The Governorate of Dalmatia (Italian: Governatorato di Dalmazia) was an administrative division of the Kingdom of Italy, established in 1941, following the military conquest of Yugoslavian Dalmatia by General Vittorio Ambrosio, during World War II. It had the provisional purpose of progressively importing Italian national legislation in Dalmatia in place of the previous one, thus fully integrating it into the Kingdom of Italy.
The governorate was the revival of the eponymous and ephemeral institute established by the Kingdom of Italy in Dalmatia following the defeat of Austria-Hungary in World War I in 1918, given the London Pact (1915), which also promised Italy part of Dalmatia (for the presence of Dalmatian Italians). However, both the peace settlement negotiations of 1919 to 1920 and the Fourteen Points of Woodrow Wilson, who advocated self-determination, took precedence, with Italy being permitted to annex only Zadar from Dalmatia, with the rest of Dalmatia being part of Yugoslavia. Enraged Italian nationalists considered the decision to be a betrayal of the promises of the London Pact, so this outcome was denounced as a "mutilated victory".
The Republic of Venice, between the 9th century and 1797, extended its dominion to Istria, the islands of Kvarner and Dalmatia, when it was conquered by Napoleon.[4] After the fall of Napoleon (1814) Istria, the islands of Kvarner and Dalmatia were annexed to the Austrian Empire.[5] From the Middle Ages to the 19th century, Italian and Slavic communities in Dalmatia had lived peacefully side by side because they did not know the national identification, given that they generically defined themselves as "Dalmatians", of "Romance" or "Slavic" culture.[6]
Austrian linguistic map from 1896. In green the areas where Slavs were the majority of the population, in orange the areas where Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians were the majority of the population. The boundaries of Venetian Dalmatia in 1797 are delimited with blue dots.
During the meeting of the Council of Ministers of 12 November 1866, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria outlined a wide-ranging project aimed at the Germanization or Slavization of the areas of the empire with an Italian presence:[8]
His Majesty expressed the precise order that action be taken decisively against the influence of the Italian elements still present in some regions of the Crown and, appropriately occupying the posts of public, judicial, masters employees as well as with the influence of the press, work in South Tyrol, Dalmatia and Littoral for the Germanization and Slavization of these territories according to the circumstances, with energy and without any regard. His Majesty calls the central offices to the strong duty to proceed in this way to what has been established.
—Franz Joseph I of Austria, Council of the Crown of 12 November 1866[9]
Dalmatia, especially its maritime cities, once had a substantial local ethnic Italian population (Dalmatian Italians), making up 33% of the total population of Dalmatia in 1803,[10][11] but this was reduced to 20% in 1816.[12] According to Austrian censuses, the Dalmatian Italians formed 12.5% of the population in 1865,[13] but this was reduced to 2.8% in 1910.[14] In Dalmatia there was a constant decline in the Italian population, in a context of repression that also took on violent connotations.[15] During this period, Austrians carried out an aggressive anti-Italian policy through a forced Slavization of the region.[16]
The Italian population in Dalmatia was concentrated in the major coastal cities. In the city of Split in 1890 there were 1,969 Dalmatian Italians (12.5% of the population), in Zadar7,423 (64.6%), in Šibenik1,018 (14.5%), in Kotor623 (18.7%) and in Dubrovnik331 (4.6%).[17] In other Dalmatian localities, according to Austrian censuses, Dalmatian Italians experienced a sudden decrease: in the twenty years 1890-1910, in Rab they went from 225 to 151, in Vis from 352 to 92, in Pag from 787 to 23, completely disappearing in almost all the inland locations.
