Armistice of Cormons

The Armistice of Cormòns was signed in Cormons on 12 August 1866, between the Kingdom of Italy (represented by General Count Agostino Petitti Bagliani di Roreto) and the Austrian Empire (represented by General Baron Karl Möring) and was a prelude to the Treaty of Vienna, which ended the Third Italian War of Independence.

On 21 July 1866 the victorious Prussia, which had just inflicted a decisive defeat on Austrian army at the battle of Sadowa, signed the Armistice of Nikolsburg (without consulting the Italian allies^[1]). In the same days the Italian Navy was defeated in the Battle of Lissa. On the contrary the Army, after the defeat at Custoza, was taking advantage of the redeployment of many Austrian units to the Prussian front. Garibaldi's volunteers, reinforced by regular units, gained at great cost some terrain in Trentino and the main Italian army led by general Enrico Cialdini reached Udine, while a secondary army led by general Alfonso La Marmora was contemporary blocking some Austrian forces in the Quadrilatero fortresses.^[2]

After the armistice of Nikolsburg, Italian staff was afraid to face alone the entire Austrian Army, so they ordered to withdraw from Trentino (which was too tied to Habsburg Empire to be claimed).^[3] Garibaldi replied by telegraph with a sentence that became famous: Obbedisco ("I obey").

Soon after Prussia and Austria signed the Peace of Prague, while the definitive peace between Italy and Austria was ratified only on 3 October 1866 by the Treaty of Vienna, with the mediation of Napoleon III. The Austrian Empire recognized formally the Kingdom of Italy^[4] and ceded Venetia (that comprised Mantua, Veneto valley and western Friuli) to the French Empire, which in turn ceded it to Italy. This represented the final division of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, as Lombardy had been ceded to the Kingdom of Sardinia by the Treaty of Zurich in 1859.

Notes

1. the Prussian staff itself pushed Italy to continue the war and Otto von Bismarck had to assert himself on those who wanted to continue the war until a complete defeat of Austria, like Kaiser Wilhelm I
2. Wawro, 1997, pp.276-281
3. However the 1st article of the armistice signed at Nikolsburg granted territorial gains to Italy Text of the preliminary peace of Nikolsburg
4. Wawro, 1997, p.281

Bibliography

• Wawro, Geoffrey (1997). The Austro-Prussian War: Austria's war with Prussia and Italy in 1866. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62951-5.