Treaty of Rapallo (1920)

The Treaty of Rapallo was a treaty between the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed Yugoslavia in 1929), signed to solve the dispute over some territories in the former Austrian Littoral in the upper Adriatic, and in Dalmatia.

Not to be confused with Treaty of Rapallo (1922).

Treaty of Rapallo
Map of the border changes in the Julian March: with the Treaty of Rapallo, Italy received most of the Austrian Littoral, part of Inner Carniola, and some border areas of Carinthia.
TypePeace Treaty
ContextWorld War I
Signed12 November 1920 (1920-11-12)[1][2]
LocationRapallo, Italy[1]
ConditionArrangement of the border in Venezia Giulia and Free State of Fiume
Signatories Giovanni Giolitti
Milenko Vesnić
Parties Italy
 Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
LanguageItalian, Serbo-Croatian[1]
Events leading to World War II
  1. Treaty of Versailles 1919
  2. Polish-Soviet War 1919
  3. Treaty of Trianon 1920
  4. Treaty of Rapallo 1920
  5. Franco-Polish alliance 1921
  6. March on Rome 1922
  7. Corfu incident 1923
  8. Occupation of the Ruhr 1923–1925
  9. Mein Kampf 1925
  10. Pacification of Libya 1923–1932
  11. Dawes Plan 1924
  12. Locarno Treaties 1925
  13. Young Plan 1929
  14. Great Depression 1929–1941
  15. Japanese invasion of Manchuria 1931
  16. Pacification of Manchukuo 1931–1942
  17. January 28 Incident 1932
  18. World Disarmament Conference 1932–1934
  19. Defense of the Great Wall 1933
  20. Battle of Rehe 1933
  21. Nazis' rise to power in Germany 1933
  22. Tanggu Truce 1933
  23. Italo-Soviet Pact 1933
  24. Inner Mongolian Campaign 1933–1936
  25. German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact 1934
  26. Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance 1935
  27. Soviet–Czechoslovakia Treaty of Mutual Assistance 1935
  28. He–Umezu Agreement 1935
  29. Anglo-German Naval Agreement 1935
  30. December 9th Movement
  31. Second Italo-Ethiopian War 1935–1936
  32. Remilitarization of the Rhineland 1936
  33. Spanish Civil War 1936–1939
  34. Anti-Comintern Pact 1936
  35. Suiyuan Campaign 1936
  36. Xi'an Incident 1936
  37. Second Sino-Japanese War 1937–1945
  38. USS Panay incident 1937
  39. Anschluss Mar. 1938
  40. May crisis May 1938
  41. Battle of Lake Khasan July–Aug. 1938
  42. Bled Agreement Aug. 1938
  43. Undeclared German-Czechoslovak War Sep. 1938
  44. Munich Agreement Sep. 1938
  45. First Vienna Award Nov. 1938
  46. German occupation of Czechoslovakia Mar. 1939
  47. Hungarian invasion of Carpatho-Ukraine Mar. 1939
  48. German ultimatum to Lithuania Mar. 1939
  49. Slovak–Hungarian War Mar. 1939
  50. Final offensive of the Spanish Civil War Mar.–Apr. 1939
  51. Danzig Crisis Mar.–Aug. 1939
  52. British guarantee to Poland Mar. 1939
  53. Italian invasion of Albania Apr. 1939
  54. Soviet–British–French Moscow negotiations Apr.–Aug. 1939
  55. Pact of Steel May 1939
  56. Battles of Khalkhin Gol May–Sep. 1939
  57. Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact Aug. 1939
  58. Invasion of Poland Sep. 1939
Map of the Italian territory of Zara, 1920-1947

The treaty was signed on 12 November 1920[3] in Rapallo, near Genoa, Italy. Tension between Italy and Yugoslavia arose at the end of World War I, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved and Italy claimed the territories assigned to it by the secret Treaty of London of 1915. According to the treaty signed in London on 26 April 1915 by the Kingdom of Italy and Triple Entente, in case of victory at the end of World War I, Italy was to obtain several territorial gains including former Austrian Littoral, northern Dalmatia and notably Zadar (Italian: Zara), Šibenik (Italian: Sebenico), and most of the Dalmatian islands (except Krk and Rab).

These territories had an ethnically mixed population, with Slovenes and Croats composing over the half of the population of the region. The treaty was therefore nullified with the Treaty of Versailles under pressure of President Woodrow Wilson, making void Italian claims on northern Dalmatia. The objective of the Treaty of Rapallo was to find a compromise following the void created by the non-application of the Treaty of London of 1915.

Content

At the conclusions of the discussions, the following territories were annexed to Italy:

According to the treaty, the city of Rijeka (Italian: Fiume) would become the independent Free State of Fiume,[4] thus ending the military occupation of Gabriele d'Annunzio's troops, begun by the Impresa di Fiume and known as the Italian Regency of Carnaro. This part of the treaty was revoked in 1924, when Italy and Yugoslavia signed the Treaty of Rome, which gave Fiume to Italy and the adjacent port of Sušak to Yugoslavia.

The treaty left a large number of Slovenes and Croats in Italy. According to author Paul N. Hehn, "the treaty left half a million Slavs inside Italy while only a few hundred Italians in the fledgling Yugoslav state".[5] Indeed, according to the 1910 Austrian census 480,000 South Slavs (Slovenes and Croats) became citizens of the Kingdom of Italy, while around 15,000 Italians became citizens of the new Yugoslav state (around 13,000 in Dalmatia, and the rest in the island of Krk). According to the same census, around 25,000 ethnic Germans and 3,000 Hungarians also lived in the regions annexed to Italy with the Treaty, while the number of Italians living in the region was between 350,000 and 390,000.

References
  1. "Treaty between the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes signed at Rapallo, 12 November 1920" (PDF). League of Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 18. League of Nations. 1923. pp. 397–403. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  2. "Rapalski ugovor". Hrvatska enciklopedija (Croatian encyclopedia) (in Croatian). Miroslav Krleža Institute in Zagreb. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  3. A Low Dishonest Decade by Paul N. Hehn; Chapter 2, Italy the Powers and Eastern Europe, 1918-1939. Mussolini, Prisoner of the Mediterranean
  4. Foreign Policies of the Great Powers by Cedric James Lowe, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, F. Marzari, p.177-78
  5. A Low Dishonest Decade by Paul N. Hehn; Chapter 2, Italy the Powers and Eastern Europe, 1918-1939. Mussolini, Prisoner of the Mediterranean
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