Istrian exodus
Encyclopedia
The expression Istrian exodus or Istrian-Dalmatian exodus is used to indicate the departure of ethnic Italians from Istria
, Rijeka
, and Dalmatia
(present-day Croatia
), after World War II
. At the time of the exodus, these territories were part of the SR Croatia and SR Slovenia (then parts of SFR Yugoslavia), today they are parts of the Republics of Croatia
and Slovenia
. The exodus was incited by the Yugoslav government to exclude future land claims , on the other hand Italian government offered some assistance for the population emigrating to Italy.
These territories were ethnically mixed, with Italian, Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian and other communities.
Istria including Rijeka
and parts of Dalmatia including Zadar
, had been annexed to Italy after World War I
. At the end of World War II the former Italian territories in Istria and Dalmatia became part of Yugoslavia
by the Paris Peace Treaty
(1947), with the only exception being the commune
s of Muggia
and San Dorligo della Valle
.
Italian sources consider that up to 250,000/350,000 ethnic Italians and (some thousand of) anti-communist Slovenes and Croats, chose leave the areas in the aftermath of the conflict. In various municipalities in Croatia and Slovenia, census data shows that despite the efforts made by the Yugoslavian Government just after World War II to force the Italians to leave , there are still some Italians living in some cities of Istria, such as 51% of the population of Grožnjan
, 37% at Brtonigla
and 39.6% in Buje
.
, Krk
, Lastovo
, and Palagruža
were part of Italy. The Italian 1936 census indicated approximately 230,000 people who listed Italian as their language of communication in what is now the territory of Slovenia and Croatia, then part of the Italian state (ca. 194,000 in today’s Croatia and ca. 36,000 in today’s Slovenia). From the end of World War II until 1953, according to various data, between 250,000 and 350,000 people emigrated from these regions. One-third were Slovenes and Croats who opposed the Communist government in Yugoslavia, while two-thirds were ethnic Italians, the so-called optanti emigrants who were living permanently in this region on 10 June 1940 and who expressed their wish to obtain Italian citizenship and emigrate to Italy. The emigration of Italians reduced the total population of the region and altered its ethnic structure.
In 1953, officially, only 36,000 Italians lived in Yugoslavia, 16% of the Italian population before World War II.
Evidence of Italic people living alongside those from other ethnic groups on the eastern side of the Adriatic as far north as the Alps goes back at least to the Bronze Age, and the populations have been mixed ever since. A 2001 population census counted 23 languages spoken by the people of Istria.
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 Turks
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
The majority Slavic population suffered economic and political disadvantages , which gradually declined with the democratization of the Austro-Hungarian empire in the 19th century.
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 One on their side. Italy however drove a hard bargain, demanding extensive territorial concessions once the war had been won".
In a deal to draw Italy into the war, under the London Pact
, Italy was granted Trentino, Trieste, (the German-speaking) South Tyrol, Istria including large non-Italian communities, and the northern part of Dalmatia including the territories of Zadar
(Zara) and Šibenik
(Sebenico). Fiume (present-day Rijeka) was excluded..
After World War I, under the Treaty of Rapallo
between the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and the Kingdom of Italy (12 November 1920), Italy obtained Zadar
in Dalmatia and some minor islands, 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) the Free State of Fiume
(Rijeka) was split between Italy and Yugoslavia.
Between December 31, 1910, and December 1, 1921, Istria lost 15.1% of its population – the last survey under the Austrian empire recorded 404,309 inhabitants, which were reduced to 343,401 by the first Italian census after the war. While such a decrease is certainly related to the World War I and the changeover in political administration, emigration was also a major factor. In the immediate post World War I period, Istria was the stage of an intense migration outflow. Pula
, for example, was badly affected by the drastic dismantling of its massive military and bureaucratic apparatus of over 20,000 soldiers and security forces, and the dismissal of the employees from its shipyard. The serious economic crisis in the rest of Italy forced thousands of peasants to move into Yugoslavia, which then became the main destination of the Istrian exodus. The "political factor" also played its part, especially regarding the local intellectual elite.
Due to the lack of reliable statistics, however, the true magnitude of Istrian emigration during that period cannot be assessed accurately. Estimates provided by varying sources and with different research methods show that 30,000 Istrians migrated between 1918 and 1921.
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. Even during the brief preliminary period of occupation (1918–1920) Italy had begun a policy of assimilation of Croats and Slovenes. This resulted in the closure of the classical lyceum in Pazin, of the high school in Voloska (1918), the closure of the Slovenian and Croatian primary schools and the exile of some distinguished Croats and Slovenians to Sardinia
and to other places in Italy. 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 (July 13, 1920). The situation deteriorated further after the annexation of the Julian March
, especially after Benito Mussolini
came to power (1922). The official policy of cleansing other nationalities was under no international restraint, as Italy had not given any undertaking about the rights of minorities in either the peace treaties or the Rapallo treaty.
