1882 The Triple Alliance
On 20 May 1882 the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria, Italy was concluded for 5 years and renewed quinquennially until 1915. The terms called for mutual aid in the event of an aggressive war waged by France on Italy or Germany; if any partner was engaged in a war with two or more other great powers the other two would come to her aid. If one partner was forced to make war on another power the remaining partners would maintain benevolent neutrality (the terms which allowed Italy to stay out of the war in 1914).
On 5 December 1912 the last renewal of the Triple Alliance was agreed, for six years from July 1914. Italy was agreeable to this because of a closer relationship with Austria than hitherto, and greater friction with the Anglo-French entente, chiefly over Italy's occupation of the Dodecanese Islands after the Tripolitan War, only recently ended. Italian bases there appeared a threat to Anglo-French naval dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean.
A Naval Agreement prepared between the Naval Section of the Austrian War Ministry, the Admiralty Staff of the German Navy, and the Admiralty Staff of the Italian Navy was prepared in draft, June 23, 1913, revised, August 2, 1913, and came into force, November 1, 1913. The agreement called for the Austro-Hungarian and the Italian fleets to assemble as soon as possible in the neighborhood of Messina and complete their supplies. The Italian fleet was then to proceed to its anchoring place between Milazzo and Messina, the Austro-Hungarian fleet to the harbor of Augusta. If need be, Italy would retain a division for special duty in the north of the Tyrrhenian Sea and despatch a part of her torpedo flotillas together with mine layers, to Cagliari and Trapani. The German vessels would endeavor to unite at Gaeta (or in the event of unfavorable conditions at sea, at Naples) in order to complete their supplies. Should special circumstances render it impossible to reach Gaeta (Naples), the German naval forces also shall join the Commander-in-Chief in the neighborhood of Messina.
The chief objective of the Commander-in-Chief, the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Admiral Anton Haus, was the securing of naval control in the Mediterranean through the swiftest possible defeat of the enemy fleets. Should a portion of the French fleet lie at Bizerta, the Commander-in-Chief was to attempt to deal separately with the scattered portions of this fleet. For the purpose of holding the portion of the enemy fleet at Bizerta, operations with mine layers and torpedo boats from Trapani and Cagliari were in contemplation; for action against a French fleet possibly proceeding eastward from Toulon, the light units of the local coast defence of the Western Ligurian coast were in contemplation.
The main action was to be carried out so swiftly that the decision shall be reached before the Russian forces in the Black Sea can interfere. It was to remain with the Commander-in-Chief to decide whether, in addition to the main operations against the enemy fleets, simultaneous secondary actions shall be directed against possible French troop transports from North Africa or against sections of the enemy coasts.
On entering the Triple Alliance, Italy had arbitrarily sacrificed her interests in the Adriatic in order to safeguard what she believed to be her more vital interests in the Mediterranean. When, by her increased strength and subsequent agreements with Great Britain, these interests were protected, the Italians felt themselves at liberty to again turn their eyes eastward and take up the threads of their plans to secure the control of the Adriatic.
According to a favorite Italian interpretation, to the contrary, the natural boundary of Italy lay beyond the shore-line of the Eastern Adriatic. Since earliest historic times this region had, with brief interregnums, been indissolubly linked with the West by the ties of Rome. A study of the map, so they claim, will indicate that it was not the Adriatic but the Julian Alps, the Velebit Mountains, and the Dinaric Alps, towering along the coastal fringe of the Northern and Eastern Adriatic, which form the bulwark, which, according to the Italian thesis, was the natural boundary of Italy.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
