Originally an ally of Germany and Austria, Italy is located in the Mediterranean, which is not only strategically important, but also has the same manpower and powerful Lu Haijun. Its direct participation in the war will have a certain impact on the battlefield in the western region. At the beginning of World War II, the Italian government was indecisive, and the warring parties launched a tense diplomatic struggle for Italy. Finally, Italy treacherously sided with the Allies and participated in the war.

First, the process of competition between two groups

19 12 after the Italian-Turkish war, Italy's tendency to leave the three-nation alliance became more obvious.

19 14, after the outbreak of the first world war, on August 3rd, the Italian king informed William II that the situation of the outbreak of the war was inconsistent with the meaning of the reasons for entering the war in the text of the three-nation alliance treaty, and announced the declaration of neutrality on the same day. While publishing this declaration, I accidentally gave it to Minister De? Sang? Zhu Liangnuo secretly told the German ambassador that if he was paid enough, he would be prepared to "consider ways to help". The next day, the Italian ambassador to Russia told Russian Foreign Minister Sazonov that it was difficult for Italy to "get what it expected from Germany and Austria", so it was "possible to negotiate with its allies" to jointly deal with Austria-Hungary. In this way, on the one hand, Italy blackmailed the central European powers, on the other hand, it negotiated with the allies to find out and bargain. Under the pressure of Britain, Russia also made concessions and agreed to cede most of Dalmatia to Italy. So far, almost all the allies have met the requirements of Italy. On April 26th, 2005, Italy finally signed the London Secret Treaty with Britain, France and Russia. Since most of the territory Italy hopes to acquire belongs to the German-Austrian bloc or neutral country, there is no direct conflict with the Allies. In April 2005, the Allies signed the London Agreement with Italy and agreed to Italy's territorial claim. Britain also promised to lend Italy 500 million pounds as the cost of participating in the war. In May, Italy tore up the three-nation alliance treaty, joined the allies in the war, and stabbed the allies in the back. A few days later, Italy officially withdrew from triple alliance, Germany, Austria and Italy, declared war on Austria-Hungary on May 23rd, and broke off diplomatic relations with Germany the next day.

Secondly, Italy's diplomacy is indecisive and capricious.

1, Italy's weak and foreign expansion policy. 187 1 year, risorgimento has been divided for a long time, which provides favorable conditions for the development of capitalism. However, the unification was completed from top to bottom, and a large number of feudal remnants were retained, which seriously hindered the further development of Italy's economy and caused Italy's backwardness, mainly in three aspects: First, agriculture was backward, and the grain output was extremely low, and one third of the grain needed to be imported every year. Second, heavy industry is underdeveloped and lags far behind other imperialist countries. Third, people's lives are extremely difficult, and a large number of poor people have fled to foreign countries to make a living. Therefore, Italy is called "poor imperialism". Like other imperialist countries, Italy is actively expanding foreign colonies. However, due to its own weakness, its expansion attempt can only be realized through the hegemony of a big country, which is doomed to the vacillation of Italy's foreign policy. Whoever is beneficial to its hegemony and expansion will rely on it.

2. Italy's national interests. Italy, Britain, France and Russia have more common interests, which are embodied as follows: Italy can't afford to offend Britain because its long coastline can't stand the attack of the powerful British navy, so it said from the beginning that it would not participate in any action against Britain. "Poor imperialism" Italy is financially dependent on "usury imperialism" France. Especially in 1887 and 1895, Ethiopia failed twice and was forced to unconditionally recognize its independence and compensate 1000 Wan Li, which caused serious financial and economic difficulties for Italy. At this time, France seized the opportunity on the condition of loan. In order to expand smoothly in Africa, Italy also reached an agreement with Russia. The two sides signed a contract to jointly resist the expansion of Austria-Hungary in the Balkans, and intend to adopt a "goodwill attitude" towards Russia's expansion in the Black Sea Strait. Russia understands its intention to expand in North Africa. As can be seen from the above facts, before the outbreak of World War I, Italy had actually split from triple alliance and relied on the side of the Allies for its interests.

3. Commitments made by the Allies on Italian territory. After the outbreak of World War I, Italy declared "neutrality" on the pretext that Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia without consulting Italy, in an attempt to bargain with the warring parties on the condition of participating in the war in order to gain more benefits. Later, the Allies met all the requirements of Italy, especially the land promised to Italy was twice that promised by Germany. In addition, Britain lent Italy a large amount of debt, so in May 19 15, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary and formally joined the Allies.