6/29/2023 0 Comments 12th battle of the isonzoThe agreement could not be reversed and Italy, for good or ill, now found itself impelled into an active rôle in the war. ![]() The Italian Prime Minister, Antonio Calandra, who had negotiated the agreement resigned but was forced to return to office when a majority against him could not be found. Much of this was a reflection of the common resentment for the ruling classes. There was significant concern when the agreement became public the following month with considerable agitation on the streets. In the event, a number of promises or understandings made in the negotiations were not, were never meant to be, or were unable to be, kept. ![]() Following secret negotiations, Italy switched its allegiances to the Triple Detente of France, Great Britain and Russia by the Treaty of London on the 26th April 1915. But increasingly, Italians believed they would never be able to obtain the four territories considered to belong to them. Prior to the outbreak of the First World War, Italy was aligned with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian under the Triple Alliance, formed in 1882. ![]() Go to top of page The Treaty of London, 1915 The Ottomans, now facing difficulties on many fronts, made the decision to align themselves with Germany, a decision that suited Germany with its interests in the Middle East as much as it did the Ottomans. The ensuing First Balkan War of 1912 resulted in the Ottomans losing most of their European territories, and the Balkans becoming an area of territorial and national instability. This war against the Ottoman Empire was taken by the member states of the Balkan League – Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia – as an illustration of the weakening of the Ottomans’ hold on their empire. This part of Africa remained an Italian possession until 1947. France, Britain and Russian provided tacit support to this intervention and the First Treaty of Lausanne, 18th October 1912, confirmed transfer of Libya from the Ottomans to Italy. There was an obvious advantage to Italy in expanding its empire with a valuable economic addition in north Africa as well as playing to internal nationalist interests. With varying degrees of entitlement or expectancy, the claims were also extended to Corsica, Malta and Italian-speaking Switzerland.Īt the end of September 1911 Italy declared war and attacked Libya at Tripoli with the stated intent of removing Ottoman administrative control from this neighbouring area of land across the Mediterranean Sea. These areas were associated with the long history of Venice, its influence on the Adriatic littoral and generally contained a majority of ethnic Italians or Italian-speakers. Four that particularly held the interests of the nationalist movement, irredentismo italiano, were Trieste, Istria, Zadar and Dalmatia which had been retained by Austria following the Third War of Italian Independence in 1866. The city became the capital of Italy the following year on the 3rd February 1871.įollowing the unification, Italian nationalists continued to press for the inclusion of other areas believed more properly belonging to them than to Austria. ![]() The Risorgimento continued until the capture of Rome on the 20th September 1870 from the Papal states under the rule of Pope Pius IX. Italy became a single nation on the 17th March 1861 as a result of the Risorgimento consolidating the different states of the peninsula into the Kingdom of Italy under King Vittorio Emanuele II, previously the King of Sardinia. This map illustrates the different states within the peninsula around 1860, together with the powerful states that surrounded them. The domination of Italian states by foreign powers, notably France and Austria, had established the setting in which nationalism was bound to flourish. My paternal grandfather, Harry’s best friend and brother-in-law, and also of the 2nd Battalion of the Honourable Artillery Company, had previously been killed at Bullecourt, in France. My purpose is solely to describe a little of my understanding of the background to the war that brought one of my grand-uncles, Lance-Corporal Harry Leonard John Cassini of the 2nd Battalion, Honourable Artillery Company, to Italy where he was killed on the 23rd October 1918, only a few weeks before the ending of the First World War. This page is not intended to be a full description of the First World war in Italy that information can be found more sensibly, in greater detail and more readily in many places elsewhere. The Risorgimento and the consolidation of Italy
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