Sources evaluation

Wikipedia: In my opinion Wikipedia is a pretty reliable source because people from all around the world can edit it, so therefore you can get many different points of view when it comes to writing about a specific topic. Even though this reason can affect as well the context of the topic, since anybody can edit it, then sometimes people could write some things that might be false or biased.

Book (A Study of Crisis): In my opinion books are really good and reliable sources. One of the reasons why I think this, is because the author is telling about something first hand, so the information being told, hasn't been edited by anybody else apart from the author/s. Even though one negative thing about books is that usually the author is one and information he/she writes about a topic might be highly influenced by his/her cultural background.

dcstams.com: This source of information might be reliable because it isn't an Italian or a Greek website. One reason why I think this website might be because it lists the secondary sources the author of the page used for writing his website. One reason why it might not be a reliable source might be because he didn't use much of sources, only 2.

punch.photoshelter.com: In my opinion it is more or less reliable for the information I used in my blog (1 picture and key dates). It is reliable because the cartoons which are drawn, are from different authors not just from one author, so this might allows different points of view. Even though this is a British magazine, so most likely they are only going to post cartoons which are seen good only from the British point of view.

Causes of the conflict

Corfu 1923, a military crisis begins to grow between the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Greece. It all started when there was a boundary dispute between Albania and Greece, the Principality of Albania and the Kingdom of Greece took the issue to the Conference of Ambassadors, where Italian, English and French officials would determine a specific boundary between Greece and Albania and then the League of Nations would authorise the boundary. One of the Italian officials, Enrico Tellini, became the chairman of the commission. The Greeks accused Tellini for working in favour of Albania ^[1].  On the 27^th of August 1923, General Enrico Tellini, three of his assistants and the interpreter he was working with were assassinated in Kakavia; right on the border of Albania and Greece, but it was within the Greek territory ^[2]. According to the Italian newspaper and the Albanian official statement, they claimed that the people responsible for the murder were Greek nationalists, where as the Greek official statement stated that the murderers were Albanian bandits ^[1].

Key People [1]

Italian side:

• Benito Mussolini: He was the current Italian Prime Minister in 1923, the dictator that took the decision of sending his army to occupate the Greek island of Corfu. Mussolini as well completely ignored the condemns that were attributed to Greece, so Italy still occupied Corfu.

• Enrico Tellini: He was the Italian murdered General, that took the decision of the Greek and Albanian boundary and that afterwards was assassinated in Kakavia, Greece.

• Antonio Salandra: He was the Italian representative in the League of Nations. He was the one that was supposed to do the negotiations with the League of Nations.

Greek side:

• Stylianos Gonatas: He was the Greek Prime Minister in 1923. 

• Nikolaos Politis: He was the Greek representative in the League of Nations at that time. Him together with Salandra had to negotiate with the League of Nations in order to come up to a solution for the crisis between Italy and Greece.

Key Dates [3]

• 27^th, August 1923: Enrico Tellini, the Italian general, chairman of the Conference of Ambassador was assassinated in Kakavia, the border between Albania and Greece. It was initially suspected that he was killed by Greek nationalists, but with the time some clues released by the Greek official statement that other possible murders could be Albanian bandits.

• 31^st August 1923: Italy invades Corfu, by sending their navies full of soldiers with the orders of staying in Corfu until Greece paid the reparations (the murder of General Enrico Tellini). Mussolini sents a total of 5,000-10,000 troops, 2-3 battleships and 5-6 destroyers, these were some of the military threats they sent to take over Corfu.

• 27^th September 1923: Italian troops leave Corfu, but not by themselves, they have to leave Corfu under the League’s pressure and many other important powers.

What was the League's role in Corfu 1923?

The Invasion of Corfu was an example of Arbitration with the league. Most people today will say that it is a failed example of Arbitration, as the League ended up giving in to Mussolini, as Mussolini was able to play off the fears of the League, knowing that they would not use military force against him, since Mussolini's military was better and stronger than the one from other countries which were involved in the League. The result of this was that Greece had to pay 50 million lire to Italy, even though the ‘Greek assassins’ according to Albanian as well as Italian newspapers were never found ^[4]. In total there was a total of 16-20 deaths and 30-32 wounded civilians [1].

Images and map

THE LATEST CAESAR (Mussolini): 'I do bestride the narrow world like a Colosseum' This shows how Mussolini in some way 'dominated' the world, the League of Nations showed fear and didn't do justice when it came to a conflict between a big Kingdom like the Italian one and a small one like the Greek one. It shows as well that Mussolini has one foot in Corfu and another one in Italy, so it tells that he already had Italy and he was about to fight so he could get Corfu.

http://punch.photoshelter.com/image/I00000CB9jfVWurQ
 

THE OCCUPATIONISTS: 'M. Poincare. "So you are not evacuating Corfu immediately?" Sig. Mussolini. "No. Till the 27th 'J'y suis, j'y reste.'" M. Poincare. "Ah! I see you have the French idiom. May one ask where you picked it up?" Sig. Mussolini. "Guess!"' This shows Mussolini having read the newspaper headline Occupation Of The Ruhr as Raymond Poincare reads The Occupation of Corfu while seated in a members club during the InterWar era. This shows as well that Mussolini wasn't stressed out about about what was taking place in Corfu, because he knew that nobody could stop, since he had such strong army.

http://punch.photoshelter.com/image/I0000pUFpvvAY6w8


Below a map saying where Corfu is. As it can be seen, it is really close  to Albania, the country which borders with Greece, and according to Greece the real nationality of the Tellini murderers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corfu_incident 12

This picture shows the population of Corfu out in the streets, seeing the Italian troops marching through the main streets of the island. This showed that the Greeks were actually very afraid of Mussolini because even though he invaded Italy for not a relevant reason, the Greeks had to endure and even show their respect to Mussolini and his troops by doing things such as the ones in the picture to the right, attending to the marching of Italian troops in the Corfu streets.

http://www.dcstamps.com/?p=1822

Bibliography

^[1] "Corfu Incident." Wikipedia. N.p., 23 Feb. 2014 (last update). Web. 12 Mar. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corfu_incident 12>.

^[2] Brecher, Michael and Wilkenfeld, Jonathan. "A Study of Crisis (Book Name)." Google Books. N.p., 1997 (hard copy book). Web. 12 Mar. 2014. <http://books.google.de/books?id=GjY7aV_6FPwC&pg=PA583&dq=Tellini+Greeks+Protocol&as_brr=3&redir_esc=y%20-%20v=onepage&q&f=false#v=onepage&q=Tellini%20Greeks%20Protocol&f=false>. (Page 583)

^[3] "Corfu, Italian Occupation (1923)." Dead Country Stamps and Banknotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. <http://www.dcstamps.com/?p=1822>.

^[4]"League of Nations." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Mar. 2014 (last update). Web. 13 Mar. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations#Albania>.

^[5] Raven Hill, Leonard. InterWar-Cartoons-Punch-Magazine-Raven-Hill-1923.09.19.277.tif. Digital image. PUNCH. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. <http://punch.photoshelter.com/image/I0000pUFpvvAY6w8>.  

^[6] Raven Hill, Leonard. InterWar-Cartoons-Punch-Magazine-Raven-Hill-1923.09.12.253.tif. Digital image. PUNCH. PhotoShelter, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. <http://punch.photoshelter.com/image/I00000CB9jfVWurQ>.