Italian irredentism in Dalmatia was the political movement supporting the unification toItaly, during the 19th and 20th centuries, of AdriaticDalmatia.
TheRepublic of Venice, between the9th century and 1797,extended its dominion toIstria, the islands ofKvarner andDalmatia, when it was conquered byNapoleon.[1] Dalmatia was then aggregated to theNapoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1805, and annexed to theIllyrian Provinces in 1809 (for some years also theRepublic of Ragusa was included, since 1808).
After the fall ofNapoleon (1814) Istria, the islands of Kvarner and Dalmatia were annexed to theAustrian Empire.[2] From the Middle Ages to the 19th century, Italian and Slavic communities inIstria andDalmatia 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.[3] Later, manyIstrian Italians andDalmatian Italians looked with sympathy towards theRisorgimento movement that fought for the unification of Italy.[4] The first events that involved theDalmatian Italians in the unification of Italy were therevolutions of 1848, during which they took part in the constitution of theRepublic of San Marco inVenice. The most notable Dalmatian Italians exponents who intervened wereNiccolò Tommaseo andFederico Seismit-Doda.[5]
After theThird Italian War of Independence (1866), when theVeneto andFriuli regions were ceded by theAustrians to the newly formedKingdom Italy, Istria and Dalmatia remained part of theAustro-Hungarian Empire, together with other Italian-speaking areas on the eastern Adriatic. This triggered the gradual rise ofItalian irredentism among many Italians in Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia, who demanded the unification of theJulian March,Kvarner andDalmatia with Italy.
Before 1859, Italian was the language of administration, education, the press, and theAustrian navy; people who wished to acquire higher social standing and separate from theSlav peasantry becameItalians.[6] In the years after 1866, Italians lost their privileges inAustria-Hungary, their assimilation of the Slavs came to an end, and they found themselves under growing pressure by other rising nations; with therising Slav tide after 1890,italianized Slavs reverted to being Croats.[6]
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.[6] During the meeting of the Council of Ministers on 12 November 1866, EmperorFranz Joseph I of Austria outlined a wide-ranging project aimed at theGermanization orSlavization of the areas of the empire with an Italian presence:[7]
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 inSouth Tyrol,Dalmatia andLittoral 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.
With the development of Croatian nationalism, critics such as Croatian historian Duško Večerina alleged that these evaluations were not conducted by modern scientific standards and that they took spoken language as the criterion, rather than blood, origin and ethnicity. They pointed out that according to a report by Imperial court councillor Joseph Fölch in 1827, the Italian language was spoken by noblemen and some citizens of middle and lower classes exclusively in the coastal cities ofZadar,Šibenik andSplit. Since only around 20,000 people populated these towns and not all were Italian speakers, they claim that the real number was rather smaller, probably around seven percent of the total population, as is asserted by the Department of Historical Studies of theCroatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU).[10]
Italian irredentists likeGabriele D'Annunzio, as well as prominent Italian scholars likeAngelo Vivante, alleged that Fölch did not include the Dalmatian islands ofCres (Cherso),Lošinj (Lussino),Krk (Veglia),Vis (Lissa), Hvar (Lesina), Korcula (Curzola) and many other islands with significant Italian communities. They reasserted that the only official evidence about the Dalmatian population comes from the 1857 Austro-Hungarian census, which showed that in this year there were 369,310 indigenous Croatians and 45,000 Italians in Dalmatia,[11] makingDalmatian Italians 10.8 percent of the total population of Dalmatia in the mid-19th century.
Two nationalist movements were born in Dalmatia, the Italian and the Slav. The political instances of the Dalmatian Italians were promoted to theAutonomist Party, founded in 1878 and dissolved in 1915: a prominent member wasAntonio Bajamonti, who from 1860 to 1880 was mayor ofSplit.[5] The party, which originally also had the favour of part of the Slavic population, gradually replaced an autonomous program for the region with an irredentist project for the region, given the hostility of the Austrian authorities and the disagreements with the Slavic element.[12][13]
In 1889, the foundation of theDante Alighieri Society, with the aim of protecting and promoting theItalian language, made it possible to give support to the initiatives for the preservation of the Italian-speaking linguistic element. In this periodRoberto Ghiglianovich, as trustee of the company establishes theLa Lega in Zadar and promoted the enhancement of Italian culture in the area.[14] The same year the irredentistLuigi Ziliotto becomes mayor of Zara, a position he would hold until the outbreak ofWorld War I, was accused of treason and declared forfeited by the Austrian authorities.[15] The policy of collaboration with the localSerbs, inaugurated by Roberto Ghiglianovich and by Giovanni Avoscani, then allowed the Italians to conquer the municipal administration ofDubrovnik in 1899.[16]
The Italian population in Dalmatia was concentrated in the major coastal cities. In the city ofSplit in 1890 there were 1,971 Dalmatian Italians (9% of the population), inZadar 7,672 (27%), inŠibenik 1,090 (5%), inKotor 646 (12%) and inDubrovnik 356 (3%).[17] In other Dalmatian localities, according to Austrian censuses, Italians experienced a sudden decrease: in the twenty years 1890-1910, inRab they went from 225 to 151, inVis from 352 to 92, inPag from 787 to 23, completely disappearing in almost all inland locations.
