Page 316 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

316 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

Italian military occupation of the Slovene ethnic territory
during World War One

PETRA SVOLJšAK

histOrical institute Of the scientific research centre Of the
slOVene acadeMy Of sciences and arts, ljubljana, slOVenija
Slovene participation in the Great War (1914-1918) is a classical “case study” of how a
nation or a community experienced and survived a war, since even the most superficial con-
sideration of the roles played by the inhabitants of the Slovene provinces of Carniola, Styria,
Carinthia and Littoral at the beginning of the World War provides firm evidence to support
their complete involvement in various combat and non-combat situations.
On 23 May 1915 the Italian government and on behalf of the King declared to the Aus-
trian ambassador in Rome that from the following day forward Italy would be in a state of
war with Austria-Hungary. With the Italian declaration of war on its former ally, the Italian
army began to realise the Italian political irredentistic and military plans that had been made
in the Supreme Command of the Italian army from its creation in 1882 onwards. The north-
eastern border of Italy had always presented a geographic and political- strategic problem,
since in the search for the ideal border or in confirmation of historical choices, neither geo-
graphical nor political theory had confirmed or demonstrated its utility. Those who claimed
that land borders between states are set to mark the end of the authority of one and the start
of authority of another state, and so borders are not dependent on nature but on popular will
and are thus as changeable and imperfect as is human nature, were for the most part right. So
the north-eastern Italian border had shifted, because of physical and ethnic diversity, mainly
in relation to the fortune of the states that it had to separate, and thus a series of remnants was
left in Soča (It. Isonzo) valley and Friuli.
When the Great War broke out on 3 August 1914 Italy had declared its neutrality (despite
having signed an alliance treaty with Austria-Hungary and Germany), thus avoiding military
engagement for a little less than a year. Both the central empires and the Entente Powers con-
ducted secret diplomatic negotiations in an effort to swing Italy to their side. The Entente ul-
timately succeeded on 26 April by signing a secret agreement with Italy, the so-called Treaty
of London, promising it Tyrol to the Brenner, Trieste, Gorizia (Slov. Gorica) and Gradisca,
the Tarvisio basin, part of Carniola to the watershed between the Sava river and the Adriatic
(the Triglav–Snežnik direction), Istria to Kvarner (Volosko), the islands of Cres and Lošinj
with their neighbouring islands, northern Dalmatia with its islands, the islands of Sasena and
Valona, the Dodecanese archipelago near the coast of Asia Minor and an appropriate share of
potential territorial gains in Asia Minor and Africa. On 4 May 1915 Italy withdrew from the
Triple Alliance and started feverish preparations for the war. According to Italian strategic
plans, the Italian army was to penetrate Carinthia through the Drava valley; seize the Upper
Sava valley and the Ljubljana basin by crossing the Soča; take control of Trieste; advance
towards Zagreb through Postojna and to Rijeka through Istria; and complete the triumphant