Italy Enters the War
Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary on 23 May 1915, having been allied to it for thirty-three years. The Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria dated from 1882 and was defensive in terms, which gave Italy a legal argument for staying out in 1914 — Austria had attacked Serbia rather than been attacked. What followed was an auction. Italy negotiated with both sides through the winter of 1914 and 1915 for what it wanted: the Italian-speaking Trentino, the South Tyrol to the Brenner, Trieste, Istria and part of Dalmatia — territory that was mostly Austrian and partly Slav. Austria offered some of it, slowly, and could not offer Trieste. The Entente could offer all of it because it was not theirs. The Treaty of London, signed secretly on 26 April 1915, promised the lot plus colonial compensation, and Italy undertook to enter within a month. The country was divided about it. Giolitti and most of parliament were against, as were the socialists and the Vatican; the interventionists were nationalists, futurists, and a former socialist editor named Mussolini, and they won the argument in the streets during the radiant days of May. The government presented the treaty as a fait accompli. The war was fought on the Isonzo, twelve times, at a cost of around 600,000 Italian dead. The peace conference then declined to honour parts of the treaty, and the resulting sense of a mutilated victory is the material Mussolini built on. The South Tyrol Italy gained is German-speaking and remains so, with an autonomy statute negotiated after decades of dispute.
- Year: 1915 CE
- Category: Diplomatic