In Istria the use of Croatian
and Slovene languages in the administration and in the courts had already been restricted during the occupation (1918–1920). 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 deathblow to the Slovenian and Croatian school system in Istria was delivered on 1 October 1923 with the scholastic reform of minister Giovanni Gentile
. 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.
After this complete dissolution of all Slav political, cultural and economic organizations, armed resistance was organized against Italian rule (see TIGR
), followed by new repression, which further embittered relations between the two communities.
invasion of Yugoslavia
(6 April 1941), the Italian zone of occupation was further expanded. Italy annexed large areas of Croatia (including most of coastal Dalmatia) and Slovenia (including its capital Ljubljana
).
Helped by the Ustaše
, a Croatian fascist movement animated by a blend of Fascism, Nazism and Croatian nationalism, the Italian occupation continued with its brutal repression of Partisan activities and the killing and imprisonment of thousands of Yugoslav civilians in concentration camps (such as the Rab concentration camp
) in the newly annexed provinces. This fed the anti-Italian sentiments of the Slovenian and Croatian subjects of Fascist Italy. During the Italian occupation until their capitulation in September 1943, the population was subjected to atrocities, described by Italian historian Claudio Pavone
as “aggressive and violent. Not so much an eye for an eye as a head for an eye” as orders by Italian generals explicitly called. These atrocities were often carried out with the help of the Ustaše
.
After World War II, there were large-scale movements of people choosing to move to Italy rather than live in Yugoslavia. In Yugoslavia, the people who left were called optanti, which translates as 'choosers', while they call themselves esuli or exiles. Their motives for leaving may have been fear of reprisals, economic motives, or ethnically based.
's resistance movement
in September 1943; most had been connected to the fascist regime, while others were victims of personal hatred or the attempt of the Partisan resistance to get rid of its real or supposed enemies.
occupation in May 1945. This was known as the Foibe massacres.
Some Italian sources claim that these killings amounted to ethnic cleansing
, and that Italian people subsequently had no option but to emigrate.
The mixed Italian-Slovenian Historical Commission, established in 1995 by the two governments to investigate these matters, described the circumstances of the 1945 killings:
The number of victims is not certain. The Italian historian Raoul Pupo suggests 4,500 were killed (including the events of 1943), mostly Italians, but many bodies wearing Partisan uniforms were found as well, so the number is subject to many interpretations. Other sources suggest numbers reaching up to 20,000 killed or missing, with the most likely number approaching 10,000.
resulted in up to 350,000 people, mostly Italians, choosing to leave the region. The London Memorandum (1954) gave the ethnic Italians the choice of either opting to leave (the so-called optants) or staying. These exiles were to be given compensation for their loss of property and other indemnity by the Italian state under the terms of the peace treaties. Following the exodus, the areas were settled with Yugoslav people.
The first period took place after the surrender of the Italian army and the beginning of the first wave of anti-fascist violence.
The second period was soon after the end of the war and approximately around the time of the second wave of anti-fascist violence. The Wehrmacht
was engaged in a front-wide retreat from the Yugoslav Partisans, along with the local collaborationist forces (the Ustaše
, the Domobranci, the Chetniks
, and units of Mussolini's puppet Italian Social Republic
).
The third period took place after the Paris peace treaty, when Istria was assigned to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
, except for a small area in the northwest part that formed the independent Free Territory of Trieste
.
The fourth period took place after the Memorandum of Understanding
in London
. It gave provisional civil administration of Zone A (with Trieste), to Italy, and Zone B to Yugoslavia: in 1975 the Treaty of Osimo
finally divided the former Free Territory of Trieste.
The mixed Italian-Slovenian Historical Commission verified 27,000 Italian and 3,000 Slovene migrants from Slovenian territory.
where Yugoslavia agreed to pay US$110 million for the compensation of the exiles' property which was confiscated after the war in the Zone B of Free Territory of Trieste
. Up to its breakup in 1991, Yugoslavia had paid US$18 million. Slovenia and Croatia
, two Yugoslav successors, agreed to share the remainder of this debt. Slovenia assumed 62% and Croatia the remaining 38%. Italy did not want to reveal the bank account number so in 1994 Slovenia opened a fiduciary account at Dresdner Bank in Luxembourg
, informed Italy about it and started paying its US$55,976,930 share. The last payment was due in January 2002. Until today, the solution of the matter between Croatia and Italy has been delayed. None of the refugees from the Free Territory of Trieste
saw a single penny so far.
