Allies

Page 5 – Kingdom of Italy

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General facts

  • Population: 36 million (1915)
  • Capital: Rome (1915 population 590,000)

Government

  • Head of State: King Vittorio-Emanuele III (29 July 1900 – 9 May 1946)
  • Head of Government:
    • Prime Minister Antonio Salandra (21 March 1914 – 18 June 1916)
    • Prime Minister Paolo Boselli (18 June 1916 – 29 October 1917)
    • Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuelle Orlando (29 October 1917 – 23 June 1919)
    • Prime Minister Francesco Severio Nitti (23 June 1919 – 15 June 1920)

Participation in the War

  • Entered the war: 23 May 1915 (Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary)
  • Ceased hostilities: 11 November 1918 (armistice with Germany)
  • Ended belligerent status: 10 August 1920 (Treaty of Sèvres signed with Ottoman Empire)  

Military Forces

Army

  • Peacetime strength 1915: 290,000 Regular Army (Esercito Permanente)
  • Reserves 1915: 1 million (includes Reserve Army (Milizia Mobile) and Home Guard (Milizia Territoriale))
  • Total mobilised 1915: 1.5 million
  • Total mobilised during war: 5.6 million

Navy

  • Peacetime strength: 40,000

Fleet (1915)

  • Battleships (Dreadnoughts): 4
  • Battleships (pre-Dreadnoughts): 8
  • Battlecruisers: 4
  • Cruisers: 5
  • Light cruisers: 6
  • Destroyers: 33
  • Submarines: 14

Casualties

Military

  • Dead (all causes): 462,000
  • Wounded: 953,000

Sources

  • David Nicolle, The Italian Army of World War I, Osprey, Oxford, 2003
  • Hew Strachan, The First World War Volume I: To Arms, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001
  • Spencer C. Tucker (ed.), The Encyclopedia of World War I: Volume 2, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara CA, 2005
How to cite this page

'Kingdom of Italy', URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/kingdom-italy-facts, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 28-Aug-2014