Armistice of Cormons

The Armistice of Cormòns was signed in Cormons on 12 August 1866, between the Kingdom of Italy (represented by General Count Agostino Petitti Bagliani di Roreto) and the Austrian Empire (represented by General Baron Karl Möring) and was a prelude to the Treaty of Vienna, which ended the Third Italian War of Independence.

On 21 July 1866 the victorious Prussia, which had just inflicted a decisive defeat on Austrian army at the battle of Sadowa, signed the Armistice of Nikolsburg (without consulting the Italian allies[1]). In the same days the Italian Navy was defeated in the Battle of Lissa. On the contrary the Army was taking advantage of the redeployment of many Austrian units to the northern front. Garibaldi's volunteers, reinforced by regular units, gained terrain by invading Trentino and achieved a victory at Bezzecca; the main Italian army led by general Enrico Cialdini reached Udine, while a secondary army led by general Alfonso La Marmora was contemporary blocking some Austrian forces in the Quadrilatero fortresses.[2]

After the armistice of Nikolsburg, Italian staff ordered to withdraw from Trentino (which was too tied to Habsburg Empire to be claimed).[3] Garibaldi replied by telegraph with a sentence that became famous: Obbedisco ("I obey").

Soon after Prussia and Austria signed the Peace of Prague, while the definitive peace between Italy and Austria was ratified only on 3 October 1866 by the Treaty of Vienna, with the mediation of Napoleon III. The Austrian Empire recognized formally the Kingdom of Italy[4] and ceded Venetia (that comprised Mantua, Veneto valley and western Friuli) to the French Empire, which in turn ceded it to Italy. This represented the final dissolution of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, as mainland Lombardy had been ceded to Sardinia-Piedmont by the Treaty of Zurich in 1859.

Notes
  1. the Prussian staff itself pushed Italy to continue the war and Otto von Bismarck had to assert himself on those who wanted to continue the war until a complete defeat of Austria, like Kaiser Wilhelm I
  2. Wawro, 1997, pp.276-281
  3. However the 1st article of the armistice signed at Nikolsburg granted territorial gains to Italy Text of the preliminary peace of Nikolsburg
  4. Wawro, 1997, p.281

Bibliography
  • Wawro, Geoffrey (1997). The Austro-Prussian War: Austria's war with Prussia and Italy in 1866. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62951-5.
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