Italy and the great wars
(part 1)
The Giolitti Goverment [1]
At the time of the July Crisis Italy was governed by Giovanni Giolitt, by many considered the ‘Great Old Man’ of the italian politics and in the role of
Presidente del Consiglio for the fourth time. He was currently supported by a shacky alliance of Socialist and Liberals (Giolitti own party), the general weakness of this goverment, even if was capable of achivieving great results like institution of universal suffrage (limited to the males of at least 21 years) and the first step for the creation of a pension system for the retired workers. The reason for this weakness were multiple, from internal division in the socialist party, between moderate and revolutionaries to the economic and social consequence of the war against the Ottoman Empire to conquer Lybia, passing trough the increasing desire of the catholics to return openly to the political life of Italy.
Initially the communication that the heir of the Austro-Hungarian throne was dead, killed by a serbian nationalist was considered good, after all he had been a notorious anti-italian and there were a great faith that, after so many recent warscare, diplomacy resolved the situation as done before. Unfortunely such belief quickly reveled themself as incorrect as the entire world quickly become engulfed by the fire of war.
The July Crisis
The suprise of the italian goverment for the peremptory ultimatum given to Serbia by Austria-Hungary was total, everybody in Rome and the rest of Europe understood that Belgrade had no choice to refuse and accept war unless they opted to become an Hapsburg satellite without even firing a shoot.
Russia, the long time austral-hungarian rival for the dominion of the Balkans, still fuming for the humiliation of the Bosnian crisis annexation and the failed attempts to capitalize the Ottoman defeats in the recent wars, pledged to help their Serbian Slavic brothers and from there the domino of the linked alliance started, starting one of the most destructive war in the history of man.
The Italian position was complicated, from one side it was in an alliance with A-H (plus Germany and the USA) but not only Italy had a long history of conflicts with her (and still claim part of her territory) she considered an Austrian dominance of the Balkans as contrary to her interest and while she was ready to accept a change of the status quo in the region in favor of Wien this was needed to be compensated per art. 7 of the Quadruple Alliance Treaty and she pointed to the Italian speaking region of the Empire for that, especially if direct military support was demanded.
On the other side, the Austro-Hungary leadership was categorically against give up any part of her territory for whatever reason and while under German pressure accepted the validity of the art.7, but stated that was valid only in case of Italian participation in the war and in any case never involved any austro-hungarian cession of territory to their supposed ally.
For this reason the Italian government and military higher up were excluded from any talk regarding the crisis and the imminent military conflict for the explicit desire of Wien, a move that was a clear breach of the Alliance treaty and will have give to the Italians a reason and a justification for remain neutral and so to not being forced to give up any part of her territory.
At the same time any hope that the war was just a limited affair quickly evaporated with the Russian and French mobilization, not even considering the quick deterioration of the situation in North America with news of numerous border clash between the USA and the CSA.
With that development and the sober report by the Chief of Staff General Cadorna that the army was still not ready for a major conflict due to still not had replenished the equipment loss from the war in Libya and even postponed critical modernization program due to financial matter, neutrality was the only politics possible for Giolitti, at least for the oment
Italy strategic option
1 – Enter the war on the side of the Quadruple Alliance as per treaty, but from the start was clear that in this scenario no adequate compensation will be received by Italy and as the foreign minister Sidney Sonnino simply put:
at beast Italy will just be the first vassal of the German Empire and not even that if A-H had something to say about it. Giolitti and the King quickly understood that even if the alliance was victorious, the motivation to give to the italian sufficient compensation simply not existed and this lack of trust in their allies was important in the decision as due to the huge import of raw material necessary for keep the Italy going on they will absolutely need the support of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
2 – Mantain neutrality, but there were the risk that a victorious A-H will have blocked any political and economic access of Italy in the balkan region and stopped any aspiration to finally obtain the
irredente lands and in the worst case there were the fear of a possible vengeance from A-H to eliminate an historical adversary.
3 – Negotiate neutrality with the rest of the Quadruple, while the risk and consequence of this option don’t really differ from the above scenario, at least it was thought that obtaining Trentino was a possibility and maybe something more
4 – Join the war at the side of the Entente, but this option had the pre-requisite that the negotiation with Wien failed and no agreement for the italian compensation it’s reached
A country divided...but not too much
The Great war caused untold and unthinkable changes in the world and Italy even if not directly afftected by her was also engulfed by the consequences of this event. The decision if remain neutral or partecipate divided the nation in two camps and even the various political parties were not immune by this division.
The socialist party while officialy supported neutrality but many of his most prominent members like Benito Mussolini agitated for war, expecially with the american and german own socialist parties supporting the effort. The Catholic were also divided, the great majority was for staying out of the conflict but many supported helping A-H, a catholic nation, against the slavic orthodox.
