The Great War and the 'mutilated victory'
Italy joins the war against Austria-Hungary in 1915, loses around 650,000 soldiers in the Alps and on the Isonzo, survives Caporetto and wins, but feels cheated at the peace.
- The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915–1919 — Mark Thompson, Faber and Faber (2008)
- The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy since 1796 — Christopher Duggan, Allen Lane (2007)
Italy was formally allied to Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1914 but stayed neutral, then joined the Allies after the secret Treaty of London promised it Trento, South Tyrol, Trieste and parts of the Adriatic coast. It declared war on Austria-Hungary on 24 May 1915, against the wishes of much of parliament and most ordinary people, under pressure from nationalist “interventionists” such as the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio and the young Benito Mussolini.
- The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915–1919 — Mark Thompson, Faber and Faber (2008)
General Luigi Cadorna flung peasant conscripts against Austrian mountain positions in eleven battles on the Isonzo river, enforcing discipline with summary executions. In October 1917 an Austro-German offensive broke through at Caporetto and the army fell back to the Piave. It held, and a year later won at Vittorio Veneto. Italy lost around 650,000 soldiers.
- The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915–1919 — Mark Thompson, Faber and Faber (2008)
- The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy since 1796 — Christopher Duggan, Allen Lane (2007)
At the Paris peace conference Italy did not get Dalmatia or the port of Fiume. D’Annunzio seized Fiume with volunteers in 1919, and nationalists spoke of a “mutilated victory”, a phrase the Fascists turned into a political weapon.
- The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915–1919 — Mark Thompson, Faber and Faber (2008)
- Peacemakers: The Paris Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War — Margaret MacMillan, John Murray (2001)
Why it matters today
The war completed unification by bringing Trento and Trieste into Italy, and every town has its memorial to the fallen. But the sense of a "mutilated victory", of blood spent for too little, poisoned the postwar years and helped carry Mussolini to power. "Caporetto" is still everyday Italian for a humiliating collapse.