Allies or Rivals? Italy and Serbia during the First World War

The relations between Italy and Serbia during WWI have been generally described by scholarly literature as tense, uncooperative and not friendly at all. This paper argues that the great rift between Italy and Serbia opened up as a consequence of the decision of the Serbian government to support and fight for the realization of the Yugoslav program, which was totally in contrast with Italy’s war aims due to the Croatian and Slovenian uncompromising aspirations to all of Dalmatia and all of Istria, including Trieste/Trst and other tiny cities and villages along the western coast of Istria, which at that time were considered mostly Italian.