1915 in Italy

Kingdom of Italy

Events
Sidney Sonnino as Foreign Minister negotiating Italy's position in the war

While World War I is raging in Europe, Italy debates its entry into the war. Originally part the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, Italy secretly negotiates with the Triple Entente trying to fulfil Italy’s irrendentist claims.

January

February
  • February 21 – Neutralist organize large events against the war in many Italian cities clashing with interventionists supported by the police.[1]
  • February 25 – The police start shooting at a rally held in Reggio Emilia by the socialist irredentist from Trentino, Cesare Battisti, demanding Italy join the Triple Entente against Austria, killing one protester and wounding others.[1]

March
  • March 4 – Italy begins negotiations with the Triple Entente. The ambassador in London hands over the Italian conditions to the British Foreign Minister Edward Grey.[1]
  • March 31 – In Milan, public forces repress a demonstration against the war called by socialist leader Giacinto Menotti Serrati, who was arrested along with other 235 people. At the same time a demonstration in favour of the intervention takes place under the direction of Filippo Corridoni and Benito Mussolini.[1]

April
Rome, April 11, 1915: Benito Mussolini is arrested after an interventionist rally
  • April 8 – Foreign Minister Sidney Sonnino sends a draft treaty in eleven articles to Austria. Among the various requests the treaty envisages the transfer to Italy of Trentino and Bolzano and the Isarco Valley and various islands along the Dalmatian coast, a shift of the Italian eastern border including Gorizia, the creation of an autonomous state of Trieste, and the waiver of all Austrian claims on Albania. In exchange, Sonnino guarantees Italian neutrality in the ongoing war. On April 16, Austria rejects the Italian demands, reiterating that it is prepared to give only part of the Trentino. Consequently, the negotiations between the two States are interrupted.[1]
  • April 26 – A secret pact, the Treaty of London or London Pact (Italian: Patto di Londra), is signed between the Triple Entente (the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire) and the Kingdom of Italy. According to the pact, Italy was to leave the Triple Alliance and join the Triple Entente. Italy was to declare war against Germany and Austria-Hungary within a month in return for territorial concessions at the end of the war to fulfil Italy’s irrendentist claims.[2]

May
  • May 3 – Italy officially revokes the Triple Alliance. In the following days Giovanni Giolitti and the neutralist majority of the Parliament oppose declaring war, while nationalist crowds demonstrate in public areas for entering the war.[1]
  • May 13 – Prime Minister Antonio Salandra offers his resignation, but Giolitti, fearful of nationalist disorder that might break into open rebellion, declines to succeed as prime minister and Salandra's resignation is not accepted.[1]
  • May 20 – The Chamber of Deputies passes (407 to 74) a single-article bill transferring both legislative and executive powers to the government, empowering it to do what it deemed necessary to ensure the security of the state.
  • May 23 - Italy declares war on the German Empire.

[3]

June

July
  • July 18 – August 3 – Second Battle of the Isonzo. After the failed first attempt, the Italians launch another frontal assault against the Austro-Hungarian trench lines with more artillery, but the forces of Austria-Hungary beat back this bloody offensive, which concludes in stalemate and exhaustion of weaponry.

September

October
  • October 18 – November 3 – Third Battle of the Isonzo. Forces of Austria-Hungary again repulse an Italian offensive, which concludes without resulting gains.
  • October 19 – Italy declares war on Bulgaria.

November
  • November 10 – December 2 – Fourth Battle of the Isonzo. Both sides suffer more casualties, but the Austro-Hungarian forces repulse this Italian offensive too, and the battle ends because of exhaustion of armaments.

Sports

Births
  • February 23 - Don Giovanni Fornasini, Gold Medal of Military Valour, Servant of God, murdered at Marzabotto by a Waffen SS soldier (d. 1944)
  • March 30 – Pietro Ingrao, Italian politician, journalist and former partisan. Senior figure in the Italian Communist Party (PCI) (d. 2015)
  • May 16 – Mario Monicelli, six times-Oscar nominated Italian director and screenwriter (d. 2010)
  • June 16 – Mariano Rumor, Italian politician and Prime Minister (d. 1990)
  • September 7 – Maria Corti, Italian philologist, literary critic, and novelist (d. 2002)

Deaths

References
  1. (in Italian) XXIV Legislatura del Regno d'Italia dal 27 novembre 1913 al 29 settembre 1919, Camera dei deputati, Portale storico (retrieved 29 May 2016)
  2. Baker, Ray Stannard (1923). Woodrow Wilson and World Settlement, Volume I, Doubleday, Page and Company, pp. 52–55
  3. Caglioti, Daniela L. (2014). 'Why and How Italy Invented an Enemy Aliens Problem in the First World War', War in History, 2014, Vol. 21(2) 142– 169
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