PC: Trieste and Trento for Italian entry into WW1 on the side of the Central Powers

I'm thinking of a scenario in which the Central Powers convince the Italians to join the war against France and Britain by offering to hand over Trento (not all of South Tyrol, though) and Trieste over to the Italians. I have two questions about it:

1. Would the Austro-Hungarians ever agree? In hindsight, it would probably have been the better choice to give up those two territories if it meant avoiding an Alpine grind and opening up another front against the French, but would that kind of thing be obvious to the Austrians in 1914-15?

2. Would it be enough to make the Italians join the war on the side of Germany? Is there any possibility of the Italians backstabbing the Austrians and joining the Entente anyway after receiving Trento and Trieste?
 
So all they have to give up is their primary port and lands that had been Habsburg core lands for nearly six centuries? Yeah, that's gonna be an easy sell.
You might convince the Emperor, less so his civil servants, that they should give up lands on the Balkans, including even Dalmatia, Istria, etc. than those two.
Triest might be possible if the treaty gives them privileges on the harbour until another Balkan port can be properly added to the Austrian-Hungarian railway network.
Trento on the other hand, well there are a lot of ideological ideas bundled up in that one. You'd probably need a public uprise by the Italian speaking population there in order to get people even thinking about it. Since this didn't happen OTL even after a declaration of war I think that'd be unlikely.

So to cap this off: For AH to even think about giving up those lands something must have gone majorly wrong. Lost several more armies in the east bad. If something like that happened you might have the Italians backstabbing an already weakened AH or you might have them consider it kicking someone who is already down. No matter what, I'd expect this ATL war to end sooner than OTL.
 
You might convince the Emperor, less so his civil servants, that they should give up lands on the Balkans, including even Dalmatia, Istria, etc. than those two.
Triest might be possible if the treaty gives them privileges on the harbour until another Balkan port can be properly added to the Austrian-Hungarian railway network.
Triest is a part of Istria, as are both Fiume (the only possible replacement for Triest) and Pola (the Empire's primary military port). They absolutely are not giving away Istria.
 
I do remember an OTL proposal by the Austrians to give Italy Trento and the lands west of the Isonzo River (so that cities like Gorizia and Triest would remain Austrian), but the Italians didn't think it went far enough. Adding Trieste (and Monfalcone) to the deal, maybe even including the return of Palagruza/Pelagosa (which was seized by the Austrians in 1873), should definitely be more appealing to Italian irredentism. Add some promises about annexation of French territories and colonies, and a free hand in Albania, and it'd be an appealing offer to the Italians.

Austria would still have a few good ports (Fiume, Pola, Split), even if the loss of Trieste would be a noticeable one. So you need to get the proper people on both sides talking and this arrangement could be made.
 
I'm thinking of a scenario in which the Central Powers convince the Italians to join the war against France and Britain by offering to hand over Trento (not all of South Tyrol, though) and Trieste over to the Italians. I have two questions about it:

1. Would the Austro-Hungarians ever agree? In hindsight, it would probably have been the better choice to give up those two territories if it meant avoiding an Alpine grind and opening up another front against the French, but would that kind of thing be obvious to the Austrians in 1914-15?

2. Would it be enough to make the Italians join the war on the side of Germany? Is there any possibility of the Italians backstabbing the Austrians and joining the Entente anyway after receiving Trento and Trieste?

THe Hapsburg goverment will accept only if they get a brain transplant or Germany took direct control of Austria-Hungary; they were too fearfull that even giving up an hinch of territory (even of very limited economic or strategic value like Trentino) will open encourage others, expecially Romania.

I do remember an OTL proposal by the Austrians to give Italy Trento and the lands west of the Isonzo River (so that cities like Gorizia and Triest would remain Austrian), but the Italians didn't think it went far enough. Adding Trieste (and Monfalcone) to the deal, maybe even including the return of Palagruza/Pelagosa (which was seized by the Austrians in 1873), should definitely be more appealing to Italian irredentism. Add some promises about annexation of French territories and colonies, and a free hand in Albania, and it'd be an appealing offer to the Italians.

Austria would still have a few good ports (Fiume, Pola, Split), even if the loss of Trieste would be a noticeable one. So you need to get the proper people on both sides talking and this arrangement could be made.

This was part of the final proposal of A-H towards Italy so they keep a neutrality that favor the CP; the overall problem was that the negotiations were long, brutal and hard and had a lot of stop and go (basically when the military situation was favorable to Austria the negotiation were halted and reprised when things changed).
Plus Austria never had the intention to follow up any promise done to the italians...and everybody in Rome know that, for this reason the italian delegation insisted on an up front payment while the austrian want the passage to happen after the war.
 
I think it was generally understood that Italy would not join the war against the UK because of its vulnerability to the British navy. If - for some reason - the UK stayed out of the war, then Italy might have joined the Central Powers under the right circumstances.
 
I think it was generally understood that Italy would not join the war against the UK because of its vulnerability to the British navy. If - for some reason - the UK stayed out of the war, then Italy might have joined the Central Powers under the right circumstances.

Also, they imported most of their food from Britain and France, so a Central Power Italy would only be another country for the already overstreched militarily and economically Germany to bail out.
 
Top