Greater Italy

Greater Italy

Italian irredentism (Italian: irredentismo italiano) was an Italian irredentist movement that (in the late 19th century and early 20th century) aimed at the unification of Italian speaking peoples and territories deemed to be Italian lands.

Originally, the movement promoted the annexation to Italy of territories inhabited by an Italian indigenous population but retained by the Austrian Empire after Third Italian War of Independence in 1866 (hence 'unredeemed' Italy).

The territories of Corsica, Nice, and Savoy have been claimed by irredentists. During the period of Risorgimento in 1860 to 1861, Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour who was leading the Risorgimento effort, faced opposition from French Emperor Napoleon III who indicated that France would oppose Italian unification unless France was given Nice and Savoy that were held by Piedmont Sardinia, as France did not want a powerful state having control of all the passages of the Alps. As a result, Piedmont-Sardinia was pressured to concede Nice and Savoy to France in exchange for France accepting the unification of Italy. These included Trentino and Trieste, but also multilingual areas with German, Slovene, Croat, Ladin and Istro-Romanian population such as South Tyrol, a part of Istria, Gorizia, and part of Dalmatia. The claims were extended later to the city of Rijeka, Corsica, the island of Malta, the County of Nice, and Italian Switzerland.