The First World War

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, in Sarajevo in Bosnia on 28th June 1914, was the spark that started the great blaze that was the First World War. The Austrian attack on Serbia fatally caused the reaction of the whole system of alliances, agreements, contrasts and rivalries that had come into being in the previous decades. This led all the great European powers, with the exception of Italy, to war between the end of July and the beginning of August 1914. Italy had proclaimed itself neutral, but this decision of the government did not win unanimous consent in the country.

With the pact signed in London on 26th April 1915, Italy committed itself to join the war within a month, receiving in exchange Trentino, South Tyrol up to the Brenner Pass and Dalmatia. This conflict that Italy got involved in starting from 24th May 1915, had such dimensions and characteristics that it led to a complete transformation of the principles of warfare, as these had been developed since the beginning of the twentieth century. It was a war of attrition in which the enemy’s military apparatus was subject to a continuous wearing down of men and material.

In the room a few plates by A. Beltrame of the Domenica del Corriere show the extraordinary escalation of events that dragged the whole of Europe into a conflict that, for the first time in history, involved millions of people.

Mazze ferrate austriache in dotazione alle truppe d'assalto

Mitragliatrice austriaca Schwarzlose mod.1907/12 prodotta dalla ditta Steyr, calibro 8 mm