History of Slovenia - World War One

World War One

World War I resulted in heavy casualties for Slovenia, particularly on the bloody Soča front in Slovenia's western border area. Hundreds of thousands of Slovene conscripts were drafted in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and over 30,000 of them lost their lives during the World War I. Hundreds of thousands of Slovenes were resettled in refugee camps in Italy and Austria. Ethnic Slovenes in refugees camps led by Italy, however, were treated as state enemies, and several thousands died of malnutrition and diseases between 1915 and 1918. Entire areas of the Slovenian Littoral were destroyed.

After the outbreak of World War I, the Austrian Parliament was dissolved and civil liberties suspended. Many Slovene political activists, especially in Carniola and Styria, were imprisoned by Austro-Hungarian authorities on charges of pro-Serbian or pan-Slavic sympathies. 469 Slovenes were executed on charges of treason in the first year of the war alone, provoking a strong anti-Austrian resentment among the national-minded strata of the Slovene population. Hundreds of thousands of Slovene conscripts were drafted in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and over 30,000 of them lost their lives in the course of the war.

The Italian Royal Army launched an attack on Austria-Hungary in 1915 on territory populated by Slovenes. Some of the fiercest battles were fought along the Soča (Isonzo) river and on the Kras (Carso) plateau in what is now western Slovenia.