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Italy | | Date: 1917 | | Notes: "Poster shows a giant, representing German, crushing bodies. Text: German peace." Digital ID: 3g12055. | Contributed by: Courtesy of the Library of Congress
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Italy & Around the world | | Date: The 20th Century | Notes: Italian irredentism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Italian irredentism (Italian: irredentismo) was an Italian nationalist Irredentist movement that aimed to complete the unification of all ethnically Italian peoples. Originally, the movement promoted the annexation by Italy of territories inhabited by an Italian majority but retained by the Austrian Empire after 1866 (hence 'unredeemed' Italy). These included the Trentino and Trieste, but also areas with Croatian and Slovenian ethnic majorities, such as Istria, Gorizia and Gradisca, Dalmatia. The ideology was then extended to the city of Rijeka, Corsica, the Ionian islands, the Mediterranean island of Malta, Nice, and Ticino.
Not a formal organization, it was rather an opinion movement that claimed that Italy had to reach its 'natural borders'. Similar patriotic and nationalistic ideas were common in Europe in the 19th century. The term 'irredentism' was successfully coined from the Italian word in many countries in the world (List of irredentist claims or disputes). This idea of 'Italia irredenta' is not to be confused with the Risorgimento, which was the historical events that led to irredentism, or with Greater Italy, which was the political philosophy that took the idea further under Fascism.
The liberation of Italia irredenta was perhaps the strongest motive for Italy's entry into World War I and the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 satisfied many irredentist claims.[1]
Place names
To avoid confusion and in line with convention, this article uses modern English place names throughout. However, most places have alternate names in Italian. See List of Italian place names in Dalmatia.
Origins
After the Italian unification of 1861, there were areas with Italian peoples in several countries around the newly created Kingdom of Italy. The Irredentists sought to annex all those areas into a unified Italy, including some areas with a non-Italian majority. The areas targeted were Corsica, Dalmatia, Gorizia and Gradisca, the Ionian islands, Istria, Malta, Nice, Ticino, Trentino, Trieste and Rijeka.
Initially, the movement can be understood as part of a more general nation-building process in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries when the multi-national Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman Empires were being replaced by nation states. The Italian nation-building process can be compared to similar movements in Germany (Großdeutschland), Hungary, Serbia, and in pre-1914 Poland. Simultaneously, however, in many parts of 19th century Europe, liberalism and nationalism were ideologies which were coming to the forefront of political culture. In Eastern Europe, where the Habsburg Empire had long asserted control over a variety of ethnic and cultural groups, nationalism appeared in a standard format. The beginning of the 19th century, "was the period when the smaller, mostly indigenous nationalities of the empire - Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, Ukrainians, and the Latin Romanians - remembered their historical traditions, revived their native tongues as literary languages, reappropriated their traditions and folklore, in short reasserted their existence as nations."[2] The notion of a single united Italy ran counter to the aspirations of the majority populations.
19th century
One of the first 'Irredentists' was Giuseppe Garibaldi who, in 1859 as deputy for his native Nice in the Piedmontese parliament at Turin, attacked Cavour for ceding Nice to Napoleon III in order to get French help and approval for Italian Unification. Irredentism grew in importance in Italy in the next years.
On July 21, 1878, a noisy public meeting was held at Rome with Menotti Garibaldi, the son of unification leader Giuseppe Garibaldi, as chairman of the forum, and a clamour was raised for the formation of volunteer battalions to conquer the Trentino. Benedetto Cairoli, then Prime Minister of Italy, treated the agitation with tolerance.
Italian unification process.
It was, however, mainly superficial, as most Italians had no wish to launch a dangerous policy of adventure against Austria, and still less to attack France for the sake of Nice and Corsica, or Britain for Malta.
One consequence of Irredentist ideas outside of Italy was an assassination plot organized against the Emperor Francis Joseph in Trieste in 1882, which was detected and foiled. Guglielmo Oberdan, a Triestine and thus Austrian citizen, was executed. When the Irredentist movement became troublesome to Italy through the activity of Republicans and Socialists, it was subject to effective police control by Agostino Depretis.
