irst-class
power, and befitting her wide ambitions.

Although Italy was allied with the Central Powers, her peculiar
situation dictated a national policy of cordial relations with all
Europe. Geographically, she forms a unified mass with Germany and
Austria, but the barrier of the Alps across her northern frontier
diverts her interests from the north to the south. She is essentially
a Mediterranean power, the one great nation on the inland sea with
a long coast line and a number of ports. Her hope of the future lay
along the Mediterranean shore, but her national unity was gained
almost too late to enable her to realize the aspiration of African
colonies. It was the disappointment of obtaining possessions in
Tunis by the establishment of French control there in 1881 that found
expression in the Triple Alliance. Her antagonism against Austria
and the Hapsburgs was still unmitigated, but as a practical matter
of statesmanship she had to choose between two antagonists--Austria
opposing her on the Adriatic, and France on the Mediterranean.
Since Africa presented the larger field for expansion, she enlisted
the aid of Austria and Germany against France. At the same time she
became friendly with England, and largely through this understanding
gained her hold upon Tripoli. Cordial relations with France were
reestablished in 1903. The sum of her efforts made her a link between
the rival groups of European powers. This will explain the peculiar
obligations of neutrality incumbent upon the nation when the Triple
Entente went to war with her associates in the Triple Alliance.

Alliance with Germany and Austria was a necessity of statesmanship
and diplomacy; but at no time was it generally popular with the
mass of Italian population. It gave no support to Italian aims
in the Mediterranean; it failed to hold the balance between Italy
and Austria in the Balkans; it seemed to promise nothing for the
future, except, perhaps, immunity from Austrian attack. In fact,
it is doubtful whether the alliance would have been renewed in 1912
but for an unexpected outbreak of resentment against France due
to a clash over rival interests in northern Africa and increasing
suspicion of French action in Tunis. At the same time Italy took
offense at the attitude of France toward her position in the war
with Turkey, which resulted in the Italian occupation of Tripoli.

[Illustration: NORTHERN ITALY, SHOWING THE WHOLE ITALIAN-AUSTRIAN
FRONTIER AND THE