The expulsion of Trentino’s civilian population during the First World War. Protected by the State or considered disloyal citizens?

The expulsion of Trentino’s civilian population during the First World War. Protected by the State or considered disloyal citizens? Since the Southern border area of Trentino became a battlefield in May 1915, about 110.000 Italian- speaking inhabitants of Trentino were displaced, part in Austro-Hungarian internal regions (75.000), part in Italian Kingdom (35.000). This article analyses the historiography on this topic and outlines the predominant scientific approaches of the existing literature. Is possible to argue that the greatest part of these studies is based on local archivist sources and on diaries, letters and memoires, which provide us with a good description of the matter, although often restricted to single aspects of the general topic. Therefore, the article points out some potential research lines, based on other archivist sources and a transnational perspective. One of these research issues regards the evacuation and the displacement policy carried out by the Austrian Army during May- June 1915, whose reasons are only touched on by the existing literature. The article argues that most of the expulsions ordered outside the garrison cities find their ultimate reason in the overrated fear of the «untrustworthy» civilian population speaking the same language of the enemy. It also underlines that this element of supposed disloyalty marks out the whole displacement policy