Carlo Sforza and the Attempt to Define a New Italian Foreign Policy in the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, and the Danube Region, 1920–1921

Abstract

At the end of World War I, Italy sought to expand its influence in Central and Eastern Europe. To achieve this, it was crucial to establish good relations with the Balkan region, resolve the Adriatic issue peacefully, and assert its presence in the Mediterranean. This paper broadly analyses this significant period in postwar Italian foreign policy by outlining the strategies implemented by Italian Foreign Minister Carlo Sforza from 1920 to 1921 in the Mediterranean, Adriatic, and Danube regions. Sforza attempted to mediate and intervene in many significant issues of the international debate, including Albanian independence, support for Mustafa Kemal’s Turkish nationalist movement, relations with the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (SCS), and support for the Little Entente. The détente in Adriatic relations, produced by the signing of the Treaty of Rapallo with the Kingdom of SCS and the beginning of dialogue with the Czechoslovak Republic and the Kingdom of Romania, formed the basis for true politics of power in Eastern Europe, particularly among the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Analysing historiography, diplomatic documents, and archival records, the paper examines Carlo Sforza’s diplomatic moves in regions that would return to the focus of Italian diplomatic interests in the coming years, entangling with the directives of Fascist imperialism.