Main content
World history
Course: World history > Unit 6
Lesson 2: Other fronts of World War IItaly backs out of Triple Alliance
Created by Sal Khan.
Want to join the conversation?
- At about, Sal says the triple Alliance was "Awkward" for Italy. Why? 0:50(6 votes)
- It was awkward because austria was a traditional enemy and france was an ally.(4 votes)
- Did this not-taking-sides-until-sure-of-victory tactic injure Italy's standing with the French or British at all?(7 votes)
- It certainly screwed them over during the Treaty of Versailles. The Italians didn't have as much of a say over the punishments and indemnities as the British, French, or other Allied powers.(6 votes)
- onSal mentions that Italy declares war on Austria Hungary, so were still things cool between the Italians and the Germans, or did Germany think of this as a major issue {and if it did, declare war on Italy as well} 3:40(3 votes)
- I believe that Germany declared war on Italy as a response.(4 votes)
- Why didn't Germany and Austro Hungary just attack Italy so they could get more land after Italy announced that they were not going to be part of the triple alliance?(3 votes)
- because they were already fighting on three fronts, the balkan front, russian front, and the western front.
Soon enough, Italy attacked them though, so Austria and Germany were fighting them anyway, and they didn't manage to take much land. They knew this would probably happen fighting Italy, since they were busy fighting so many other countries also
Almost all of Italy's northern border in in the Alps, and very easily defended.(4 votes)
- Why did Italy join the triple alliance in the first place?(3 votes)
- Italy really wasn't as great of a partner in the Triple Alliance as Germany and Austria-Hungary were. Italy, for a long time, had hated Austria Hungary and were wary about entering into an alliance with them. Italy was a little bit like a "third wheel" in the triple alliance. The reason that Italy joined is to protect Her North African territories from the French, who were looking to be the sole colonizing power in that area.(3 votes)
- Was getting back some of their own land from the Austria-Hungary one of the reasons Italy backed out of the Triple Alliance?(3 votes)
- I get that Switzerland had massive amount of geographical defenses in terms of mountain terrain, but it's a small country. If Germany broke so many treaties and agreements regarding other countries (eg. Belgium), why not the same for Switzerland? Capturing Switzerland would be great as a place to build their forces and mount their base.(1 vote)
- It would have taken too long to take Switzerland and there would have been little benefits, it was easier to invade via Belgium. Switzerland also produced artillery and barbed wire for both sides.(4 votes)
- Atit was mentioned that there was a secret pact. Was it secret because there was absolutely no documentation, like with other official alliances/treaties, where papers are drawn up? 1:44(2 votes)
- It was secret in the sense that, unlike for instance the pacts that made the Triple Alliance or the Triple Entente, no one else knew about them. On the other hand, every country knew about the Triple Alliance.(2 votes)
- At, Sal said Italy joined the Triple Alliance. Can someone describe more in detail of what the Triple Alliance involved? I know that the three countries all agreed to defend each other in times of war, but is there anything else to it? 0:11(2 votes)
- Great Britain wanted nothing to do with war.(1 vote)
- So did the central powers feel betrayed by Italy for changing sides? Or did the Austrians not really care about Italy from the beginning? It seems odd to me that Austria-Hungary would ally itself with a country with nationalistic aspirations, claiming parts of its territory (not unlike the Yugoslavs (right?), or was the context different?).(2 votes)
- It is strange that Italy was part of that alliance in the first place. I think that the Central Powers were angry about the betrayal, but not entirely surprised. After all, the Italians had been taking every opportunity to fight the Austrians for a couple centuries already.(1 vote)
Video transcript
Italy was an interesting
actor in World War I because it was one of the original members of the Triple Alliance. In 1882, Italy becomes a member
of the Triple Alliance. The whole reason why it was called a Triple Alliance is because it was between Italy, Austria-Hungary and Germany. Despite being part of that defensive pact, that they would defend
each other if any of these other parties like
Russia were to attack them, or France were to attack them, it was an awkward alliance because Italy was a historical enemy of Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary had some
territory, especially some territory where some
Italian speakers were. Some Italian nationalists
were interested in recapturing or having claims on
some of that territory. I've circled some of that right over here. Right from the get-go it
was an awkward alliance. Even in that first Triple
Alliance, Italy got an exception for this defensive alliance. It says we don't want to be
at war with Great Britain. Then in 1902, Italy gets
into another secret ... or I guess this is the first
of many secret deals ... with France. If you've
ever played Diplomacy, this is what Diplomacy's all about. You make a deal with one
person, but maybe in secret you're making exceptions
with other people. They get into a secret pact with France where Italy's essentially
saying, "Look, you know, even though we're a member
of this Triple Alliance and we've already said
we're not going to be at war with Great Britain, we're also going to say that for France as
well. We're really not in a mood to be at war with you." Then when you fast forward to 1914, and we're now at the
beginning of World War I, August, Germany declares, July, Austria-Hungary
declares war on Serbia, Russia begins to mobilize, Germany declares war on
Russia and on France, Italy, because of this kind of awkwardness in this Triple Alliance, actually decides to stay neutral. Italy stays neutral. Their justification for staying neutral is that the Triple Alliance
is a defensive pact. It says, "Hey, we're
going to defend each other if anyone attacks us," but they're saying that in 1914 at the
beginning of World War I it was Austria-Hungary that
decided to take the offensive. It was Germany that took
the offensive, just based on mobilization in Russia, that took the offensive against France and in terms of declaring war on Russia. So Italy says, "Hey, look, this is a
defensive pact. The other two members of the Triple
Alliance, they're being offensive. We don't want ... That
means that we aren't bound to it. We're only bound to it in the event of defense. As you can imagine, a lot of it was them just trying to figure out
who's likely to win this, in which scenario are they
likely to gain the most. So you fast forward to 1915,
in particular April 26. The Italians are
negotiating with the allies thinking about what type of
territory they could capture especially from Austria-Hungary. On April 26 they sign
the Treaty of London, which at this point is a secret. Treaty of London. It's
not broadcast to the other members of the Triple
Alliance, but it's an agreement with the triple
entente that hey, look, we are on your side.
We are going to declare war on the central powers imminently. They do so in May 1915, on May 3. They back out of the Triple Alliance ... out of Triple Alliance ...
out of Triple Alliance. Then on May 23 they declare war on their historical enemy, but one of the co-signers of the Triple
Alliance declare war on the Austro-Hungarian empire. On the Austro-Hungarian empire. As we'll see, this was actually, Italy's entering into the war on
the side of the allies against Austria-Hungary, actually played a major role in the eventual downfall of the Austro-Hungarians
and I'll go into that into more detail in the next video.