Antiquity ,
Split Dalmatia's name is derived from the name of an
Illyrian tribe called the
Dalmatae who lived in the area of the eastern
Adriatic coast in the 1st millennium BC. It was part of the
Illyrian kingdom between the 4th century BC and the
Illyrian Wars (220, 168 BC) when the
Roman Republic established its protectorate south of the river
Neretva. The name "Dalmatia" was in use probably from the second half of the 2nd century BC and certainly from the first half of the 1st century BC, defining a coastal area of the eastern Adriatic between the
Krka and Neretva rivers. It was slowly incorporated into Roman possessions until the Roman province of
Illyricum was formally established around 32–27 BC. In 9 AD, the Dalmatians raised the last in
a series of revolts together with the Pannonians, but it was finally crushed and, in 10 AD, Illyricum was split into two provinces,
Pannonia and
Dalmatia, which spread into larger area inland to cover all of the
Dinaric Alps and most of the eastern Adriatic coast. The historian
Theodor Mommsen wrote in his book,
The Provinces of the Roman Empire, that all Dalmatia was fully romanized by the 4th century AD. However, analysis of archaeological material from that period has shown that the process of
Romanization was rather selective. While urban centers, both coastal and inland, were almost completely romanized, the situation in the countryside was completely different. Despite the Illyrians being subject to a strong process of
acculturation, they continued to speak
their native language, worship
their own gods and traditions, and follow their own social-political tribal organization which was adapted to Roman administration and political structure only in some necessities. The
fall of the
Western Roman Empire, and the beginning of the
Migration Period, left the region subject to
Gothic rulers
Odoacer and
Theodoric the Great. They ruled Dalmatia from 480 to 535 AD, when it was restored to the
Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire by
Justinian I.
Middle Ages , ''The Croats' Arrival at the Adriatic Sea'' 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 began the
Slavic migrations to the Balkans, 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, was settled by the
Slavic tribes. The Slavs alongside
Avars by 619 brought to ruin the capital
Salona (an event that allowed for the settlement of the nearby
Diocletian's Palace in
Spalatum), Asseria, Varvaria, Burnum, Scardona, Epidaurum and Acruvium (resulting with the foundation of
Kotor), and Epidaurum (resulting with the foundation of
Ragusa). The newly-arrived tribes of
Croats,
Serbs and other Slavs founded S
claviniae Croatia,
Pagania,
Zachlumia,
Travunia and
Konavle (also a small region of
Bosnia, with
Duklja and
Serbia in nearby
Praevalitana and
Moesia). In the early 9th century, the Eastern Adriatic coast including Dalmatia was the scene of the sphere of influence struggle between the
Frankish and Byzantine Empire, but although the Byzantines have retained supremacy, Dalmatia became a meeting place between the West and the East. The meaning of the administrative-geographical term "Dalmatia" by 820 shrank to the coastal cities and their immediate hinterland – the Byzantine
theme of Dalmatia. Its cities were the Romance-speaking
Dalmatian city-states and remained influential as they were well fortified and maintained their connection with the Byzantine Empire. The original name of the cities was
Jadera (
Zadar; capital of the theme),
Spalatum (
Split),
Crepsa (
Cres),
Arba (
Rab),
Tragurium (
Trogir),
Vecla (
Krk),
Ragusium (
Dubrovnik) and
Cattarum (
Kotor). The language and the laws were initially
Latin, but after a few centuries they developed their own neo-Latin language (the "