). The fourth paragraph of the proclamation stated that "Ethnic minorities in Yugoslavia shall be granted all national rights". These principles were codified in the 1946 and 1963 constitutions and reaffirmed again, in great detail, by the last federal constitution of 1974. It declared that the nations and nationalities should have equal rights (Article 245). It further stated that “… each nationality has the sovereign right freely to use its own language and script, to foster its own culture, to set up organizations for this purpose, and to enjoy other constitutionally guaranteed rights…” (Article 274)
" Division among the Yugoslav Partisan forces) but also clearly wanted to avoid any subsequent irredentism
from defeated Italy over its new acquisitions. The impact of the killings and lynching of Italian Italian Social Republic
(RSI) fascists and supposed nationalists in 1945 (especially in the context of the huge casualties of the World War II Yugoslav front), is somewhat questionable. Nevertheless, the theory of interconnection is very much present among modern-day historians, especially among Italian experts.
Slovenian historian Darko Darovec writes:
For the mixed Italian-Slovenian Historical Commission:
Istria
Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...
, Rijeka
Rijeka
Rijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...
, and Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
(present-day Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
), after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. At the time of the exodus, these territories were part of the SR Croatia and SR Slovenia (then parts of SFR Yugoslavia), today they are parts of the Republics of Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
and Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
. The exodus was incited by the Yugoslav government to exclude future land claims , on the other hand Italian government offered some assistance for the population emigrating to Italy.
These territories were ethnically mixed, with Italian, Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian and other communities.
Istria including Rijeka
Rijeka
Rijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...
and parts of Dalmatia including Zadar
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
, had been annexed to Italy after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. At the end of World War II the former Italian territories in Istria and Dalmatia became part of Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
by the Paris Peace Treaty
Treaty of peace with Italy (1947)
The Treaty of Peace with Italy was a treaty signed in Paris on February 10, 1947, between Italy and the victorious powers of World War II, formally ending the hostilities...
(1947), with the only exception being the commune
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...
s of Muggia
Muggia
Muggia is a small Italian comune in the extreme south-east of Trieste lying on the border with Slovenia.Muggia is the last and only flap of Istria still in Italian territory, after the dissolution of the Free Territory of Trieste in 1954....
and San Dorligo della Valle
San Dorligo della Valle
San Dorligo della Valle is a comune in the Province of Trieste in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about 4 km southeast of Trieste, on the border with Slovenia. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 6,019 and an area of 24.5 km²...
.
Italian sources consider that up to 250,000/350,000 ethnic Italians and (some thousand of) anti-communist Slovenes and Croats, chose leave the areas in the aftermath of the conflict. In various municipalities in Croatia and Slovenia, census data shows that despite the efforts made by the Yugoslavian Government just after World War II to force the Italians to leave , there are still some Italians living in some cities of Istria, such as 51% of the population of Grožnjan
Grožnjan
Grožnjan is a settlement and municipality in Croatia. It is part of Croatia's Istria County, which takes up most of the Istria peninsula. It is also the only place in Croatia to have an Italian majority.-Early history:...
, 37% at Brtonigla
Brtonigla
Brtonigla is a village and municipality in the north-western part of Istria, Croatia, 6 km southwest of Buje; elevation 141 m. It is close to the A9 motorway. Chief occupations include farming, viniculture and vegetable growing....
and 39.6% in Buje
Buje
Buje is a town situated in Istria, Croatia's westernmost peninsula, population 2,979 .Buje was known as the "sentinel of Istria" for its hilltop site located inland from the Adriatic sea. It still commands an excellent panorama. Buje has a rich history; traces of life in the region date back to...
.
Overview of the exodus
The Italians in Slovenia and Croatia were mostly an indigenous population (in 1910 they accounted for more than a third of the local inhabitants), bolstered by new arrivals or the so called regnicoli, never well liked by the indigenous Venetian-speaking Istrians, who arrived between 1918–1943, when Primorska and Istria, Rijeka, part of Dalmatia, and the islands of CresCres
Cres is an Adriatic island in Croatia. It is one of the northern island in the Kvarner Gulf and can be reached via ferry from the island Krk or from the Istrian peninsula ....
, Krk
Krk
Krk is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, located near Rijeka in the Bay of Kvarner and part of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar county....
, Lastovo
Lastovo
Lastovo is an island municipality in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County in Croatia. The municipality consists of 46 islands with a total population of 792 people, of which 93% are ethnic Croats, and a land area of approximately . The biggest island in the municipality is also named Lastovo, as is the...
