Treaty of Rapallo (1920)

Treaty of Rapallo
	Changes to the Italian eastern border from 1920 to 1975. The Austrian Littoral, later renamed Venezia Giulia, which was assigned to Italy in 1920 with the Treaty of Rapallo (with adjustments of its border in 1924 after the Treaty of Rome) and was then ceded to Yugoslavia in 1947 with the Treaty of Paris Areas annexed to Italy in 1920 and remained Italian even after 1947 Areas annexed to Italy in 1920, passed to the Free Territory of Trieste in 1947 with the Paris treaties and definitively assigned to Italy in 1975 with the Treaty of Osimo Areas annexed to Italy in 1920, passed to the Free Territory of Trieste in 1947 with the Treaties of Paris and definitively assigned to Yugoslavia in 1975 with the Treaty of Osimo
Type	Peace Treaty
Context	First World War
Signed	12 November 1920
Location	Rapallo, Italy
Condition	Arrangement of the border in Venezia Giulia and Free State of Fiume
Signatories	Giovanni Giolitti Milenko Vesnić
Parties	Italy Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Language	Italian, Serbo-Croatian

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

The treaty was signed on 12 November 1920^[3] in Rapallo, near Genoa, Italy. The signing was preceded by Italo-Yugoslavian negotiations at Villa Spinola, which were led notably by Ivanoe Bonomi and Francesco Salata.^[4]

Background[]

Tension between Italy and Yugoslavia arose at the end of the First World War, when the Austria-Hungary dissolved, and Italy claimed the territories assigned to it by the secret Treaty of London. 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 the war, 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).

The territories had an ethnically-mixed population, with Slovenes and Croats being over the half of the population of the region. The treaty was therefore nullified with the Treaty of Versailles under the pressure of US President Woodrow Wilson, which voided Italian claims on northern Dalmatia. The objective of the Treaty of Rapallo was to find a compromise after the void created by the nonapplication of the Treaty of London.

Content[]

Map of the Italian territory of Zara, 1920-1947

Events leading to World War II

Treaty of Versailles 1919
Polish–Soviet War 1919
Treaty of Trianon 1920
Treaty of Rapallo 1920
Franco-Polish alliance 1921
March on Rome 1922
Corfu incident 1923
Occupation of the Ruhr 1923–1925
Mein Kampf 1925
Pacification of Libya 1923–1932
Dawes Plan 1924
Locarno Treaties 1925
Young Plan 1929
Japanese invasion of Manchuria 1931
Pacification of Manchukuo 1931–1942
January 28 incident 1932
World Disarmament Conference 1932–1934
Defense of the Great Wall 1933
Battle of Rehe 1933
Nazis' rise to power in Germany 1933
Tanggu Truce 1933
Italo-Soviet Pact 1933
Inner Mongolian Campaign 1933–1936
German–Polish declaration of non-aggression 1934
Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance 1935
Soviet–Czechoslovakia Treaty of Mutual Assistance 1935
He–Umezu Agreement 1935
Anglo-German Naval Agreement 1935
December 9th Movement
Second Italo-Ethiopian War 1935–1936
Remilitarization of the Rhineland 1936
Spanish Civil War 1936–1939
Italo-German "Axis" protocol 1936
Anti-Comintern Pact 1936
Suiyuan Campaign 1936
Xi'an Incident 1936
Second Sino-Japanese War 1937–1945
USS Panay incident 1937
Anschluss Mar. 1938
May crisis May 1938
Battle of Lake Khasan July–Aug. 1938
Bled Agreement Aug. 1938
Undeclared German–Czechoslovak War Sep. 1938
Munich Agreement Sep. 1938
First Vienna Award Nov. 1938
German occupation of Czechoslovakia Mar. 1939
Hungarian invasion of Carpatho-Ukraine Mar. 1939
German ultimatum to Lithuania Mar. 1939
Slovak–Hungarian War Mar. 1939
Final offensive of the Spanish Civil War Mar.–Apr. 1939
Danzig Crisis Mar.–Aug. 1939
British guarantee to Poland Mar. 1939
Italian invasion of Albania Apr. 1939
Soviet–British–French Moscow negotiations Apr.–Aug. 1939
Pact of Steel May 1939
Battles of Khalkhin Gol May–Sep. 1939
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact Aug. 1939
Invasion of Poland Sep. 1939

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

The western parts of the former Duchy of Carniola: more than half of the region of Inner Carniola, with the municipalities of Idrija (Italian: Idria), Vipava (Italian: Vipacco), Šturje (Italian: Sturie delle Fusine), Postojna (Italian: Postumia), Šent Peter na Krasu (Italian: San Pietro del Carso, now Pivka), and Ilirska Bistrica (Italian: Bisterza) and the municipality in Upper Carniola of Fusine in Valromana (Slovene: Bela Peč)
The entire territory of the former Austrian Littoral except for the municipality of Kastav and the island of Krk, which were ceded to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
The former Dalmatian capital city of Zadar and the small Dalmatian islands of Lastovo and Palagruža.

According to the treaty, the city of Rijeka (Italian: Fiume) would become the independent Free State of Fiume,^[5] which ended the military occupation of Gabriele d'Annunzio's troops that had begun by the Impresa di Fiume and was known as the Italian Regency of Carnaro. That 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".^[6] Indeed, based on the numbers recorded in the 1910 Austrian census, 480,000 South Slavs (Slovenes and Croats) became citizens of the Kingdom of Italy, and 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, and the number of Italians living in the region was between 350,000 and 390,000.