Treaty of Paris between Italy and the Allied Powers
The Treaty of Paris between Italy and the Allied Powers was signed on the 10th of February 1947, drawing a formal line under the fighting of World War II between Italy and the nations that had defeated it. Yet the signing was only the beginning of a long unravelling. Borders shifted, empires dissolved, and a new international state flickered briefly into existence before being absorbed by its neighbours. What does a peace treaty actually do to a country that lost? How do you dismantle a colonial empire by legal decree? And what happens when two rival powers both claim the same city? Those are the questions this documentary will explore.
Italy had gained its eastern Adriatic territories through two earlier agreements: the Treaty of Rapallo in 1920 and the Treaty of Rome in 1924. The 1947 treaty reversed those gains. The Adriatic islands of Cres, Lošinj, Lastovo, and Palagruža passed to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. So did the southern portion of Istria, the exclave of Zadar in Dalmatia, the city of Rijeka, and the broader region known as the Julian March.
France also received territory. The border villages of Briga and Tenda were transferred, along with minor revisions at the Mont Cenis plateau, Mont Thabor, and Mont Chaberton. These were smaller adjustments, but they signalled that every frontier Italy shared was now subject to review.
Trieste posed the hardest problem. The city and its surrounding area were carved out of both Italy and Yugoslavia and declared an independent state: the Free Territory of Trieste. That arrangement lasted until 1954, when the administration shifted to the Italian government while Yugoslavia received the Memorandum of Understanding of London formalising its mandate. The arrangement was ultimately settled by the Treaty of Osimo in 1975.
Italy had built a colonial empire across Africa and the eastern Mediterranean. The 1947 treaty required Italy to renounce claims to all of it. Libya, Eritrea, and Somaliland were specifically named as territories that Italy could no longer hold.
The treaty also required Italy to formally recognise Ethiopia and Albania as independent states. Italy ceded the island of Sazan to Albania. In the Aegean, the Italian Islands passed to the Kingdom of Greece.
A provision tied to China settled an older arrangement: Italy had held a concession in Tianjin since the 7th of September 1901. The treaty cancelled that concession along with the favourable commercial treaties Italy had maintained with the Republic of China.
The fate of the former colonies unfolded over years. Former Italian Somaliland passed through British administration before becoming a United Nations Trust Territory under Italian administration in 1950. On the 1st of July 1960, it united with the newly independent State of Somaliland to form the Somali Republic. Eritrea followed a different path: the United Nations General Assembly, in Resolution 390 (V) of the 2nd of December 1950, recommended that Eritrea be federated with Ethiopia, and that federation came into force on the 11th of September 1952. Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia on the 24th of May 1991, and that independence was formalised on the 24th of May 1993.
Article 74 of the treaty set out Italy's war reparations obligations. Payments were to go to Yugoslavia, Greece, the Soviet Union, Ethiopia, and Albania. All amounts were calculated against the US dollar at its gold parity as of the 1st of July 1946, when one ounce of gold equalled thirty-five dollars. The reparations were not to be paid in currency but in goods and services, spread across a seven-year period.
The goods-and-services mechanism was a practical compromise. Wartime destruction had left much of Europe short of hard currency; receiving finished industrial output was often more useful than cash transfers. Italy's obligation to rebuild and supply, rather than simply transfer funds, tied its postwar economic recovery directly to its reparations schedule.
Articles 47 and 48 required the demolition of all permanent fortifications along the Franco-Italian and Yugoslav-Italian borders. The weapons Italy was banned from possessing under article 51 ranged from atomic weapons and guided missiles to guns with a range exceeding 30 kilometres, non-contact naval mines, and manned torpedoes.
The permitted size of Italy's ground forces was set at 185,000 army personnel plus 65,000 Carabinieri, for a combined ceiling of 250,000 under article 61. The tank fleet was capped at 200 heavy and medium vehicles under article 54. The navy was reduced to 25,000 personnel under article 60 and lost its submarines entirely: article 58 ordered all of them scuttled, and article 59 barred Italy from acquiring new battleships, submarines, or aircraft carriers. Certain warships were transferred to the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France.
