Italy in World War 1 I THE GREAT WAR Special

Italy was a major European country that joined World War 1 almost a year after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Initially, Italy actually had an alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary called the Triple Alliance, but Italy decided to back the Entente powers instead because they were promised disputed land in the Alps and near Trieste. Find out all about Italy in World War 1 in our new special.

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» WHAT ARE YOUR SOURCES?
Videos: British Pathé
Pictures: Mostly Picture Alliance
Literature (excerpt):
Gilbert, Martin. The First World War. A Complete History, Holt Paperbacks, 2004.
Hart, Peter. The Great War. A Combat History of the First World War, Oxford University Press, 2013.
Hart, Peter. The Great War. 1914-1918, Profile Books, 2013.
Stone, Norman. World War One. A Short History, Penguin, 2008.
Keegan, John. The First World War, Vintage, 2000.
Hastings, Max. Catastrophe 1914. Europe Goes To War, Knopf, 2013.
Hirschfeld, Gerhard. Enzyklopädie Erster Weltkrieg, Schöningh Paderborn, 2004
Michalka, Wolfgang. Der Erste Weltkrieg. Wirkung, Wahrnehmung, Analyse, Seehamer Verlag GmbH, 2000
Leonhard, Jörn. Die Büchse der Pandora: Geschichte des Ersten Weltkrieges, C.H. Beck, 2014

» WHAT IS “THE GREAT WAR” PROJECT?
THE GREAT WAR covers the events exactly 100 years ago: The story of World War I in realtime. Featuring: The unique archive material of British Pathé. Indy Neidell takes you on a journey into the past to show you what really happened and how it all could spiral into more than four years of dire war. Subscribe to our channel and don’t miss our new episodes every Thursday.

» WHO IS REPLYING TO MY COMMENTS? AND WHO IS BEHIND THIS PROJECT?
Most of the comments are written by our social media manager Florian. He is posting links, facts and backstage material on our social media channels. But from time to time, Indy reads and answers comments with his personal account, too.

The Team responsible for THE GREAT WAR is even bigger:

- CREDITS -
Presented by : Indiana Neidell
Written by: Indiana Neidell
Director: David Voss
Director of Photography: Toni Steller
Sound: Toni Steller
Sound Design: Bojan Novic
Editing: Franz Jänich
Research by: Indiana Neidell
Fact checking: Latoya Wild, David Voss

A Mediakraft Networks Original Channel
Based on a concept by Spartacus Olsson
Author: Indiana Neidell
Visual Concept: Astrid Deinhard-Olsson
Executive Producer: Astrid Deinhard-Olsson and Spartacus Olsson
Head of Production: Michael Wendt
Producer: David Voss
Social Media Manager: Florian Wittig

Contains licenced Material by British Pathé
All rights reserved - © Mediakraft Networks GmbH, 2015

[andreadalcortivo]

I'm italian and you have my compliments for accurate description about italian situation before entering in WW1.

[lordfedjuvekinval]

"For a brilliant attack you calculate how many men can the machine gun kill and you launch an attack with a superior amount of men: someone will get to the machine gun" Luigi Cadorna in "Lettere".
This should give you an idea on how backwards the Italian chief of staff was.
Luckily for us (spoiler alert) he was later replaced with Armando Diaz after the disaster in Caporetto.

[peterbound]

I'm an Italian history research student at the University of Milan. This video made me so happy to see that there still are people abroad able to do proper research about Italy's involvement in ww1 and pre-fascist era. Well done.

[lds-lab.divulgazionescient]

Really well done! I am Italian, and I rarely saw well-done documentaries in english about italian side. Generally they are full of misconceptions and rough approximations. Your research is complete and full of references. Congrats!!!!

[TRANSFORMERSFAN]

3:31

Wilhelm Scream!

*KAISER SCREAMS*

No, not you, Kaiser!

[Flight_of_Icarus]

A piece of turkey when the Ottomans are defeated? Was it land, or were they just going to have Thanksgiving?

[michelemerloni]

As an Italian I have to say that you did a very good job in explaining the situation of the country and what led Italy into war. It's not common, even among good historians. Bravi!

[SamaritanPrime]

The Wilhelm Scream makes its triumphant return at 3:32!

[stefanomaccarone]

And you know what's funny about Cadorna? Despite being one of the most incompetent and despotic WW1 generals, with no regards for soldiers life, there are still a lot of roads and public buildings named after him such as a big train station in Milan. Isn't that great?

[mnvcjhgfckjh]

From what I read on articles about Italy after the war, their promises were broken. They only received Tryol and Trieste, but not Dalmatia. I'd say they got fucked over. Which is why italy ended up fighting against the Allies in World War 2.

[mjinnh]

Thank you for your kind words. It was really a pleasure working on this episode. After years of being confused by these complex events, sitting down and doing the research allowed me to finally figure it out. Madeleine Johnson

[doidrs]

When he is describing Italy undevelopment: clearly a Secondary Power in terms of Victoria II.

[ThestDivision]

Awesome video! I've always known that Italy suddenly switched sides in 1914 but never knew why. I just thought that Italians were jerks who had an appetite for screwing teammates up (well it happened twice in both WWs). But now I have a clearer picture.

Italy's participation in both WWs has always been considered sort of a sideshow and not too many people talk about it. I've just recently started to study Italy in WWII though: the Mussolini regime, the Western Desert Campaign, the Russian expedition, and things that most WWII history books never even mention... It's quite fascinating.

[kknives]

There was talk of a war with France in Italy in order the regain West Savoy, Nice, Corsica, and Colonial lands as well. I think the Italians were really more holding out to see which side did better in the war before committing to either side. Smart considering the economic and technological situation of the time.

[waltercorrarello]

Extremely precise... finally someone who speaks with knowledge about italian intervention, bravo!

[wolverineeagle]

My great- grandfather served in the Italian Royal Army in the 1890's. He came to America in 1901.

[Mania]

"Italy has a great hunger but she has bad teeth" - Otto von Bismarck

[marcolino]

Thank you for the rare "intellectual honesty" concernig Italy in the WWs. I al the first to explain the limits and the errors of this nation, but often people abroad indulte whitout khow the situation!
Really interesting channel!

[arthur]

Portugal was the reason the Triple Entente won World War 1, lets be real lads.

[antoniomarsonfranchini]

You should look up the plans that Cadorna made to invade France and help the Germans. in fact, during the negotiations with the entente, Cadorna still made plans of defense in the western Alps. As a result the tactics to attack an invade Austria we conceived only when there was no left time to organise a better invasion. :)