King Umberto Lives

[LordKalvert]

On July 29, 1900 King Umberto of Italy is shot and killed at the age of 56 leaving Italy to his son, Victor Emmanuel III. But what if he survived? While Franco-Italian relations vastly improved after the fall of Crispi, Umberto remained faithful to the Triple Alliance

His son allowed the improvement in French relations to continue and eventually double crosses the Triple Alliance in WWI- but would Umberto remain faithful to that alliance? Would he have plunged Italy into the Ottoman War?

On a side note- Leon Czolgosz claimed that Umberto's assassination inspired him to kill William McKinley so two of the more important assassinations of the early 1900's could get butterflied together

No Teddy Roosevelt certainly changes America

 

[Yanez de Gomera]

Umberto was 56 llat the time, and I am not aware of any serious illness he had, so it is plausible that he could live until at least 1914, possibly even to the early twenties.
As you said, he was a staunch supporter of the triple alliance, but be was also pretty respectful of parliamentary prerogatives, so I don't know howuch he would try to force the issue of entering wwi on the central powers' side. I think that, assuming the lead up to war is somewhat similar to otl, the presence of King Umberto could be enough to keep Italy at least neutral.

The fact is that Italy was extremely dependant on British coal exports, meaning that a war against the entente is imho improbable, unless the alliance with Berlin (and Vienna) has been cultivated enough to build significant railways through the Brennerpass and som kind of assurance of access to German mineral resources. I don't think that a longer reigning Umberto is enough for this.

Also, the last years of Umberto's reign were marred by political agitations and bloody repression by pretty reactionary governments (Pelloux, di Rudinì). This seemed to be mending towards the time when he was assassinated (apart from the inflammatory decoration bestowed by the King to general Bava Beccaris, who had ordered the army to use cannons to disperse demonstrations in Milan causing upwards of 100 deaths).
So, I wouldn't discount the risk of further radicalisation, maybe enough to butterfly the conciliatory and reformist policies of the Giolitti government.

Finally Umberto was very much in favour of colonies, so I think that Italy would still go to war for Libya, but I don't think they had the means to take anything more than they did in OTL.

 

[Halagaz]

On a side note- Leon Czolgosz claimed that Umberto's assassination inspired him to kill William McKinley so two of the more important assassinations of the early 1900's could get butterflied together

Interesting. And the conspirators who eventually organized the 1903 coup in Serbia were encouraged by McKinley and Umberto's assassination. The example of McKinley was just a cherry on top of the internal and external screwups that caused the fall of the Obrenovic dynasty, but I guess there's still a small chance that Umberto's survival would mean the survival of not one, but three various heads of state.