Irredentism faced a setback when the French occupation of Tunisia in 1881 started a crisis in French–Italian relations. The government entered into relations with Austria and Germany, which took shape with the formation of the Triple Alliance in 1882.
The Irridentists' dream of absorbing the targeted areas into Italy made no further progress in the 19th century, as the borders of the Kingdom of Italy remained unchanged and the Rome government began to set up colonies in Eritrea and Somalia in Africa.
World War I
See also: The Kingdom of Italy's entry into World War I and Italy in World War I - from neutrality to intervention
Italy signed the London Pact and entered World War I with the intention of gaining those territories perceived by Irridentists as being Italian under foreign rule. According to the pact, Italy was to leave the Triple Alliance and join the Entente Powers. Furthermore, Italy was to declare war on Germany and Austria-Hungary within a month. The declaration of war was duly published on 23 May 1915 [3]. In exchange, Italy was to obtain various territorial gains at the end of the war. In April 1918, in what he described as an open letter "to the American Nation" Paolo Thaon di Revel, Commander in Chief of the Italian navy, appealed to the people of the United States to support Italian territorial claims over Trento, Trieste, Istria, Dalmatia and the Adriatic, writing that "we are fighting to expel an intruder from our home."[4]
The outcome of the First World War and the consequent settlement of the Treaty of Saint-Germain met some Italian claims, including many (but not all) of the aims of the Italia irredenta party.[5] Italy gained Trieste, Gorizia, Istria and the cities of Rijeka and Zadar. In Dalmatia, despite the Treaty of London, only Zadar with some Dalmatian islands such as Cres, Lošinj and Lastovo were annexed by Italy, as Woodrow Wilson, supporting Croatian claims and not recognizing the treaty, rejected Italian requests on other Dalmatian territories.
The city of Rijeka in the Kvarner Gulf was the subject of claim and counter-claim (see Italian Regency of Carnaro, Treaty of Rapallo, 1920 and Treaty of Rome, 1924).
The stand taken by Gabriele D'Annunzio, which briefly led him to become an enemy of the Italian state,[6] was meant to provoke a nationalist revival through Corporatism (first instituted during his rule over Rijeka), in front of what was widely perceived as state corruption engineered by governments such as Giovanni Giolitti's. D'Annunzio briefly annexed to this "Regency of Carnaro" the Dalmatian islands of Krk and Rab where there was a numerous Italian community.
Rijeka residents cheering D'Annunzio and his Italian Irredentism raiders, September 1919. Rijeka had 22,488 Italians in a total population of 35,839 inhabitants.
Map of the Regions claimed by the Fascists in the 1930s. Savoy and Corfu were also later claimed.
Fascism and World War II
Main article: Greater Italy
Fascist Italy strove to be seen as the natural result of war heroism, against a "betrayed Italy" that had not been awarded all it "deserved", as well as appropriating the image of Arditi soldiers. In this vein, irredentist claims were expanded and often used in Fascist Italy's desire to control the Mediterranean basin.
In 1922 Mussolini temporarily occupied Corfu, perhaps using irredentist claims based on minorities of Italians in the Ionian islands of Greece.[citation needed] Similar tactics may have been used towards the islands around the Kingdom of Italy - through the Pro-Italian Maltese, Corfiot Italians and Corsican Italians - in order to control the Mediterranean sea (that he called in Latin Mare Nostrum)[citation needed].
Around 1939, the main territories sought included the rest of Istria, more of Dalmatia, the Ionian Islands (in Greece), Malta, Corsica, Nice, Savoy and Ticino. Other claims were also made for the Fourth Shore, which meant coastal Libya and Tunisia, and The Dodecanese islands of the Aegean Sea.
