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World War I When World War I began in August 1914, the Italian government brushed aside the Triple Alliance and declared its neutrality. Subsequently, after having signed the secret Treaty of London with the Allied powers, Italy declared war on Austria and Turkey, and then declared war against Germany about a year later. Italy sent a large force into the Trentino region, in the southern Tirol. In 1916 the Austrians launched a series of attacks northeast of …

…Italian casualties during the war totaled more than half a million. In the treaties that followed, Italy acquired the Trentino, Trieste, and the South Tyrol, but did not get all the territory promised in the Treaty of London-notably Dalmatia and Fiume. In November 1920 Italy and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later renamed Yugoslavia) signed the Treaty of Rapallo; Fiume was established as a free state, and Italy renounced its claims to Dalmatia