Italy
Adowa was in 1896, the humiliating defeat of the Italian army against the Abyssinians, marking for the moment the end of Italian ambitions
A result of this is that there is something of a rapprochement with France, which for ten years since the late 1880s has been engaged in a tarrif war with Italy, which has done serious harm to the Italian economy, and in a subtle propaganda war which has put the Italian monarchy on a shaky footing
During this period Italy, and the Triple Alliance, sought to tie Britain more and more firmly into defensive agreements in the Mediterranean, but British policy has begun to swing away from this, whilst Italy is beginning to look at a rapprochment with France as a result of this turn of events
Irredentism is not a major force in Italian politics at this time, tho a few politicians flirt with it. It will become so after 1900 with the changing structure of agreements and alliances, where Italy and Austria-Hungary come increasingly to clash over policy in Montenegro (which has already seen an Italian royal marriage move it slowly away from Vienna) and Albania (where Italian trade was beginning to increase, thus threatening Vienna's role).
1899 however stands on the cusp of these events.
Best Regards
Grey Wolf
Hell, I've been reading loads of books and I still haven't got a bloody clue !
There's too much flux in everything