, and Palagruža
Palagruža
Palagruža is a small, remote archipelago of dolomite in the middle of the Adriatic Sea in Croatia. It consists of one main island, called Vela or Velika Palagruža, and one smaller one, Mala Palagruža, and there are twenty or so other closely associated rocks or reefs...
were part of Italy. The Italian 1936 census indicated approximately 230,000 people who listed Italian as their language of communication in what is now the territory of Slovenia and Croatia, then part of the Italian state (ca. 194,000 in today’s Croatia and ca. 36,000 in today’s Slovenia). From the end of World War II until 1953, according to various data, between 250,000 and 350,000 people emigrated from these regions. One-third were Slovenes and Croats who opposed the Communist government in Yugoslavia, while two-thirds were ethnic Italians, the so-called optanti emigrants who were living permanently in this region on 10 June 1940 and who expressed their wish to obtain Italian citizenship and emigrate to Italy. The emigration of Italians reduced the total population of the region and altered its ethnic structure.
In 1953, officially, only 36,000 Italians lived in Yugoslavia, 16% of the Italian population before World War II.
Ancient times
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 Turks
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
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
The majority Slavic population suffered economic and political disadvantages , which gradually declined with the democratization of the Austro-Hungarian empire in the 19th century.
World War I and post-War period
In 1915, the Italians attacked the Austro-Hungarian EmpireItalian Campaign (World War I)
The Italian campaign refers to a series of battles fought between the armies of Austria-Hungary and Italy, along with their allies, in northern Italy between 1915 and 1918. Italy hoped that by joining the countries of the Triple Entente against the Central Powers it would gain Cisalpine Tyrol , the...
leading to bloody conflict mainly on the Isonzo
Battles of the Isonzo
The Battles of the Isonzo were a series of 12 battles between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies in World War I. They were fought along the Soča River on the eastern sector of the Italian Front between June 1915 and November 1917...
and Piave
Battle of the Piave River
The Battle of the Piave River , known in Italy as Battaglia del Solstizio , Battaglia di Mezzo Giugno , or Seconda Battaglia del Piave , was a decisive victory for the Italian Army during World War...
fronts. Britain, France and Russia had been "keen to bring neutral Italy into World War One on their side. Italy however drove a hard bargain, demanding extensive territorial concessions once the war had been won".
In a deal to draw Italy into the war, under the London Pact
London Pact
London Pact , or more correctly, the Treaty of London, 1915, was a secret pact between Italy and Triple Entente, signed in London on 26 April 1915 by the Kingdom of Italy, Great Britain, France and Russia....
, Italy was granted Trentino, Trieste, (the German-speaking) South Tyrol, Istria including large non-Italian communities, and the northern part of Dalmatia including the territories of Zadar
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
(Zara) and Šibenik
Šibenik
Šibenik is a historic town in Croatia, with population of 51,553 . It is located in central Dalmatia where the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea...
(Sebenico). Fiume (present-day Rijeka) was excluded..
After World War I, under the Treaty of Rapallo
Treaty of Rapallo, 1920
The Treaty of Rapallo was a treaty between the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , signed to solve the dispute over some territories in the upper Adriatic, in Dalmatia and in the region which became known as the Julian March.The treaty was signed on 12 November 1920 in...
between the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and the Kingdom of Italy (12 November 1920), Italy obtained Zadar
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
in Dalmatia and some minor islands, almost all of Istria with Trieste, the exception being the island of Krk
Krk
Krk is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, located near Rijeka in the Bay of Kvarner and part of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar county....
and part of Kastav
Kastav
Kastav is a historical town located about 10 km northwest of Rijeka and about 5 km northeast of Opatija in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in Croatia.-Demographics:The total population of Kastav is 10,472 ....
commune, which went to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. By the Treaty of Rome
Treaty of Rome, 1924
The Treaty of Rome of January 27, 1924 was an agreement by which Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes revoked the parts of the Treaty of Rapallo from 1920, which had created the independent Free State of Fiume...
(27 January 1924) the Free State of Fiume
Free State of Fiume
The Free State of Fiume was an independent free state which existed between 1920 and 1924. Its territory of comprised the city of Fiume and rural areas to its north, with a corridor to its west connecting it to Italy.-History:Fiume gained autonomy for the first time in 1719 when it was proclaimed...
(Rijeka) was split between Italy and Yugoslavia.
