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Carlentine Sicily | | Date: First World War, Pre 1923 | | Notes: This is my Grandfather. He came to the United States in 1923. With his wife Rosa Piccolo and 4 children. | Contributed by: Geraldine Rose Todero Connor
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FOSSALTA | | Date: june 1918 | Notes: ARDITI 81ST REG TORINO,TOLD STORIES TO ERNEST HEMINGWAY OF PRECEEDING BATTLES WHICH FORMED THE SETTING OF THE NOVEL A FAREWELL TO ARMS
PHOTO;ROVERETO MUSEUM | Contributed by: MAT NASTASIA
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"Greater Italia" | | Date: The 20th Century | Notes: Greater Italy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Greater Italy (Italian: Grande Italia), or Imperial Italy, was an ambitious project envisioned by fascist Italy in which the objective was to create an Italian empire which would expand, in addition to the irredentist claimed territories (Corsica, Nice, Dalmatia, Malta), to additional Mediterranean basin territories with Italian colonial or immigrant populations or within the Italian sphere of influence, such as Albania, Montenegro, northern Tunisia and northern Libya. The intent was to create an Italian state where non-Italian sections were to be assimilated and Italian colonization would be promoted[citation needed]. The expansion to these territories would have allowed Italy a chance to regain dominance in the Mediterranean Sea, lost since the fall of the Roman Empire.
History
Map of "Greater Italy" as conceived in 1940: the orange line shows the areas in Europe and North Africa to be included in the 1940 Project. The green line shows the biggest extension of Italian military control in the Mediterranean area in November 1942 (British controlled areas in red)
After his appointment as Governor of the Dodecanese in 1936, the fascist leader Cesare Maria De Vecchi started to promote within Mussolini's Fascist Party an idea [1] of a new "Imperial Italy" (in Italian: "Italia Imperiale"), one that, like the Roman Empire, went beyond Europe and included northern Africa (the Fourth Shore or "Quarta Sponda" in Italian).
De Vecchi's dream was an Imperial Italy that included not only all the European territories wanted by the Italian irredentists (Nice, Savoy, Ticino, Venezia Giulia, Dalmatia, Corfu, Malta and Corsica) and populated by Italian communities for many centuries, but even the north African territories (Libya and Tunisia), where Italian emigrants had created "colonies" in the late nineteenth century.
After 1936 and during World War II, the Greek Dodecanese islands were also included in the project (with the Ionian islands of Zante, Ithaca, etc.) and the fascist regime soon promoted a process of forced Italianization of these Greek islands [2].
The opinions of De Vecchi were partially accepted [3] by Mussolini in the 1940s, when Italy entered World War II, but found opposition (and scepticism) in the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III.
In 1942, with the Italian occupation of Corsica and Tunisia, the territories of the "Greater Italy" dreamed of by the fascist De Vecchi were fully in Italian hands, with the exception of Malta, but the project was not politically implemented because the war was turning against the Axis powers[4].
First step: the Dodecanese
De Vecchi effected the first step towards an Italia Imperiale (or Grande Italia) when in 1936 , as Italian Governor of the Dodecanese islands, he imposed official use of the Italian Language and created a colony of 7,000 Italians in Rhodes and surrounding islands. [5] In 1940 he was appointed to the Grand Council of Fascism where later, during the Italian occupation of Greece, he proposed that the Kingdom of Italy annex the Dodecanese and Ionian islands, with the island of Chios, which had once belonged to the Republic of Genoa.
Territories of the Mediterranean area occupied by Mussolini's Italy in 1942 (within green lines and dots): "Greater Italy" included most of these territories. In red the British possessions.
Second Step: the Fourth Shore
Another fascist leader, Italo Balbo, promoted actively the development of Italian communities in coastal Libya, after the country was pacified from an arab guerrilla war. Balbo called Tripolitania and Cyrenaica the Quarta Sponda (Fourth Shore) of Italy in reference to the other three shores (the western, the Adriatic and the southern) of the Italian peninsula.
