Why did Italy lose its territory in the Balkans?

The Balkans has always been called the "European powder keg" because many ethnic groups have lived together for a long time, and it is difficult to completely separate all ethnic groups on the border. All ethnic groups are supported by different big countries. Even a small-scale conflict may lead to fierce confrontation between big countries.

Russia, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire are the most active powers in the Balkans, and Western European countries such as Britain and France have also intervened in Balkan affairs by supporting Greece. In contrast, Italy is a latecomer. It was unified in 187 1 year, but Italy also has territorial claims to the Balkans.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Venice ruled part of the territory at the western end of the Balkan Peninsula in the early 13- 19 century until it was annexed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy recovered these territories in 19 19, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire also declined after World War I, but why was it allocated to Yugoslavia in 1952?

First, Italy expanded.

After the Romans conquered the Italian Peninsula, they soon began to expand abroad. The Balkan Peninsula, which is close at hand, was one of their primary goals, especially the western end of the Balkan Peninsula across the Adriatic Sea, which is now Istrad and Dalmatia in Croatia.

The ancient Romans immigrated to these places, established cities and became the main residents. After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the Germans established the Lombardy Kingdom on its ruins and inherited the rule of northern Italy and the western end of the Balkans.

▲ The Balkan Peninsula is next to Italy, and its western end is the earliest area conquered by the Roman Empire.

Being far away from Rome and Constantinople, and not on the main roads, this area at the western end of the Balkan Peninsula was less affected by the war in the frequent struggles of the Eastern Roman Empire, Germans and Hungarians. These descendants of ancient Rome, also called Italians, lived a relatively peaceful life.

After the 7th century, Slavs migrated to the Balkans and formed the ancestors of the Yugoslav nation. One of them was a Croatian, who entered the western end of the Balkans and lived with local Italians. However, the number of Croats is not dominant and Italian is still the main language here.

▲ Croats and Slovenes moved into the western end of the Balkans in large numbers.

Almost at the same time, a city-state-Venice and China-rose in northern Italy. This country, founded on the island of Venice, became independent from the Eastern Roman Empire in the 9th century by virtue of its advantages in trade, finance and navigation, and soon became a bridge between the East and the West.

Because the Germans mainly focused on the struggle for Central and Western Europe, the management of Italy was relatively loose, which led to the emergence of many city-states in northern Italy, such as Genoa and Milan. Among them, Venice and the United States are the most unique, with huge wealth and powerful navy. They were monopolists of East-West trade, providing financial services for feudal lords in Europe.

▲ The Colosseum in Istrad.

After the rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century, it occupied the holy city of Christianity in Jerusalem, which led to the Crusades of Christian churches in Western Europe. In this 200-year-long war from 1096, Venice earned countless gold and silver from the Crusaders by providing financing and shipping.

1 198, the Crusaders launched the fourth crusade. Without the materials promised by the Eastern Roman Empire, the Crusaders captured its capital Constantinople, which seriously weakened the national strength and prestige of the Eastern Roman Empire.

▲ Venice * * * Although the territory of the Republic is small, the naval power can rival Osman.

Venice took this opportunity to expand, and in the following decades, it seized the western end of the Balkans, which belonged to the Eastern Roman Empire, namely Istrad and Dalmatia. This is the second time that the Italians ruled this area after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

After hundreds of years of mixed life, Croats belonging to Yugoslavia moved to Dalmatia and Slovenes moved to Istrad. Italians in Istrad still have an advantage, while Dalmatia is concentrated in a few cities. After the rise of the Ottoman Empire, except these two places, most Yugoslav peoples were conquered by it.

▲ Venice * * * Republic 1700

Second, greater Italy.

With the opening of the new sea route at the end of 15, Europe's trade center shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic coast, and Venice began to decline. The divided Italian peninsula has become a battleground for France, Austria and other western European powers for more than 300 years.

