Austria (and Austria-Hungary) used to own South Tyrol which despite being majority German-Speaking is today a part of Italy. So how did this come to pass? Why does Italy now own South Tyrol? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

A special thanks to my Patrons below:

Jens Koch-Nommensen
Øystein Alsaker
Carl Österbrand
Sergio M. Vela
Dave Brondsema
Michael Kram
Hasmuffin 
Franco La Bruna
Ethan 
Bradley chaulk
Don Bonnigan
Ian Whitcomb
Southside Mitch
Justin Kubusch
Adam Barrett
John
Matthew Literovich
Heath Robertson
JakeBak0905
Ryan Schindeler
Person
Brooks Woolson
Sean D.
Joshua Rackstraw
Martha Grondin
Philip Yip
S. Marisol Asselta
Farquhar Ramshackle 
Joooooshhhhhh 
sharpie660
Christopher Godfrey
Alex Teplyakov
Jane Sumpter
Shauna K
Aaron Conaway
Mario Peshev
DocOzz13 .
Shion
Vance Christiaanse
Piotr Wojnowski
Nathan Mendelsohn
Steven Gibson
Joshua Schneider
Phoenix Fats
Adrian Marine
Travis Mount
Erik Hare
Nicholas Menghini
Dana Spurgeon
Ron Johnson
Jack Wicks
Dr. Schtnizel
Paul Munro
zockotron
Andy McGehee
BeninPrince51
Windischgraetz
Phillip Gathright
Barry
Peter Marino
Jack Nelson
Andrew F
Jamie van Brewen
Tony Belmonte
D. Mahlik
John Orr
Porkmeister
Andrea Dekrout
Arthur Hosey Jr.
Andreas Mosand
Konstantin Bredyuk
Roman Kynčl
Chris Winther
MGS2600
Thomas McGraw
Zhao Liu
Matthew Toles
Bernardo Cavalcanti
Shawn Morse
Allen Rines
Ivaer 
Michael Galloway
Katie Flinn
ConspiracyPizza 
Jake Faust
Tactical_Jackal 
William Swiacki
Nolan Peale
Contdoko12
Nick Macarius
Jacob Zachs
Ciege Engine
Carl Blanton
Angel Aguiñaga
Bradley Backoff
HelloAgain
Brian George
Clayton Schuman
Zach Rust
Sahni 
Bret Allan
Joe DeVito
John Garcia
Chase Labiste
Mickey Landen
GrokThis
Keith A. Layton
mgnesium.poetry
Andrew Patane
William Adderholdt
Chris Weisel
Liam Gilleece
KNSTRKTVST
Vilena5
Zachary Pascalar
Serius_Loyola
Bernice 
Dullis 
Tom Ebert
Matt Reed
blaZzinG_FurY
Tim Stone
Anthony McCann
Christopher S Nelson
Leena Al-Souki
Ben Drums 24
Perry Gagne
Wilhelm Screamer
ARandomPaperClip
Matthew O'Connor
george tyler
JAY ALAN EDELMAN
Joel Cromwell
Alex Slepak
No way
Matthew Hogan
Bodo Nuber
Justin Short
Dexter_McAaron
Ryan Marinelli
Ahmed Roshdi
David van Reyk
Aaron Larrow
Liquid Chief
Fabrizio Zagonel
Hexapuma
Random Insanity
Tyler Jenkins
Warren Rudkin
Bartosz Zasada
Colm Byrne
Joseph Hutchins
Chach
Joel Wasserman
Curt Helmerich
Ethan Harlow
Blue Cardinal
ThePalestRose
Thomas McGill
Joseph Reinsch
Benjamin Bowring
Tim Sweeney
Geoffrey Sparrow
BattleGoat Studios
Jason Gould
Abhijeeth 
Oliver Jenner
Burt Clothier
Matthew Ward
Magdalena Reinberg-Leibel
Logical Insanity
Juan Castillo
Ian Smith
Tim Stumbaugh
B Dryad
James 
Andrew Niedbala
bas mensink
Stefan Møller
Matt Busch
Bren Ehnebuske
Łukasz Burchard
Steve Bonds
Donald Weaver
Romney Manassa
Nathan Ngumi
Colonel Oneill
luvrhino
Joseph Kerckhoff
Ryan Lowe
Chris Wreker
Ned Burke
Alen
Steven Mastronardo
nullptr 
Azul Bravestrong
Mars Project
Jonny Minogue
Melissa Prober
Clay Carroll
Ali Sadighian
Ryan Haber
kevinh
Yared Cristiano
Joker 54
LambOfLeg 
Vegard Tønnessen
Scott Oppel
Joshua A Bishop
SketerK
Emily D
Rob Rollins
Richard Wolfe
Andrey Listochkin
SirAlpaka 
anon
Gordon Wilson
Eric Askins
Yuichiro Kakutani
Hiro P
Robin!
Brian Giordano
Thomas Wang
William Clark
Emily Glover-Wilson
Juan Benet
Daniel D.
Yosef Waysman
Michael Dierker
Igor Stavchanskiy
Gregory Priebe
Zach Weakland
Sethars
Charles Doolittle
Pat Stahl
Mik Scheper
pdswanfleet 
Jeffrey Schneider
Mirza Ahmed
Laurent Othacehe
Sophie Winter
mohd 
Kevin Phoenix
Tristan Kreller
Manny F
David Spellmeyer
Tranier Bocaj
Hunter Bayliss
JT96
Kirk Hoffman
Theodosius the Elder
Mark Ploegstra
Kinfe85
Dr. Howard Dr. Fine Dr. Howard
Sean Long
Anthony Uk
Phil and Lisa Toland
Alex G.
hefcluba
Ian M
Isabel Harrison
John Gross-Whitaker
Wolf 
Heytun 
אורי פרקש
George Caponera
0_DannyBoy
Lech Duraj
Sara Birnbaum
Allen
Roko Lisica
Dan Reiher
Jesse Plung
I'm Not In The Description
Doug MacLean
Chasen Le Hara
Dustin Koellhoffer
Dr. Sarno
James R DeVries
Austin Martin
Victor Gomez
Nathan Snyder
Colm Boyle
Danny Anstess
Will Sullivan
Miky Hidalgo Morriss
Robert Brockway
Zachary Oertel
Seth Reeves
Riley davidson
Peter Konieczny
Dutchball Animations
Rita Cragwall
AltHistoryConjectures
Shakira Graham
Andrew Sever
Tino
Harley Raptopoulos
Lindorien 
Paul McGee
João Santos
Abdallah Al-Ammari
Daniel O'Reilly
Typhoon2401
Gezza The Random Reviewer
Deadlock
Markus Lindström
Michael Corson
blei95
Robin_Col
Olaf
Jan Bart Verbist
Kasi
M Scho
Schwarzer Hai
biohazardgamer
Tarsirrus
James
Rhys Little
Ben L
Jackarice26
Justin McDaid
Twinny Hill
Harrison Tatem-Wyatt
Gina Service
zemnmez 
Phil Johnston
DarkLycan 
Roberticus1992
Tom Pollard
Rhys Jackson