Between December 31, 1910, and December 1, 1921, Istria lost 15.1% of its population – the last survey under the Austrian empire recorded 404,309 inhabitants, which were reduced to 343,401 by the first Italian census after the war. While such a decrease is certainly related to the World War I and the changeover in political administration, emigration was also a major factor. In the immediate post World War I period, Istria was the stage of an intense migration outflow. Pula
Pula
Pula is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, situated at the southern tip of the Istria peninsula, with a population of 62,080 .Like the rest of the region, it is known for its mild climate, smooth sea, and unspoiled nature. The city has a long tradition of winemaking, fishing,...
, for example, was badly affected by the drastic dismantling of its massive military and bureaucratic apparatus of over 20,000 soldiers and security forces, and the dismissal of the employees from its shipyard. The serious economic crisis in the rest of Italy forced thousands of peasants to move into Yugoslavia, which then became the main destination of the Istrian exodus. The "political factor" also played its part, especially regarding the local intellectual elite.
Due to the lack of reliable statistics, however, the true magnitude of Istrian emigration during that period cannot be assessed accurately. Estimates provided by varying sources and with different research methods show that 30,000 Istrians migrated between 1918 and 1921.
Slavs under Italian Fascist rule
After World War I, under the Treaty of RapalloTreaty of Rapallo, 1920
The Treaty of Rapallo was a treaty between the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , signed to solve the dispute over some territories in the upper Adriatic, in Dalmatia and in the region which became known as the Julian March.The treaty was signed on 12 November 1920 in...
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
Krk
Krk is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, located near Rijeka in the Bay of Kvarner and part of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar county....
and part of Kastav
Kastav
Kastav is a historical town located about 10 km northwest of Rijeka and about 5 km northeast of Opatija in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in Croatia.-Demographics:The total population of Kastav is 10,472 ....
commune, which went to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. By the Treaty of Rome
Treaty of Rome, 1924
The Treaty of Rome of January 27, 1924 was an agreement by which Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes revoked the parts of the Treaty of Rapallo from 1920, which had created the independent Free State of Fiume...
(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
Italianization
Italianization or Italianisation is a term used to describe a process of cultural assimilation in which ethnically non or partially Italian people or territory become Italian. The process can be voluntary or forced...
of the population in the 1920s and 1930s. Even during the brief preliminary period of occupation (1918–1920) Italy had begun a policy of assimilation of Croats and Slovenes. This resulted in the closure of the classical lyceum in Pazin, of the high school in Voloska (1918), the closure of the Slovenian and Croatian primary schools and the exile of some distinguished Croats and Slovenians to Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
and to other places in Italy. 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 (July 13, 1920). The situation deteriorated further after the annexation of the Julian March
Julian March
The Julian March is a former political region of southeastern Europe on what are now the borders between Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy...
, especially after Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
came to power (1922). The official policy of cleansing other nationalities was under no international restraint, as Italy had not given any undertaking about the rights of minorities in either the peace treaties or the Rapallo treaty.
In Istria the use of Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
and Slovene languages in the administration and in the courts had already been restricted during the occupation (1918–1920). In March 1923 the prefect of the Julian March
Julian March
The Julian March is a former political region of southeastern Europe on what are now the borders between Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy...
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 deathblow to the Slovenian and Croatian school system in Istria was delivered on 1 October 1923 with the scholastic reform of minister Giovanni Gentile
Giovanni Gentile
Giovanni Gentile was an Italian neo-Hegelian Idealist philosopher, a peer of Benedetto Croce. He described himself as 'the philosopher of Fascism', and ghostwrote A Doctrine of Fascism for Benito Mussolini. He also devised his own system of philosophy, Actual Idealism.- Life and thought :Giovanni...
. 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.
After this complete dissolution of all Slav political, cultural and economic organizations, armed resistance was organized against Italian rule (see TIGR
TIGR
TIGR, abbreviation for Trst , Istra , Gorica and Reka , with the full name Revolutionary Organization of the Julian March T.I.G.R. was a militant anti-Fascist and insurgent organization active in the 1920s and the 1930s in the eastern Italian border region known as the Julian March.The...
), followed by new repression, which further embittered relations between the two communities.
World War II
After the WehrmachtWehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
invasion of Yugoslavia
Invasion of Yugoslavia
The Invasion of Yugoslavia , also known as the April War , was the Axis Powers' attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II...
(6 April 1941), the Italian zone of occupation was further expanded. Italy annexed large areas of Croatia (including most of coastal Dalmatia) and Slovenia (including its capital Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
).
Helped by the Ustaše
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
, a Croatian fascist movement animated by a blend of Fascism, Nazism and Croatian nationalism, the Italian occupation continued with its brutal repression of Partisan activities and the killing and imprisonment of thousands of Yugoslav civilians in concentration camps (such as the Rab concentration camp
Rab concentration camp
The Rab concentration camp was an Italian concentration and internment camp on the Adriatic island of Rab, now part of the Republic of Croatia, during World War II. The camp was located at...
