France recognised Italy as a rising Mediterranean naval power before the First World War. Its alliance with Britain reduced any reason to compete directly with the Royal Navy, while German construction was also beyond what France could match ship for ship. Italian expansion therefore supplied the practical opponent for French battleship building. Equal French and Italian treaty allocations reflected this existing regional security relationship rather than arbitrary parity.
Notable Point · 1:13:23-1:13:55
The Franco-Italian naval rivalry behind French battleship building
France's capital-ship program addressed Italian competition in the Mediterranean rather than an unwinnable race with Britain or Germany.