In 1909 the Italian language lost its status as the official language of Dalmatia in favor of Croatian only (previously both languages were recognized): thus Italian could no longer be used in the public and administrative sphere.[18]
Dalmatia was a strategic region during World War I that both Italy and Serbia intended to seize from Austria-Hungary. Italy joined the Triple EntenteAllies in 1915 upon agreeing to the London Pact that guaranteed Italy the right to annex a large portion of Dalmatia in exchange for Italy's participation on the Allied side. From 5 to 6 November 1918, Italian forces were reported to have reached Lissa, Lagosta, Sebenico, and other localities on the Dalmatian coast.[19] At the end of hostilities in November 1918, the Italian military had seized control of the entire portion of Dalmatia that had been guaranteed to Italy by the London Pact and by 17 November, it had seized Fiume as well.[20] In 1918, Admiral Enrico Millo declared himself the Italian governor of Dalmatia.[20] The famous Italian nationalistGabriele d'Annunzio supported the seizure of Dalmatia and proceeded to Zadar in an Italian warship in December 1918.[21]
However, in spite of the guarantees of the London Pact to Italy of a large portion of Dalmatia and Italian military occupation of claimed territories of Dalmatia (for the presence of Dalmatian Italians), both the peace settlement negotiations of 1919 to 1920 and the Fourteen Points of Woodrow Wilson, who advocated self-determination, took precedence, with Italy being permitted to annex only Zadar from Dalmatia, with the rest of Dalmatia being part of Yugoslavia. Enraged Italian nationalists considered the decision to be a betrayal of the promises of the London Pact, so this outcome was denounced as a "mutilated victory". The rhetoric of "mutilated victory" was adopted by Benito Mussolini, led to the rise ofItalian fascism, and became a key point in the propaganda of Fascist Italy. Historians regard "mutilated victory" as a "political myth", used by fascists to fuel Italian imperialism and obscure the successes of liberal Italy in the aftermath of World War I.[22]
The Governorate of Dalmatia was made up of parts of coastal Yugoslavia that were occupied and annexed by Italy from April 1941 to September 1943 at the start of World War II in Yugoslavia, together with the prewar Italian Province of Zara on the Dalmatian coast, including the island of Lagosta (Lastovo) and the island of Saseno, now Albania, and totalling about 200 square kilometres, which Italy had possessed since 1919. The town of Zara (Zadar), which had included most of the Italian population of Dalmatia since the beginning of the 20th century and was largely Italian-speaking,[23] was designated as its capital.
The creation of the Governorate of Dalmatia fulfilled the demands of Italian irredentism, but not all of Dalmatia was annexed by Italy, as the Italian-German quasi-protectorate known as the Independent State of Croatia took parts of it. Nevertheless, the Italian army maintained de facto control over the whole of Dalmatia.
The Kingdom of Italy divided the Governorate in three Italian provinces:
the province of Zara, which was assigned to Italy after World War I following the Treaty of Rapallo (1920). At the time it had an area of only 110.21km2 (42.55sqmi) (it was the smallest Italian province) with a population of 22,000 inhabitants distributed across two municipalities. In 1941, with the creation of the Governorate of Dalmatia, its provincial territory was broken up, reaching an area of 3,719km2 (1,436sqmi)[2] and a population of 211,900 inhabitants[24] distributed in 20 municipalities, which included the municipality of Zara (Zadar) and its enlarged hinterland, plus Sebenico (Šibenik) and the Dalmatian islands in front of Zara which came under Italian sovereignty;
the province of Spalato, which included the cities of Spalato (Split) and Traù (Trogir), plus the islands of Solta (Šolta), Lissa (Vis), Curzola (Korčula), Lagosta (Lastovo), Cazza (Sušac) and Pelagosa (Palagruža), the latter three separated from the province of Zara to which they belonged since 1920, and Meleda (Mljet). The province had an area of 976km2 (377sqmi)[2] and a population of 128,400 inhabitants[24] distributed in 13 municipalities;
the province of Cattaro, which included the centers of Cattaro (Kotor), Perasto (Perast), Castelnuovo (Herceg Novi) with a small hinterland roughly following the old Venetian and Austrian borders, plus the island of Saseno (Sazan), facing the coast of Albania near Vlorë, the latter separated from the province of Zadar of which it had been part since 1920. The province had an area of 547km2 (211sqmi)[2] and a population of 39,800 inhabitants[24] distributed in 15 municipalities;
Officially, however, no Italian region was ever created with the name "Dalmatia". While the Governorate was not called a region of Italy, the northern Dalmatian islands of Veglia (Krk) and Arbe (Rab) were administratively united to the Italian province of Fiume (now Rijeka) and became areas of Italy.
In September 1941, Italy's fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, ordered the military occupation of the entire Dalmatian coast, including the city of Dubrovnik ("Ragusa"), and islands such as Vis (Lissa) and Pag (Pago) which had been given to the puppet Independent State of Croatia of Ante Pavelić: Mussolini tried to annex those areas to the Governorship of Dalmatia creating the province of Ragusa di Dalmatia, but was temporarily stopped by the strong opposition of Pavelić, who retained nominal control of them.[25] Fascist Italy even occupied Marindol and other villages that had previously belonged to the Banovina of Croatia, Milić-Selo, Paunović-Selo, Žunić-Selo, Vukobrati, Vidnjevići and Vrhovci. In 1942 these villages were annexed to Cernomegli (now Črnomelj, in Slovenia), which was then part of the Italian Province of Lubiana, even though their population was not Slovene but Serbian.