) in the newly annexed provinces. This fed the anti-Italian sentiments of the Slovenian and Croatian subjects of Fascist Italy. During the Italian occupation until their capitulation in September 1943, the population was subjected to atrocities, described by Italian historian Claudio Pavone
Claudio Pavone
Claudio Pavone is an Italian historian.Currently, Pavone is the president of the Historic Institute of the Liberation movement in Italy, the vice-president of the Italian Society of Contemporary History and the director of the review of historic-politic studies Parolechiave .-The partisan...
as “aggressive and violent. Not so much an eye for an eye as a head for an eye” as orders by Italian generals explicitly called. These atrocities were often carried out with the help of the Ustaše
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
.
After World War II, there were large-scale movements of people choosing to move to Italy rather than live in Yugoslavia. In Yugoslavia, the people who left were called optanti, which translates as 'choosers', while they call themselves esuli or exiles. Their motives for leaving may have been fear of reprisals, economic motives, or ethnically based.
Events of 1943
When the Fascist regime collapsed in 1943 reprisals against Italian fascists took place. Up to 200 Italians were killed by Josip Broz TitoJosip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
's resistance movement
Partisans (Yugoslavia)
The Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans were a Communist-led World War II anti-fascist resistance movement in Yugoslavia...
in September 1943; most had been connected to the fascist regime, while others were victims of personal hatred or the attempt of the Partisan resistance to get rid of its real or supposed enemies.
The foibe massacres
The second wave of anti-Fascist violence took place after the liberation of Istria from AxisAxis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
occupation in May 1945. This was known as the Foibe massacres.
Some Italian sources claim that these killings amounted to ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
, and that Italian people subsequently had no option but to emigrate.
The mixed Italian-Slovenian Historical Commission, established in 1995 by the two governments to investigate these matters, described the circumstances of the 1945 killings:
14. These events were triggered by the atmosphere of settling accounts with the fascists; but, as it seems, they mostly proceeded from a preliminary plan which included several tendencies: endeavors to remove persons and structures who were in one way or another (regardless of their personal responsibility) linked with Fascism, with the Nazi supremacy, with collaboration and with the Italian state, and endeavors to carry out preventive cleansing of real, potential or only alleged opponents of the communist regime, and the annexation of Julian March to the new SFR Yugoslavia. The initial impulse was instigated by the revolutionary movement, which was changed into a political regime and transformed the charge of national and ideological intolerance between the partisans into violence at the national level.
The number of victims is not certain. The Italian historian Raoul Pupo suggests 4,500 were killed (including the events of 1943), mostly Italians, but many bodies wearing Partisan uniforms were found as well, so the number is subject to many interpretations. Other sources suggest numbers reaching up to 20,000 killed or missing, with the most likely number approaching 10,000.
The exodus
Economic insecurity, ethnic hatred and the international political context that eventually led to the Iron CurtainIron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
resulted in up to 350,000 people, mostly Italians, choosing to leave the region. The London Memorandum (1954) gave the ethnic Italians the choice of either opting to leave (the so-called optants) or staying. These exiles were to be given compensation for their loss of property and other indemnity by the Italian state under the terms of the peace treaties. Following the exodus, the areas were settled with Yugoslav people.
Periods of the exodus
The exodus took place between 1943 and 1960; Italians allege that most of their numbers left in- 1943
- 1945
- 1947
- 1954
The first period took place after the surrender of the Italian army and the beginning of the first wave of anti-fascist violence.
The second period was soon after the end of the war and approximately around the time of the second wave of anti-fascist violence. The Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
was engaged in a front-wide retreat from the Yugoslav Partisans, along with the local collaborationist forces (the Ustaše
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
, the Domobranci, the Chetniks
Chetniks
Chetniks, or the Chetnik movement , were Serbian nationalist and royalist paramilitary organizations from the first half of the 20th century. The Chetniks were formed as a Serbian resistance against the Ottoman Empire in 1904, and participated in the Balkan Wars, World War I, and World War II...
, and units of Mussolini's puppet Italian Social Republic
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...
).
The third period took place after the Paris peace treaty, when Istria was assigned to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
, except for a small area in the northwest part that formed the independent Free Territory of Trieste
Free Territory of Trieste
The Free Territory of Trieste was to be a city-state situated in Central Europe between northern Italy and Yugoslavia, created by the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath of World War II and provisionally administered by an appointed military governor commanding the peacekeeping United...
.
