Timmy Albertson History 002U 15 April 2013 Dr. Carney

Why Italy Went to War

Military were spread out across an entire continent, each one claiming to be for defense

purposes as a total continental war seemed inevitable. Great Britain, and the formed the

Triple Entente, whilst the Austro-Hungarian Empire, The , and the formed the

Central Powers. The was the military , in the event that either nation within the alliance

was attacked, the other nations within the alliance would aid – militarily – the nation which was under attack.

The alliance seemed perfect on paper, but for the Kingdom of Italy, the attitude was different. Most people

know of Italy’s changing sides during the Second World War, and believe that Italy did the same in World War

One. However, Italy never entered the War on the Central Powers side, indeed, despite being a member of the

Central Powers; the Kingdom of Italy entered the war ten months later on the side of the Triple Entente. Italy made the decision, fighting long and harsh battles against the Austro-Hungarian forces; they would send

4,200,000 troops to the front, over 600,000 of those troops would die in combat (Gibelli 464). What prompted

Italy to enter the side of the Entente rather than stay with their original alliance, the Central Powers? Land, integrity and fear prompted the Italian government to enter the war on the Entente side in May of 1915.

To understand the events which transpired to the decision, and the issue of land, we must look back at the unification period of the Kingdom of Italy. The Italian army became the successor, rather an extension, of the Piedmontese army which had unified the Italian peninsula in the early 1870’s, which left the army with three main focus points following the unification; complete national unity, war on banditry, and colonial agenda. The first focus of the army, complete national unity, implies on expelling the Austro-Hungarian occupants from the Trentino area in the north, and the Veneto region in the northeast of the land (Rochat 83).

Italy had qualms against the Austro-Hungarian monarchy over the areas, yet it never came to be a militaristic issue, only a goal among the Italians to acquire the land away from the occupying Austria-Hungary. Italy wanted complete unification, and would feel in no way that it could be completely unified until certain areas where attained. Italy lost the Veneto War in 1866, and Italy had also been humiliated when it had its colony of

Tunisia seized by French in 1881, a humiliating defeat against Ethiopia in 1896, and having to fight intensively

to acquire the Turkish ruled Libya in 1911. The fact that Italy had to take over Rome when the occupying forces

left to fight the Franco-Prussian War left Italy with a label of being weak.

Not long after the total unification of the Kingdom of Italy, did the alliance formations begin to take

place in . The young Italian nation had a small military, only a third of that of Germany, and only half of

the French army (Rochat 83). Italy also had a rather small industrial base; it had fewer demographic resources

than or the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Gibelli 464). Italy was spending nearly a quarter of its revenue on

the military alone, which only consisted of 250,000 soldiers, and 15,000 officers (Rochat 83). Italy needed a

way to gain back a bit of its integrity as well as play on the international level that its neighboring nations were

on. When the Triple Entente formed, the Central Powers would make their alliance in 1882.

Because France and Russia sat to the west and east of Germany, respectively, and Russia bordering

Austria-Hungary to the east as well, both nations would be trapped in the event of a war. Any alliance between

Germany and Austria-Hungary would be a wise choice, to help ease a possible two fronted war that seemed to

be closely approaching as European tensions continued to rise. When the Central Powers formed in 1882, it

consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. Italy pulled itself out of its isolation to act as a thorn in the

side of France (Rochat 83).

The previous year, it was the French who had seized Tunisia away from the Italians. It was the French

who had prevented the Kingdom of Italy from acquiring the city of Rome until 1870. The Italians, despite

enjoying their neutrality, decided to enter the Central Powers in an attempt to get back at the French. However,

from the very beginning, it became apparent that the Italians were becoming uncomfortable with the alliance.

Germany was a member of the alliance, and Great Britain was a member of the Entente, and Germany and

Great Britain were turning into major rivals. All things considered, the Italians had no qualm with the British

government, and by the early 1900’s it began to enjoy improved relations with France (Rochat 83). The concern

for the Italians became the fact that if England were to invade Germany, the alliance would go into effect and

the Italians would have to fight against the British. The preceding would result in a nearly domino effect which would prompt France and Russia to get involved, and France being a nation that Italy was improving with.

