London Pact

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London Pact (Italian Patto di Londra), or more correctly, the Treaty of London, 1915, was a secret pact between Italy and Triple Entente, signed in London on 26 April 1915 by the Kingdom of Italy, the United Kingdom, France and Russia.

According to the pact, Italy was to leave the Triple Alliance and join Triple Entente, as already stated in a secret agreement signed in London, on 4-5 September 1914. Furthermore, Italy was to declare war against Germany and Austria-Hungary within a month — and in fact the declaration of war was published 23 May of the same year. In exchange, Italy was to obtain some territorial gains (see Italia irredenta) at the end of the war:

Tyrol, partitioned in 1918, parts remaining Austrian referred to as Nordtirol and Osttirol, but part of one Federal State of Tirol

Lands offered to Serbia by the Allies in 1915.

1. Tyrol, up to the Alpine water divide, which includes the modern-day provinces of Trento (Trentino) and Bolzano-Bozen (Alto Adige/Südtirol).
2. Trieste
3. Gorizia and Gradisca
4. Istria, but not Rijeka
5. part of Inner Carniola
6. Northern Dalmatia (including Zadar)
7. Dodecanese
8. Protectorate over Albania
9. Vlorë
10. part of the German Asian and African colonial empire

To the Kingdom of Serbia it was promised

1. Split
2. the coast and islands south of Krka to Dubrovnik (Ragusa), and peninsula Pelješac.

The Kingdom of Montenegro was assigned

1. Dubrovnik
2. and the coast south to the Albanian port Shengjin (San Giovanni di Medua).

Also, but less precisely, Serbia was promised

1. Bosnia and Herzegovina
2. Srem
3. Bačka
4. Slavonia (this one against the Italian objections),
5. and some unspecified areas of Albania (to be divided between Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece).

The Italians insisted, and the Allies agreed, that the question of the Croatian coast between Zara and Istria should be settled after the war. They also insisted that Serbia should not be informed about the agreements. This, however, the Allies overruled by sending to the Government of Serbia an official Note, dated 4 August 1915, confirming the postwar territorial claims of Serbia and Montenegro.

The pact was to be kept secret, but after the October Revolution, it was published by Russian journal Izvestia, in November 1917.

At the Paris Peace Conference, the Italians insisted that they would negotiate only with their wartime allies Serbia and Montenegro, not with defeated enemies included in delegation of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In particular they were incensed that three members of the delegation were former Austro-Hungarian deputies (Croats Ante Trumbić, Josip Smodlaka, and the Slovene Otokar Ribarž), and that one (the Slovene Ivan Žolger) had served as Minister in the wartime Austrian Cabinet.

The pact was nullified with the Treaty of Versailles, because Woodrow Wilson, supporting Slavic claims and not recognizing the treaty, rejected Italian requests on Dalmatian territories.

The Partition of the Tyrol was confirmed by the Treaty of St. Germain.

[edit] See also

• Treaty of Rapallo (1920)
• Agreement of St.-Jean-de-Maurienne
• Julian March