One of the initial Italian objectives in Libya, indeed, had been the relief of overpopulation and unemployment in Italy through emigration to the undeveloped colony. With security established, systematic "demographic colonization" was encouraged by King Victor Emmanuel III's government. A project initiated by Libya's governor, Italo Balbo, brought the first 20,000 settlers--the "Ventimila"--to Libya in a single convoy in October 1938. More settlers followed in 1939, and by 1940 there were approximately 110,000 Italians in Libya, constituting about 12 percent of the total population[6].
Plans envisioned an Italian colony of 500,000 settlers by the 1960s: so, the Italians would be 2/3 of the population in coastal Libya by then. Libya's best land was allocated to the settlers to be brought under productive cultivation, primarily in olive groves. Settlement was directed by a state corporation, the "Libyan Colonization Society", which undertook land reclamation and the building of model villages and offered a grubstake and credit facilities to the settlers it had sponsored.
In November 1942 Tunisia was also included in the "Quarta Sponda" (with nearly 100,000 Tunisian Italians), but a few months later it was occupied by the Allies.
Third step: the Western Balkans
In spring 1941 Mussolini - with the help of the German Army - finally defeated Greece and conquered coastal Yugoslavia.
General Vittorio Ambrosio, the commander of the Italian Army during the conquest of Yugoslav Dalmatia, created a military line of occupation from Lubiana to northern Montenegro that successively was to be considered as the future border of the "Greater Italy" in the North-Western Balkans. [7] Within the borders to the south were included Fascist Montenegro, Greater Albania and the Principality of Pindus in Epirus.
De Vecchi promoted the inclusion of Corfu (with a significant community of the Corfiot Italians), the Ionian islands and the southern Aegean islands (once controlled by the Republic of Venice), in order to form an "arch" that stretched toward the Dodecanese and Chios (Once controlled by the Republic of Genoa).
In this De Vecchi project, the Western Balkans, from southern Slovenia to Chameria, would be Italian, similar to the much larger Nazi project for a Greater Germany in Eastern Europe with "living space" (Lebensraum) for German people.
A project that never materialized
In the 1940s, De Vecchi contemplated an "Imperial Italy" stretching: in Europe, from Nice to the Governatorato di Dalmazia in Dalmatia and possibly Greater Albania (see map), the Ionian islands, the Principality of Pindus in Epirus (northern Greece), the Dodecanese; and in northern coastal Africa, from Tunisia to Libya (the Fezzan of Libya was to be considered Colony of the Empire).
In a hopeful peace negotiation following an Axis victory, Mussolini had planned to acquire for his Greater Italia the island of Crete (that was mostly German occupied) and the surrounding southern Greek islands, connecting the Italian Dodecanese possessions to the already Italian Ionian islands.[citation needed]
South of the Fourth Shore, some fascist leaders dreamed of an Italian Empire that, starting in the Fezzan, would include Egypt, Sudan and reach Italian East Africa[8].
The Allied victory in the Second World War ended these projects and terminated all fascist ambitions for the empire.
Italian peoples in the regions of "Greater Italy"
Map of the Regions claimed by the Irredentists after WWI. Fascism also had its sights on Savoy, Corfu, the Fourth Shore in northern Africa, and the Dodecanese islands.
The presence of significant Italian communities in territories outside the Kingdom of Italy was used as a justification for the project "Greater Italy" [9].
