Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Italian irredentism
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
=== World War I === {{Further|Italian irredentism in Dalmatia|Italian irredentism in Istria}} {{multiple image | align = left | image1 = Kingdom of Italy - 1871.png | width1 = 220 | alt1 = | image2 = Kingdom of Italy 1924 map.svg | width2 = 220 | alt2 = | footer = On the left, a map of the [[Kingdom of Italy]] before the [[World War I]], and on the right, a map of the Kingdom of Italy after the World War I }} Italy entered the [[World War I]] in 1915 with the aim of completing national unity: for this reason, the Italian intervention in the World War I is also considered the [[Fourth Italian War of Independence]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.piacenzaprimogenita150.it/index.php?it%2F176%2Fil-1861-e-le-quattro-guerre-per-lindipendenza-1848-1918|title=Il 1861 e le quattro Guerre per l'Indipendenza (1848-1918)|date=6 March 2015|language=it|access-date=12 March 2021|archive-date=19 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319075828/http://www.piacenzaprimogenita150.it/index.php?it%2F176%2Fil-1861-e-le-quattro-guerre-per-lindipendenza-1848-1918|url-status=dead}}</ref> in a historiographical perspective that identifies in the latter the conclusion of the [[unification of Italy]], whose military actions began during the [[revolutions of 1848]] with the [[First Italian War of Independence]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Eventi/visualizza_asset.html_1239896580.html|title=La Grande Guerra nei manifesti italiani dell'epoca|language=it|access-date=12 March 2021|archive-date=23 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923183754/http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Eventi/visualizza_asset.html_1239896580.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_LntMIUOXngC&q=%22quarta+guerra+d%27indipendenza%22&pg=PA41|title=Il Manuale di Storia in Italia, di Piergiovanni Genovesi|isbn=9788856818680|language=it|access-date=12 March 2021|last1=Genovesi|first1=Piergiovanni|date=11 June 2009|publisher=FrancoAngeli }}</ref> Italy signed the [[Treaty of London (1915)]] and entered World War I with the intention of gaining those territories perceived by irredentists as being Italian under foreign rule. According to the pact, Italy was to leave the [[Triple Alliance (1882)|Triple Alliance]] and join the [[Allies of World War I|Entente Powers]]. Furthermore, Italy was to [[declaration of war|declare war]] on Germany and [[Austria-Hungary]] within a month. The declaration of war was duly published on 23 May 1915.<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A03E6DB1338E633A25757C2A9639C946496D6CF 11 NATIONS NOW INVOLVED IN WAR; Washington Expects Rumania, Bulgaria, and Greece Soon to Join the Allies. TRADE PROBLEMS CREATED Switzerland, Now Isolated, Must Look to Italy for Means to Get in Supplies. 11 NATIONS NOW INVOLVED IN WAR] May 24, 1915, Monday Page 1, 749 words – The New York Times</ref> In exchange, Italy was to obtain various territorial gains at the end of the war. In April 1918, in what he described as an open letter "to the American Nation" [[Paolo Thaon di Revel]], Commander in Chief of the [[Regia Marina|Italian navy]], appealed to the people of the United States to support Italian territorial claims over [[Trento]], [[Trieste]], [[Istria]], [[Dalmatia]] and the [[Adriatic]], writing that "we are fighting to expel an intruder from our home".<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/04/14/112639691.pdf Italy's Navy Chief Explains Italian Claims]; Trent,...(14 April 1918) – The New York Times</ref> {{multiple image | align = right | image1 = Promised Borders of the Tready of London.png | width1 = 180 | alt1 = | caption1 = Territories promised to Italy by the [[Treaty of London (1915)]], i.e. [[Trentino-Alto Adige]], the [[Julian March]] and [[Dalmatia]] (tan), and the [[Snežnik (plateau)|Snežnik Plateau]] area (green). Dalmatia, after the WWI, however, was not assigned to Italy but to [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]. | image2 = Fiume cheering D'Annunzio.jpg | width2 = 200 | alt2 = | caption2 = Residents of [[Fiume]], now Rijeka, Croatia, cheering the arrival of [[Impresa di Fiume|Gabriele D'Annunzio and his ''Legionari'']] in September 1919, when Fiume had 22,488 (62% of the population) Italians in a total population of 35,839 inhabitants.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Fiume-question|title=Fiume question|publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|access-date=8 May 2025}}</ref> | footer = }} The outcome of the World War I and the consequent settlement of the [[Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)|Treaty of Saint-Germain]] met some Italian claims, including many (but not all) of the aims of the ''Italia irredenta'' party.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/03/28/104231888.pdf ITALY'S PRICE FOR NEUTRALITY] (28 March 1915) – The New York Times</ref> Italy gained [[Trieste]], [[Gorizia]], [[Istria]] and the Dalmatian city of [[Zadar|Zara]]. In Dalmatia, despite the London Pact, only territories with Italian majority as Zara with some Dalmatian islands, such as [[Cres (island)|Cherso]], [[Lošinj|Lussino]] and [[Lastovo|Lagosta]] were annexed by Italy because [[Woodrow Wilson]], supporting Yugoslav claims and not recognizing the treaty, rejected Italian requests on other Dalmatian territories, so this outcome was denounced as a "[[Mutilated victory]]". The rhetoric of "Mutilated victory" was adopted by [[Benito Mussolini]] and led to the [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|rise of]] [[Italian fascism]], becoming a key point in the [[propaganda of Fascist Italy]]. Historians regard "Mutilated victory" as a "political myth", used by fascists to fuel [[Italian imperialism]] and obscure the successes of [[liberal Italy]] in the aftermath of World War I.<ref>G.Sabbatucci, ''La vittoria mutilata'', in AA.VV., ''Miti e storia dell'Italia unita'', Il Mulino, Bologna 1999, pp.101-106</ref> The city of [[Rijeka|Fiume]] in the [[Kvarner Gulf|Kvarner]] was the subject of claim and counter-claim because it had an Italian majority, but Fiume had not been promised to Italy in the London Pact, though it was to become Italian by 1924 (see [[Italian Regency of Carnaro]], [[Treaty of Rapallo, 1920]] and [[Treaty of Rome, 1924]]). The stand taken by the irredentist [[Gabriele D'Annunzio]], which briefly led him to become an enemy of the Italian state,<ref>[http://worldatwar.net/nations/other/fiume/ Stato Libero Di Fiume] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071222134740/http://worldatwar.net/nations/other/fiume/ |date=2007-12-22 }} – (English: "Free State Of Fiume")</ref> was meant to provoke a [[Nationalism|nationalist]] revival through [[corporatism]] (first instituted during his rule over Fiume), in front of what was widely perceived as [[political corruption|state corruption]] engineered by governments such as [[Giovanni Giolitti]]'s. D'Annunzio briefly annexed to this [[Italian Regency of Carnaro]] even the Dalmatian islands of [[Krk (island)|Veglia]] and [[Rab (island)|Arbe]], where there was a numerous Italian community.
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)