Britain and Italy in the Era of the Great War
Defending and Forging Empires

Reassesses British and Italian grand strategies from 1914 to 1920: including the war, the peace conference and the Fiume crisis.

Stefano Marcuzzi (Author)

9781108831291, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 December 2020

348 pages
24 x 16 x 3.5 cm, 0.83 kg

'This is a novel addition to the English-language literature on the subject. The book is widely researched in both languages, and Marcuzzi conducted a considerable amount of archival research.' Charles Coutinho, International Affairs

This is an important reassessment of British and Italian grand strategies during the First World War. Stefano Marcuzzi sheds new light on a hitherto overlooked but central aspect of Britain and Italy's war experiences: the uneasy and only partial overlap between Britain's strategy for imperial defence and Italy's ambition for imperial expansion. Taking Anglo-Italian bilateral relations as a special lens through which to understand the workings of the Entente in World War I, he reveals how the ups-and-downs of that relationship influenced and shaped Allied grand strategy. Marcuzzi considers three main issues – war aims, war strategy and peace-making – and examines how, under the pressure of divergent interests and wartime events, the Anglo-Italian 'traditional friendship' turned increasingly into competition by the end of the war, casting a shadow on Anglo-Italian relations both at the Peace Conference and in the interwar period.

List of Figures
List of Maps
Introduction
Part I. Making the Anglo-Italian Entente (1914–1915): 1. Context
2. Traditional Friendship
3. Crumbling Principles
4. Pushing Friendship into Alliance
5. The Contested Treaty
Part II. Integrating Italy into the Triple Entente (Spring 1915 – Summer 1917): 6. Context
7. Turning Papers into Policies: the Implementation of the London Treaty
8. Dealing with Recalcitrant Allies: Shaping Italy's War
9. Peripheral Competition
10. Shaping Allied Grand Strategy
11. Italy's Empire Project Accepted
Part III. The Forked Road to Victory and Peace (Autumn 1917 – Summer 1919): 12. Context
13. Clash of Responsibilities: the Caporetto Crisis
14. Response to Military Emergencies: Keeping Italy Alive
15. Re-Shaping Allied Grand Strategy
16. Propaganda as a Strategy
17. Divided at the Finish Line
18. Versailles 1919: Italy's Empire Project Repudiated
19. Epilogue: Bloody Christmas in Fiume
20. Conclusions
Bibliography and Sources
Index.

Subject Areas: First World War [HBWN], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]