During the 1940s, there were the following Italian populations in the territories desired by De Vecchi and the fascists[citation needed]:
* Nizzardo Italians in the County of Nice: 4,000 - 9000[citation needed]
* Savoy: less than one hundred
* Switzerland: 430,000
* Dalmatian Italians in the Yugoslav part of Dalmatia: 10,000
* Corfiot Italians in Corfu and Ionian islands: 500[citation needed]
* Albania: 3,000 - 11,000[citation needed]
* Principality of Pindus in northern Greece: --
* Dodecanese Italians in Greece: 7,015 (in 1936)
* Maltese Italians in Malta: 70,000[citation needed]
* Corsican Italians in Corsica: 40,000[citation needed]
* Libyan Italians in coastal Libya: 108,419 (in 1939)[citation needed]
* Tunisian Italians in Tunisia: 89,216 (in 1937)
For original text with references see Wikipedia, "Greater Italy."
| Contributed by: Courtesy of Wikipedia
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Venice, Italy | | Date: n.d. [1910s?] | | Notes: "Italian infantry leaving Venice." Digital ID: 19373. | Contributed by: Courtesy of the Library of Congress
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Italy | | Date: n.d. [1910s?] | | Notes: "Italian troops leaving barracks." Digital ID: 18765. | Contributed by: Courtesy of the Library of Congress
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Italy | | Date: n.d. [1910s?] | | Notes: "Italians going to front." Digital ID: 19705. | Contributed by: Courtesy of the Library of Congress
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Italy | | Date: World War I | Notes: Italy in World War I
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about Italian participation in World War I.
From neutrality to the intervention in the war
Although its official status as member of the Triple Alliance (1882) together with Germany and Austria-Hungary, in the years before the outbreak of the conflict the Italian government had enhanced its diplomatic efforts towards United Kingdom and France. This because the Italian government had grown convinced that a support to Austria (which had been also the traditional enemy of Italy during the 19th century Risorgimento) would not grant to Italy the lands the country was aiming to for its territorial expansion: Trieste, Istria, Zara and Dalmatia were all Austrian possessions. In fact, a secret agreement signed with France in 1902 practically nullified Italy's membership in the Triple Alliance.
A few days after the outbreak of the conflict, on August 3, 1914, the government, led by the conservative Antonio Salandra, declared that Italy would not commit its troops, maintaining that the Triple Alliance had only a defensive stance, whereas Austria-Hungary had been the aggressor. In reality, both Salandra and the minister of Foreign Affairs, Sidney Sonnino, started diplomatic activities to probe which side was ready to grant the best reward for Italy's entrance in the war. Although the majority of the cabinet (including former Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti) was firmly contrary to the intervention, numerous intellectuals, including socialists such as Ivanoe Bonomi, Leonida Bissolati and Benito Mussolini, declared in favour of the intervention, which was then mostly supported by the Nationalist and the Liberal parties.
The diplomatic moves led to the London Pact (April 26, 1915), signed by Sonnino without the approval of the Italian Parliament. By the Pact, in case of victory Italy was to be given Trento and its territory up to the Brenner Pass, the cities of Gorizia, Trieste and Gradisca d'Isonzo, Istria (but not Fiume) and part of Dalmatia. Other agreements concerned the sovereignty of the port of Valona, the province of Antalya in Turkey and part of the German colonies in Africa.
Germany and Austria had offered only part of the Trentino and Friuli, without Gorizia and Trieste. The offer of the French colony of Tunisia was deemed unsatisfactory.
In April 1915 Italy joined the Entente and on May 3, 1915 officially rejected the Triple Alliance. In the following days Giolitti and the neutralist majority of the Parliament fought to keep Italy out of the conflict, while the nationalists demonstrated in the squares in favour of entrance into the war (the nationalist poet Gabriele D'Annunzio defined them le radiose giornate di Maggio - "the sunny days of May"). On May 13 Salandra presented his resignation to King Victor Emmanuel III. Giolitti, fearful of a further blow to governing institutions, declined to succeed as prime minister and also resigned. Italy thenceforth entered the war under the impetus of a relative minority of its population and politicians.
Postcard sent from an Italian soldier to his family, c. 1917.
Entrance in the War
Main article: Italian Campaign (World War I)
On May 23, 1915 Italy declared war to Austria-Hungary. Germany followed fifteen months later.
