

Sign up
Here's how it works:
  1. Anybody can ask a question
  2. Anybody can answer




share|improve this question
up vote 2 down vote accepted





share|improve this answer

Compared to the Great Powers, Italy had two important disadvantages: 1) she started later and 2) she was smaller. No Great Power had both those disadvantages.

Italy had about the same land area and population as the United Kingdom. But the UK was the "home" of the Industrial Revolution, and had a "head start" of half, or even three quarters of a century. Enough said.

Italy was nowhere near the size of either the United States or Russia in either land area or population. More to the point, Italy was smaller in land area and population than France, Germany, or Austria Hungary. The latter two countries started their industrialization shortly before Italy, but France several decades earlier.

Germany and Austria Hungary, who started their industrialization closest to Italy, had the advantage of a common language and a contiguous land mass that allowed for cooperation. Thus, the Austrian and Czech parts of that empire had an industrialization level that was comparable to (and tied to) Germany's while the Hungarian and Slavic parts of the Empire were actually worse off than Italy. But if you take the weighted "average" of rich Austria and poor Slavic lands, Austria-Hungary was better off "on average." The other nation that Italy was comparable to in the early 20th century was Japan, which had a slightly larger population and land area, and started industrializing at about the same time.

share|improve this answer


share|improve this answer
These are just speculations, not really useful as an answer. Could be a fine comment, though. – o0'. Nov 26 '13 at 10:09

Your Answer