During this period, many Italian-ruled areas, such as Corsica, Nice and malta island, were occupied by French and Austrian. Austria, whose territory is close to Italy, has the greatest ambition, which not only forced the Italian states to become its vassals, but also seized Venice's territory at the western end of the Balkan Peninsula in the early19th century.

▲ When Italy became independent, it had territorial disputes with neighboring countries.

Without a unified political entity, Italy has become the Colosseum and hematopoietic machine of a big country, suffering deeply and paying heavy taxes. Coupled with the influence of the French Revolution at the end of 18 and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars, Italy's national consciousness was finally awakened, and a wave of national independence and liberation activities was set off in the Italian peninsula.

After the defeat of the Puao War, Austria was kicked out of Germany and its national strength was greatly reduced. In order to appease Hungary, which was bent on seeking independence, it was upgraded from a vassal state to a federal state, forming a loose Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italians took this opportunity to start a revolutionary struggle for independence and reunification.

▲ garibaldi, who achieved the best military achievements in the Fuxingmento War, should be regarded as a folk.

In this revolutionary trend of thought, some radical Italians suggested that all Italian-speaking places should be incorporated into the new Italian country. This thought was called "Great Italism" at that time, and it had considerable influence among the Italian people.

However, Italy's reunification was not achieved through military victory. The Kingdom of Sardinia was the leader of unification, but most Italian states voluntarily merged into the Kingdom of Sardinia, and there was no fierce merger war in the whole unification process.

▲ risorgimento was not beaten, the force was weaker than that of major powers, and fascism could do nothing.

More importantly, the unification of Italy was actually accompanied by the rise of Prussia. Prussia launched Puao and Franco-Prussian wars one after another, which unified Germany, but also greatly weakened Austria-Hungary and France, making it impossible to prevent or acquiesce in the unification of Italy.

Under such circumstances, the Italians can only seek the merger of the existing territories of the States and realize the independence of the country, without taking into account the occupied Italian-speaking areas, which has laid the fuse for future disputes.

Italians, in particular, have a deep hatred for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In addition to Austria-Hungary being the main enemy of the revival, the western end of the Balkan Peninsula occupied by Austria-Hungary is also the largest area in the unrecovered Italian-speaking area, which is connected with Italy.

After being defeated by Prussia in the north, Austria-Hungary shifted its expansion focus to the Balkan Peninsula in the south, which conflicted with Italy's intention to recover the Italian-speaking area of the Balkans. Austria-Hungary encouraged Yugoslav nationalities to emigrate to Italian-speaking areas, and achieved remarkable results in Dalmatia, which lacked land barriers, and the number and proportion of local Italians were greatly reduced.

▲ After Austria was kicked out of Germany, it occupied the Balkan Peninsula south with one heart, which conflicted with Italy's interests.

Third, there are two ambitious Italians

Although Italy did not recover the Italian-speaking area in the Balkans and embarked on the road of colonial expansion, the established powers such as Britain and France did not leave much room for Italians. Its favorite target is Tunisia in North Africa across the Mediterranean Sea. Unexpectedly, the French beat us to it and turned Tunisia into their own colony at 188 1.

Out of hostility to France, Italy joined the "triple alliance" the following year and became allies with Germany and Austria-Hungary. However, the border division between Italy and Austria-Hungary and the territorial issue at the western end of the Balkan Peninsula have not been resolved, and the alliance between the two countries is actually very different.

▲ Tunisia is next to the Italian colony Libya, which was originally Italy's next target.

Because of this, Italy, as an ally of Germany and Austria, did not declare war on the Allies after the outbreak of World War I. Italy did not want to be an enemy of Britain, let alone fight side by side with Austria-Hungary, and has been secretly negotiating with the Allies.

19 15 Under the auspices of Britain, the Allies signed the London Secret Treaty with Italy, promising to cede its disputed territory with Austria-Hungary and some territories of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, such as Albania, to Italy after the war, and the whole Adriatic Sea would become Italian territory in exchange for Italy's defection.

Italy immediately joined the Allies and declared war on Germany and Austria. It is a pity that the Italian army, which has not been baptized by iron and blood, not only has no Austro-Hungarian army that can overcome its disadvantages, but has asked Britain and France for a lot of assistance.

