See also: 1916 in Italy, other events of 1917, 1918 in Italy.

Events from the year 1917 in Italy.

Kingdom of Italy [ edit ]

Due to World War I the Italian population declined with 234,978 people

Events [ edit ]

Italy entered World War I in May 1915, declaring war on Austria-Hungary. In August 1916 Italy declares war on Germany. The Italian Front stands under command of Chief of Staff, General Luigi Cadorna. The Isonzo is the main battlefield.

February [ edit ]

February 25 – At a national congress of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) in Rome the division between reformists and hard-liners increases; only the approval of an agenda proposed by Costantino Lazzari manages to avoid fracture.[1]

April [ edit ]

May [ edit ]

May 1 – Riots break out in Milan and in the suburbs of the city and some other towns in Lombardy. [1]

May 8 – The PSI and the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), the socialist parliamentary group and the PSI sections of Milan and Turin meet in Milan. After fierce debate, a call is approved inviting organizations and individual workers to comply with "discipline" to the directives of the party and not to take "isolated and fragmented" initiatives. [1]

May 10 – June 8 – Tenth Battle of the Isonzo. The Italians advance to within 15 km of Trieste almost reaching the coastal town of Duino, but a major Austro-Hungarian counter-offensive launched on 3 June reclaimed virtually all lost ground and by the time the battle was called off little territory had been gained.

May 23 – After almost a month of civil violence in Milan the Italian army forcibly takes over the city from anarchists and anti-war revolutionaries. Fifty people are killed and 800 arrested.[2]

June [ edit ]

August [ edit ]

August 18 – September 12 – Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo. The offensive soon wore out. After the battle, the Austro-Hungarian army were exhausted, and could not have withstood another attack. But so were the Italians, who could not find the resources necessary for another assault, even though it might have been the decisive one. So the final result of the battle was another inconclusive bloodbath. Chief of Staff, General Luigi Cadorna warns Prime Minister Boselli of a vast work of socialist incitement in the army. [1]

August 21 – Insurrection for "peace and bread" in Turin.[3] The uprising quickly turns into open rebellion against the war.[1]

October [ edit ]

November [ edit ]

November 5–7 – Rapallo Conference in Rapallo, Italy, convened by the Allied powers in the wake of the severe Italian setback at Caporetto. The conference decides to form a Supreme War Council at Versailles to co-ordinate allied plans and actions and promised fresh aid to the Italians. [9]

November 9 – General Luigi Cadorna was relieved of command of the Italian army. Italy's allies Britain and France sent eleven divisions to reinforce the Italian front, and insisted on his dismissal. The new Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando appoints the respected General Armando Diaz as Chief of General Staff.

November 10 – The Italian front on the Piave effectively resist the enemy offensive, despite the superiority of the means and man employed by the Austro-Germans. The Germans gradually withdraw their military contingent from the Italian front in the following month to prepare for the great offensive in the spring of 1918 on the Western Front.[1]

Births [ edit ]

Deaths [ edit ]