and
Istria with the boundaries set by the
Treaty of London (1915) (red line) and those actually obtained from Italy (green line). The black line marks the border of the
Governorate of Dalmatia (1941–1943). The ancient domains of the
Republic of Venice are indicated in fuchsia (dashed diagonally, the territories that belonged occasionally).
From Roman era to early history ,
Split Roman Dalmatia was fully Latinized by 476 AD when the
Western Roman Empire disappeared. In the
Early Middle Ages, the territory of the Byzantine province of Dalmatia reached in the North up to the river
Sava, and was part of the
Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum. In the middle of the 6th and the beginning of the 7th century, the
Slavic migrations to the Balkans began, which caused the Romance-speaking population, descendants of Romans and Illyrians (speaking
Dalmatian), to flee to the coast and islands. The hinterland, semi-depopulated by the
Barbarian Invasions,
Slavic tribes settled. The Dalmatian cities retained their Romance culture and
language in cities such as
Zadar,
Split, and
Dubrovnik. Their own
Vulgar Latin, developed into
Dalmatian, a now extinct
Romance language. These coastal cities (politically part of the
Byzantine Empire) maintained political, cultural and economic links with Italy, through the
Adriatic Sea. On the other side communications with the mainland were difficult because of the
Dinaric Alps. Due to the sharp
orography of Dalmatia, even communications between the different Dalmatian cities, occurred mainly through the sea. This helped Dalmatian cities to develop a unique Romance culture, despite the mostly Slavicized mainland. Historian
Theodor Mommsen wrote that Istria (included in the Regio X
Venetia et Histria of
Roman Italy since
Augustus) was fully romanized in the 5th century AD. Between 500 and 700 AD, Slavs settled in Southeastern Europe (Eastern Adriatic), and their number ever increased, and with the
Ottoman invasion Slavs were pushed from the south and east. This led to Italic people becoming ever more confined to urban areas, while some areas of the countryside were populated by Slavs, with exceptions in western and southern Istria which remained fully Romance-speaking. By the 11th century, most of the interior mountainous areas of northern and eastern Istria (
Liburnia) were inhabited by
South Slavs, while the Romance population continued to prevail in the south and west of the peninsula. Linguistically, the Romance inhabitants of Istria were most probably divided into two main linguistic groups: in the north-west, the speakers of a
Rhaeto-Romance language similar to
Ladin and
Friulian prevailed, whereas in the south the natives most probably spoke a variant of
Dalmatian. One modern claim suggests the original language of the romanized Istrians survived the invasions, this being
Istriot, which was spoken by some near
Pula. Via conquests, the
Republic of Venice, between the 9th century and 1797, extended its dominion to coastal parts of
Istria and
Dalmatia. Thus Venice invaded and attacked
Zadar multiple times, especially devastating the city in 1202 when Venice used the
crusaders, on their
Fourth Crusade, to lay siege, then ransack, demolish and rob the city, the population fleeing into countryside.
Pope Innocent III excommunicated the Venetians and crusaders for attacking a Catholic city. On 15 February 1267,
Poreč was formally incorporated with the Venetian state. Other coastal towns followed shortly thereafter. The Republic of Venice gradually dominated the whole coastal area of western Istria and the area to
Plomin on the eastern part of the peninsula. From the
Middle Ages onwards, numbers of Slavic people near and on the Adriatic coast were ever increasing, due to their expanding population and due to pressure from the
Ottomans pushing them from the south and east. This led to Italic people becoming ever more confined to urban areas, while the countryside was populated by Slavs, with certain isolated exceptions. In particular, the population was divided into urban-coastal communities (mainly
Romance speakers) and rural communities (mainly
Slavic speakers), with small minorities of
Morlachs and
Istro-Romanians.
Republic of Venice influenced the neolatins of
Istria and
Dalmatia until 1797, when it
was conquered by
Napoleon:
Capodistria and
Pola were important centers of art and culture during the
Italian Renaissance. Istria and Dalmatia were then aggregated to the
Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1805, and annexed to the
Illyrian Provinces in 1809 (for some years also the
Republic of Ragusa was included, since 1808). From the Middle Ages to the 19th century, Italian and Slavic communities in
Istria and
Dalmatia had lived peacefully side by side because they did not know the national identification, given that they generically defined themselves as "
Istrians" and "
Dalmatians", of "Romance" or "Slavic" culture.
