Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-13740085-20140322054844/@comment-1310192-20140408141404

The issues I see with the victory is not the fact that the Hapsburgs could win a war against Italy (they proved it by themselves in Caporetto) but that they would be able to annex such a large part of Italy. Not only would it never be accepted by Europe (the French, for example, would never let Austria re-gain Venice; the Germans would not allow Austria to throw away the Triple Alliance so), but the nationalism of the Italians in Venice and Milan would overthrow the already next-to-collapse Austro-Hungarian Empire very easily. The annexation of Venice into Italy would lead to approximately 7 million rabid Italinas wishing to break away (that would be 10% of the Austrian population), to add it to the Czechs and Serbs and Ukrainians.