The fourth period took place after the Memorandum of Understanding
Memorandum of understanding
A memorandum of understanding is a document describing a bilateral or multilateral agreement between parties. It expresses a convergence of will between the parties, indicating an intended common line of action. It is often used in cases where parties either do not imply a legal commitment or in...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. It gave provisional civil administration of Zone A (with Trieste), to Italy, and Zone B to Yugoslavia: in 1975 the Treaty of Osimo
Treaty of Osimo
The Treaty of Osimo was signed on 10 November 1975 by the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Italian Republic in Osimo, Italy, to definitely divide the Free Territory of Trieste between the two states...
finally divided the former Free Territory of Trieste.
Estimates of the exodus
Several estimates of the exodus by historians:- Vladimir ŽerjavićVladimir ŽerjavicVladimir Žerjavić was a Croatian economist and a United Nations expert. He published a series of historical articles and books during the 1980s and 1990s in which he argued that the scope of the Holocaust in World War II-era territory of Yugoslavia was intentionally exaggerated...
(Croat), 191,421 Italian exiles from Croatian territory. - Nevenka Troha (Slovene), 40,000 Italian and 3,000 Slovene exiles from Slovenian territory.
- Raoul Pupo (Italian), about 250,000 Italian exiles
- Flaminio Rocchi (Italian), about 350,000 Italian exiles
The mixed Italian-Slovenian Historical Commission verified 27,000 Italian and 3,000 Slovene migrants from Slovenian territory.
Famous exiles
Those whose families left Istria or Dalmatia in the post-World War II period include:- Mario AndrettiMario AndrettiMario Gabriele Andretti is a retired Italian American world champion racing driver, one of the most successful Americans in the history of the sport. He is one of only two drivers to win races in Formula One, IndyCar, World Sportscar Championship and NASCAR...
, racing driver - Lidia BastianichLidia BastianichLidia Matticchio Bastianich is an American chef, author, and restaurateur....
, chef - Nino Benvenuti, boxer: three times professional world's champion and Olympic gold medalist
- Enzo BettizaEnzo BettizaEnzo Bettiza is a Dalmatian-born Italian novelist, journalist and politician.-Biography:Bettiza was born in Dalmatia, in a rich family of the Italian minority. His mother stemmed from a family of the Croatian isle of Brač...
, novelist, journalist and politician - Valentino ZeichenValentino ZeichenValentino Zeichen, sometimes incorrectly spelled Zaichen, , is an Italian poet and writer.-Biography:Zeichen's origins are somewhat obscure, and his year of birth is dubious. In German language the word Zeichen means "sign", and has been suggested that his true name would be Giuseppe Mario Moses,...
, poet and writer
Property reparation
On February 18, 1983 Yugoslavia and Italy signed a treaty in RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
where Yugoslavia agreed to pay US$110 million for the compensation of the exiles' property which was confiscated after the war in the Zone B of Free Territory of Trieste
Free Territory of Trieste
The Free Territory of Trieste was to be a city-state situated in Central Europe between northern Italy and Yugoslavia, created by the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath of World War II and provisionally administered by an appointed military governor commanding the peacekeeping United...
. Up to its breakup in 1991, Yugoslavia had paid US$18 million. Slovenia and Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, two Yugoslav successors, agreed to share the remainder of this debt. Slovenia assumed 62% and Croatia the remaining 38%. Italy did not want to reveal the bank account number so in 1994 Slovenia opened a fiduciary account at Dresdner Bank in Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, informed Italy about it and started paying its US$55,976,930 share. The last payment was due in January 2002. Until today, the solution of the matter between Croatia and Italy has been delayed. None of the refugees from the Free Territory of Trieste
Free Territory of Trieste
The Free Territory of Trieste was to be a city-state situated in Central Europe between northern Italy and Yugoslavia, created by the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath of World War II and provisionally administered by an appointed military governor commanding the peacekeeping United...
saw a single penny so far.
Minority rights in the former Yugoslavia
In connection with exodus and during the period of communist Yugoslavia (1945–1991), the equality of ethno-nations and national minorities and how to handle inter-ethnic relations was one of the key questions of Yugoslav internal politics. In November 1943, the federation of Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the second assembly of the Anti-Fascist Council of the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJAVNOJ
The Anti-Fascist Council of the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia, known more commonly by its Yugoslav abbreviation AVNOJ, was the political umbrella organization for the national liberation councils of the Yugoslav resistance against the World War II Axis occupation, eventually becoming the...