Austrian Empire 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. After the fall of
Napoleon (1814), Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia were annexed to the
Austrian Empire. Many
Istrian Italians and
Dalmatian Italians looked with sympathy towards the
Risorgimento movement that fought for the unification of Italy. However, after the
Third Italian War of Independence (1866), when the
Veneto and
Friuli regions were ceded by the
Austrians to the newly formed
Kingdom Italy, Istria and Dalmatia remained part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, together with other Italian-speaking areas on the eastern Adriatic. This triggered the gradual rise of
Italian irredentism among many Italians in Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia, who demanded the unification of the
Julian March,
Kvarner and
Dalmatia with Italy. The Italians in Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia supported the Italian
Risorgimento: as a consequence, the Austrians saw the Italians as enemies and favored the Slav communities of Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia. Before 1859, Italian was the language of administration, education, the press, and the
Austrian navy; people who wished to acquire higher social standing and separate from the
Slav peasantry became
Italians. In the years after 1866, Italians lost their privileges in
Austria-Hungary, their assimilation of the Slavs came to an end, and they found themselves under growing pressure by other rising nations; with the
rising Slav tide after 1890,
italianized Slavs reverted to being Croats. Austrian rulers found use of the racial antagonism and financed Slav schools and promoted Croatian as the official language, and many Italians chose voluntary exile. 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: In 1909,
Italian lost its
status as the official language of Dalmatia in favor of Croatian: thus Italian could no longer be used in the public and administrative sphere. in districts of Dalmatia in 1910, per the Austro-Hungarian census
Istrian Italians were more than 50% of the total population of Istria for centuries, while making up about a third of the population in 1900. Dalmatia had a local Italian-speaking population (
Dalmatian Italians) of 20% in 1816, mostly concentrated in its maritime cities. In Dalmatia, there was a constant decline of the Italian-speaking population, in a context of repression that also took on violent connotations. During this period, Austrians carried out an aggressive
anti-Italian policy through a forced Slavization of Dalmatia. According to Austrian census, the Italian-speaking Dalmatians formed 12.5% of the population in 1865. In the 1910 Austro-Hungarian census, Istria had a population of 57.8% Slavic-speakers (Croat and Slovene), and 38.1% Italian speakers. For the Austrian
Kingdom of Dalmatia, (i.e.
Dalmatia), the 1910 numbers were 96.2% Slavic speakers and 2.8% Italian speakers. In
Rijeka the Italians were the relative majority in the municipality (48.61% in 1910), and in addition to the large Croatian community (25.95% in the same year), there was also a fair Hungarian minority (13.03%). According to the official Croatian census of 2011, there are Italians in Rijeka (equal to 1.9% of the total population). The Italian-speaking population in Dalmatia was concentrated in the major coastal cities. In the city of
Split in 1890 there were 1,971 Dalmatian Italians (9% of the population), in
Zadar 7,672 (27%), in
Šibenik 1,090 (5%), in
Kotor 646 (12%) and in
Dubrovnik 356 (3%). In other Dalmatian localities, according to Austrian censuses, the number of Italian-speaking population experienced a 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 inland locations. While Slavic-speakers made up 80-95% of the Dalmatia populace, only Italian language schools existed until 1848, and due to restrictive voting laws, the Italian-speaking aristocratic minority retained political control of Dalmatia. Only after Austria liberalised elections in 1870, allowing more majority Slavs to vote, did Croatian parties gain control. Croatian finally became an official language in Dalmatia in 1883, along with Italian. Yet minority Italian-speakers continued to wield strong influence, since Austria favoured Italians for government work, thus in the Austrian capital of Dalmatia,
Zara, the proportion of Italians continued to grow, making it the only Dalmatian city with an Italian majority. In 1905, a dispute arose in the
Austrian Imperial Council over whether Austria should pay for Dalmatia. It has been argued that in the conclusion of the
April Laws is written "given by Banus Count
Keglevich of
Bužim", which explained the historical affiliation of Dalmatia to
Hungary. Two years later Dalmatia elected representatives to the Austrian Imperial Council. In 1909,
Italian 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.