South Tyrol, with its many German speakers and its capital of Bosn, is

a part of Italy and has been for over a hundred years.

This is despite it being previously owned by both Bavaria and later Austria.

It was annexed by Italy after its victory in the First World War and has remained a part of it ever since, with the exception of 2 years during the Second World War.

Some Austrian politicians, as well as those living there, have pushed for the region to be returned to Austria, but this of course has never happened.

Why is South Tyrol a part of Italy, and why did Italy want it and its German speakers in the first place?

So, like most questions surrounding modern European borders, this 1 can be traced back to Napoleon.

As of the late 18th century, all of Tyrol belonged to Austria.

It picked fights with France and later Napoleon's France, both of which they lost.

Napoleon's winning streak saw him remake much of Europe in France's revolutionary image, which included giving Tyrol to Bavaria in 1805.

This was because Bavaria was a part of the Confederation of the Rhine, a French puppet state and friends get rewards.

This continued until Napoleon found a new pet project, building in Italy.

In the same year that he gave Bavaria Tyrol, he oversaw the creation of the Kingdom of Italy.

The question was, who was going to rule it?

After a rigorous process, Napoleon narrowed the candidate pool down to...himself.

This, along with all the other trademark Napoleon stuff going on, was too much for his rivals, and so, war.

Napoleon won, and so opted to split Tyrol and give it south to Italy because what was Bavaria going to do about it?

As you'll know, Napoleon was eventually hit with a crippling bout of defeat and in 1814 Austria regained all of this.

It remained a part of Austria and later Austria-Hungary until the First World War.

Italy joined the First World War on the side of the Entente, and 3 years and 12 Isonzos later Austria-Hungary collapsed.

And in the following peace conference Italy pushed for all of this.

Of which it got this, which included prying South Tyrol away from Austria.

Now the region was overwhelmingly populated by German speakers and held little in common with Italy.

Well, the Entente had pushed for new borders based on nationality and American President Woodrow Wilson had pushed for each region that swapped hands to be given a referendum.

The problem was that the people in South Tyrol didn't want to join Italy and a referendum would have never succeeded.

Just don't have 1 until the people who live there to deal with it.

Whilst the area didn't have many Italians, it did have lots of mountains, meaning that the north of the country would be much more defensible in the future.

and had much more autonomy than most other regions of the country.

This remained the case until a certain very nationalist man came to power in Italy.

The new Italian government wanted to squash the region's autonomy and make it fully Italian.

This took a while and before it could be done, a decade later, Germany annihilated Austria and was now in contact with Italy, whose borders now contained a number of Germans.

So did Germany want the territory for itself?

Keeping Italy close was seen as much more important than regaining South Tyrol.

As such, Germany and Italy came to an agreement.

The people who lived there could move to Germany or stay in Italy and lose their autonomy, with many Germans opting to leave.

This agreement became null and void when Italy decided that the Axis wasn't for them anymore, and Germany promptly occupied the region.

This occupation would last until Germany's defeat when the region was returned to Italy, and after the war, much to Austria and Britain's annoyance, it was decided that Italy would retain all of South Tyrol.

