Mutilated victory
Mutilated victory (Italian: vittoria mutilata) is a term coined by Gabriele D’Annunzio at the end of World War I, used by a part of Italian nationalists to denounce the partial infringement (and request the full application) of the 1915 pact of London concerning territorial rewards in favor of the Kingdom of Italy.
As a condition for entering the war against Austria-Hungary and Germany, Italy was promised, in the treaty of London signed in 1915 with the powers of the Triple Entente, recognition of control over Italian Tyrol, the Austrian Littoral and Dalmatia—territories with sizeable ethnic Italian populations which had not become part of the Kingdom upon Italian unification in the late 19th century. Additionally, Italy was assured ownership of the Dodecanese, protection over Albania, and a sphere of influence around the Turkish city of Antalya, alongside a possible enlargement of her colonial presence in Africa.
At the end of the war, despite the initial intention of the United Kingdom and France to remain faithful to the pact, objections by the United States, eventually supported by the British and the French, and in particular conflict over the concept of self-determination spelled out by President Wilson in his Fourteen Points, led to the partial disapplication of the agreement and to the retraction of substantial promises recognized at the onset of the conflict. Italy gained Italian Tyrol, the Austrian Littoral, and some colonial compensations, but was not awarded the city of Fiume, League of Nations mandates, and Dalmatian territories with the exception of the city of Zara.
Together with the economical cost of mobilization and the social turmoil ensuing from the end of the war, the infringement of the treaty is generally believed to have fueled the consolidation of Italian irredentism and Italian nationalism, and became a focal point in the propaganda, among others, of the National Fascist Party, which sought to expand the borders of the Italian state.
Italy and the Triple Alliance[edit]
Angered by the French seizure of Tunisia, in which Italy had extensive economic interests and had viewed as a possible area for colonial annexation, in 1882, Italy joined the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria as a means of defending against further French aggression and gaining diplomatic backing for coming disputes.[6] The alliance, however, proved troublesome. Italy and Austria-Hungary had been rivals for many years; the latter had, for years, held northeastern Italy, opposed Italian unification, and it still held Trieste and Istria, Zara and the coast of Dalmatia, the primary targets of the Italian irredentist movement.
As such, in the years before 1914, Italy engaged in diplomatic maneuvers to ally itself with the United Kingdom and France. In 1902, Italy concluded a secret treaty with Britain in which Italy abandoned the Triple Alliance, with the stipulation that it be given the territories currently controlled by Austria.
Aftermath[edit]
The cause of mutilated victory was embraced by many Italians, particularly in the irredentist, monarchical, militaristic factions. The poet Gabriele D'Annunzio criticized in print and in speeches the failures of Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando at the proceedings in Versailles, particularly in his attempts to acquire the city of Fiume (Croatian: Rijeka), which, notwithstanding the fact that its inhabitants were more than 90% ethnic Italians, was supposed to be ceded by Austria to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. On September 12, 1919, D’Annunzio took matters into his own hands and led a militia of 2,600 men against a mixed force of Allied soldiers to occupy the city. In Fiume, the victors established the Italian Regency of Carnaro, an unrecognized state based on the Charter of Carnaro.
While the regime would be short-lived, its effect on the people and politics of the Kingdom of Italy would leave their mark on the following decades of Italian history. Benito Mussolini was resolute to endorse the safeguard of national unity during the period of the creation of the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, the precursor of the National Fascist Party. Mussolini, an interventionist in World War I, attributed Italy’s great price of over 1.2 million casualties and 148 billion lire of expenditure to the weakness of the national government and to the disloyal attitude of the country’s former allies.[8]
Notes
Bibliography