World War I and its aftermath (1915), i.e.
Trentino-Alto Adige, the
Julian March and
Dalmatia (tan), and the
Snežnik Plateau area (green). Dalmatia, after the WWI, however, was not assigned to Italy but to
Yugoslavia In 1915,
Italy abrogated its alliance and declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire, leading to bloody conflict mainly on the
Isonzo and
Piave fronts. Britain, France and Russia had been "keen to bring neutral Italy into World War I on their side. However, Italy drove a hard bargain, demanding extensive territorial concessions once the war had been won". In a deal to bring Italy into the war, under the
London Pact, Italy would be allowed to annex not only Italian-speaking
Trentino and Trieste, but also German-speaking
South Tyrol, Istria (which included large non-Italian communities), and the northern part of Dalmatia including the areas of
Zadar (Zara) and
Šibenik (Sebenico). Mainly Italian Fiume (present-day Rijeka) was excluded. By 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 Treaty of London and by 17 November had seized Rijeka as well creating the first
Governorate of Dalmatia. In 1918, Admiral
Enrico Millo declared himself Italy's Governor of Dalmatia. However, in spite of the guarantees of the Treaty of London to Italy of a large portion of Dalmatia and Italian military occupation of claimed territories of Dalmatia, during the peace settlement negotiations of 1919 to 1920, the
Fourteen Points of
Woodrow Wilson that advocated self-determination of nations took precedence, with Italy only being permitted to annex Zadar from Dalmatia, while the rest of Dalmatia was to be part of
Yugoslavia. , the first governor of the first Italian
Governatorate of Dalmatia (1918–1920) At the end of World War I, the Austrian Empire disintegrated, and Dalmatia was again split between the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia) which controlled most of it, and the Kingdom of Italy which held small portions of northern Dalmatia around Zadar and the islands of
Cres,
Lošinj, and Lastovo. Italy entered World War I in a territorial gamble, mostly to gain Dalmatia. But Italy got only a small part of its pretensions, so Dalmatia mostly stayed Yugoslav. Despite the fact that there were only a few thousand
Italian-speakers in Dalmatia after the constant decrease that occurred in previous decades,
Italian irredentists continued to lay claim to all of Dalmatia. In 1927 Italy signed an agreement with the Croatian fascist, terrorist
Ustaše organization. The
Ustaše agreed that once they gained power, they will cede to Italy additional territory in Dalmatia and the Bay of Kotor, while renouncing all Croatian claims to Istria, Rijeka, Zadar and the Adriatic Islands. Between 31 December 1910 and 1 December 1921, Istria lost 15.1% of its population. The last survey under the Austrian empire recorded 404,309 inhabitants, which dropped to 343,401 by the first Italian census after the war. While the decrease was certainly related to World War I and the changes in political administration, emigration also was a major factor. In the immediate post-World War I period, Istria saw an intense migration outflow.
Pula, for example, was badly affected by the drastic dismantling of its massive Austrian military and bureaucratic apparatus of more than 20,000 soldiers and security forces, as well as the dismissal of the employees from its naval shipyard. A serious economic crisis in the rest of Italy forced thousands of Croat peasants to move to Yugoslavia, which became the main destination of the Istrian exodus.
