Il Regno d’Italia e gli incidenti di Casablanca del 1907: banco di prova del disinteressamento italiano per il Marocco

At first sight, the so-called Moroccan Crisis, and especially the First, are considered an "out of date" topic in the history of international relations, since much has been written on this subject and from many points of views. The Italian participation at the Algeciras Conference is then considered to be entirely, perhaps wrongly, a secondary event in the diplomacy of the Consulta, the Italian ministry of foreign affairs. However, the effects of Algeciras on Italian foreign policy in the Sherifian Empire have never been deepened and this work, examining the Casablanca incidents of July-August 1907, involving the deaths of three Italian workers and the entire Italian community resident in the town. Using unpublished archival documentation this work shows how the Franco-Italian agreements of 1902 and the unstoppable geopolitical attraction of Tripolitania and Cirenaica overshadowed the protection of the lives and property of Italians resident in Morocco and involved the abandonment of a well-established practice of gunboat diplomacy. The archival sources revealed that the Italian foreign policy surrendered to the Quai d'Orsay in the Morocco policy, deemed within the French sphere of influence, but also a sort of gap between the Italian Foreign Ministry and its diplomatic staff led by a strong and controversial personality, who seemed not to fit easily to the new line of low profile chosen by the Giolitti government.