Imigrantes e soldados: reflexos do serviço voluntário de ítalo-brasileiros na Primeira Guerra Mundial

Abstract

The present work aims to present a group of Italian immigrants and their descendants who participated in the “Great War”, which occurred between 1914 and 1918. Responding to the call to arms of the Kingdom of Italy, many of their subjects from overseas presented themselves as volunteers to fight on the front for the motherland. To understand the experiences of these Italian-Brazilian fighters and their motivations for participating in the war in Italy, we used newspaper reports, letters and a commemorative book as sources. We seek to understand the reasons why groups of volunteers were formed on this side of the Atlantic, young men who left for Europe knowing that they might not return from the battlefields. Patriotism, militarism, nationalism, romantic views of war is what seemed to foster the ideas of these men who agreed to cross the ocean to defend Italy. Where they fought and how they participated in the war in Europe are questions that we intend to answer with this work.