▲ 19 15 Italy defected and went to war with Osman in an attempt to recover Balkan territory.

After the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire disintegrated, and their territory in the Balkans became a trophy shared by all countries. However, in view of Italy's performance, the Allies did not want it to completely control the Adriatic Sea, so they did not fully fulfill their commitments in the London Secret Treaty.

Italy only got Trieste, Istrad and other border cities, which were originally disputed areas between Italy and Austria-Hungary. In Dalmatia, only one Italian-dominated port city Zara and several small islands were handed over to Italy, and the rest joined Croatia.

19 18, Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia formed an independent United Kingdom, the predecessor of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which was supported by the allies, especially Russia. Since then, Yugoslavs have accelerated their migration to disputed areas, and forced Italians to move back to their homes, gradually gaining a population advantage.

Italy felt betrayed and resented Britain, France and other countries, and its domestic economy was hit hard in the war, which urgently needed to boost national confidence and economic level. These were finally used by fascists. 1922, Mussolini came to power, making Italy the first fascist regime in Europe.

Fourth, fascism destroyed Balkan territory.

Fascism made Italy taste the sweetness. 1935 conquered Ethiopia and 1939 invaded Albania. In addition, Mussolini still remembers the disputed areas of Italy and France such as Corsica and Nice. In order to fight against Britain, France and other countries, Italy, Nazi Germany and Japan form the axis of the three countries, and a new world war is about to break out.

1940, Germany attacked France, and Italy took the opportunity to occupy Nice and Corsica. 194 1 year, with the help of Germany, Italy invaded the Yugoslav kingdom established in 1929, and seized Istrad and Dalmatia, as well as more Slavic lands.

▲ Mussolini's fascism once aroused great Italians, but it obviously lacked toughness.

Although Italy occupied a lot of territory in the early period of World War II, its core strategy is still to get the territory promised to it by the London Compact of 19 15 and restore the dream of greater Italy. The temporary victory inspired Mussolini's greater ambition and began to attack Malta and North Africa in an attempt to reproduce the glory of the ancient Roman empire and dominate the Mediterranean again.

It's a pity that the Italian's sloppy style can't support the fascist war fanaticism, and even the Nazis can't help the Italians cheer up. 1943, the Anglo-American Coalition forces first started a strategic counterattack from Italy's weakness.

▲ After World War II, the United Nations ruled that Italy only got a small part of the disputed area in the Balkans.

In July of that year, the Allies successfully landed in Sicily, and Italy finally became a battlefield. Only half a month later, Mussolini was ousted, Italy announced its surrender, and the land occupied in Europe was immediately taken over by Nazi Germany. Mussolini was shot by guerrillas before the end of the war, and all the territories occupied by Italy were liberated.

After the victory of World War II, Italy lost all its colonies and disputed territories with Yugoslavia and Greece. As a result of the allied occupation, only the northern half of Istrad was preserved, while the southern half was occupied by the newly born Yugoslav state. As the ownership of the area has changed many times in history, both sides agreed that the area should be entrusted by the United Nations and made a final decision.

1952, the United Nations ruled that Istrad was divided into Italy and Yugoslavia according to the actual occupied area, and Dalmatia belonged to Yugoslavia completely. Both countries approved this plan and signed a formal border agreement in 1975, which completely solved this historical problem.

More than 200,000 Italians living in Istrad and the southern half of Dalmatia moved away as early as the United Nations trusteeship period, which also cleared the way for territorial division. 1992 After the disintegration of Yugoslavia, Estrada was classified as Slovenian and Dalmatia as Croatian.

Slovenia and Croatia joined the EU in 2004 and 2009 respectively, and opened their borders with Italy. Italians don't need to apply for any documents if they want to go to the former Balkans. But the owner of this land has become Slavic, Italian has been rarely heard, and this bond that maintains Italy no longer exists.

▲ Today, the western Balkan coast full of Slavic customs was once the home of Italians.