The front on the Austrian border was 650 km long, stretching from the Stelvio Pass to the Adriatic Sea. Militarily, the Italians had numerical superiority. This advantage, however, was negated by the difficult terrain in which fighting took place. Also, any advantage the Italians may have gained was squandered due to the lack of strategic and tactical leadership. The Italian commander-in-chief was Luigi Cadorna, a staunch proponent of the frontal assault whose orders would cause the meaningless death of thousand of his soldiers. His plan was to attack on the Isonzo front, with the dream of breaking into the Slovenian plateau, taking Ljubljana and threatening Vienna. It was a Napoleonic plan, which had no realistic chance of success in an age of barbed wire, machine guns, and indirect artillery fire, combined with hilly and mountainous terrain.
The first shells were fired in the dawn of May 24 against the enemy positions of Cervignano del Friuli, which was captured a few hours later. In the same day the Austro-Hungarian fleet bombed the railway stations of Manfredonia and Ancona. The first Italian casualty to fall was Riccardo Di Giusto.
The main effort was to be concentrated in the Isonzo valleys, towards Ljubljana. The Italian troops managed to obtain some initial successes, but, as in the Western Front, the campaign soon turned into a trench warfare. The main difference was the fact that, instead of in the mud, the trenches had to be dug in the Alpine rocks and glaciers, often up to 3,000 m of altitude.
In the first months of the war Italy launched the following offensives:
* First Battle of the Isonzo (June 23-July 7, 1915)
* Second Battle of the Isonzo (July 18-August 4, 1915)
* Third Battle of the Isonzo (October 18-November 4, 1915)
* Fourth Battle of the Isonzo (November 10, 1915)
In these first four battles the Italian Army registered 60,000 casualties and more than 150,000 wounded, equivalent to around one fourth of the mobilized forces. Also to be mentioned is the offensive in the upper Cadore, near the Col di Lana. Though secondary, this move blocked large Austro-Hungarian contingents, since it menaced their main logistic lines in Tyrol and
[edit] 1916-1917 Italian offensives
This stalemate situation dragged on for the whole 1916. While the Austro-Hungarians amassed large forces in Trentino, the Italian command launched the Fifth Battle of the Isonzo, lasting for eight days from March 11, 1916. Also this attempt was fruitless.
In June the Austro-Hungarian counter-offensive (dubbed Strafexpedition, "Punishment Expedition") broke through in Trentino and occupied the whole Altopiano di Asiago. The Italian Army managed however to contain the offensive and the enemy retreated in order to strengthen its position in the Carso. On August 4 began the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo which, five days later, led to the Italian conquest of Gorizia, at the cost of 20,000 casualties and 50,000 wounded. The year ended with three new offensives:
* Seventh Battle of the Isonzo (September 14-16, 1916)
* Eighth Battle of the Isonzo (November 1, 1916)
* Ninth Battle of the Isonzo (November 4, 1916)
The price was a further 37,000 dead and 88,000 wounded for the Italians, again for no remarkable conquest. In late 1916 the Italian army advanced for some kilometers in Trentino, while, for the whole 1916-1917 winter the situation in the Isonzo front remained stationary.
In May 12-May 28, 1917 there took place the Tenth Battle of the Isonzo. The Battle of Mount Ortigara (June 10-25) was Cadorna's attempt to conquer back some territories in Trentino which had remained under Austro-Hungarian control. On August 18, 1917 began the most important Italian offensive, the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo. This time the Italian advance was initially successful as the Bainsizza Plateau southeast of Tolmino was captured. But the Italian army outran its artillery and supply lines, thus preventing the further advance that may have finally succeeded in breaking the Austro-Hungarian army. Thus the Austro-Hungarian line ultimately held and the attack was abandoned on 12 September 1917.
