Italian irredentism

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Italy according to the ideas of Italian irredentists after the First World War, "unredeemed" areas marked in green

The Italian irredentism ( Italian irredentismo from redenzione "redemption"; also called Panitalianism ) aimed after the establishment of the Italian national state in 1861, within the framework of the Italian unification, all areas that were wholly or partially inhabited by an Italian-speaking population or south of the main Alpine ridge were able to integrate into the new state. Initially, efforts focused on Trentino and Trieste , but from the end of the 19th century also on Dalmatia , Ticino and Istria . A small German minority lived in Trentino , and Istria and Dalmatia were mostly populated by Croatians , especially in rural areas ; all three areas were then under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy .

After the First World War , the victorious power Italy was awarded some areas of the dissolved Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy such as the Austrian coastal region and South Tyrol at the Paris Peace Conference , as the country had fulfilled the previously concluded secret treaty of London when it entered the war on the Entente side in 1915 . Further demands for an Italian northern border along the main Alpine ridge or the watershed of the Mediterranean and Danube  / Black Sea , which would have included Swiss Ticino and parts of Graubünden , were not met. In view of the newly established South Slav state , the full implementation of the commitments of the London Treaty was blocked by the other allied powers in Paris. There was talk (with the words Gabriele D'Annunzio ), in particular with respect to the largely to the newly formed Yugoslavia fallen Dalmatia , in Italy a Vittoria Mutilata , a "mutilated victory". D'Annunzio himself occupied the disputed area on the Kvarner Bay around the city of Rijeka (Fiume) with the Arditi in September 1919, after the Treaty of Saint-Germain , and proclaimed the brief Italian reign on the Quarnero there the following year . The area fell through diplomatic channels in 1924 through the Treaty of Rome to Italy , which had been ruled by the fascists under Mussolini .

The Italian part of Istria (including Rijeka / Fiume) was ceded again to Croatia and Slovenia or Yugoslavia after the Second World War , Trieste , most of Gorizia , Trentino and South Tyrol , which is mainly inhabited by a German-speaking (and Ladin-speaking ) population until today to Italy.

Irredentism towards Switzerland between the world wars

Irredentism had a decisive influence on Swiss-Italian relations from the 1920s to the end of the Second World War.

As early as 1909, the attempt to found an offshoot of the Società Dante Alighieri in Lugano had failed . During the First World War, the population in Ticino took sides with Italy. This is in contrast to the partisanship of the German-speaking Swiss for Germany and Austria. The majority of the Ticino population felt (and still feels) politically part of Switzerland, but culturally committed to Italianità (Svizzera italiana) . In addition, there was the fear of many Ticino people that their Italian-speaking culture would be threatened by the majority of the German-speaking Swiss due to their numerical and economic supremacy (Rivendicazioni ticinesi) .

The cultural magazine L'Adula , published from 1912, emphasized the Italianità des Ticino. The Italian journalist Giuseppe Prezzolini (1912) and the Italian writer Gabriele D'Annunzio (1919) published works for the connection of Ticino to Italy. The canton of Graubünden was also threatened by Italian irredentism. The southern Alpine valleys and the Rhaeto-Romanic areas should also fall to Italy. On June 21, 1921, Benito Mussolini remarked in a speech that the state unification of Italy would not be complete until Ticino became part of Italy. The Swiss ambassador to Rome, Georges Wagnière , protested at the Italian Foreign Ministry, whereupon the Italian Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti revised Mussolini's statements. From 1922 onwards, pressure was exerted on Switzerland with irredentist demands with the aim of having them take action against anti-fascist Italian exiles. From 1939, articles and brochures were distributed in Lombard newspapers, in which the Italianità of the areas south of the Alps was emphasized and a new demarcation through the Alps was demanded. Such demands, however, increased the awareness of the predominantly Italian- and Romansh-speaking population that they belong to Switzerland.

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Footnotes

  1. ^ Silvano Gilardoni: Irredentism. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . August 21, 2008 , accessed October 10, 2014 .