BETWEEN OLD AUSTRIA AND NEW FOES: ITALY AND THE YUGOSLAV PROJECT (1917-18)
BETWEEN OLD AUSTRIA AND NEW FOES: ITALY AND THE YUGOSLAV PROJECT (1917-18)

Summary/Abstract: After the 1917 Corfu Declaration several Italian political circles adopted a warm approach towards Yugoslav unity. Following Mazzini’s ideas, democratic interventionists had claimed since the beginning of the war a policy based on the national principle. They were eventually joined by more conservative sectors, which believed the international context had radically changed since 1915 and therefore it was necessary to make a general reappraisal of Italy’s war aims. They favoured a deal with Serbia and the Yugoslav Committee in order to destabilize the Austrian Empire and agree a mutually acceptable definition of the common border. Minister of Foreign Affairs Sonnino instead believed that Italian war aims had been fixed once and for all in 1915 and refused both direct talks and a reappraisal of Italian war aims. Lacking a bilateral deal with Serbs/Yugoslavs,Rome finally found itself helpless at the peace negotiations, when Paris and London backtracked from the promises made in 1915.

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