The rout of Caporetto
Main article: Battle of Caporetto
Though the last Italian offensive had proven inconclusive, the Austrians were in strong need of reinforcements. These became available when Russia crumbled and German troops from the Eastern front were sent to the Isonzo front.
Map showing the Italian losses after the Caporetto breakthrough.
On October 24, 1917 the Central Powers troops broke through the Italian lines in the upper Isonzo, converging on Caporetto (the modern Kobarid) and surrounding the 2nd Italian Army. The Italian army commander, Luigi Capello, had been informed of a probable enemy attack, but had underestimated it.
From that area the Austro-Hungarians advanced for 150 km south-west, reaching Udine after only four days. The defeat of Caporetto caused the disintegration of the whole Italian front of the Isonzo. The situation was re-established by forming a stop line on the Tagliamento and then on the Piave rivers, but at the price of 700,000 dead, wounded and prisoners.[citation needed] Cadorna, who had tried to attribute the causes of the disasters to the 2nd Army, was fired. On November 8 1917 he was replaced by Armando Diaz.
From Caporetto to the end of the war
The Central Powers ended 1917 with a general offensive on the Piave, the Altopiano di Asiago and the Monte Grappa. The Italian army was forced to call the 1899 levy, while that of 1900 was left for an hypothetical final effort for 1919.
The severe (often unreasonably harsh) discipline imposed by Cadorna, the long months spent in the trenches and the words of Pope Benedict XV about the "useless massacre" of the war, had weakened the Italian army's morale, were among the causes of the defeat of Caporetto. The Italian morale was however boosted by the need to save Italy itself from invasion. Further, the re-organization of the front, a changed tactical stance, allowed Diaz to concentrate his forces on a more defendable front.
The Austro-Hungarians stopped their attacks to prepare an offensive for the Spring of 1918. New reinforcements joined in after the end of the war against Russia. The offensive began on June 15, 1918 (see Battle of the Piave River) with six divisions. The Italians resisted the assault. The failure of the offensive marked the swan song of Austria-Hungary on the Italian front. The Central Powers proved finally unable to sustain further the war effort, while the multi-ethnical entities of the Austrian Empire were on the verge of rebellion. The Italians rescheduled their planned 1919 counter-offensive to October 1918, in order to prevent Austria-Hungary's recovery.
The Italian attack was started on October 23 from Vittorio Veneto, the troops advancing quickly in Veneto, Friuli and Cadore. Six days later Austria-Hungary surrendered. The armistice was signed on November 3 at Villa Giusti, near Padua. Italian soldiers entered Trento while Bersaglieri landed in Trieste. The following day the Istrian cities of Rovigno and Parenzo, the Dalmatian island of Lissa, the Dalmatian cities of Zara and Fiume were occupied: the latter not included in the territories originally promised to Italy in case of victory, but the Italians decided to intervene in reply to a local National Council, formed after the flight of the Hungarians, and which had announced the union to Italy.
The Italian army was marching also towards Ljubljana, but was halted by Serb troops. In the meantime the Regia Marina occupied Pola and Sebenico, which became the capital of the Military Government of Dalmatia.
The Military Sanctuary of Redipuglia.
Consequences
The territorial gains were a small in comparison to the cost of the war for Italy. The debt contracted to pay the war expenses was paid back only in the 1970s. The uncertain socio-economical situation caused the heavy social strife which led to the Biennio rosso first and to the rise of the Fascism later.
For original text with references see Wikipedia, "Italy in World War I."
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[Italy] | | Date: published ca. 1910-1915 | | Notes: "Crowd cheering before Quirinal after attempt on King of Italy's life." Digital ID: 20540. | Contributed by: Courtesy of the Library of Congress
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Italy | | Date: 1910s? | | Notes: "Major Lang." Digital ID: 06791. | Contributed by: Courtesy of the Library of Congress
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Italy | | Date: ca. 1920s? | | Notes: "Wilson & King of Italy." Digital ID: 28292. | Contributed by: Courtesy of the Library of Congress
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