Italian Land - Owning the Soil to Secure the Borders, 1915–1954

This book reconstructs the Italian 'land conquest' plans to Italianise the territories conquered after the victory in the First World War: South Tyrol (or Alto Adige, in Italian), Venezia Giulia, Istria). The volume's focus is on the twenty-year Fascist period, but also shows how such plans originated even earlier and remained present for at least the first decade after the fall of Fascism. It examines two crucial nodes: the conception developed by the Italian side towards the annexed populations after the Great War in terms of nationality, and the reclamation and colonisation plans with Italian farmers, conceived and promoted by nationalists and fascists. Italian Land: Owning the Soil to Secure the Borders, 1915-1954 will be beneficial to scholars of contemporary history and the history of fascism.