Italian Diplomacy confronts the Irredentist Movement at the Eve of the Great War

The essay analyzes the attitude of Italian Foreign Minister Antonino di San Giuliano and of his staff against the irredentist movement, initially considered an obstacle that interfered in the good relations between the two allied governments because of it claim to territories under Austrian jurisdiction. At first San Giuliano looked especially to other lands, such as Libya, in order to secure an Italian position in the Mediterranean taking into account various factors beyond demographic and economic considerations. In the years immediately before the war the consolidation of the Triple Alliance guaranteed the Minister this project, while countering Austria on the border issue would trigger a confrontation with the Austrian military. In support of his views the Minister could rely on his close advisers including Secretary of State Pietro Lanza di Scalea, Salvatore Contarini, Antonio Chiaramonte Bordonaro and Giacomo De Martino. In the strategic framework developed by San Giuliano, the irredentist pressures endangered the patient diplomatic work carried out by him and his predecessors. However, a part of Italian diplomacy was more sensitive to the irredentist demands, such as Nicola Squitti, Italian Minister in Montenegro and then in Belgrade, and Carlo Galli, Italian consul in Trieste from 1905 and then at the Supreme Command in Udine in June 1915. After the war in Libya and the Balkan conflicts, with the evolution of the international situation, San Giuliano’s point of view also begins to change. The essay will show how this initial hostility against the irredentist movement would change with the beginning of the Great War and how Italy’s ultimate goal was to become obtaining the “unredeemed lands”.