Italy in World War I
World War I in Europe had a few causes:
The tension between Germany and France because of the French - German war (1870-1871) which Germany had won. The peace was signed in Versailles which was the place where France was proud of. From that moment on France had the Revanche Policy against Germany.
The Imperialism. France and Germany were fighting against each other in Afrika to acquire colonies and that also caused tension in Europe.
England had the best sea - fleet of Europe, but a new emperor was appointed in Germany who wanted to build an even bigger fleet than England had. So again tension was the result.
The central powers, Germany and Austria constituted a powerful bloc that threatened both the frontiers of France and Russia. As an answer to this, France and Russia had formed an Entente Cordiale in 1904, and in 1907 the three nations formed the Triple Entente.
So now the division of Europe into two armed camps was reality. A gunshot fired on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo killed the heir apparent to the Austrian throne and the war started. On July 28, Austria declared war on Serbia. Within a week the major European powers were declaring war to each other: Russia against Austria, Germany against Russia, France and England against Germany. Italy, however proclaimed its neutrality. Italy interpreted Austria’s declaration of war against Serbia as an act of aggression, and not a defensive one. Following the terms of the Triple Alliance, Italy was obliged to support Germany and Austria. But on May 24, 1915, Italy took part in the war on the side of the Allies because they were more successfull in the war than Germany and Austria. The fact that Italy was joining the war was mainly a result of the monster agitations and demonstrations organized by Mussolini and others fervent for action. Mussolini said: "We want war! Today it’s war, tomorrow will be revolution!" In this way, part of the Italian people didn’t want war and another part did want it and they got what they wanted because King Victor Emanuel III, who had ascened the throne in 1900, and his president of the council, Salandra, were also for war. Their attitude was influenced by the terms of the secret treaty of London of April 26, 1915, by which Italy was promised the Trentino, the southern Tirol, Trieste with the surrounding district and the Dalmatian coastline, but even more important, a share in the distribution of the German colonies.
But as a country, you can’t explain to the world that for that reason you choose the side of the Allies. So the thing Italy said to the world was: Our natural sympathies are enlisted on the side of the Allies, because of the brutal German aggression against Belgium (Germany wanted to attack France from the north, which was not expected at all by the French Government but to be able to do this, the German army had to go through Belgium and in that case Germany was violating the neutrality of Belgium) and because of the vandalism of the German troops.
Until 1917 the Italian part in the war consisted mainly in a series of unsuccessful attampts to break through the very strong defensive positions which the Austrians held in the Alps over a length from the Swiss frontier to the Adriatic coast at the mouth of the Isonzo near Trieste.
At one time, in the summer of 1916, there was a serious danger of an Austrian break-through in the Trentino. The Italians were desperately short of artillery and shells, casualties continued to mount , and after the summer offensives of 1917 morale became affected.
The course of the war was radically altered by the entry of the United States on the side of the Allies in 1917. In the spring of 1918, in an effort to end the war before the full weight of the United States Army could be felt, the Germans tried to force their way into Paris. Similarly the Austrians did this: The Austrian army succeeded in breaking through on the Isonzo around Caporetto. The Italians were driven back to the river Piave. The Boselli cabinet, which had come to power after the Austrian offensive of 1916, fell and was replaced by a government formed by Vittorio Orlando. Meanwhile the Italian army managed to turn and stand in positions prudently prepared in advance. There they received timely reinforcement from five British and six French divisions and the Austrians penetrated no farther.
Despite his victory on the Piave, the Italian commander Cadorna was replaced by General Diaz. Under his leadership the Italian army launched on October the 24th 1918 a major attack against the Austrian forces along the entire front, initiatating the battle of Vittorio Veneto, a village where one of the main actions was fought. On November 3th, 1918 the Italians entered Trent and Trieste, and on the following day the Austrians signed an armistice at Villa Giusti, near Padua. Within a week the Allies initiated a major offensive attack along the French front that terminated in the total victory of the Allies. The war had cost Italy 6,000,000 lives.
At the peace conference, which opened in Paris on January the 18th , 1919, the Italians felt that they had made a war effort comparable to that of France and Britain, and when they found themselves treated as inferiors their disillusionment was extremely great. They found too often that the Italo-Austrian front was spoken as a ‘secondary front’, and they found also a disposition to accord to each country its ‘natural frontiers’ based upon the Wilsonian doctrine of ‘self-determination’. The Italians believed that their campaign of October 1918 had been the decisive factor in the winning of the war, and they were no longer merely irridentists, interested in ‘natural frontiers’ and ‘self-determination’, but victors looking for prizes and in particular for the promises of the secret treaty of London. But France, England, and the United States all opposed the expanded Italian claims. On April 24th, Prime Minister Orlando left the conference in protest. Italy greeted his decision with enthusiasm, but became disillusioned when, a week later, Orlando returned to Paris without having obtained any concessions in advance.
Finally, on June 2nd, 1919, the Treaty of St. Germain fixed the peace terms with Austria, which, in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of London, established the frontiers of Italy to the Brenner Pass. Italy thus obtained the Trentino with the entire valley of the Adige River, Trieste, and Istria. However, the treaty did not give to Italy the Adriatic islands which had been promised in the Treaty Of London, nor did it define the territotial boundaries between Italy and the new state of Yugoslavia.