During the late 1890’s and into the early 1900’s, internal political pressure from nationalists were openly

against the Austro-Hungarian presence in Trentino and Trieste, at the same time the Italians were becoming occupied with the issues that Austria-Hungary was facing in the , for the Italians were taking interest in the Balkans and were having their own aspirations for the area (Rochat 83), primarily the Italian speaking regions of South Slav and .

As the war would draw near, Italy started trusting its allies more and more, primarily that of Austria-

Hungary over territorial regions. The Austrians, it seemed were not respecting the Italians request or taking them seriously about territorial compensation. While the Hapsburg Dual Monarchy would shrug the requests of territory off, the Italians began to debate over the decision of whether or not Italy should remain in a with Austria-Hungary (Gibelli 466). If the Italian government where to nullify the alliance with

Austria-Hungary, that would result in losing Germany as an ally too.

When the Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in June 1914, Austria-Hungary would initiate the beginning of World War One by invading the neighboring nation of Serbia. The alliances kicked in, and soon thereafter, the continent was at war, except for Italy. Whether it was because Italy was no longer trusting Austria-Hungary, or whether it originally wanted to wait for the war to end before expanding, Italy declared that it no longer had any obligations to fulfill the alliance. The Central Powers had allied agreeing that they would only fight defensively no offensively. Austria-Hungary invaded first, not the Entente powers (Juliani

1). Italy argued that it was because of this that it had no obligation to support the war, and thus remained neutral, but only for a few months. Italy believed that if it did not enter the war, then it would not be seen as a major European power, which the Italians took years trying to accomplish (Rochat 84). If Italy was going to enter the war, it would not want to enter on the side of a nation that it did not support.

Italy had territorial aspirations in the Balkans, and the Entente was going to need assistance in helping to keep the Austro-Hungarian forces occupied while most of the attention went to halting Germany. The Entente knew what Italy wanted, and so it would use this knowledge to coax the Italians into aligning with them. On

April 26, 1915, after nearly ten months of remaining neutral, the Italian government signed an agreement with the Entente, known as the Pact of London, and that Italy would begin to mobilize its troops within a month. The

Pact of London promised many territorial gains to the Kingdom of Italy (Gibelli 467). The territories included a

large part of South Slav Dalmatia and Albania, Italian-speaking Trentino and German-speaking South Tyrol, as

well as predominately Italian Trieste and Italian minority Istria, and some land in North Africa if the French and

British ever expanded there (Rochat 84). Italy quickly mobilized and fought with the Entente, primarily against

the Austro-Hungarian forces. By the end of the war, despite Italy’s achievements and assistance, it was only

given the land of South Tyrol, and nothing else (Juliani 2), eventually leading to the rise of fascism in the

Kingdom.

Land, fear and integrity proved to be the main reasons for the involvement of Italy during the First

World War. Though it originally joined the Central Powers, Italy did so only to have the rest of the continent

view it as a major power, for a nation in an alliance is viewed to have a strong and capable military. Italy joined

the Central Powers originally to be a thorn in the side of the French; however, I believe that it was the actions of

Austria-Hungary that ultimately caused the Italians to join in the war on the side of the Entente. Italy not only wanted to be viewed as a strong nation, it also wanted to regain its integrity – the way any young nation would

want to do. Yet as the Kingdom of Italy grew more and stabilized further, it wanted to completely unify the

Italian people. This lead to the Italians having immense aspirations of the Balkan lands where Italian

populations were located as well. The Italians would not be able to get territory in the Balkans unless the

Austrians were not present. Austria-Hungary viewed Italy as a lesser ally, and therefore often did not respect the

wishes of the Italian government. When Italy was given an excuse to break away from the Central Powers, it

took the chance – the chance being the assassination of the Arch Duke of Austria – and would find a way to

fight against Austria-Hungary in an attempt to retrieve the land that it had so well desired. As the saying goes,

the enemy of my enemy is my friend; the Italians knew the Entente was against Austria-Hungary. Italy wanted land; the Entente needed someone to keep the Austro-Hungarians busy on their southern borders. Exchanges were made, and Italy was promised land by the Entente, land which Austria-Hungary would not allow Italy to

expand into or occupy. Joining with the Entente was the perfect way to complete the Italian agenda and thus

solidifies the reasons of land, fear and integrity.