Trentino (Name of that part of Tyrol)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about other peoples, religions, or nationalities that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: ET 2026-07-22) THE, the name of that part of Tyrol which adjoined Italy before the World War. This territory constituted one of the claims for which Italy entered the World War on the side of the Allies, in 1915, and was immediately occupied by the Italian army on beginning operations against the Austrians. The territory in question is in the southern part of the Tyrol, covers the Adige Valley, being watered by the Adige river, and its chief center of population is the city of Trent, whence the name of the Trentino is derived. This southern valley is bounded on the E. by the Trent (or Trentino) Alps, on the W. by the Ortler Alps, which project down into the fields of Lombardy. The main chain is cleft toward the center of the Trentino by a deep depression, in which lies the Brenner Pass. Included with the Adige Valley, in the Italian claims, were founding, the Roveredo Valley and the Valley of , pottery, the Sarca, or district of Riva, on Lake are great Garda. The claims of Italy rested not a Roman only on the nationality of the population century the of the Trentino, but on a historical basis as well. In early times this whole coun- II. granted try had been in possession of the Romans. Later it fell to the Germanic barbarians who invaded Lombardy. During the Napoleonic Wars the southern Tyrol, or the Trentino, was annexed to Italy, in 1814, but was given back to Austria in the year following. During the Austrian administration, however, the Italian inhabitants made continuous efforts to be separated from the German Tyrol, as a separate administrative unit, at least. Economically, too, the interests of the people were Italian, as their entire trade was with the S., their wood and cattle being exchanged for the grains grown in the plains of Lombardy. Italy's lack of national unity, till the middle of last century, and, later her interests in Africa, compelling her to seek an alli-