During World War II, large parts of Dalmatia were annexed by Italy into the Governorship of Dalmatia from 1941 to 1943. Corsica and Nice were also administratively annexed by the Kingdom of Italy in November 1942. Malta was heavily bombed but was not occupied, due to Allied naval control of the Mediterranean and the success of Operation Pedestal, one of the most important[7] British strategic victories of the Second World War.
After Italian capitulation in 1943, areas formerly under Italian control in Istria and the Julian March were controlled by Yugoslav Partisans. Shortly afterwards these areas were occupied by the German Wehrmacht and SS forces that brutally suppressed the Partisans, especially on the Istrian peninsula.
After 1945, many Italians chose to move to Italy[8], and there was a significant decline in Italian speaking populations in Istria and Dalmatia.[9]
Dalmatia: a case of Italian Irredentism
The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (July 2008)
The Italian linguist Matteo Bartoli calculated (by unknown method) that Italian was the primary spoken language by almost 30% of the Dalmatian population at the beginning of the Napoleonic wars.[10] Bartoli's evaluation was followed with other claims such as 25% in 1814/1815 (according to a census done by Auguste de Marmont, the French Governor General of the Napoleonic Illyrian Provinces)[citation needed] and, 3 years later, around 70,000 Italians in a total of 301,000 people living in Austrian Dalmatia.[citation needed]
Scholars like Duško Večerina assert that these evaluations were not conducted by modern scientific standards and concentrated solely on the spoken language of the population. They pointed out that, according to a report by Imperial court councilor Joseph Fölch in 1827, the Italian language was by noblemen and some citizens of lower classes exclusively in the coastal cities of Zadar, Šibenik, and Split. Since only around 20,000 people populated these towns and not all were Italian speakers, their real number was rather smaller, probably around 5% of the total population, as is asserted by the Department of Historical Studies of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU).[11]
Italian irredentists, like Gabriele D'Annunzio, claim that Joseph Fölch allegedly overlooked the Dalmatian islands of Cres, Lošinj, Vis and others with significant Italian communities, and that the only official evidence about the Dalmatian population comes from the 1857 Austro-Hungarian census, which showed that in this year there were 369,310 Slavs and 45,000 Italians in Dalmatia[12], making Dalmatian Italians 15% of the total population of Dalmatia in the mid-19th century.
The last city with a significant Italian presence in Dalmatia was Zadar. In the Austro-Hungarian census of 1910 Zadar had an Italian population of 9,318 (or 69.3% of the total of 13,438 inhabitants).[citation needed] Zadar's population grew to 24,100 inhabitants, of whom 20,300 were Italians,[citation needed], while in 1942 it was designated as the capital of Italian-occupied Yugoslavia (Governorship of Dalmatia). Many of the local population were killed or injured in the bombing of Zadar by Allied air forces in 1943 and 1944. Some Italian sources claim that the city was destroyed for political reasons: it was bombed because of alleged incorrect information that was supplied to the Allies by Marshal Josip Broz Tito's Partisans. Italians also claim that their intent was to clear out the only remaining Italian enclave in Dalmatia.
On the other hand, sources point out that Zadar, situated on a peninsula, was surrounded by the primary port facilities of the Italian occupation forces, and, as a result, the city center was surrounded by potential targets. A bomber unit of the period had little or no capability at such precision bombing that would completely spare the city center but still destroy the adjoining military naval facilities. Apart from all this, Zadar was also located on the flight route of Allied planes flying from southern Italy to targets in central Europe.
With the 1947 Peace Treaty, Italians still living in Zadar - no more than three thousand - were granted the opportunity to become Italian citizens as an alternative to Yugoslav citizenship, but with the obligation to take up residence in Italy. About 100 Italians remain in the city today.
Supposed Italian irredentism today
After World War II, Italian Irredentism officially disappeared along with the defeated Fascists and the Monarchy of the House of Savoy.