Division of Yugoslavia after its invasion by the Axis powers.
Areas annexed by Italy: the area constituting the province of Ljubljana, the area merged with the province of Fiume and the areas making up the Governorate of Dalmatia
Many public works were done, like new hospitals and sewages. At the end of 1941, an attempt was made to "normalize" civil life: in Split, for example, the creation of sporting activities linked to the Italian championships was promoted. For this purpose, in 1942 the Calcio Spalato[it] team was re-established with the name Associazione Calcio Spalato, according to the directive of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) which recognized AC Spalato as a new club affiliated to the Football Federation.[26] However, due to the war events, AC Spalato did not play any championships.
At the end of 1941 the Slavic population was subjected to a policy of massive and violent Italianization. The political secretaries of the fascist party, of the after-work club, of the agricultural consortia and doctors, teachers, municipal employees, midwives were sent to administer them, immediately hated by those whose jobs they took away.[27] Italian was imposed as a compulsory language for officials and teachers, although Serbo-Croatian was tolerated for communications within the civil administration.[28] In the major centres, various signs written in Croatian were replaced by writings in Italian, Croatian flags, newspapers and posters were prohibited except the bilingual ones published by the Italian civil and military authorities; cultural and sporting societies dissolved, the Roman salute imposed, some Italian surnames restored.[29] We also proceeded, as already in Julian March and South Tyrol, with the Italianization of geographical names, streets and squares.[28] A special office for the Adriatic lands offered loans and benefits to those willing to denationalize, and in the meantime purchased land to redistribute to former Italian combatants.[30] Scholarships were established for Dalmatians who wanted to continue their studies in Italy and 52 Dalmatian Italians and 211 Croatians and Serbs made use of them.[31]
Numerous concentration camps were also established in the territory for repressive purposes, especially starting from 1942, such as those in Arbe (Rab), Fiume (Rijeka) and many others. Already from the end of 1941, against the atrocities committed by the Ustaše regime within the territories of the Independent State of Croatia, both against the Serbs and Jews and against the political opponents (communists and socialists), the communist and socialist partisan resistance led by Tito, multi-ethnic and communist, and various Serbian nationalist and monarchist factions known as Chetniks were born.[32] Numerous war crimes were committed by all parties, including the Italian fascists, resulting in a bloody civil war.[33]
The governorship was held until January 1943 by Giuseppe Bastianini, when he was recalled to Italy to join the cabinet, his place as governor being taken by Francesco Giunta.[34] The Governorate of Dalmatia was cancelled administratively by Badoglio on August 19, 1943: it was substituted by direct rule of the 3 "Prefetti" governing the provinces of Zara, Spalato and Cattaro. After the Kingdom of Italy changed sides to the Allies in 1943, German forces took over the area. The territory was not given to the fascist Italian Social Republic, which was a puppet state of Germany, but was instead completely dissolved and added to the puppet Independent State of Croatia.
However, Zara (and the surrounding territory that was the original Provincia italiana di Zara until 1941) remained Italian (even if under nominal control and protection of the German Army) until 1945. The city was exposed to bombings between November 1943 and October 1944: the Allies documented 30 bombing raids, while contemporary Italian accounts claim 54; fatalities recorded range from nearly 1,000, up to as many as 4,000 of the city's 20,000 inhabitants and 60% of the city's buildings were fully destroyed.
The Yugoslav Partisans liberated Dalmatia in 1944. On October 30, 1944, the last Italian authority in Dalmatia – the Zara prefect Vincenzo Serrentino– left the destroyed city with the remaining Dalmatian Italians. Nearly 89% of the Zara buildings & installations were destroyed and so the city was called the "Dresden of Italy"[36] After 1945, most of the remaining Dalmatian Italians fled the region (350,000 Italians escaped from Istria and Dalmatia in the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus). Currently there are only 300 Dalmatian Italians in the Croatian Dalmatia and 500 Dalmatian Italians in coastal Montenegro. After World War II, Dalmatia became part of the People's Republic of Croatia, part of the Federative People's Republic of Yugoslavia.
After the autumn of 1941 the Dalmatian islands of Pag (Pago), Brač (Brazza) and Hvar (Lesina), part of the Independent State of Croatia, were occupied by the Italian army, along with an area of Croatia which was away from the coast of Sinj towards the center of Bosnia, near Sarajevo and Banja Luka. However these were not formally annexed to the Governorate.[37]
The Governorate of Dalmatia had an area of 5,242 km², equal to 35% of Dalmatia.[2] The Governorate of Dalmatia contained 390,000 inhabitants, of which 270,000 (69.2%) Croats, 90,000 (23.0%) Serbs and 30,000 (7.6%) Dalmatian Italians.[38]
Dalmatia is one of the four historical regions of Croatia, alongside Central Croatia, Slavonia and Istria, located on the east shore of the Adriatic Sea in Croatia.
