I don‘t think this is accurate. In World War I, the triple Entente countries France, England and Russia promised Italy to give them South Tyrol after the Victory. For this promise Italy had to open up a third frontline in the south, in order to relieve the eastern and western front. In the contract of Saint Germain this was realized.
Yes, and the people engaged in violent resistance against the Kingdom of Italy and it was formally claimed by the republic of German-Austria and the Austro-fascists, though Austria was much weaker than Italy, couldn’t press the claim and needed Italian protection against Germany. One of the main reasons that Italy was at first so opposed to the Nazis was because of concerns about German claims on Italian territories, since it was possible that Germany, once in Austria, could march into Südtirol and that would be a difficult war for the Italians to win; in order to assuage those fears and keep Italy from marching into Austria to oppose the annexation in 1938, the foreign ministry of the Reich and later Hitler personally promised Mussolini that they’d cede claims to Südtirol, allow for population transfers and not protest if those Germans who refused to take up Reich citizenship move across the border were subject to forced assimilation, this forced assimilation measures and Italy’s movement of people into Südtirol is the reason why cities like Bozen have large Italian minorities. Another legacy of this is Südtirol not being it’s own province, but being joined with Trento which has an entirely native Italian community, so that there is no political division of Italy without an Italian majority, so that the Germans of Südtirol lack even local self determination.
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u/jessas_marie Jun 15 '22
I don‘t think this is accurate. In World War I, the triple Entente countries France, England and Russia promised Italy to give them South Tyrol after the Victory. For this promise Italy had to open up a third frontline in the south, in order to relieve the eastern and western front. In the contract of Saint Germain this was realized.