Some Croatian and Slovenian politicians and organizations (supported by some politicians from their countries) assert that Italy - in their opinion - openly propagates irredentist ideas even in the 21st century, often causing sharp reactions from Croatian and Slovenian officials.[citation needed]
They often cite the then Italian Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini, who in Senigallia in 2004 gave an interview to the Slobodna Dalmacija daily newspaper at the 51st gathering of the Italians who left Yugoslavia after World War II, in which he was reported to have said that "From the son of an Italian from Fiume I learned that those areas were and are Italian, but not because at any particular historical moment our army planted Italians there. This country was Venetian, and before that Roman" [13]. Rather than issuing an official rebuttal of those words, Carlo Giovanardi, then Parliamentary Affairs Minister in Berlusconi's government, affirmed Fini's words, saying "...that he told the truth".[14].
These sources point out that on the 52nd gathering of the same association, in 2005, Carlo Giovanardi was quoted by the Večernji list daily newspaper as saying that Italy would launch a cultural, economic and tourist invasion in order to restore "the Italianness of Dalmatia" while participating in a round table discussion on the topic "Italy and Dalmatia today and tomorrow" [15]. Giovanardi later declared that he had been misunderstood [16], and sent a letter to the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in which he condemned nationalism and ethnic strife [17].
They underline that Alleanza Nazionale, a former Italian conservative party, now merged in the People of Freedom party, derived directly from the Italian Social Movement (MSI), a neo-fascist party, which often claimed that Italy paid too much for her defeat in World War II , repeating that "Dalmatia was stolen from Italy"[citation needed]. For example, in 1994, Mirko Tremaglia, a member of the MSI and later of Alleanza Nazionale, described Rijeka, Istria and Dalmatia as "historically Italian" and referred to them as "occupied territories", saying that Italy should "tear up" the 1975 Treaty of Osimo with the former Yugoslavia and block Slovenia and Croatia's accession to EU membership until the rights of their Italian minorities are respected. [18]
Croatian authorities believe that the threat of this "contemporary irredentism" may be clearly seen by the proposed issue of stamps related to Rijeka, a previously Italian city in the Adriatic called Fiume in Italian. In 2007, the Italian Post Office printed 3,000,000 copies[19] of a stamp with a 1922 photo of Rijeka, when its official name was Fiume, with the text Fiume - terra orientale giŕ italiana (Rijeka - eastern land formerly Italian.) [20]. The Croatian Foreign Ministry sent a protest note to Italy, saying it had "informed Italy that the content was unacceptable" [21]. Following the protests, the release of the stamp was postponed until the end of the year[22].
In the Croatian city of Poreč, Italian irridentist graffiti has periodically been appearing.[citation needed]
Political figures in Italian Irredentism
* Guglielmo Oberdan
* Cesare Battisti
* Nazario Sauro
* Damiano Chiesa
* Fabio Filzi
* Carmelo Borg Pisani
* Giuseppe Garibaldi
* Gabriele D'Annunzio
* Petru Simone Cristofini
* Petru Giovacchini
* Maria Pasquinelli
See also
* Irredentism
* Italians
* Italian Regency of Carnaro
* Italian Unification
* History of Italy as a monarchy and in the World Wars
* Italian Empire
For original text with references see Wikipedia, "Italian irredentism."
