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Austrian Littoral | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1849–1919 | |||||||||
 Flag  Coat of arms | |||||||||
| Anthem: Carevka [hr] (Gott erhalte, Gott beschütze) | |||||||||
 Austrian Littoral withinCisleithanian Austria-Hungary, 1914 | |||||||||
| Status | Subdivision ofAustria-Hungary | ||||||||
| Capital | Trieste (not part until 1860) | ||||||||
| Common languages | |||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholic | ||||||||
| Government | Stadtholder | ||||||||
| Emperor of Austria | |||||||||
• 1848–1916 | Franz Joseph I | ||||||||
• 1916–1918 | Karl I | ||||||||
| Statthalter of Trieste | |||||||||
• 1849–1850 | Johann von Grimschitz | ||||||||
• 1850–1854 | Franz Graf Wimpffen | ||||||||
• 1867–1868 | Eduard von Bach | ||||||||
• 1915–1918 | Alfred von Fries-Skene | ||||||||
| Landtag | |||||||||
| Historical era | Modern history | ||||||||
| 4 March 1849 | |||||||||
| 10 September 1919 | |||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1910[1] | 894,287 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
TheAustrian Littoral (German:Österreichisches Küstenland,Italian:Litorale Austriaco,Croatian:Austrijsko primorje,Slovene:Avstrijsko primorje,Hungarian:Osztrák Tengermellék) was acrown land (Kronland) of theAustrian Empire, established in 1849. It consisted of three regions: theMargraviate of Istria in the south,Gorizia and Gradisca in the north, and theImperial Free City of Trieste in the middle. The region has been contested frequently, with parts of it controlled at various times by theRepublic of Venice,Austria-Hungary,Italy, andYugoslavia among others.
The Kingdom of Italy annexed most of the area afterWorld War I according to theTreaty of London and later theTreaty of Rapallo. AfterWorld War II it was split, withItaly in the west andYugoslavia in the east.
Trieste had strategic importance as Austria-Hungary's primary seaport, and the coast of the Littoral was a resort destination known as theAustrian Riviera. The region was a multi-ethnic one, withItalians,Slovenes,Croats,Germans andFriulians being the main groups. In 1910, it had an area of 7,969 square kilometres (3,077 sq mi) and a population of 894,287.[1]
The territory of the medievalPatriarchate of Aquileia had gradually been conquered by theRepublic of Venice (Domini di Terraferma) until the early 15th century. In the east, theHabsburg archdukes ofAustria, based on theMarch of Carniola they held from 1335, had gainedsuzerainty over IstrianPazin in 1374 and the port of Trieste in 1382. They also purchasedDuino andRijeka (Fiume) on the northernAdriatic coast in 1474, and inherited more territory inFriuli when theCounts of Görz line died out in 1500. In 1511, EmperorMaximilian I annexed the city ofGradisca from Venice.
The Habsburgs did little initially to consolidate or develop their holdings in the Littoral. The supremacy of the Republic of Venice in the Adriatic, and the Austrian archdukes' attention to the threat posed to them by an expandingOttoman Empire, gave them little opportunity to enlarge their coastal possessions. Incorporated into theAustrian Circle of theHoly Roman Empire, Görz, Trieste and Istria remained separately administered and retained theirautonomy until the 18th century.
EmperorCharles VI increased the sea power of theHabsburg monarchy by making peace with the Ottomans and declaring free shipping in the Adriatic. In 1719, Trieste and Fiume were madefree ports. In 1730, administration of the Littoral was unified under theIntendancy in Trieste. However, in 1775, EmperorJoseph II put the two main ports under separate administration, assigning Trieste as the port for the Austrian "hereditary lands" and Fiume for theKingdom of Hungary. Shortly after that, Trieste was merged with the Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca in the north.
