It was triggered when Enrico Tellini, an Italian general heading a commission to resolve a border dispute between Albania and Greece, was murdered in Greek territory along with two other officers of his staff.

In response, Benito Mussolini issued an ultimatum to Greece and, when it was not accepted in whole, dispatched forces to bombard and occupy Corfu.

Under the Venizelos–Tittoni agreement of 1919, Italy promised to cede the Dodecanese islands except for Rhodes to Greece in exchange for Greek recognition of the Italian claims to part of Anatolia.

[14] In May 1923, during a visit to Rome, the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Curzon, told Mussolini that Britain would cede Jubaland and Jarabub to Italy as part of a general settlement of all of Italy's claims, saying that Italians had to settle their disputes with both Yugoslavia and Greece as part of the price of Jubaland and Jarabub.

[14] Though the Milner-Scialoja agreement of 1920 had committed Britain to cede Jubaland and Jarabub to Italy, the British had subsequently tied that to the Italians settling the Dodecanese islands dispute first.

[16] Under the Treaty of Lausanne in July 1923, all of the Allied powers abandoned their claims to Turkey, which badly damaged Mussolini's prestige as he promised as an opposition leader to obtain all of the territories the Italians had fought for in World War I including a large chunk of Anatolia.

[19] In July 1923, Mussolini ordered the Regia Marina's admirals to start preparing for Corfu's occupation, which he predicated would happen that summer in response to the "expected provocative acts" by Greece.

[20] The Italian Navy minister, Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel, welcomed the plan to seize Corfu for budgetary reasons, believing a triumph by the Regia Marina would show the Italian people the navy's importance and thus lead to a bigger naval budget.

[20] On 27 August 1923, Tellini and two aides, plus an interpreter and a chauffeur, were ambushed and assassinated by unknown assailants at Kakavia's border crossing, near the town of Ioannina in Greek territory.

[21] The five victims were Tellini, Major Luigi Corti, Lieutenant Mario Bonacini, Albanian interpreter Thanas Gheziri and the chauffeur Remigio Farnetti.

The letter stated that Daout Hodja (Daut Hoxha), a Cham Albanian bandit, killed General Tellini and the other officers.

[31] Summarising the most recent evidence, the Greek historian Aristotle Kallis wrote: Much about the incident which resulted in Tellini's assassination remains unclear.

[43][44][45] In addition, the Greek government declared its complete willingness to grant, as a measure of justice, an equitable indemnity to the families of the victims, and that it didn't accept an enquiry in the presence of the Italian military attaché but it would be pleased to accept any assistance which Colonel Perone (the Italian military attaché) might be able to lend by supplying any information likely to facilitate the discovery of the assassins.

[48] The Italian press, including the opposition journals, endorsed Mussolini's demands and insisted that Greece must comply without discussion.

[3] The Commissioner of the U.K. based charity, Save the Children Fund, described the Italian bombardment as "inhuman and revolting, unjustifiable and unnecessary".

[8][62] Mussolini in a speech denounced the Greek government for not understanding that "Corfu had been Venetian for four hundred years", before becoming part of Greece in 1864.

[20] Mussolini who only became prime minister on 28 October 1922, was determined to assert his power by proving that he was an unconventional leader who did not follow the normal rules of diplomacy, and the Corfu crisis was the first clash between Mussolini and the traditional elites in Italy, who while not objecting to imperialistic policies, disliked Il Duce's reckless style.

[65] From the viewpoint of the Palazzo Chigi, the success of these negotiations hinged in part on presenting Italy as a responsible partner to Britain, which was threatened by Mussolini's rash behavior such as the occupation of Corfu.

[68] In the Athens Cathedral, a solemn memorial service was held for the people who were killed in the Corfu bombardment, and the bells of all of the churches were tolled continuously.

[78] The King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III, returned to Rome from his summer residence immediately.

[81] Serbian newspapers declared that Serbia would support Greece,[1] while elements in Turkey advised Mustafa Kemal to seize the opportunity to invade Western Thrace.

[85] In a telegram to the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, who was vacationing at Aix-les-Bains, Lord Curzon wrote that Mussolini's actions were "violent and inexcusable" and if Britain did not support the Greek appeal to the League of Nations then "that institution may as well shut its doors".

[86]Harold Nicolson and Sir William Tyrrell at the Foreign Office wrote a memo calling for "concentrating our efforts to protect Greece through the agency of the League of Nations against an unfair exploitation by Italy".

[88] Howard William Kennard, in charge of the British embassy in Rome as the ambassador Sir Ronald Graham was on vacation, wrote in a dispatch to Lord Curzon that Mussolini was possibly insane, a man suffering from a "mixture of megalomania and extreme patriotism".

[90] As Kennard much preferred Fascism in power in Italy to Communism, this led him to advocate appeasement, saying that Britain must pressure Greece to submit to the Italian terms while trying to persuade Mussolini to lower the compensation amounts as the best way of avoiding a war.

[94] On September 8 the Conference of Ambassadors announced to both Greece and Italy, as well as to the League of Nations, the terms upon which the dispute should be settled.

[18][98] On September 26, before the inquiry had finished, the Conference of Ambassadors awarded Italy an indemnity of 50,000,000 lire, on the alleged ground that "the Greek authorities had been guilty of a certain negligence before and after the crime.

[100] Harold Nicolson, a first secretary in the central department of the Foreign Office said: "In response to the successive menaces of M. Mussolini we muzzled the League, we imposed the fine on Greece without evidence of her guilt and without reference to the Hague, and we disbanded the Commission of Enquiry.