Postwar austerity collides with battleship prestige

Postwar policy cut naval manpower from about 120,000 to 34,000, halted the Francesco Caracciolo program, condemned older ships, and emphasized mines, destroyers, submarines, and motor torpedo boats. The merchant fleet had lost two-thirds of its wartime tonnage and emerged at roughly half its 1914 size, making austerity strategically intelligible. Senior naval figures nevertheless demanded battleship reconstruction at costs that would consume a large part of the entire budget. This mismatch between resources and ambitions helped drive the elite's search for a political messenger who would stop saying no.