Treaty of Rapallo (1920)

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

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.

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 (1920-11-12)
Location	Rapallo, Italy
Condition	Arrangement of the border in Venezia Giulia and Free State of Fiume
Signatories	Giovanni Giolitti, Carlo Sforza, Ivanoe Bonomi Milenko Vesnić, Ante Trumbić, Kosta Stojanović
Parties	Italy Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Language	Italian, Serbo-Croatian

The treaty was signed on 12 November 1920 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.

Background

Tension between Italy and Yugoslavia arose at the end of the First World War, when 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 (except Krk and Prvić island), northern Dalmatia and notably Zadar (Italian: Zara), Šibenik (Italian: Sebenico), and most of the Dalmatian islands (except Sveti Grgur, Goli Otok, Rab, Drvenik Mali, Drvenik Veli, Čiovo, Šolta, Brač, Jakljan and Koločep).

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

1. Treaty of Versailles 1919
2. Polish–Soviet War 1919
3. Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye 1919
4. Treaty of Trianon 1920
5. Treaty of Rapallo 1920
6. Franco-Polish alliance 1921
7. March on Rome 1922
8. Corfu incident 1923
9. Occupation of the Ruhr 1923–1925
10. Mein Kampf 1925
11. Second Italo-Senussi War 1923–1932
12. Dawes Plan 1924
13. Locarno Treaties 1925
14. Young Plan 1929
15. Great Depression 1929
16. Japanese invasion of Manchuria 1931
17. Pacification of Manchukuo 1931–1942
18. January 28 incident 1932
19. Geneva Conference 1932–1934
20. Defense of the Great Wall 1933
21. Battle of Rehe 1933
22. Nazis' rise to power in Germany 1933
23. Tanggu Truce 1933
24. Italo-Soviet Pact 1933
25. Inner Mongolian Campaign 1933–1936
26. German–Polish declaration of non-aggression 1934
27. Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance 1935
28. Soviet–Czechoslovakia Treaty of Mutual Assistance 1935
29. He–Umezu Agreement 1935
30. Anglo-German Naval Agreement 1935
31. December 9th Movement
32. Second Italo-Ethiopian War 1935–1936
33. Remilitarization of the Rhineland 1936
34. Spanish Civil War 1936–1939
35. Italo-German "Axis" protocol 1936
36. Anti-Comintern Pact 1936
37. Suiyuan campaign 1936
38. Xi'an Incident 1936
39. Second Sino-Japanese War 1937–1945
40. USS Panay incident 1937
41. Anschluss Mar. 1938
42. May Crisis May 1938
43. Battle of Lake Khasan July–Aug. 1938
44. Bled Agreement Aug. 1938
45. Undeclared German–Czechoslovak War Sep. 1938
46. Munich Agreement Sep. 1938
47. First Vienna Award Nov. 1938
48. German occupation of Czechoslovakia Mar. 1939
49. Hungarian invasion of Carpatho-Ukraine Mar. 1939
50. German ultimatum to Lithuania Mar. 1939
51. Slovak–Hungarian War Mar. 1939
52. Final offensive of the Spanish Civil War Mar.–Apr. 1939
53. Danzig Crisis Mar.–Aug. 1939
54. British guarantee to Poland Mar. 1939
55. Italian invasion of Albania Apr. 1939
56. Soviet–British–French Moscow negotiations Apr.–Aug. 1939
57. Pact of Steel May 1939
58. Battles of Khalkhin Gol May–Sep. 1939
59. Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact Aug. 1939
60. 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, 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". 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.

External links

• Treaty between the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes signed at Rapallo, 12 November 1920
• Map of Europe and Treaty of Rapallo Archived 16 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine at omniatlas.com
• Map of modern Slovenia with superimposed Rapallo border