). The fourth paragraph of the proclamation stated that "Ethnic minorities in Yugoslavia shall be granted all national rights". These principles were codified in the 1946 and 1963 constitutions and reaffirmed again, in great detail, by the last federal constitution of 1974. It declared that the nations and nationalities should have equal rights (Article 245). It further stated that “… each nationality has the sovereign right freely to use its own language and script, to foster its own culture, to set up organizations for this purpose, and to enjoy other constitutionally guaranteed rights…” (Article 274)
Historical debate
The connection between the World War II killings and the exodus is, however, a matter of much controversy. Yugoslavia never meant to exterminate its Italian population (there was even an Italian "Giuseppe GaribaldiGiuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...
" Division among the Yugoslav Partisan forces) but also clearly wanted to avoid any subsequent irredentism
Irredentism
Irredentism is any position advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. Some of these movements are also called pan-nationalist movements. It is a feature of identity politics and cultural...
from defeated Italy over its new acquisitions. The impact of the killings and lynching of Italian Italian Social Republic
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...
(RSI) fascists and supposed nationalists in 1945 (especially in the context of the huge casualties of the World War II Yugoslav front), is somewhat questionable. Nevertheless, the theory of interconnection is very much present among modern-day historians, especially among Italian experts.
Slovenian historian Darko Darovec writes:
It is clear, however, that at the peace conferences the new State borders were not being drawn using ideological criteria, but on the basis of national considerations. The ideological criteria were then used to convince the national minorities to line up with one or the other side. To this end socio-political organisations with high-sounding names were created, The most important of them being SIAU, the Slavic-Italian Anti-Fascist Union, which by the necessities of the political struggle mobilised the masses in the name of 'democracy'. Anyone who thought differently, or was nationally 'inconsistent', would be subjected to the so-called 'commissions of purification'. The first great success of such a policy in the national field was the massive exodus from Pula, following the coming into effect of the peace treaty with Italy (15 September 1947). Great ideological pressure was exerted also at the time of the clash with the Kominform which caused the emigration of numerous sympathisers of the CP, Italians and others, from Istra and from Zone B of the FTT (Free Territory of Trieste)
For the mixed Italian-Slovenian Historical Commission:
Since the first post-war days, some local activists, who wreaked their anger over the acts of the Istrian Fascists upon the Italian population, had made their intention clear to rid themselves of the Italians who revolted against the new authorities. However, expert findings to-date do not confirm the testimonies of some - although influential - Yugoslav personalities about the intentional expulsion of Italians. Such a plan can be deduced - on the basis of the conduct of the Yugoslav leadership - only after the break with the Informbiro in 1948, when the great majority of the Italian Communists in Zone B - despite the initial cooperation with the Yugoslav authorities, against which more and more reservations were expressed - declared themselves against Tito's Party. Therefore, the people's government abandoned the political orientation towards the "brotherhood of the Slavs and Italians", which within the framework of the Yugoslav socialist state allowed for the existence of the politically and socially purified Italian population that would respect the ideological orientation and the national policy of the regime. The Yugoslav side perceived the departure of Italians from their native land with growing satisfaction, and in its relation to the Italian national community the wavering in the negotiations on the fate of the FTT was more and more clearly reflected. Violence, which flared up again after the 1950 elections and the 1953 Trieste crisis, and the forceful expulsion of unwanted persons were accompanied by measures to close the borders between the two zones. The national composition of Zone B was also altered by the immigration of Yugoslavs to the previously more or less exclusively Italian cities.
Further reading
- The Politics of the Past: Redefining Insecurity along the 'World's Most Open Border' by Pamela Ballinger
- The Effects of the Dissolution of Yugoslavia on Minority Rights: the Italian Minority in Post-Yugoslav Slovenia and Croatia by Matjaž Klemenčič Site of an association of Italian exiles from Istria and Dalmatia. Slovene-Italian Relations 1880-1956 Report 2000 Relazioni Italo-Slovene 1880-1956 Relazione 2000 Slovensko-italijanski odnosi 1880-1956 Poročilo 2000 Italians mark war massacre
See also
- Foibe massacres
- National Memorial Day of the Exiles and FoibeNational Memorial Day of the Exiles and FoibeNational Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe, or Giorno del ricordo in Italian language, is an Italian celebration for the memory of the victims of the Foibe and the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus.-Law's motivation:...
- Free Territory of TriesteFree Territory of TriesteThe Free Territory of Trieste was to be a city-state situated in Central Europe between northern Italy and Yugoslavia, created by the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath of World War II and provisionally administered by an appointed military governor commanding the peacekeeping United...
- Yugoslav People's Liberation War
- Italian Social RepublicItalian Social RepublicThe Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...
- IstriaIstriaIstria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...
- DalmatiaDalmatiaDalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....