Italian Army

The land force of the Kingdom of Italy, established after unification in 1861. It included colonial formations serving in Eritrea and other territories.

Royal Italian Army: The official name commonly used for the Kingdom of Italy’s land force, especially in the twentieth century. This name identifies the institution whose organization and operations this page describes.
Italian unification: The political and military process that united most of the Italian peninsula as a kingdom in 1861. Unification brought the pre-existing Sardinian army into a national force.
First Italo-Ethiopian War: The 1885–1896 conflict between Italy and Ethiopia over Italian expansion in the Horn of Africa. The war culminated in Adwa and forced Italy to abandon its immediate conquest of Ethiopia.
Royal Italian Army in World War II: The Kingdom of Italy’s land force during the Second World War, from 1940 until the 1946 monarchy’s end. This wartime force was the army’s final and most extensive operational form.
Italian military ranks: The hierarchy of commissioned and noncommissioned grades used by Italy’s armed forces. Ranks defined authority within the army’s units and command chain.
Kingdom of Italy: The Italian state founded in 1861 and replaced by the Italian Republic in 1946. The army was the kingdom’s land force throughout its existence.
Italo-Turkish War: The 1911–1912 war in which Italy seized Libya and the Dodecanese from the Ottoman Empire. The campaign tested the army’s ability to fight overseas and occupy new territory.
Italian Navy: The naval service of the Kingdom of Italy and, later, the Italian Republic. The navy was a separate service with maritime rather than land operations.
Conscription in Italy: The system by which the Italian state compelled eligible men to perform military service. Conscription supplied much of the army’s manpower.
Italian colonial empire: The overseas territories ruled by Italy from the late nineteenth century through the Second World War. Colonial expansion gave the army missions and garrisons outside Europe.

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