Slavs under Italian Fascist rule After World War I, under the
Treaty of Rapallo between the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and the Kingdom of Italy (12 November 1920), Italy obtained almost all of Istria with Trieste, the exception being the island of
Krk and part of
Kastav commune, which went to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. By the
Treaty of Rome (27 January 1924) Italy took Rijeka as well, which had been planned to become an independent state. In these areas, there was a forced policy of
Italianization of the population in the 1920s and 1930s. In addition, there were acts of fascist violence not hampered by the authorities, such as the torching of the
Narodni dom (National House) in Pula and
Trieste carried out at night by Fascists with the connivance of the police (13 July 1920). The situation deteriorated further after the annexation of the
Julian March, especially after
Benito Mussolini came to power (1922). In March 1923 the prefect of the Julian March prohibited the use of Croatian and Slovene in the administration, whilst their use in law courts was forbidden by Royal decree on 15 October 1925. The activities of Croatian and Slovenian societies and associations (Sokol, reading rooms, etc.) had already been forbidden during the occupation, but specifically so later with the Law on Associations (1925), the Law on Public Demonstrations (1926) and the Law on Public Order (1926). All Slovenian and Croatian societies and sporting and cultural associations had to cease every activity in line with a decision of provincial fascist secretaries dated 12 June 1927. On a specific order from the prefect of Trieste on 19 November 1928 the Edinost political society was also dissolved. Croatian and Slovenian co-operatives in Istria, which at first were absorbed by the Pula or Trieste Savings Banks, were gradually liquidated. At the same time, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia attempted a policy of forced
Croatisation against the
Italian minority in Dalmatia. The majority of the Italian Dalmatian minority decided to transfer in the Kingdom of Italy.
World War II by the
Allies (1944): from these events began the exodus of the
Dalmatian Italians from the city. During
World War II, in 1941,
Nazi Germany,
Fascist Italy,
Hungary, and
Bulgaria occupied Yugoslavia, redrawing their borders to include former parts of the Yugoslavian state. A new
Nazi puppet state, the
Independent State of Croatia (NDH), was created. With the
Treaties of Rome, the NDH agreed to cede to Italy Dalmatian territory, creating the second
Governorate of Dalmatia, from north of Zadar to south of Split, with inland areas, plus nearly all the Adriatic islands and
Gorski Kotar. Italy then annexed these territories, while all the remainder of southern Croatia, including the entire coast, were placed under Italian occupation. Italy also appointed an Italian,
Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta, as king of Croatia. Italy proceeded to Italianize the annexed areas of Dalmatia. Place names were Italianized, and Italian was made the official language in all schools, churches and government administration. All Croatian cultural societies were banned, while Italians took control of all key mineral, industrial and business establishments. Italian policies prompted resistance by Dalmatians, many joined the Partisans. This led to further Italian repressive measures – shooting of civilian hostages, burning of villages, confiscation of properties. Italians took many civilians to concentration camps – altogether, some 80,000 Dalmatians, 12% of the population, passed through Italian concentration camps. . Many Croats moved from the Italian-occupied area and took refuge in the satellite state of Croatia, which became the battleground for a guerrilla war between the
Axis and the
Yugoslav Partisans. Following the
surrender of Italy in 1943, much of Italian-controlled Dalmatia was liberated by the Partisans, then
taken over by German forces in a brutal campaign, who then returned control to the puppet Independent State of Croatia.
Vis Island remained in Partisan hands, while Zadar, Rijeka, Istria, Cres, Lošinj, Lastovo and Palagruža became part of the German
Operationszone Adriatisches Küstenland. The Partisans took Dalmatia in 1944, and with that Zadar, Rijeka, Istria, Cres, Lošinj, Lastovo and Palagruža became reunited with Croatia. 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. The territory of the former Kingdom of Dalmatia was divided between two
federal republics of Yugoslavia and most of the territory went to Croatia, leaving only the Bay of Kotor to
Montenegro. When
Yugoslavia dissolved in 1991, those borders were retained and remain in force. During the
Croatian War of Independence, most of Dalmatia was a battleground between the
Government of Croatia and the
Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), which aided the
proto-state of
Serbian Krajina, with much of the
northern part of the region around Knin and the far south around, but not including,
Dubrovnik being placed under the control of Serb forces. Croatia did regain the southern territories in 1992 but did not regain the north until
Operation Storm in 1995. After the war, a number of towns and municipalities in the region were designated
Areas of Special State Concern.