The provinces of Italy are the second-level administrative divisions of the Italian Republic, on an intermediate level between a municipality and a region. Since 2015, provinces have been classified as "institutional bodies of second level".
Province of Spalato was a province of the Italian Governorate of Dalmatia, created in May 1941 during World War II. It lasted until September 1943.
Italian irredentism was a political movement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Italy with irredentist goals which promoted the unification of geographic areas in which indigenous peoples were considered to be ethnic Italians. At the beginning, the movement promoted the annexation to Italy of territories where Italians formed the absolute majority of the population, but retained by the Austrian Empire after the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866.
Province of Cattaro was a province of the Italian Governorate of Dalmatia, created in May 1941 during World War II. It lasted until September 1943.
The History of Dalmatia concerns the history of the area that covers eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea and its inland regions, from the 2nd century BC up to the present day. The region was populated by Illyrian tribes around 1,000 B.C, including the Delmatae, who formed a kingdom and for whom the province is named. Later it was conquered by Rome, thus becoming the province of Dalmatia, part of the Roman Empire. Dalmatia was ravaged by barbaric tribes in the beginning of the 4th century.
The Istrian–Dalmatian exodus was the post-World War II exodus and departure of local ethnic Italians as well as ethnic Slovenes and Croats from Yugoslavia. The emigrants, who had lived in the now Yugoslav territories of the Julian March, Kvarner and Dalmatia, largely went to Italy, but some joined the Italian diaspora in the Americas, Australia and South Africa. These regions were ethnically mixed, with long-established historic Croatian, Italian, and Slovene communities. After World War I, the Kingdom of Italy annexed Istria, Kvarner, the Julian March and parts of Dalmatia including the city of Zadar. At the end of World War II, under the Allies' Treaty of Peace with Italy, the former Italian territories in Istria, Kvarner, the Julian March and Dalmatia were assigned to now Communist-helmed Federal Yugoslavia, except for the Province of Trieste. The former territories absorbed into Yugoslavia are part of present-day Croatia and Slovenia.
Croatisation or Croatization (Serbo-Croatian: kroatizacija / хрватизација or pohrvaćenje / похрваћење; Italian: croatizzazione; is a process of cultural assimilation, and its consequences, in which people or lands ethnically only partially Croatian or non-Croatian become Croatian.
Dalmatian Italians are the historical Italian national minority living in the region of Dalmatia, now part of Croatia and Montenegro.
The Italian language is an official minority language in Croatia, with many schools and public announcements published in both languages. Croatia's proximity and cultural connections to Italy have led to a relatively large presence of Italians in Croatia.
The Autonomist Party was an Italian-Dalmatianist political party in the Dalmatian political scene, that existed for around 70 years of the 19th century and until World War I. Its goal was to maintain the autonomy of the Kingdom of Dalmatia within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as opposed to the unification with the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. The Autonomist Party has been accused of secretly having been a pro-Italian movement due to their defense of the rights of ethnic Italians in Dalmatia. The Autonomist Party did not claim to be an Italian movement, and indicated that it sympathized with a sense of heterogeneity amongst Dalmatians in opposition to ethnic nationalism. In the 1861 elections, the Autonomists won twenty-seven seats in Dalmatia, while Dalmatia's Croatian nationalist movement, the National Party, won only fourteen seats. This number rapidly decreased: already in 1870 autonomists lost their majority in the Diet, while in 1908 they won just 6 out of 43 seats.
The foibe massacres, or simply the foibe, refers to mass killings and deportations both during and immediately after World War II, mainly committed by Yugoslav Partisans and OZNA in the then-Italian territories of Julian March, Kvarner and Dalmatia, against local Italians and Slavs, primarily members of fascist and collaborationist forces, and civilians opposed to the new Yugoslav authorities. The term refers to some victims who were thrown alive into the foibe., deep natural sinkholes characteristic of the Karst Region. In a wider or symbolic sense, some authors used the term to apply to all disappearances or killings of Italian and Slavic people in the territories occupied by Yugoslav forces. Others included deaths resulting from the forced deportation of Italians, or those who died while trying to flee from these contested lands.
