Sonnino, Giorgio Sidney

Born Mar. 11, 1847, in Pisa; died Nov. 24,1922, in Rome. Italian state figure.

From 1867 to 1873, Sonnino was a diplomat and an official at the Italian embassies in Madrid, Vienna, Berlin, and Paris. He worked as a journalist in the second half of the 1870’s. From 1880 to 1919 he was a parliamentary deputy, and in 1920 he became a senator. From 1893 to 1896 he was minister of finance and minister of the treasury in the Crispi governments.

An advocate of strong executive power to counterbalance the parliament, Sonnino led the opposition movement in parliament against the liberal course of G. Giolitti in the early 20th century. In 1906 and from December 1909 through 1910 he was head of the government, and from October 1914 to 1919 he was foreign minister. Sonnino conducted negotiations with both Austria-Hungary and the Entente powers, which led to Italy’s conclusion of the Treaty of London of 1915 and the country’s entry into World War I on May 23,1915, on the side of the Entente powers.