Dalmatico"), that lasted until the late 19th century. The cities were maritime centres with a huge commerce mainly with the Italian peninsula and with the growing
Republic of Venice. The Latin and Slavic communities were somewhat hostile at first, but as the Croats and Serbs became
Christianized this tension increasingly subsided. A degree of cultural mingling soon took place, in some enclaves stronger, in others weaker, as Slavic influence and culture was more accentuated in Ragusa, Spalatum, and Tragurium. In the mid-9th century, the
Serbian principality gained prominence along a part of the eastern Adriatic coast. Contemporary sources, notably the
Royal Frankish Annals, document that the Serbs controlled a part of Dalmatia, described as "
Sorabos, quae natio magnam Dalmatiae partem obtinere dicitur". This early territorial expansion laid the foundation for subsequent political developments in the region.The emergence of organised political entities began with the consolidation of the first
Serbian Vlastimirović dynasty from 610 to 960. During this period, two principal
Serbian principalities emerged:
Duklja (also known as Dioclea) in the southeast and
Travunia in the northwest. These principalities were strategically positioned around the
Bay of Kotor (Boka Kotorska), facilitating control over important maritime trade routes. during the reign of King
Tomislav (925 – 928). In the first half of the 10th century, Croatia was elevated to a
kingdom by
Duke Tomislav who also extended his influence further southwards to
Zachlumia. As an ally of the Byzantine Empire, the
King was given the status of Protector of Dalmatia, and became its
de facto ruler. Chronicler
Thomas the Archdeacon relates that
Stephen Držislav (r. 969 – 997) took the title "King of Dalmatia and Croatia", and that all subsequent rulers styled themselves in such manner. In the year 1000, at the invitation of
Dalmatian city-states, an expedition of Venetian ships in coastal Istria and Dalmatia led by Doge
Pietro II Orseolo conquered the Dalmatian cities and islands without much resistance and secured Venetian
suzerainty in the area. From then on, with short interruptions, Venice became the leading power in Dalmatia and the Adriatic until
its dissolution nearly eight hundred years later. On this occasion Doge Orseolo named himself "
Duke of Dalmatia", starting the
colonial empire of Venice. Orseolo led the Venetian fleet into the eastern Adriatic and gradually took control of most of it; first the islands of the
Gulf of Kvarner and the city of
Zadar, then
Trogir and
Split, followed by a successful naval battle with the
Narentines upon which he took control of
Korčula and
Lastovo. The Narentine pirates, which had been causing trouble to Venetian ships in the Adriatic, were finally suppressed permanently. The Venetians, to whom the Dalmatians were already bound by language and culture, could afford to concede liberal terms as its main goal was to prevent the development of any dangerous political or commercial competitor on the eastern Adriatic. The seafaring community in Dalmatia looked to Venice as the new "queen" of the Adriatic Sea. In return for protection, the Romance cities of Dalmatia often furnished a contingent to the army or navy of their suzerain, and sometimes paid tribute either in money or in kind. Arbe (now
Rab), for example, annually paid ten pounds of silk or five pounds of gold to Venice. The Dalmatian cities might elect their own chief magistrate, bishop, and judges; their Roman law remained valid, and they were even permitted to conclude separate alliances. In these centuries, the
Dalmatian language started to disappear, assimilated by the
Venetian language. following the conquest of Dalmatia, 1000 AD. At this time Venice had a firm control over the Adriatic Sea, strengthened by the expedition of Pietro's son
Ottone in 1017.