The air force ceiling of 25,000 personnel under article 65 was paired with a fleet cap of 200 fighters and reconnaissance aircraft plus 150 transport, air-rescue, training, and liaison aircraft. Bomber aircraft were prohibited. Under article 55, former officers and non-commissioned officers of the Blackshirts and the National Republican Army were barred from holding equivalent ranks in the new Italian military, unless an Italian court had cleared them.
Most of these constraints were lifted when Italy became a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949.
Article 17 banned fascist organisations in Italy, covering political, military, and semi-military bodies. Italy was also required to guarantee human, civil, and religious rights to all persons under its jurisdiction and was forbidden from prosecuting or harassing Italians who had expressed sympathy toward the Allied powers during the war.
Nationality questions ran in both directions. Italian citizens living in territories transferred to other states automatically became citizens of those new states, but they could opt for Italian citizenship within one year. Exercising that option might require them to relocate to Italy. Conversely, Italian citizens domiciled in Italy whose language was Serbian, Croatian, or Slovene could acquire Yugoslav nationality, potentially requiring them to emigrate to Yugoslavia within a year. A subsequent annex provided for the cultural autonomy of the German-speaking minority in South Tyrol.
The Aegean transfer produced a legal wrinkle that extended far beyond Greece and Italy. Turkey had no part in signing the 1947 treaty, since the entire Dodecanese had been ceded by Turkey to Italy under the First Treaty of Lausanne in 1912, an agreement often called the Treaty of Ouchy to distinguish it from the later 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. At the 1923 peace talks in Lausanne, Turkey had demanded that those islands be demilitarised. Article 14 of the 1947 treaty granted the Aegean islands to Greece with the stipulation that they "shall be and shall remain demilitarized." Under article 36(2) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Turkey stands as the intended third-party beneficiary of that demilitarisation clause, a status that remained contested decades after the treaty entered general effect on the 15th of September 1947.
Continue browsing
Common questions
When was the Treaty of Paris between Italy and the Allied Powers signed?
The treaty was signed on the 10th of February 1947 and came into general effect on the 15th of September 1947. It formally ended World War II hostilities between Italy and the Allied Powers.
What territories did Italy lose under the 1947 Treaty of Paris?
Italy transferred the Adriatic islands of Cres, Lošinj, Lastovo, and Palagruža, along with Istria south of the Mirna river, Zadar, Rijeka, and the Julian March to Yugoslavia. The Italian Islands of the Aegean went to Greece, Briga and Tenda went to France, and the island of Sazan went to Albania. Italy also renounced all colonial claims, including Libya, Eritrea, and Somaliland.
What war reparations was Italy required to pay under the 1947 peace treaty?
Article 74 of the treaty obliged Italy to pay reparations to Yugoslavia, Greece, the Soviet Union, Ethiopia, and Albania. Payments were to be made in goods and services over a seven-year period, with amounts calculated against the US dollar at its gold parity of 35 dollars per ounce as of the 1st of July 1946.
What were the military restrictions placed on Italy by the 1947 Treaty of Paris?
Italy was capped at 250,000 army and Carabinieri personnel combined, 25,000 naval personnel, and 25,000 air force personnel. The army could hold no more than 200 tanks, and the air force was barred from bomber aircraft. Italy was also banned from possessing atomic weapons, guided missiles, and submarines, and was ordered to scuttle its existing submarine fleet. Most restrictions were lifted when Italy joined NATO in 1949.
What was the Free Territory of Trieste created by the 1947 Treaty of Paris?
The Free Territory of Trieste was an independent state established by the treaty to resolve competing Italian and Yugoslav claims to the city. Its administration was transferred to Italy in 1954 under the Memorandum of Understanding of London, and the final settlement was formalised by the Treaty of Osimo in 1975.
Why does Turkey have rights under the 1947 Treaty of Paris despite not signing it?
Article 14 of the treaty transferred the Aegean islands to Greece with a permanent demilitarisation requirement. Turkey is recognised as the intended third-party beneficiary of that clause under article 36(2) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, because Turkey had demanded demilitarisation of those islands at the 1923 Lausanne peace talks.
All sources
4 references cited across the entry
- 1JournalNo Bargaining Chips, No Spheres of Interest: The Yugoslav Origins of Cold War Non-AlignmentSvetozar Rajak — 2014
- 2BookInternational Criminal Law DeskbookCavendish Publishing — 2006
- 3BookUnited Nations Treaty Series 1956; No. 3297