| Contributed by: Courtesy of Wikipedia
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Maserada, Italy | | Date: Oct. 5 1918 | | Notes: Image Caption: "Detachment of Co. E, 2nd Battalion, 332nd Reg. inf. repairing wire in front of third-line trenches in sector held by the Americans on the Plave River near Verago. Maserada, Italy." | Contributed by: Courtesy of the New Your Public Library, Digital Gallery
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Italy | | Date: ca. 1915 and 1918 | | Notes: "Poster shows a cannon, resting on a pile of coins, pointing upwards toward the mountains. Text encourages people to donate money for victory and peace." "Date denaro per la vittoria; la vittoria e la pace. Banca Italiana di Sconto/ Girus." Digital ID: 3g13218. | Contributed by: Courtesy of the Library of Congress
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Italy | | Date: 1918 | | Notes: "Poster shows a woman in a red gown (Trieste) and a woman in a green gown (Trento) kneeling before a woman in white gown and crown and holding a sword (Italy); in background soldiers march to battle and planes fly overhead. Text: Finalmente!! [At last!]" Digital ID: 3g12072. | Contributed by: Courtesy of the Library of Congress
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Italy | | Date: 1918 | | Notes: "French and Italian flags crossed. Italy had joined the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1882, but had declared its neutrality in 1914. At this time, both sides, knowing of Italy's interest in colonial expansion, tried to influence Italy over to their side. In 1915, the Triple Entente agreed to Italy's demands for colonial territories and Italy came into the war on the side of the Allied Powers." "Italiens souscrivez au 4eme Emprunt de la Defense Nationale - Banca Ialiana di Sconto." Digital ID: 3f03833. | Contributed by: Courtesy of the Library of Congress
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Genoa, Italy | | Date: 1917 | | Notes: "Poster shows a soldier looking down at his small son. Text: Bank of Rome, subscribe to the National Consolidated Loan, 1917, 5%. Open your money box so that Papa can quickly return victorious. "Banco di Roma, sottoscrizione Prestito Nazionale 1917 consolidato 5%/ Aurelio Craffonara." Digital ID: 3g12060. | Contributed by: Courtesy of the Library of Congress
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Bergamo, Italy | | Date: 1917 | | Notes: "Poster shows a classical female figure, representing Italy, wearing a crown,armor and draped in the Italian flag, holding a sword toward a Nordic (?) warrior coming over mountains. Text: Subscribe to the [national] loan." "Sottoscrivete al prestito / G. Capranesi." Digital ID: 3g12067. | Contributed by: Courtesy of the Library of Congress
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Torino, Italy | | Date: 1918 | | Notes: "Poster shows a wounded Italian soldier with blood stained bandages wrapped around his eyes. Text: For the country, my eyes, for peace, your money, National Consolidated Loan [Per la Patria i mieli occhi! Per la Pace il vosto denaro. Prestito Nazionale/ A. Ortelli.] Digital ID: 3g12066. | Contributed by: Courtesy of the Library of Congress
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Italy & Around the World | | Date: The 20th Century | Notes: Italian Colonial Empire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Italian Colonial Empire
Flag of Italian Colonial Empire
Location of Italian Colonial Empire
The Italian Empire in September 1939.
The Italian colonial empire was created after the Kingdom of Italy joined other European powers in establishing colonies overseas during the "scramble for Africa". Modern Italy as a unified state only existed from 1861. By this time Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Britain, and France had already carved out large empires over several hundred years. One of the last remaining areas open to colonisation was on the African continent. By the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Italy had annexed Eritrea and Somalia, and had wrested control of portions of the Ottoman Empire, including Libya, though it was defeated in its attempt to conquer Ethiopia. The Fascist government under Italian dictator Benito Mussolini which came to power in 1922 sought to increase the size of the empire further, which it did via force or threat of force. Ethiopia was successfully taken, four decades after the previous failure, and Italy's European borders were expanded at the expense of its neighbours. Italy sided with Nazi Germany during World War II and initially enjoyed successes. However, Allied forces eventually captured Italian overseas colonies and by the time Italy itself was invaded in 1943, its empire had all but ceased to exist.
Birth of a Nation and Scramble for an Empire (1861-1914)
Main articles: Italian unification, Italia irredenta, and
Italo-Turkish War
Francesco Crispi, Italian Prime Minister and advocate of the annexation of Abyssinia.
Italian mounted infantry in China in 1900.