After armistice and after the end of the war The massacres occurred in two waves, the first taking places in the interlude between the
Armistice of Cassibile and the German occupation of Istria in September 1943, and the second after the Yugoslav occupation of the region in May 1945. Victims of the first wave numbered in the hundreds, whereas those of the second wave in the thousands. The first wave of killings is widely regarded as a disorganized, spontaneous series of
revenge killings by Slovenes and Croats after twenty years of Fascist oppression, as well as "
jacquerie" against Italian landowners and more broadly the Italian elite in the region; these killings targeted members of the Fascist Party, their relatives (as in the famous case of
Norma Cossetto), Italian landowners, policemen and
civil servants of all ranks, considered as symbols of Italian oppression. The scope and nature of the second wave is much more disputed; Slovene and Croat historians, as well as Italian historians such as
Alessandra Kersevan and Claudia Cernigoi, characterize it as another wave of revenge killings against Fascist collaborators and members of the armed forces of the
Italian Social Republic, whereas Italian historians such as Raoul Pupo,
Gianni Oliva and Roberto Spazzali argue that this was the result of a deliberate
Titoist policy aimed at spreading terror among the Italian population of the region and eliminating anyone who opposed Yugoslav plans of annexing Istria and the Julian March, including anti-Fascists. After the re-occupation of Istria by Axis forces in September 1943, following the first wave of killings, the
fire brigade of
Pola, under the command of Arnaldo Harzarich, recovered 204 bodies from the foibe of the region. Between 1945 and 1948, Italian authorities recovered a total 369 corpses from foibe in the Italian-controlled part of the Free Territory of Trieste (Zone A), and another 95 were recovered from mass graves in the same area; these included also bodies of German soldiers killed in the closing days of the war and hastily buried in these cavities. Foibe located in the Yugoslav-controlled part of the Free Territory of Trieste, as well as in the rest of Istria, were never searched as this territory was now under Yugolav control. After the war the Basovizza foibe was used by the Italian authorities as a garbage dump. Thus no Italian victims were ever recovered or determined at Basovizza. In 1959 the pit was sealed and a monument erected, which later became the central site for the annual foibe commemorations. Altogether some 70 trials were held in Italy from 1946 to 1949 for the killings, some ending in acquittals or amnesties, others with heavy sentences. In 1947, British envoy W. J. Sullivan wrote of Italians arrested and deported by Yugoslav forces from around Trieste: Alongside a large number of Fascists, however, among those killed were also anti-Fascists who opposed the Yugoslav annexation of the region, such as
Socialist Licurgo Olivi and
Action Party leader Augusto Sverzutti, members of the
Committee of National Liberation of Gorizia; in Trieste, the same fate befell Resistance leaders Romano Meneghello (posthumously awarded a
Silver Medal of Military Valor for his Resistance activities) and Carlo Dell'Antonio. In
Fiume (where at least 652 Italians were killed or disappeared between 3 May 1945 and 31 December 1947, according to a joint Italian-Croat study),
Autonomist Party leaders
Mario Blasich, Joseph Sincich and
Nevio Skull were among those executed by the Yugoslavs soon after the occupation, as was anti-Fascist and
Dachau survivor Angelo Adam. Priests were also targeted by the new Yugoslav Communist authorities, as in the case of
Francesco Bonifacio. Out of 1,048 people who were arrested and executed by the Yugoslavs in the
province of Gorizia in May 1945, according to a list drafted by a joint Italian-Slovene commission in 2006, 470 were members of the military or police forces of the
Italian Social Republic, 110 were Slovene civilians accused of
collaborationism, and 320 were Italian civilians. leave
Pola in 1947 during the
Istrian-Dalmatian exodus The foibe massacres
ethnic cleansing, 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 (
Karst Region and
Istria),
Kvarner and
Dalmatia, against local Italians (
Istrian Italians and
Dalmatian Italians) and Slavs, primarily members of fascist and collaborationist forces, and civilians opposed to the new Yugoslav authorities, From 1947, after the war, Italians were subject by Yugoslav authorities to less violent forms of intimidation, such as nationalization, expropriation, and discriminatory taxation, which gave them little option other than emigration. According to the census organized in
Croatia in 2001 and that organized in
Slovenia in 2002, the Italians who remained in the former
Yugoslavia amounted to 21,894 people (2,258
in Slovenia and 19,636
in Croatia). ==The remaining Italians==