Krešimir III tried to restore the Dalmatian cities and had some success until 1018, when he was defeated by Venice allied with the
Lombards. From the 1030s however, after the fall of Doge
Otto Orseolo,
Byzantium took control of most of the main coastal cities, while Croatian kings
Stjepan I and his son
Petar Krešimir IV succeeded in taking a substantial part of the coast back, so the latter also carried the title "King of Croatia and Dalmatia". In the subsequent period, the rulers of Croatia exerted some influence over Dalmatian cities and islands, occasionally taking control such as with the conquest of Zadar in the mid-11th century, though the ownership of this city changed intermittently between the Croats and the Venetians, who regained the city in the year 1050. Petar Krešimir IV expanded his rule to incorporate a number of Dalmatian cities and islands by 1069, attested by his gift of the island of
Maun to the
Monastery of St. Chrysogonus in that same year. Upon the death of King
Demetrius Zvonimir of Croatia by the end of 1080s, the state entered a period of anarchy and would result in Hungarians under
Coloman of Hungary taking control over former Dalmatian possessions along with the rest of the state by 1102. in 1250In the
High Medieval period, the Byzantine Empire was no longer able to expand its power consistently in Dalmatia, and was finally rendered impotent so far west by the
Fourth Crusade. During the reign of
King Emeric, the Dalmatian cities separated from
Hungary by a treaty. Soon after, in the year 1202, the Venetians led by Doge
Enrico Dandolo directed the army of Crusaders to reconquer for Venice the city of Zadar, an event known in history as the
Siege of Zara. The late 13th century was marked by a decline in external hostilities. The Dalmatian cities started accepting complete foreign sovereignty, mainly that of the Republic of Venice. Venice would go on to control Zadar as well as other Dalmatian cities and islands for the next century and a half, albeit with constant internal and external conflicts, before briefly losing them to Hungary again in the
Treaty of Zadar of 1358. This period of Hungarian influence in Dalmatia was further impacted by the
Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1241. The
Mongols severely impaired the feudal state, so much so that that same year, King
Béla IV had to take refuge in Dalmatia, as far south as the
Fortress of Klis. The Mongols attacked the Dalmatian cities for the next few years but eventually withdrew without major success. At the beginning of the 14th century and until 1322, some Dalmatian cities were under the control of the noble
Šubić family which held them until they were defeated at the
Battle of Bliska by a coalition of nobles, Dalmatian cities and royal troops loyal to
Charles I of Hungary. In 1358, the people of
Dubrovnik achieved independence from Venice, creating the
Republic of Ragusa. (1358). In the south, due to its protected location,
Kotor became a major city and main port of the
Serbian Kingdom and then of the
Serbian Empire for the
salt trade. The area was prosperous during the 14th century under the rule of
Emperor of the Serbs Dušan the Mighty, who encouraged law enforcement, which helped the
Bay of Kotor to become a safe place for doing business. In 1389,
Tvrtko I, founder of the
Kingdom of Bosnia, was able to control the Adriatic littoral between Kotor and
Šibenik, and even claimed control over the northern coast up to
Rijeka, and his own independent ally, the Republic of Ragusa. This was only temporary, as
Hungary and the Venetians continued their struggle over Dalmatia after Tvrtko's death in 1391. By this time, the whole of the Hungarian and Croatian Kingdom was facing increasing internal difficulties, as a 20-year civil war ensued between the
Capetian House of Anjou from the
Kingdom of Naples, and King
Sigismund of the
House of Luxembourg. During the war, the losing contender,
Ladislaus of Naples, sold his "rights" to Dalmatia to the Republic of Venice in the year 1409 for a mere 100,000
ducats. The much more centralised Republic came to control the coast and near hinterland of Dalmatia by the year 1420, and it was to remain under
Venetian rule for 377 years (1420–1797).
Early modern period Dalmatia was first and finally sold to the
Republic of Venice in 1409 but
Venetian Dalmatia was not fully consolidated until 1420. The Republic of Venice in 1420 controlled the coastal part of Dalmatia and the islands, with the southern
enclave, the Bay of
Kotor, being called
Venetian Albania.
Venetian was the commercial
lingua franca in the
Mediterranean at that time, and it heavily influenced Dalmatian and to a lesser degree coastal
Croatian (
Chakavian) and
Albanian. and the Hungarian-Croatian Kingdom in 1469. The southern city of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) became de facto independent in 1358 through the
Treaty of Zadar when Venice relinquished its suzerainty over it to
Louis I of Hungary. In 1481, Ragusa switched allegiance to the
Ottoman Empire. This gave its tradesmen advantages such as access to the
Black Sea, and the Republic of Ragusa was the fiercest competitor to Venice's merchants in the 15th and 16th centuries. Originally,
Latin was used in official documents of the Republic.
Italian came into use in the 1420s. Both languages were used in official correspondence by the Republic. The Republic was influenced by the
Venetian language and the
Tuscan dialect. In the early 16th century, most of the Dalmatian hinterland which was controlled by the Hungarian-Croatian Kingdom was lost to the Ottoman Empire by the 1520s which formed the
Croatian vilayet that became incorporated into the
Sanjak of Klis after the
Siege of Klis (1537), and decades later into the
Bosnia Eyalet. With the fall of the Hungarian-Venetian border in Dalmatia,
Venetian Dalmatia now directly bordered with Ottoman Dalmatia. Venetians still perceived this inner hinterland as once part of Croatia, calling it as "Banadego" (lands of
Ban i.e.
