Mutilated victory

The mutilated victory (Italian: vittoria mutilata) was a term coined by a famous Italian poet, Gabriele D'Annunzio. to describe dissatisfaction with the aftermath of the First World War for Italy, because the Pact of London signed by Italy before entering the conflict was not fully carried out at the end of it. It fueled the rhetoric of irredentists and nationalists in Italian politics before the Second World War and was a key point in fascist propaganda

Angered by the French seizure of Tunisia, in which Italy had extensive economic interests and had viewed as a possible area for colonial annexation, in 1882, Italy joined the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria as a means of defending against further French aggression and gaining diplomatic backing for coming disputes. The alliance, however, proved troublesome. Italy and Austria-Hungary had been rivals for many years; the latter had, for years, held northeastern Italy, opposed Italian unification, and it still held Trieste and Istria, Zara and the coast of Dalmatia, the primary targets of the Italian irredentist movement.

As such, in the years before 1914, Italy engaged in diplomatic maneuvers to ally itself with the United Kingdom and France. In 1902, Italy concluded a secret treaty with Britain in which Italy abandoned the Triple Alliance, with the stipulation that it be given the territories currently controlled by Austria.

After the First World War erupted, the wooing by both sides of Italy to enter the war increased. On April 26, 1915, the Triple Entente and Italy signed a secret agreement, called the London Pact, that stipulated the terms of Italy’s participation in World War I against the Germany-Austrian Alliance. If Italy declared war on Germany and the Entente emerged victorious, Italy would be awarded Habsburg territories in Southern Alps and in the Balkans, specifically the regions of Trentino and the South Tyrol (up to the northern limit of the Brenner Pass), the Friuli-Julian area, Trieste and the surrounding area, Istria, and the North of the Dalmatian Cost including the city of Šibenik. Other possible territories included in the treaty were the city of Valone in Albania, some part on the south Anatolian coast, as well as a share of Germany’s African colonies.

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