The treaty, signed on 12 November 1920 in Rapallo, Italy, generally redeemed the promises of territorial gains in the former Austrian Littoral by awarding Italy territories generally corresponding to the peninsula of Istria and the former Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca, with the addition of the Snežnik Plateau, in addition to what was promised by the London treaty.

He resisted efforts to remove him from the city until the Italian Navy drove him out in the clash known as Bloody Christmas, so that the Free State of Fiume could be established.

[1] Following the 3 November 1918 Armistice of Villa Giusti, the Austro-Hungarian surrender,[2] Italian troops moved to occupy parts of the eastern Adriatic shore promised to Italy under the Treaty of London, ahead of the Paris Peace Conference.

[3] The State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, carved from areas of Austria-Hungary populated by the South Slavs, authorised the Yugoslav Committee to represent it abroad,[4] and the short-lived state, shortly before it sought union with the Kingdom of Serbia to establish the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, laid a competing claim to the eastern Adriatic to counter the Italian demands.

[7] The Entente powers arranged zones-of-occupation of the eastern Adriatic shores as follows: the United Kingdom was to control the Kvarner Gulf, while the northern parts of Dalmatia were the Italian zone.

The southern Dalmatian coast was to be occupied by the United States, while the shores of the Kingdom of Montenegro and the Principality of Albania, further to the south, were the responsibility of the French.

[12] The problem of establishing the border between Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes—known as the Adriatic question—and the future status of Rijeka became major points of dispute at the Paris Peace Conference.

Pašić's and Trumbić's refusal to agree to the plan provoked the French and British to threaten that the Treaty of London would be enforced unless they supported the allied proposal.

According to Svetozar Pribićević, this arrangement was made in Belgrade, in order to avoid the appearance that the Serbs were ceding to Italy territories inhabited by Croats and Slovenes.

The principal members of the Italian negotiating team included Sforza, as well as Minister of War Ivanoe Bonomi and Giuseppe Volpi.

Other members of the delegation included Marcello Roddolo, Francesco Salata, Alessandro Mattioli Pasqualini [it], and General Pietro Badoglio.

[32] Article 2 gave to Italy the city of Zadar (as the Province of Zara), in northern Dalmatia, and defined the semi-enclave's land boundaries by reference to surrounding peaks, villages, and tax-commune territories.

Article 3 gave to Italy the islands of Cres, Lošinj, Lastovo, and Palagruža (referred to as Cherso, Lussin, Lagosta, and Pelagosta) with surrounding islets.

[33] Article 4 of the treaty established the independent Free State of Fiume, defining its boundaries as those of the former Austro-Hungarian Corpus separatum, with the addition of a strip of land connecting it to the Italian territory in Istria between the Kvarner Gulf and the town of Kastav.

This arrangement left the suburb of Sušak to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes since it was situated across the Rječina River, just outside the Corpus separatum.

Article 5 determined that the marking of the border on the ground would be carried out by a bilateral commission and that any disputes would be referred to the President of the Swiss Confederation.

[35] A significant portion of the Treaty of Rapallo consisted of provisions regulating the status of Italians in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, but their number was low, estimated to be several hundred.

[37] However, the inability of the Italian delegation at that conference to enforce the Treaty of London, and annex Rijeka, fueled the nationalistic myth of the mutilated victory.

[41] The Treaty of Rapallo (along with the death of Nicholas I of Montenegro a few months later) marked the end of Italian support for Montenegrin resistance against the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

[42] According to historian Srđa Pavlović, the signing of the treaty and the conclusion of the 1920 Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Constitutional Assembly election prompted the Entente powers to break off relations with the Montenegrin government-in-exile.