bACKGROUND ON ITALY BEFORE 1914Italy was not unified as a single nation since the fall of Rome. It was final unified in the year 1861.[5] Most of the wars to unified Italy’s nation were against Austria-Hungary and with some French interventions along the way. Guiseppe Garibaldi, an Italian general, help the troops get most of their nation.[4] Most of the wars were fought were for power over land. There was still land that was noted as Italian but was not yet part of the nation. Some of the land that Italy view as there were some of Southern Alps and Trieste, which still belong to Austria-Hungary.[3] Italy, was the sixth largest European nation.[4] Italy had a population around thirty-five million in 1914. Italy was a large nation but was poor. When it was compare to the rest of the largest nation in Europe it was undeveloped.[4] The economy was low. The average income was half of Frances at that time. Italy was dependent on Great Britain for coal.[4] Italy was not yet independent on food supplies either. Although Italy was a unified nation, it had no sense of nation hood. In terms of language, Italians were having trouble with understanding other Italians from different regions.
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StrengthOne of Italy’s strength was the large amount of troops that were in the army. Cadorna had twenty-five infantry and four cavalry divisions by spring o f 1915.[6] He had twenty-five groups of men ready to walk to the battlefield in direct combat. By cavalry divisions, it is a group that is heavily arm with armor such as tanks and other fighting vehicles. The twenty-five infantry and four cavalry divisions were grouped into four separate army groups. Despite the low artillery storage Italy face, the military still was able to carry 120 heavy or medium artillery pieces and some seven hundred machine guns.[6] Also, Italy was ahead of the development of using long-range bomber to military usage. A modified version of Caproni Ca. [1] was trailed.[1] The revised development of the product caught Italy’s army eye.[1] Italy than had its first bomber force and its production was increased by August 1915. By December 1916 there was about 162 to 166 aircrafts produced.[1] Cadorna manage to lead massive attacks on Austria-Hungary in May of 1915.
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WeaknessItaly's weakness was in the lack of weapons. Italy was not economically stable to obtain more artillery. Italy thought by sending several troops to attack the front of Austin-Hungary they would out numbers their army. But Italy’s troops were caught off guard when the defendant started building trenches.[3] The Italians leader got ill of cancer making it had for him to be present at all time. The general was constantly undergoing treatment and leaving his troops. Italy’s weakness of having low artillery caused them to lose sixty thousand men of the first two weeks of the Isonzo Offensive.[7] Even with Italy’s numerous amounts of troops, they couldn’t back-up their infantry with artillery.[3] The Italian war zone consisted of the Alps of the Trentino, the Carso plateau in the east and northern lowland.[2] The Alpine section was one of the longest fighting scenes and also presented the most striking meteorological controls.[2] Due to the lack of artillery, Italy had wounded about three hundred thousand of their troops by the time the attack was called off.[2] The attack also left Italy’s army with three thousand less filed guns, which were lost in combat. After that Italy have a hard time trying to maintain themselves for the few months leftover. Within the time period of WWI, 1914-1918, Italy’s army had a death of three hundred sixty-four thousand according to Table 9.
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