It was given this on the condition that its people be given even greater autonomy with Austria as its guarantor.

Unsurprisingly, Austria had wanted the territory returned.

Britain had wanted it divided up like this, but the Soviet Union bluntly refused to grant any new territories to Austria, since the USSR considered the Austrian people partly responsible for the war.

Some later agreements increased the region's autonomy again, and to this day, South Tyrol remains a part of Italy despite its majority German-speaking populace.

I hope you enjoyed this episode and a special thanks to my patrons...

Books podcast, Captain Psydog, Gustav Swan, Marvin Casal, Camoon Yoon, Winston K.

Wood, Boogily Woogily, Daniel Tobian, Miss Isette, Aaron the White, Corey Turner, The McWhopper, Alex Schwin, Anthony Beckett, Copper Tone, Maggie Patskowski, Shuenin, Spinning 3 Plates, and Charles I.


Speaker 0: South Tyrol, with its many German speakers and its capital of Bosn, is

Speaker 1: a part of Italy and has been for over a hundred years. This is despite it being previously owned by both Bavaria and later Austria. It was annexed by Italy after its victory in the First World War and has remained a part of it ever since, with the exception of 2 years during the Second World War. Some Austrian politicians, as well as those living there, have pushed for the region to be returned to Austria, but this of course has never happened. So why not?

Why is South Tyrol a part of Italy, and why did Italy want it and its German speakers in the first place? So, like most questions surrounding modern European borders, this 1 can be traced back to Napoleon. As of the late 18th century, all of Tyrol belonged to Austria. It picked fights with France and later Napoleon's France, both of which they lost. Napoleon's winning streak saw him remake much of Europe in France's revolutionary image, which included giving Tyrol to Bavaria in 1805.

This was because Bavaria was a part of the Confederation of the Rhine, a French puppet state and friends get rewards. This continued until Napoleon found a new pet project, building in Italy. In the same year that he gave Bavaria Tyrol, he oversaw the creation of the Kingdom of Italy. The question was, who was going to rule it? After a rigorous process, Napoleon narrowed the candidate pool down to...himself.

This, along with all the other trademark Napoleon stuff going on, was too much for his rivals, and so, war. Napoleon won, and so opted to split Tyrol and give it south to Italy because what was Bavaria going to do about it? As you'll know, Napoleon was eventually hit with a crippling bout of defeat and in 1814 Austria regained all of this. It remained a part of Austria and later Austria-Hungary until the First World War. Italy joined the First World War on the side of the Entente, and 3 years and 12 Isonzos later Austria-Hungary collapsed.

And in the following peace conference Italy pushed for all of this. Of which it got this, which included prying South Tyrol away from Austria. Now the region was overwhelmingly populated by German speakers and held little in common with Italy. So why did Italy want it? Well, the Entente had pushed for new borders based on nationality and American President Woodrow Wilson had pushed for each region that swapped hands to be given a referendum.

The problem was that the people in South Tyrol didn't want to join Italy and a referendum would have never succeeded. As such, better idea. Just don't have 1 until the people who live there to deal with it. So why would Italy want such a region? Natural borders.

Whilst the area didn't have many Italians, it did have lots of mountains, meaning that the north of the country would be much more defensible in the future. South Tyrol formally joined Italy in

Speaker 0: 1920

Speaker 1: and had much more autonomy than most other regions of the country. This remained the case until a certain very nationalist man came to power in Italy. The new Italian government wanted to squash the region's autonomy and make it fully Italian. This took a while and before it could be done, a decade later, Germany annihilated Austria and was now in contact with Italy, whose borders now contained a number of Germans. So did Germany want the territory for itself?

No. Keeping Italy close was seen as much more important than regaining South Tyrol. As such, Germany and Italy came to an agreement. The people who lived there could move to Germany or stay in Italy and lose their autonomy, with many Germans opting to leave. This agreement became null and void when Italy decided that the Axis wasn't for them anymore, and Germany promptly occupied the region.

This occupation would last until Germany's defeat when the region was returned to Italy, and after the war, much to Austria and Britain's annoyance, it was decided that Italy would retain all of South Tyrol. It was given this on the condition that its people be given even greater autonomy with Austria as its guarantor. Unsurprisingly, Austria had wanted the territory returned. Britain had wanted it divided up like this, but the Soviet Union bluntly refused to grant any new territories to Austria, since the USSR considered the Austrian people partly responsible for the war. And after this, it was simply settled.

Some later agreements increased the region's autonomy again, and to this day, South Tyrol remains a part of Italy despite its majority German-speaking populace. I hope you enjoyed this episode and a special thanks to my patrons... Books podcast, Captain Psydog, Gustav Swan, Marvin Casal, Camoon Yoon, Winston K. Wood, Boogily Woogily, Daniel Tobian, Miss Isette, Aaron the White, Corey Turner, The McWhopper, Alex Schwin, Anthony Beckett, Copper Tone, Maggie Patskowski, Shuenin, Spinning 3 Plates, and Charles I. The first.

See all History Matters transcripts on Youtube

Why is South Tyrol a part of Italy and not Austria? (Short Animated Documentary)