The unification of Italy in 1861 brought with it a belief that Italy deserved its own overseas empire, alongside those of the other powers of Europe, and a rekindling of the notion of mare nostrum.[1] However, Italy had arrived late to the colonial race, and its relative weakness in international affairs meant that it was dependent on the acquiescence of Britain, France and Germany towards its empire-building.[2]
Italy had long considered the Ottoman province of Tunisia, where a large community of Tunisian Italians lived, within its economic sphere of influence. It did not consider annexing it until 1879 when it became apparent that Britain and Germany were encouraging France to add it to its colonial holdings in North Africa.[3] A last minute offer by Italy to partition Tunisia between the two countries was refused, and France, confident in German support, ordered its troops in from French Algeria, imposing a protectorate over Tunisia in May 1881 under the Treaty of Bardo.[4] The shock of the "Tunisian bombshell", as it was referred to in the Italian press, and the sense of Italy's isolation in Europe, led it into signing the Triple Alliance in 1882 with Germany and Austro-Hungary.[5]
Italy's search for colonies continued until February 1885, when by secret agreement with Britain it annexed the port of Massawa in Eritrea on the Red Sea from the crumbling Egyptian Empire. Italian annexation of Massawa denied the Abyssinian Empire of Emperor Yohannes an outlet to the sea [6] and prevented any expansion of French Somaliland.[7] At the same time, Italy occupied territory on the south side of the horn of Africa, forming what would become Italian Somaliland.[8] However, Italy coveted Abyssinia itself, and in 1887, Italian Prime Minister Agostino Depretis ordered an invasion. This invasion was halted after the loss of five hundred Italian troops at the Battle of Dogali.[9] Depretis's successor, Prime Minister Francesco Crispi signed the Treaty of Wuchale in 1889 with Menelik II, the new emperor. This treaty ceded Ethiopian territory around Massawa to Italy to form the colony of Eritrea, and - at least, according to the Italian version of the treaty - made Ethiopia an Italian protectorate.[10]
Relations between Italy and Menelik deteriorated over the next few years until the First Italo-Abyssinian War broke out in 1895 after Crispi ordered Italian troops into the country. Outnumbered and poorly equipped[11], the result was a humiliating defeat for Italy at the hands of Ethiopian forces at the Battle of Adwa in 1896, the first defeat by an indigenous people of a colonial power[12], and a major blow to the Italian empire in East Africa, as well as to Italian prestige.
On 7 September 1901, a concession in Tientsin was ceded to the Kingdom of Italy by Imperial China. It was administered by Rome's Consul. Several ships of the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) were based at Tietsin.[citation needed]
A wave of nationalism that swept Italy at the turn of the twentieth century led to the founding of the Italian Nationalist Association, which pressed for the expansion of Italy's empire. Newspapers were filled with talk of revenge for the humiliations suffered in Ethiopia at the end of the previous century, and of nostalgia for the Roman era. Libya, it was suggested, as an ex-Roman colony, should be "taken back" to provide a solution to the problems of south Italy's population growth. Fearful of being excluded altogether from North Africa by Britain and France, and mindful of public opinion, Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti ordered the declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire, of which Libya was part, in October 1911.[13] As a result of the Italo-Turkish War Italy gained Libya and the Dodecanese Islands.
Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando (second from left) with the leaders of Britain, France and the USA at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
World War I and its aftermath (1914-1922)
Main articles: Italy in World War I, Agreement of St.-Jean-de-Maurienne, Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, and Treaty of Sčvres
In 1915, Italy agreed to enter World War I on the side of Britain and France, and in return was guaranteed territory at the Treaty of London, both in Europe and, should Britain and France gain Germany's African possessions, in Africa.[14] However, at the concluding Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Italy received far less in Europe than had been promised, and none overseas. In April 1920, it was agreed between the British and Italian foreign ministers that Jubaland would be Italy's compensation, but Britain held back on the deal for several years, aiming to use it as leverage to force Italy to cede the Dodecanese to Greece.[15]
Fascism and the "Italian Empire" (1922-1940)
Main articles: Treaty of Lausanne, Tripoli Grand Prix, Second Italo-Abyssinian War, and Italian invasion of Albania
Benito Mussolini, whose fascist policies sought the expansion of Italian territories, ultimately led Italy to defeat during World War II.
