unashamedly inspired by this thread: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=526686
Italy had aliagned itself with the central powers, but prior to the war (for reasons i cannot remember) they split from them. Even after the split they stayed neutral until 1915, when allied pressure and aspirations for empire building persuaded them to join against central powers.
What if the argument that had caused the rift between the CP's and Italy had been smoothed over and Italy joined the war on the Axis side?
I think the results would have been totally different. The 2million Austrian/german troops that invaded italy would have been sent elsewhere, most likely to russia, which im sure would have made a fair bit of difference.
The 2 millionish Italian troops would most likely have invaded southern france, while the benifits of such an invasion would have been neglegable, it still would have pulled hundreds of thousands of french troops away from the western front.
The Italian Navy, though small, managed to keep the Austro hungarian one bottled up in the adriatic for the duration of the war. Had the 2 been able to combine they could have proven to be a bit of a pain in the ass for allied shipping in the med, most likely drawing away allied ships from the blocade of germany. They potentially could have disrupted allied operatiosn against Turky, or potentially drawn allied attntion away from turky altogether, with the british and french invading libya and eithiopia. (obviously the Italians wouldnt want that, but in the grand scheme of things this would have been better for the central powers)