The most vocal faction was the
Associazione Nazionalista Italiana that wanted Italy in the war without even considering on which alliance, their general objective was to finally fullfill the objective of
Risorgimento and liberate the irredente (Italy had claim against both France and Austria-Hungary) but it was also a very eterogenous group, with member like the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, recently returned from Paris where he took refuge to escape from the creditor (the British and the French were extremely generous with their financial aid to anyone they though capable of sway the italian pubblic opinion) and the founder of futurism Filippo Tommaso Marinetti see in the war
l’unica igiene del mondo – the only hygiene of the world, necessary to keep the fire of civilization so to forge the population and eliminate the weak.
The period between the start of the war and, in the words of D’Annunzio, the ‘black days of March’ was characterizated by an intense work of propaganda by the interventionist but also by numerous act of political violence, at one point even the personal home of Giolitti was ransaked by a mob; so while the interventionist faction was smaller than the neutralist it seemed much more stronger and intense in the support of her objectives.
Nevertheless the real popular support for them was always scarce, the bulk of the people don’t have any desire to go in a war that will have see her bear the bulk of the sacrifices
Negotiation with both sides
Almost immediately Sonnino, explained the Italian position to his nominal allies, making clear the importance of the art.7 of the Quadruple Alliance treaty. The Austrian initial answer was a declaration of intent regarding her unwillingness of occupy permanently Serbia or part of it but also stated that there will be not talking about eventual compensation without a DoW by the Kingdom of Italy towards the Entente. This position it’s a clear demonstration on how optimistic was the general mood in Wien as the war was expected to be a short one, this belief was only strengthened by the German victories on Belgium, North France and with the Russian defeat at Tannemberg.
On the other side, it was the Russian foreign minister, in early September, to made the first contact with the Italian government, offering Trentino, Trieste and Vlore but Sonnino and Giolitti considered such offer insufficient as their objective was the control of the Adriatic and that clearly clashed with the interest of Serbia, at the time a Russian client; so thing remained unchanged.
The failed first invasion of Serbia, the Russian capture of Lemberg and the possible menace at Wien itself and the failed capture of Paris instead made clear that the conflict will have been a long one.
Italy answer to such development was to increase the preparation for war, regardless against whom and to continue his diplomatic offensive with both side.
The russian success against A-H brought a new round of negatiation between Rome and Wien, even thanks to the increased pressure from Berlin towards the Hapsburg leadership and the arrive in February at Rome of Count Von Bulow, a German diplomat with the mission to reach an agreement with Italy regarding her situation.
This sudden moves caused an irate reaction from Austria-Hungary that put a stop to the talking and sent a formal protest to the German Kaiser itself.
At the same time, the discussion with the representative of the Entente were going extremely well as they were ready to give to Italy basically everything she demanded in exchange to her DoW against the Quadruple; this change of policy started at January with the realization that without help Serbia will have fallen and that A-H was the weak link of the Alliance.
Unfortunately Giolitti was a staunch neutralist, seeing the level of destruction just some months of war caused and painfully aware of how much was unprepared the Italian army and how contrary of the war was the majority of the population. Naturally as an old schemer, he used this contact with the Entente as a motivation for both Berlin and Wien to come to an agreement and let news of them come to the ear of the Alliance members intelligence services.
As consequences, the 17 March the Hapsburg foreign minister Count Bertchold, send an official dispatch to Sonnino, saying that he was ready to talk about the Italian compensation and two week after a formal Austrian proposal regarding the cession of Trentino, control of Albania and some other minor border adjustment as compensation and to maintain a benevolent (see favorable) neutrality towards the rest of the Quadruple alliance arrived to the desk of Giolitti.
By the end of the month after one of most heated debate ever happened in the Italian deputy chambers and the consternation of the entente governments, the agreement was approved and signed, Italy will have remained neutral.
Many in the interwar period had ridiculed Giolitti and the King for the trust given to the Austrian, for being such naive in believing that they had respected such treaty or that Germany, even with the personal guarantee of the Kaiser regarding the upholding of the treaty, will have supported us. But has been painfully clear that not for a moment the Italian officials had believed the word of the Austrian government was worth the ink used for the treaty and communication between officials of the Hapsburg foreign minister to their German counterpart that openly proclaimed how there were not intention of keep the word given, were intercepted almost immediately. The reason why Giolitti chose to accept this agreement even when the Entente was ready to give him all Italy demanded, was the preparation of the army and the country for such war and the understanding that even if victorious, the cost will have been too high for nation, putting her very survival at risk, plus the staunch belief that in the end some other type of compensation will have been granted to Italy by the victorious Quadruple, maybe Tunisia, maybe Nice and Savoy.
It’s worth to note that to finance the modernization program of the armed forces and in general obtain more fund for the government program, it was for the first time used in Italy the issue of bond linked to the public debt and so guaranteed by the state and more importantly anyone had the right to bought them, even the women and without the permission of the husband. A major rise of the tax was also proposed but immediately refused, this created some problem in the government because the minister at the finance of the time was ready to gave his resignation over such politics, Giolitti with his usual capacity of compromise put a stop at the crisis by allowing a slight rise of the tax for a limited time.