Why did Italy switch sides in WW2?

After the March on Rome in October 1922, Benito Mussolini became the youngest Italian prime minister up to that date. He removed the political opposition through his secret police and outlawing labor strikes. In fact, that was an attack on the Italian state. Mussolini and his followers consolidated their power through a series of methods and laws that transformed Italy into a one-party dictatorship. In the next years, a dictatorial authority was established and a new totalitarian state was created in Europe. The Italian dictator was aware that Italy was not ready for a long conflict, based on its resources and its pre-World War II smaller military interventions in Ethiopia, Albania, and Spain. Mussolini accepted to enter in the war and to continue the campaign as long as the imperial, non-realistic ambitions of its regime are in progress and supported by his biggest ally. He aspired to restore a form of the ancient Roman Empire in the Mediterranean. These goals were partially met by late 1942. At that point, Italian influence extended throughout the Mediterranean basin and the Axis were at their peak on all fronts. Albania, parts of Slovenia, coastal Dalmatia, and Montenegro had been directly annexed into the Italian state. Most of Greece had been occupied by Italy following the Greco-Italian War and Battle of Greece. On the 28th of October, Mussolini issued an ultimatum to Greece, demanding the cession of Greek territory. The Italian army invaded Greece on the 28th of October, before the ultimatum had expired. The ineffectiveness of the Italian army was visible, thus the invasion was truly a disaster. 140,000 troops encountering a well-determined enemy. The fight was mainly on mountainous terrain, on the Albanian-Greek border. What was expected as a pretty quick success was instead a failure. By mid-November, the Greeks had stopped the Italian invasion and after that pushed away the enemy back to Albania. Finally, Italo-German forces had achieved victories against Greece and Yugoslavia, and had occupied parts of British-held Egypt, on their push to El Alamein after their victory at Gazala. However, Italy's conquests were heavily contested. Even if Yugoslavia and Greece were defeated, large partisan movements existed here and created large difficulties for Axis forces. After the struggle in North Africa, Mussolini requested help from his German ally. By May 1943, the Allies managed to defeat the Axis forces in North Africa, and new plans were to be made. Even before their victory, a disagreement among the Allies existed, especially on the further strategies. The British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, focused on the naval power of Britain, and his plan was to create well-pointed, small operations in order to weaken the enemy. The United States, with the larger US Army, wanted a more brute and direct strategy of fighting. The ability to launch such a campaign depended on first winning the Battle of the Atlantic. Their staff believed that a full-scale invasion of France at the earliest possible time was needed to end the war in Europe. The British instead argued that the presence of large numbers of troops trained for amphibious landings in the Mediterranean made a limited-scale invasion possible and more useful. Eventually, the US and British political leadership reached a compromise in which both would commit most of their forces to an invasion of France in early 1944, but also launch a relatively small-scale Italian campaign. Franklin D. Roosevelt's desire to keep US troops active in the European theater during 1943, and his attraction to the idea of eliminating Italy from the war, made him like this idea. Knowing Italian internal problems and their former military campaigns, it was hoped that the invasion might knock Italy out of the conflict. The elimination of Italy would enable Allied naval forces, principally the Royal Navy, to dominate the Mediterranean Sea and possibly create a bigger southern front. Italian divisions on occupation and coastal defense duties in the Balkans and France would be withdrawn to defend Italy, while the Germans would have to transfer troops from the eastern front to defend Italy and the entire southern coast of France, thus aiding the Soviets. A combined Allied invasion of Sicily began on the 10th of July, 1943, with both amphibious and airborne landings. The land forces involved there were the US Seventh Army under Lieutenant General George S. Patton and the British Eighth Army under General Bernard Montgomery. The defending German and Italian forces were unable to prevent the Allies' capture of the island, but they succeeded in evacuating most of their troops to the mainland. Forces of the British Eighth Army, still under Montgomery, landed in the tow of Italy on the 3rd of September, 1943, in Operation Baytown, the day the Italian government agreed to an armistice with the Allies. The armistice was publicly announced on September 8th by two broadcasts, first by General Eisenhower and then by a proclamation by Marshal Bandoglio, although the German forces prepared to defend without Italian assistance. There had been a hope that, with the surrender of the Italian government, the Germans would withdraw to the north. On October 13th, 1943, one month after Italy surrendered to Allied forces, it declared war on Germany, its one-time Axis Powers partner. Italy was led into the war by Benito Mussolini, the Prime Minister who had formed an alliance with Germany in 1936. In the summer of 1943, as Allied forces landed in Sicily, public support for the war and for Mussolini diminished. Mussolini was ousted on July 25th, and his replacement, General Pietro Bandoglio, sought peace with the Allies, and reached an armistice on September 3rd. Germany, which had troops stationed throughout Italy, proceeded with an occupation of the country, and seized strongholds from a disorganized Italian military. Knowing that just a small part of Italy was occupied, why did they switch sides so easily? As it was presented, even if Italy could have been a potential great power, it had many shortcomings, and not only in the military. Having a fragmented society after the First World War, the political arena was shocked by some instabilities, and it ended with a guy who promoted war and some sort of fanaticism at its helm. Italian logistical deficiencies were seen in their campaigns, and this was mainly due to the lack of proper equipment, which was based on other factors. The army wasn't just poorly equipped with outdated or insufficient weapons, but, in some cases, poorly trained. Many army officers prepared the army for classical situations. It was a failure to adapt on the new type of war. That, plus the fact that some of the generals were chosen more for their loyalty than their capacities. Although could be considered the main German ally, the country wasn't ready for a large-scale conflict. Their industrial sector was small, the preparedness and training of the soldiers was limited. Large industries were vital in such campaigns. Germany placed a special emphasis on arming and creating industries for tanks, artillery, warplanes, and so on. The Italian army, on the other hand, was poorly equipped for a war against Great Britain or the United States. Italian industries were outproduced in terms of quantity and quality compared to those of its enemies. The situation can be seen even worse if we look at it from a geographical perspective. The country is a peninsula, a large one, with huge coasts to guard. Having an enemy capable of doing amphibious and paratrooper landings in a sea which became less and less dominated by your ships is not a good sign to continue a war. The navy did its part in the war and was successful in securing its coasts and large parts of the sea, but again, having the lack of proper warplanes in terms of numbers and technology to support the navy campaigns was a big drawback. North Africa could have been seen as a shield between continental Italy and the Allies. The unsuccessful campaign there created the situation for British and American landings in Sicily, and afterwards in the toe of Italy. For much of the political class, it was clear that the Italian forces are dealing with a more powerful enemy, and now the war isn't outside their borders but within. As the Allies advanced, they encountered increasingly difficult terrain. Allied forces advanced slowly north through the Italian peninsula before finally defeating Axis forces in May 1945. Mussolini, who was rescued by the Germans from an Italian prison and made the leader of a puppet state, the Italian Social Republic, in parts of Italy not occupied by Allied forces, was captured and executed by members of the Italian partisan resistance.