Etudes balkaniques is a quarterly peer-review journal, which has been publishing research since 1964. Research papers related to the Balkan countries in French, English, German, Russian and Italian have appeared in it, thus making them available to a wide scientific community across borders.
LE ORIGINI DELLA FERROVIA TRANSBALCANICA ALLA FINE DEL XIX SECOLO NELLA DOCUMENTAZIONE ITALIANA E SERBA
Fabrizio Rudi
Università di Napoli “Federico II”
The origins of the Trans-Balkan railway at the end of the 19 century in the Italian and Serbian documentation
Abstract: The main purpose of this essay is to show that well before the beginning of the 20 century, in the face of the beginning of Italian colonial policy and of an ever increasing interest of Italian diplomacy towards the fate of the young Balkan states (especially the Kingdom of Serbia), during the epoch of Francesco Crispi, there existed well-proven, excellent projects of economic and financial penetration beyond the Adriatic sea, through the construction of a railroad which runned transversely the Balkans. The aim of these highly strategic projects was to subtract some important commercial positions to Austria-Hungary and Germani, which at the end of the 19 century dominated sud-Danube Europe. The basic sources for this study are inedited and edited Italian and Serbian diplomatic documents, in which are explained the potentialities and the reasons of the success and of the unsuccess of the Italian railway strategy.
Keywords: Italy, Serbia, End of 19 Century, Transbalcanic Railway, Financial Penetration