During theNapoleonic Wars, the Habsburg monarchy gained Venetian lands in theIstrian Peninsula and theQuarnero (Kvarner) Islands as part of theTreaty of Campo Formio of 1797. However, these territories and all of the newAustrian Empire's Adriatic lands were soon lost to theFrench Empire's puppet state theKingdom of Italy, by theTreaty of Pressburg of 1805. The 1809Treaty of Schönbrunn then transferred the area to theIllyrian Provinces, which were directly ruled by France.
WhenNapoleon was later defeated, the Austrian Empire regained the region. In 1813, all of the Littoral including Trieste, Gorizia and Gradisca, all of Istria, theQuarnero Islands, Fiume, and the hinterland of Fiume,Civil Croatia, includingKarlstadt (Karlovac), became one administrative unit. From 1816, the Littoral was a part of the Austrian Empire'sKingdom of Illyria. In 1822, Fiume and Civil Croatia were separated from the territory and ceded to theKingdom of Hungary (and in 1849 went toCroatia).
The Littoral was officially theTriest (Trieste) Province, one of twogouvernements (provinces) of the kingdom, the other beingLaibach (Ljubljana). It was subdivided into fourkreise (districts):Görz (Gorizia), including Gorizia and theJulian March;Istrien (Istria), which was eastern Istria and the Quarnero Islands;Triest (Trieste), which was the Trieste hinterland and Western Istria; and theTriester Stadtgebiet (city of Trieste).
Around 1825, the Littoral was reorganized into only two subdivisions: Istria, with its capital atMitterburg (Pisino/Pazin), and Gorizia. Trieste and its immediate surroundings were put under the direct control of the crown, separate from the local administrative structure.
In 1849, theKingdom of Illyria was dissolved and the Littoral became a separatecrown land with a governor in Trieste. It was formally divided into theMargravate of Istria and the PrincelyCounty (Gefürstete Grafschaft) of Gorizia and Gradisca with Trieste remaining separate from both.
By the 1861February Patent, Gorizia and Gradisca and Istria became administratively separate entities and, in 1867, Trieste received separate status as well, and the Littoral was divided into the three crown lands of theImperial Free City of Trieste and its suburbs, theMargraviate of Istria, and thePrincely County of Gorizia and Gradisca, which each had separate administrations andLandtag assemblies, but were all subject to ak.k.statholder atTrieste.
Following the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, the Littoral fell withinItaly's newly expanded borders as part of theJulian March. An area of similar extent under the name ofAdriatic Littoral (Adriatisches Küstenland) was one of the operational zones ofGerman forces duringWorld War II after the capitulation ofItaly in September 1943 until the end of the war. After World War II, most of it was included in theSecond Yugoslavia.
TodayCroatia andSlovenia each hold portions of the territory, and the city of Trieste remains under Italian rule. The name of the region lives on in itsSlovene version,Primorska (Slovenian Littoral), a region of Slovenia.
Area:[1]
Population (1910 Census):[1]
According to the last Austrian census of 1910 (1911 in Trieste), the Austrian Littoral was composed of the following linguistic communities:
Total:
Gorizia and Gradisca:
Trieste:
Istria:
The Austrian censuses did not countethnic groups, nor themother tongue, but the "language of daily interaction" (Umgangssprache). Except for a smallSerbian community in Trieste and the village ofPeroj in Istria[clarification needed].
After 1880, Italian and Friulian languages were counted under one category, as Italian. The estimated number of Friulian speakers can be extrapolated from the Italian census of 1921, the only one in the 20th century when Friulian was counted as a distinct linguistic category. The Austrian Littoral had a large number of foreign nationals (around 71,000 or 7.9% of the overall population), which were not asked about their language of interaction. More than half of them resided in the city of Trieste. The majority were citizens of the Kingdom of Italy, followed by citizens of the Kingdom of Hungary (part of the Dual Monarchy) and the German Empire. It can be supposed that the majority of these foreign citizens were Italian speakers, followed by German, Croatian (fromRijeka andCroatia-Slavonia) and Slovene (fromVenetian Slovenia), and Hungarian speakers.
45°38′00″N13°48′00″E / 45.6333°N 13.8000°E /45.6333; 13.8000