Banate). The Republic of Venice was also one of the powers most hostile to the
Ottoman Empire's expansion, and participated in
many wars against it, but also promoted peace negotiations and cultural and religious coexistence and tolerance. Since the 16th century
Slavicized Vlachs,
Serbs and other South Slavs arrived both as
martolos in Ottoman service and refugees fleeing from Ottoman territory to the
Military Frontier and Venetian Dalmatia. As the Ottomans took control of the hinterland, many
Christians took refuge in the coastal cities of Dalmatia. In Ottoman Dalmatia a number of people converted to Islam to attain freedom and privileges. The border between the Dalmatian hinterland and the
Ottoman Bosnia and Herzegovina greatly fluctuated until the
Morean War, when the Venetian capture of
Knin and
Sinj set much of the borderline at its near-current position, defined by the 'Linea
Grimani' in the
Treaty of Karlowitz (1699). in 1600. , dated 1678. After the
Great Turkish War and the
Treaty of Passarowitz (1718), which further solidified the Venetian-Ottoman border defined by the 'Linea
Mocenigo' (resembling the modern border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina), more peaceful times made Dalmatia experience a period of certain economic and cultural growth in the 18th century, with the re-establishment of trade and exchange with the hinterland. This period was abruptly interrupted with the
fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797.
Napoleon's troops stormed the region and ended the independence of the Republic of Ragusa as well, saving it from occupation by the
Russian Empire and
Montenegro. of the
Republic of Venice in 1797. In 1805, Napoleon created his
Kingdom of Italy around the Adriatic Sea, annexing to it the former Venetian Dalmatia from Istria to Kotor. In 1808, he annexed the just conquered Republic of Ragusa to the Kingdom. A year later, in 1809, he removed Venetian Dalmatia from his Kingdom of Italy and created the
Illyrian Provinces, which were annexed to
France, and named
Marshal General Jean-de-Dieu Soult the Duke of Dalmatia. Napoleon's rule in Dalmatia was marked with war and high taxation, which caused several rebellions. On the other hand, French rule greatly contributed to
Illyrian movement (the first newspaper in Croatian was published then in Zadar,
Il Regio Dalmata – Kraglski Dalmatin), the legal system and infrastructure were finally modernised somewhat in Dalmatia, and the educational system flourished. French rule brought a lot of improvements in infrastructure; many roads were built or reconstructed. Napoleon himself blamed
Marshal of the Empire Auguste de Marmont, the governor of Dalmatia, that too much money was spent. However, in 1813, the
Habsburgs once again declared
war on France and, by the following year, had restored control over Dalmatia. From the Middle Ages to the 19th century, Italian and Slavic communities in Dalmatia had lived peacefully side by side, as they did not have a genuine national identification, given that they generically defined themselves as "
Dalmatians", of "Romance" or "Slavic" culture.
