ABSTRACT
The accession of Victor Emmanuel III and the appointment of Giuseppe Zanardelli as Prime Minister brought a new orientation in foreign as well as in domestic policy. Zanardelli had fought the Austrians in his native Brescia in 1848. Fifty years later he was still, in Barrere’s words, ‘an impenitent irredentist, who could never resist the pleasure of displeasing Austria’. 1 These sentiments made him anxious for friendship with France. Giolitti, too, though he irritated Zanardelli by restraining irredentist exuberance, desired better relations with France and less dependence upon the Triple Alliance.
