Italy had just laid down Dante Alighieri, giving the recently unified kingdom a modern symbol of naval ambition. Giovanni Giolitti retained commanding parliamentary influence even after Sidney Sonnino replaced him as prime minister, so a treaty would have to survive power that extended beyond the formal cabinet. The naval ministry also shifted from the broadly trusted Carlo Mirabello to the more political Giovanni Bettolo, tying fleet policy closely to domestic alignments. Victor Emmanuel III and Italy's political leaders treated a strong navy as evidence that the kingdom deserved a place among the great powers. Talk of Italy as the inheritor of Rome shows that the imperial language later associated with Mussolini already had roots in the early 1900s. Restraint would therefore ask Italy to surrender part of the status and qualitative advantage it hoped the new dreadnought could deliver.
Chapter · 27:11-30:14
Italy treats dreadnought building as proof of great-power status
Dante Alighieri embodied Italy's claim to great-power standing, while parliamentary and naval politics made voluntary restraint unattractive.