L'Italia in Oriente alla fine dell'Impero ottomano

Despite the centrality recognized by historiography on the Ottoman front of the First World War, Italy - the only country of the Entente not to have troops on the ground in that area during the conflict - was not a leading actor in it. This was a limit during the negotiations in Sèvres to establish post-Ottoman order. Italy tried to take part in the settlement rebuilding its presence in the East based on the Italian communities that lived in the main Ottoman cities. Between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Italy had strengthened her presence in the Ottoman Empire through an increasing economic-commercial penetration, only to suffer the repercussions of the Libyan crisis of 1911. Once the war was over, Italy was among the winning powers that decided the future of the Middle East region. However, Italian foreign policy was suffering from its weaknesses and the government of Rome had to cut back many of its aspirations in Anatolia, soon giving up the Turkish nationalists of Mustafa Kemal to the Antalya region assigned to Italy by the peace treaties. This highlighted how ephemeral the victory had been, so much so that the Italian occupation of Anatolia (1920-1922) was completely removed from national memory. The Anatolian defeat, in its own way, further fueled the controversy over the "mutilated victory", giving impetus to the hopes of those who counted on being able to reassert Italy's Mediterranean "vocation" in a short time.