In 1909, theItalian language lost itsstatus as the official language of Dalmatia in favour of Croatian only (previously both languages were recognized), thus Italian could no longer be used in the public and administrative sphere.[18]
For the AustrianKingdom of Dalmatia (Dalmatia), the 1910 numbers were 96.2 percent Slavic speakers and 2.8 percent Italian speakers,[19] recording a drastic decline in the number of Dalmatian Italians, who in 1845 amounted to 20 percent of the total population of Dalmatia.[20] Another evidence about the Dalmatian population comes from the 1857 Austro-Hungarian census, which showed that in this year there were 369,310 indigenous Croatians and 45,000 Italians in Dalmatia,[21] makingDalmatian Italians 10.8 percent of the total population of Dalmatia in the mid-19th century.
Dalmatia was a strategic region duringWorld War I that both Italy and Serbia intended to seize from Austria-Hungary. Italy joined theTriple EntenteAllies in 1915 upon agreeing to theLondon Pact that guaranteed Italy the right to annex a large portion of Dalmatia in exchange for Italy's participation on the Allied side. In November 1918, after the surrender of Austria-Hungary, Italy occupied militarilyTrentino Alto-Adige, theJulian March,Istria, theKvarner Gulf andDalmatia, all Austro-Hungarian territories. On the Dalmatian coast, Italy established theGovernorate of Dalmatia, which had the provisional aim of ferrying the territory towards full integration into the Kingdom of Italy, progressively importing national legislation in place of the previous one. In 1918, AdmiralEnrico Millo declared himself Italy's Governor of Dalmatia.[22] The administrative capital wasZara. The Governorate of Dalmatia was evacuated following the Italo-Yugoslav agreements which resulted in theTreaty of Rapallo (1920).Italian nationalist Gabriele d'Annunzio supported the seizure of Dalmatia, and proceeded to occupy some areas in an Italian warship in December 1918.[23]
The last city with a significant Italian presence in Dalmatia was the city of Zara (Zadar). In the Austro-Hungarian census of 1910, the City of Zara had a population of 36,595, out of which 11,552 were Italians (31.6%).[17] In 1921, the population dropped to 18,623, with 12,283 Italians (66%).[17][24] In 1941, duringWorld War II,Yugoslavia was occupied by Italy and Germany. Dalmatia was divided between Italy, which constituted theGovernorate of Dalmatia, and theIndependent State of Croatia, which annexedDubrovnik andMorlachia. After theItalian surrender on 8 September 1943, the Independent State of Croatia annexed the Governorate of Dalmatia, except for the territories that had been Italian before the start of the conflict, such as Zara.
In 1943,Josip Broz Tito informed theAllies that Zara was a chief logistic centre for German forces in Yugoslavia. By overstating its importance, he persuaded them of its military significance. Italy surrendered in September 1943 and over the following year, specifically between 2 November 1943 and 31 October 1944, Allied Forcesbombarded the town 54 times. Nearly 2,000 people were buried beneath rubble; 10–12,000 people escaped and took refuge inTrieste and just over 1,000 people reached Apulia. Tito's partisans entered the city on 31 October 1944, and 138 people were killed.[25]
With the 1947Peace Treaty and itsright of option provision,Dalmatian Italians still living in Zadar and in Dalmatia became part of theItalian exodus. Only about 500 people declare themselves Italian now in Dalmatia. In particular, according to the official Croatian census of 2011, there are 83 Dalmatian Italians inSplit (equal to 0.05% of the total population), 16 inŠibenik (0.03%) and 27 inDubrovnik (0.06%).[26] According to the official Croatian census of 2021, there are 63 Dalmatian Italians inZadar (equal to 0.09% of the total population).[27] According to the official Montenegrin census of 2011, there are 31 Italians inKotor (equal to 0.14% of the total population).[28]