy not fight for the central powers in WW1?

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Austria a shit.

>Austrian retards thought Italy was really on their side after they had just come out of a bloody war with them

Their fault desu.

>>2691193
They never thought they were on their side, they just thought they'd stay neutral. The only person surprised by the 'betrayal' was Conrad. Germany for the first year of the knew Italy would join the Entente and suggested Italy give the Italian majority lands to the Italians in return for a steady neutrality or lite alliance.

>>2691166
>join Central Powers
>Britain says "no" and stops selling you coal and oil
>blockade for good measure
>economy collapses

>>2691222
It was less about Germany and more about Austria. Maybe if Austria wasn't involved things would be different:

>However, Italian public opinion remained unenthusiastic about their country's alignment with Austria-Hungary, a past enemy of Italian unification, and whose Italian populated districts in the Trentino and Istria were seen as occupied territories by Italian irredentists. In the years before World War I, many distinguished military analysts predicted that Italy would attack its supposed ally in the event of a large scale conflict. Italy's adherence to the Triple Alliance was doubted and from 1903 plans for a possible war against Rome were again maintained by the Austrian general staff.[9] Mutual suspicions led to reinforcement of the frontier and speculation in the press about a war between the two countries into the first decade of the twentieth century.[10] As late as 1911 Count Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, chief of the Austrian general staff, was advocating a military preemptive strike against Austria's supposed Italian ally.[11] This prediction was strengthened by Italy's invasion and annexation of Libya, bringing it into conflict with the German-backed Ottoman Empire.

>>2691222
Italy should have joined the central powers in exchange for Italian land and then grabbing the other Italian lands from the entente by force. Why didn't they do this? Seems like a win-win situation

>>2691245
Because Britain had the "off" button to the Italian war machine ready to press at will.

>>2691258
So what you're saying is that once again the eternal anglo ruined everything?

I hate it when this happens

>>2691264
t. Franz

>>2691264
>waaaah britain is fighting a war

>>2691166
Austria has land they claimed

>>2691264
Butt blasted kraut mad that'll his country and people will never ever be a tenth as good as Anglo countries

>>2691166
>Also what would have happened if they fought in the war on the central power's side

We can't know but Joffre and Cadorna thought France would have lost in autumn 1914 had they been forced to station 250,000 men in the South to counter Italy

>>2691222
>The only person surprised by the 'betrayal' was Conrad.
Really? Before the war he was extremely wary of Italy and proposed a preventive war just like against Serbia.

>>2691230
>>2691258

How the hell did the Italians not know about the oil in Libya? Was there not a single competent geologist in the whole damn empire?

>>2691230
>>2691258

I don't think Italy was supplied with coal from overseas in 1914. A blockade wouldn't "switch them off" at once.

>>2691577
They were. Italy had basically no domestic coal production whatsoever.

>>2691575
>>2691590

So why they didn't use Libyan oil?

>>2691593
Libya's first oil fields were discovered at Amal and Zelten in 1959.

>>2691593
I'm pretty sure Oil was still a new thing and wasn't applied as much as coal. For example most of the ships in the British navy ran on coal at this point.

>>2691575
Because early 20th century oil exploration is centered around

A) Look for surface indications of where oil is likely to be, escaping gases from the oil mass usually leave pockmarks in the ground
B) Start exploration drilling where you think oil is likely
C) Hope you strike it rich.

Libya is full of sand, which obscures the process, since it's really hard to get down to the bedrock.IIRC, the first oil discoveries there were just accidental drilling in water wells, and before 1935ish or so, nobody even suspected that there might be oil in the region, and you're not going to run around the desert digging holes hoping to find something.

>>2691551
More so it was the propaganda campaign he played on it. He was very vengeful towards the Italians deciding to move his best troops away from the real threat of Russia under Brusilov.

>>2691575
There wasn't a single competent italian in the whole empire

>>2691166
Italy has a rep for backstabbing.

>>2691180
Yeah so shit that Italy made no headway on their only front for three years while Austria held and won on fronts with Russia, Serbia and Romania.

beacuse muh Trento and muh Trieste

>>2691166
There was no chance that Italy would join AH so long as it was holding Italian territory. Britain and France promised (which turned into a lie) Italy great colonial gains if they joined the allied powers, they were promised Albania, former German colonies in Africa and former Ottoman territory in ME, even think they were told they could take over Croatia. Basically Italy wanted territory back from AH and feel for lies which would have greatly expanded the empire.

>>2693776
This. Also Italy was historically allied with France and fought 3 wars against Austria in the 2nd half of XIX century

>>2693776
France also held Italian territory (Savoy, Nizza and Corsica) as well as Tunisia, which the Italians desired to possess. So it's not like there was nothing to gain from joining the central powers.

>>2691590
That doesn't mean they got their coal from overseas though.

>>2693825
Nizza and Savoy were part of the Plombiers treaty. Corsica was never italian

>>2693835
>Nizza and Savoy were part of the Plombiers treaty.

So?

>Corsica was never italian

It was Genoese for some centuries and the people speak an Italian dialect. Naturally, it had never been part of the modern Italian state, just like the Italian territories of Austria.

>>2693825
The Tunisia thing was the only reason Italy entered an alliance with Germany and Austria in the first place

>>2693862
>So?

Italy gave Nizza and Savoy to France in exchange of help against Austria. That help was fundamental for the italian unification, so Nizza and Savoy were and are legit french territories

>Naturally, it had never been part of the modern Italian state, just like the Italian territories of Austria.

There is a difference: people from Corsica never claimed to be italian, people from Trento and Trieste did, and a lot of them fought in the italian army against Austria (Cesare Battisti, Guglielmo Oberdan, Nazario Sauro etc.)

>>2691575
Early oil was found by

1. Ssigns on the surface
2. Early gravimetry that only worked with VERY OBVIOUS dome structures
3. Chance, usually when drilling for water

>>2692857
TRIANON.

Would the central powers win the war if Italy had joined them? France would be pretty streched out.

>>2693893
>There is a difference: people from Corsica never claimed to be italian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_irredentism_in_Corsica

>>2694212
The largest part of Corsicans claim to be Corsican, not French or Italian

>>2694299

The point is that Corsica, Nizza and Savoy were possible goals for the Italian irredenta and those territories were in fact annexed by Italy in WWII. The Dalmatinian territories and South Tyrol had few or no Italians, yet they were claimed by Italy.

>>2694135
thanks anon

Italy had territorial ambitions against both France (Nice, Savoy, Corsica, Tunisia) and Austria (Tyrol, Trieste, Fiume, Dalmatia) but the latter were seen as more important, and as stated earlier Italy was reliant on coal imports from Britain and going to war with them would be suicidal.