In 1922, the leader of the Italian fascist movement, Benito Mussolini, became Prime Minister of Italy after a coup d'état. Mussolini resolved the question of Dodecanese sovereignty at the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which formalized Italian administration of both Libya and the Dodecanese Islands, in return for a payment to Turkey, the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, though he failed in an attempt to extract a mandate of a portion of Iraq from Britain.
King Victor Emmanuel III in Benghazi.
The month following the ratification of the Lausanne treaty, Mussolini ordered the invasion of the Greek island of Corfu after the murder of an Italian general there. The Italian press supported the move, noting that Corfu had been a possession of the Republic of Venice for four hundred years.[16] Though the matter was taken by Greece to the League of Nations, Mussolini successfully resisted its pressure, and it was only the threat of war with Britain that convinced him to evacuate Italian troops,[17] in return for reparations from Greece. The confrontation over Corfu, and Italy's obvious determination never to give up Dodecanese sovereignty, led Britain and Italy to resolve the question of Jubaland in 1924: it was merged into Italian Somaliland.[18]
In October 1935, Mussolini launched the Second Italo-Abyssinian War and invaded Ethiopia. Emperor Haile Selassie fled the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on 2 May 1936 and the Italians entered the city on 5 May. The Italians merged Eritrea, Italian Somalia, and newly captured Ethiopia into Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, A.O.I.). The invasion had the tacit approval of France and Great Britain, who did not wish to alienate Italy as a potential ally against Nazi Germany.[19]
Victory was announced on 9 May 1936 and Mussolini declared the creation of the "Italian Empire".[20] Italian King Victor Emmanuel III added Emperor of Ethiopia to his titles. Mussolini dreamed of sending millions of Italian settlers to Italian East Africa, and Italians had high hopes of turning the area into an economic asset.[21] However, by overrunning Ethiopia, a member of the League of Nations, Italy attracted widespread international hostility.[22]
During the 1930s, emigration to the colonies was encouraged due to a belief that Italy was suffering from "excess population". Most went to Libya which by 1938 contained 89,098 Italians, primarily concentrated in the coastal cities of Tripoli and Benghazi. The coastline of Libya was referred to as Italy's "Fourth Shore" (in Italian: quarta sponda).
There was emigration to Italian East Africa as well. According to the 1931 census, there were 4,188 Italians in Eritrea and 1,631 in Italian Somaliland.[23] During the five-year occupation of Ethiopia, roughly 300,000 Italians were absorbed into East Africa But fully one third of these Italians were military. [24] After a disastrous period under brutal Rudolfo Graziani, Italian East Africa was ruled more successfully by Amedeo, 3rd Duke of Aosta. The Duke brought a program of progressive improvement that included 2,000 miles of new paved roads, 25 hospitals, 14 hotels, dozens of post offices, telephone exchanges, aqueducts, schools, and shops. Even so, the tight grip on security that the Italians maintained did not extend far beyond the main population centers. [25]
In 1939, Italy invaded and captured Albania and made it a protectorate. The region of modern-day Albania had been an early part of the Roman Empire, which had actually been held before northern parts of Italy had been taken by the Romans, but had long since been populated by Albanians, even though Italy had retained strong links with the Albanian leadership and considered it firmly within its sphere of influence.[26] It is possible that Mussolini simply wanted a spectacular success over a smaller neighbour to match Germany's absorption of Austria and Czechoslovakia.[27] Italian King Victor Emmanuel III took the Albanian crown, and a fascist government under Shefqet Verlaci was established to rule over Albania.
World War II (1940-1943)
Main article: Italy in World War II
Mussolini entered World War II on the side of Adolf Hitler with plans to enlarge Italy's territorial holdings. He had designs on an area of southern France, Corsica, Malta, Tunisia, part of Algeria, an Atlantic port in Morocco, French Somaliland and British Egypt and Sudan.[28] Mussolini also mentioned to Italo Balbo his ambitions of capturing British and French territories in the Cameroons and founding an Italian Cameroon, in hopes that Italy could establish a colony on the atlantic coast of Africa.