Istrian Italians are an ethnic group from the Adriatic region of Istria in modern northwestern Croatia and southwestern Slovenia. Istrian Italians descend from the original Latinized population of Roman Histria, from the Venetian-speaking settlers who colonized the region during the time of the Republic of Venice, and from the local Croatian people who culturally assimilated.
In 1918–1920, a series of violent fights took place in the city of Split between Croats and Italians, culminating in a struggle on 11 July 1920 that resulted in the deaths of Captain Tommaso Gulli of the Italian protected cruiser Puglia, Croat civilian Matej Miš, and Italian sailor Aldo Rossi. The incidents were the cause of the destruction in Trieste of the Slovenian Cultural Centre by Italian Fascists.
Italians of Croatia are an autochthonous historical national minority recognized by the Constitution of Croatia. As such, they elect a special representative to the Croatian Parliament. There is the Italian Union of Croatia and Slovenia, which is a Croatian-Slovenian joint organization with its main site in Rijeka, Croatia and its secondary site in Koper, Slovenia.
Italian irredentism in Dalmatia was the political movement supporting the unification to Italy, during the 19th and 20th centuries, of Adriatic Dalmatia.
The Province of Zara was a province of the Kingdom of Italy, officially from 1918 to 1947. In 1941 it was enlarged and made part of the Italian Governorate of Dalmatia, during World War II, until 1943.
Roberto Ghiglianovich was a Dalmatian Italian politician.
Vincenzo Duplancich was a Dalmatian Italian journalist, writer, politician, and nationalist. He promoted Italian culture and the preservation of Italian identity in Dalmatia, firmly opposing the annexation of the latter to Croatia. He was active during and within the Risorgimento.
Vincenzo Serrentino was an Italian Fascist politician and civil servant, prefect of the Province of Zara from November 1943 to October 1944.
↑ Dizionario Enciclopedico Italiano (Vol. III, pag. 729-730), Roma, Ed. Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, founded by Giovanni Treccani, 1970 (In Italian)
↑ Die Protokolle des Österreichischen Ministerrates 1848/1867. V Abteilung: Die Ministerien Rainer und Mensdorff. VI Abteilung: Das Ministerium Belcredi, Wien, Österreichischer Bundesverlag für Unterricht, Wissenschaft und Kunst 1971, vol. 2, p. 297. Complete citation of the source and translation in Luciano Monzali, Italiani di Dalmazia. Dal Risorgimento alla Grande Guerra, Le Lettere, Firenze 2004, p. 69.
↑ Angelo Filipuzzi (1966). La campagna del 1866 nei documenti militari austriaci: operazioni terrestri (in Italian). University of Padova. p.396.[ISBN unspecified]
↑ Perselli, Guerrino (1993). I censimenti della popolazione dell'Istria, con Fiume e Trieste e di alcune città della Dalmazia tra il 1850 e il 1936 (in Italian). Trieste-Rovigno: Centro di Ricerche Storiche - Rovigno, Unione Italiana - Fiume, Università Popolare di Trieste.[ISBN unspecified]
↑ "Dalmazia", Dizionario enciclopedico italiano (in Italian), vol.III, Treccani, 1970, p.730
↑ Praga, Giuseppe; Luxardo, Franco (1993). History of Dalmatia (in Italian). Giardini. p.281. ISBN978-8842702955.
1 2 O'Brien, Paul (2005). Mussolini in the First World War: the Journalist, the Soldier, the Fascist. Berg Publishers. p.17. ISBN978-1845200527.
↑ Rossi, Angelo (2010). The Rise of Italian Fascism: 1918-1922. Routledge. p.47. ISBN978-0415851510.
↑ Vv.Aa. (1999). Miti e storia dell'Italia unita (in Italian). Bologna: Il Mulino. pp.101–106. ISBN978-8815072597.
↑ Vrandečić, Josip (7 October 2001). "Razvoj talijanskog nacionalizma u Dalmaciji"(PDF). Dijalog povjesničara - istoričara 6 (in Croatian). Zagreb: Political Science Research Centre Ltd. (PSRC) for Scientific Research Work. pp.204–205. Archived from the original(PDF) on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
1 2 3 4 Rodogno, Davide (2003). Il nuovo ordine mediterraneo (in Italian). Turin: Bollati Boringhieri. ISBN978-8833914329.
↑ Bocca, Giorgio (2006). Storia d'Italia nella guerra fascista 1940-1943 (in Italian). Milano: Mondadori editore. ISBN978-8807892486.
↑ Tomasevich, Jozo (2001). War and revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: occupation and collaboration. Stanford University Press. pp.136–137. ISBN978-0804736152.
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