The army and its senior officers retained immense political influence after 1918. Many commanders interpreted the war as a glorious victory even while ordinary soldiers and the national economy bore severe trauma. Proposals for a smaller standing force, stronger reserves, mechanization, and motorization threatened that senior establishment. Mussolini offered money, militia, prestige, and rehabilitation, making Fascism partly a protective arrangement for existing military power rather than a clean institutional break.
Chapter · 15:40-26:41
The military establishment behind Fascist Italy
Italy's interwar naval choices grew from a military elite whose First World War prestige, institutional power, and resistance to reform survived Mussolini's rise.