19th century from 1806 to 1810 included Dalmatia that had belonged to Venice until 1797. At the
Congress of Vienna in 1815, Dalmatia was granted as a province to the
Emperor of Austria. It was officially known as the
Kingdom of Dalmatia. in 1811. In 1848, the
Croatian Parliament (
Sabor) published the People's Requests, in which they requested among other things the abolition of
serfdom and the unification of Dalmatia and
Croatia. The Dubrovnik municipality was the most outspoken of all the Dalmatian communes in its support for unification with Croatia. A letter was sent from Dubrovnik to
Zagreb with pledges to work for this idea. In 1849, Dubrovnik continued to lead the Dalmatian cities in the struggle for unification. A large-scale campaign was launched in the Dubrovnik paper ''L'Avvenire
(The Future'') based on a clearly formulated programme: the federal system for the
Habsburg territories, the inclusion of Dalmatia into Croatia and the
Slavic brotherhood. The President of the Council of Kingdom of Dalmatia was Baron
Vlaho Getaldić. In the same year, the first issue of the Dubrovnik
almanac appeared,
Flower of the National Literature (
Dubrovnik, cvijet narodnog književstva), in which
Petar Preradović published his noted poem "Pjesma Dubrovniku" (
Poem to Dubrovnik). This and other literary and journalistic texts, which continued to be published, contributed to the awakening of the national consciousness reflected in efforts to introduce the Croatian language into schools and offices, and to promote Croatian books. The Emperor
Franz Joseph brought the
March Constitution which prohibited the unification of Dalmatia and Croatia and also any further political activity with this end in view. The political struggle of Dubrovnik to be united with Croatia, which was intense throughout 1848–49, did not succeed at that time. Many
Dalmatian Italians looked with sympathy towards the
Risorgimento movement that fought for the
unification of Italy. However, after 1866, when the
Veneto and
Friuli regions were ceded by the
Austrians to the newly formed
Kingdom Italy, 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 Dalmatia, who demanded the unification of the
Austrian Littoral,
Fiume and Dalmatia with Italy. The Italians in Dalmatia supported the Italian Risorgimento: as a consequence, the Austrians saw the Italians as enemies and favored the Slav communities of Dalmatia. 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: Dalmatia, especially its maritime cities, once had a substantial Italian-speaking population (
Dalmatian Italians). According to Austrian censuses, the Italian speakers in Dalmatia formed 12.5% of the population in 1865, but this was reduced to 2.8% in 1910. There was a constant decline in the Italian 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. 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. The Italian 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, 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 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 1861 the meeting of the first Dalmatian Assembly took place, with representatives from Dubrovnik. Representatives of Kotor came to Dubrovnik to join the struggle for unification with Croatia. The citizens of Dubrovnik gave them a festive welcome, flying
Croatian flags from the ramparts and exhibiting the slogan
Ragusa with Kotor. The Kotorans elected a delegation to go to
Vienna; Dubrovnik nominated
Niko Pucić, who went to Vienna to demand not only the unification of Dalmatia with Croatia, but also the
unification of all Croatian territories under one common
Sabor. During this period, the Habsburgs carried out an aggressive
anti-Italian policy through a forced Slavisation of the region.
20th century (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 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. Until 1909, both
Italian and
Croatian were recognized as official languages in Dalmatia. After 1909, Italian lost its official status, thus it could no longer be used in the public and administrative sphere. All but one of the 82 urban communities got Slav government majority by 1910. Dalmatia was a strategic region during
World War I that both
Italy and
Serbia intended to seize from
Austria-Hungary. Italy joined the
Triple Entente Allies in 1915 upon agreeing to the
Treaty of London that guaranteed Italy the right to annex a large portion of Dalmatia in exchange for Italy's participation on the Allied side. From 5–6 November 1918, Italian forces were reported to have reached
Vis,
Lastovo, Šibenik, and other localities on the Dalmatian coast. 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. 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., the first governor of the first Italian
Governatorate of Dalmatia (1918–1920) 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. In 1922, the territory of the former Kingdom of Dalmatia was divided into two provinces, the Oblast of Split and the Oblast of Dubrovnik. In 1929, the
Littoral Banovina, a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, was formed. Its capital was Split, and it included most of Dalmatia and parts of present-day
Bosnia and Herzegovina. The southern parts of Dalmatia were in
Zeta Banovina, from the Bay of Kotor to
Pelješac peninsula including Dubrovnik. In 1939, Littoral Banovina was joined with
Sava Banovina (and with smaller parts of other banovinas) to form a new province named the
Banovina of Croatia. The same year, the ethnic Croatian areas of the Zeta Banovina from the Bay of Kotor to Pelješac, including Dubrovnik, were merged with a new Banovina of Croatia. 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. (1941–1943) showing the
province of Zara, the
province of Spalato and the
province of Cattaro.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., dedicated to the fallen sailors of the
Yugoslav Partisan Navy 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). 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. ==Geography and climate==