On June 10, 1940, Mussolini declared war on Britain and France. Both countries had been at war with Nazi Germany since September of the prior year. Mussolini's troops invaded southern France. But an armistice was soon signed between France and Germany. As a result, Italian troops pressed no further than a few miles into France, with the city of Menton being the only considerable gain from the offensive. Two days later, a separate agreement between France and Italy ceded Nice and parts of the Savoy to Italy.[29]
In October 1940, keen to emulate the successes that Hitler was enjoying, Mussolini ordered the invasion of Greece from colonial Albania. But the invasion faltered, and the Italians were soon pushed back into Albania.[30].
In April 1941, Germany launched an invasion of Yugoslavia and then attacked Greece. Italy and other German allies supported both actions. The German armies overran Yugoslavia in about two weeks and, despite British support in Greece, the Germans overran that country by the end of April. The Italians gained control over portions of both occupied Yugoslavia and occupied Greece. An Italian Duke, Aimone, 4th Duke of Aosta, ruled over the newly created Independent State of Croatia as King Tomislav II.
During the height of The Battle of Britain, the Italians launched an attack on Egypt in hope of capturing the Suez Canal. By 16 September 1940, the Italians advanced 60 miles across the border. However, in December, the British launched Operation Compass and, by February 1941, the British had cut off and captured the Italian 10th Army and had driven deep into Libya. [31].
The East African Campaign started with Italian advances into British-held Kenya, British Somaliland, and the Sudan. In the summer of 1940, Italian armed forces successfully invaded all of British Somaliland. [32] But, by the end of 1941, the British had counter-attacked and pushed deep into Italian East Africa. By 5 May, Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia had returned to Addis Ababa to reclaim his throne. In November, the last organised Italian resistance ended with the fall of Gondar.[33] However, following the surrender of East Africa, some Italians conducted a guerrilla war which lasted for two more years.
In November 1942, Italian-occupied France was expanded slightly when the Germans occupied Vichy France during Case Anton.
End of Empire (1943-1960)
The surrender of the last organised Italian resistance in Italian East Africa, November 27, 1941.
By the fall of 1943, the Italian Empire effectively came to an end. On May 7, the surrender of Axis forces in Tunisia and other near continuous Italian reversals, led King Victor Emmanuel III to plan the removal of Mussolini. Following the Invasion of Sicily, all support for Mussolini evaporated. On July 25, after a meeting of the Grand Council of Fascism ended in the night of the 24th, where Dino Grandi organized the opposition, Mussolini was deposed and arrested by the King in the morning. Afterwards Mussolini remained prisoner of the King, only to be rescued on the 12 of September on the orders of Hitler by German paratroops and become leader of the Italian Social Republic.
Outwardly, the new Italian government under the King and Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio remained part of the Axis. But secretly it started negotiations with the Allies. On the eve of the American landings at Salerno which started the Allied invasion of Italy, the new Italian government secretly signed an armistice with the Allies. On September 8, the armistice was made public. In Albania, the Dodecanese, and other territories still held by the Italians, German military forces successfully attacked their former Italian allies and ended Italy's rule. Some Italian troops in the Balkans chose to join the resistance fighting against the Germans there. During the Dodecanese Campaign, an Allied attempt to take the Dodecanese with the cooperation of the Italian troops ended in total German victory.
In 1947, the Republic of Italy formally lost all her overseas possessions as a result of the Treaty of Peace with Italy. In November 1949, Italian Somaliland was made a United Nations Trust Territory under Italian administration. This lasted until July 1, 1960, when Italian Somaliland was granted its independence along with British Somaliland to form the Somali Republic.
See also
* Jowhar
* Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi
* Republic of Genoa
* Republic of Venice
* Mare Nostrum
* Greater Italia
* Albania under Italy
* Dodecanese Campaign
* Italian East Africa and List of colonial heads of Italian East Africa
* Axis occupation of Greece during World War II
* History of Libya as Italian Colony
* Concessions in Tientsin
For original text with references see Wikipedia,Italian Colonial Empire.
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