How Mussolini bought cooperation from military elites

Mussolini's dictatorship depended on cooperation from the monarchy and the established officer corps. He rewarded generals and admirals with rank, prestige, and influence, respected the king's position, and offered the armed forces control over his militia. A proposal for a more reservist army shows what this bargain displaced: reducing the regular establishment could have released money for modernization. The settlement also preserved a leadership culture that advertised the First World War as a sequence of national glories despite enormous casualties and a public far less convinced. Those same elites later shaped promotions, budgets, and the requirements given to Italian warship designers.