The signing of the Treaty of Rapallo in 1920 made it possible to find a solution to the Italian-Yugoslav dispute over the north-eastern Adriatic border, a solution that would last substantially until the Italian invasion of the neighbouring kingdom in World War 2. Relations between Italy and Yugoslavia, particularly since the end of the 1920s, with the beginning of the more decidedly revisionist phase of fascist foreign policy regarding the structures of the Danubian-Balkan area, were never easy. However, the signing of the Treaty of Rapallo represented an undoubtedly important moment, which greatly contributed to restore a climate of collaboration between the two countries, heavily jeopardized by border nationalism and by the D’Annunzio’s “impresa di Fiume”, interrupted precisely by the Treaty of Rapallo.

Argument

The signing of the Treaty of Rapallo, the centenary of which falls this year, made it possible to find a solution to the Italian-Yugoslav dispute over the north-eastern Adriatic border, that would last – with the integration, in 1924, of the Treaty of Rome for Rijeka/Fiume – substantially until the Italian invasion of the neighbouring kingdom alongside Germany and the other Axis allies. Relations between Italy and Yugoslavia, particularly since the end of the 1920s with the beginning of the more decidedly revisionist phase of fascist foreign policy regarding the structures of the Danubian-Balkan area, were never easy. However, the signing of the Treaty of Rapallo represented an undoubtedly important moment, which greatly contributed to restore a climate of collaboration between the two countries, heavily jeopardized by border nationalism – which had led to the burning of the Narodni Dom in Trieste, occurred only a few months earlier – and by the D’Annunzio’s “impresa di Fiume”, interrupted precisely by the Treaty of Rapallo.

The journal «Qualestoria» intends to dedicate a monographic issue, to be published in July 2021, to the Italian-Yugoslav relations in the interwar period, from 1920 to 1940. The aim of the volume will especially be to analyse the course of Italian foreign policy towards Yugoslavia and its impact on the political and social fabric of the upper Adriatic region also as regards the coexistence between the various communities in the area.

To this end, proposals for contributions are requested which, taking into account the results of the most up-to-date historiography, deal in an original way with two major topics: the first relating to the political and diplomatic ties between Italy and Yugoslavia between the two World Wars and the second concerning the issue of “minorities” in the territories of the north-eastern Adriatic.

Submission guidelines

The articles may be written either in Italian or in English, but we underline that the authors shall remain solely responsible for the linguistic quality of their contributions (for example, any revision of a text not written in their mother tongue will be up to the authors) and that the editorial staff reserves the right to refuse a proposal on the sole basis of its linguistic level. All the contributions received will be subjected to a double-blind peer review.

Interested authors are requested to send an abstract of their proposal (about 400 words), including indications on the primary sources and the methodological approaches they intend to use, together with a CV of a couple of pages. Abstracts must be sent,

by 1st August 2020,

to the following e-mail addresses: stefano.santoro1@gmail.com and lucagiuseppe.manenti@gmail.com, specifying in the object of the e-mail "Proposta per Qualestoria". The authors of the accepted proposals will be notified by 1st October 2020 and will be invited to send their contribution (60,000 characters, spaces and notes included) by 15th January 2021.

Editors

The issue’s editor:

• Stefano Santoro is a fixed-term research assistant in History of Eastern Europe at the University of Trieste (Italy).

The journal’s director:

• Luca G. Manenti, PhD, is a “cultore della materia” in contemporary history at the University of Trieste, and a researcher for the Istituto regionale per la storia della Resistenza e dell'Età contemporanea nel Friuli Venezia Giulia (Trieste, Italy).