Abstract

The article examines the complicated and contested process of naturalization after World War I in Italy's newly-annexed eastern borderlands through the lens of the cases considered by the Extraordinary Citizenship Commission in Trieste. Focusing on the prefect's report of August 1926 to the ministry of the Interior, it reveals the dialogue between Rome and local authorities who sought to apply citizenship standards outlined in the post-World War I treaties and apply Italian citizenship laws in the New Provinces as part of the standardization of the legal framework and legal absorption of the new territories in the climate of fascist nationalization.