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Venezia-Giulia - The Julian March
The Juliian March or Julian Venetia (Italian: Venezia Giulia; Venetian: Venesia Julia; Friulian: Vignesie Julie; German: Julisch Venetien), is an area of southeastern Europe, today split among Croatia, Italy, and Slovenia.
The Julian March was coined in 1863 by the Italian glottologist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli in order to represent the crown land (Kronland-Austrian Littoral),
together with Veneto, Friuli and Trentino (then all parts of the Austrian Empire) as a region with a common Italian linguistic identity. He emphasized the
Augustan partition of Roman Italy at the beginning of the Empire, when Venetia et Histria was the Regio X ("Tenth Region").
Later on, the term was endorsed by Italian irredentists, who sought the annexation of areas where ethnic Italians made up the majority share of the population of the Austrian Littoral, Trentino Fiume and Dalmazia The 'Triple Entente' promised to grant these areas to Italy in the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in exchange for its joining the Allied powers in WW1. . The secret Treaty of London in 1915 promised Italy territories that were mostly populated by Italians, such as Trentino, but also ones that were mostly or exclusively populated by Croats or Slovenes; The territory contained approximately 327,000 out of total population of 1.3 million ethnic Slovenes.
With the exception of most of Dalmazia, the Treaty of Versailles(1920) after the war mostly granted these areas to Italy.
A contemporary Italian autonomous region, bordering on Slovenia, is still named Friuli-Venezia Giulia, literally meaning "Friuli and Julian Venetia" (The Julian March).
History
From the early Middle Ages to the fall of Venice Republic
With the end of the Roman Empire and the beginning of migration period, the geographical area which will be later included in the Julian March was broken by linguistic borders among speakers of Latin and its dialects, on one side, and new German and Slavic language speakers, moving into the region, on the other. German tribes arrived for the first time in what is now modern Austria and surrounding areas between 4th and 6th centuries. Later on, the slavic migration began; around the 6th century, they appeared on Byzantine borders, and between 6th and 8th century had settled in the Eastern Alps regions. On the east shores of Adriatic sea, the Byzantine empire had set a district, where a few maritime cities developed some autonomy. Slavs failed to submit or integrate with this world, which since then remained largely autonomous from them. This marks the beginning of one of the peculiar linguistic features of these areas, where languages mainly spoken in maritime cities (early local romance languages initially, later Venetian with its many variants and then Italian) are different from those used in surrounding internal areas (where slavic speakers predominated). Later, over many centuries since early Middle Ages on, two main political powers shaped the region: the Republic of Venice and the Habsburg, dukes and later archdukes of Austria.
Since 11th century Venice began building its overseas empire (Stato da Màr), to set up and protect its commercial routes in the Adriatic and south-east Mediterranean seas. Coastal areas of Istria and Dalmazia were key part of these routes[10], since when doge Pietro II Orseolo, around year 1000, established the Venetian rule in the high and middle Adriatic.. Here the Venice presence concentrated on coasts, replacing the byzantine rule and confirming the political and linguistic separation between internal lands and shores.
Later, in 1420, for the first time the Republic began expanding in Italy towards the hinterland (Stato da Tera), acquiring the territory of the Patriarchate of Aquileia, which included a part modern Friuli (current Pordenone and Udine
provinces) and an internal portion of Istria.
The Habsburg held since 1335 the March of Carniola (roughly corresponding to the central Carniolan region of present-day Slovenia), which was part of their lands in Inner Austria. Starting from there, they moved in the following two centuries to gain control over some Istrian cities (Pazin and later Rijeka-Fiume, the port of Trieste with Duino, Gradisca and Gorizia with its County in Friuli.
From the fall of Venice Republic to the end of I World War .
Since the 16th century the region remained relatively stable until the end of the Venetian state following the French invasion in 1797; then the Habsburg monarchy gained Venetian lands in the Istrian Peninsula and the Quarnero (Kvarner) islands, and further expanded it subsequently in 1813, with Napoleon's defeats and the dissolution of French Illyrian provinces, when it gained most of the territories of the Republic, including all of the adriatic littoral, all of Istria, some parts of current Croatia such as the city of Karlstadt.
The Habsburg rule ended political borders which had divided the area for almost 1000 years. These new territories were initially put into the newly born Kingdom of Illyria, which was in turn dissolved in 1849 into a new administrative entity, the Austrian Littoral. This was established as a crown land (Kronland) of the Austrian Empire, consisting of three regions: the Istria peninsula, Gorizia and Gradisca, and the city of Trieste.
The Italian-Austrian war of 1866, which caused the passage of what was then known as Veneto (current Veneto and Friuli regions, except for the province of Gorizia) to Italy, did not impact directly on the Littoral, although a small community of Slavic speakers living in north - east Friuli (an area known as Slavia friulana - Beneška Slovenija) became part of the Kingdom of Italy. Apart from that, the Littoral lasted until the end of the Austrian Empire, in 1918.
Venezia-Giulia
Creation of the region in the Kingdom of Italy (1918–1943)
See also: Treaty of London (1915), Battles of the Isonzo, Slovene minority in Italy (1920–1947), Yugoslav Partisans, and Foibe massacres
Along with both partially and exclusively Slovene ethnic areas in the former Austrian Littoral, in the newly created region were included the County of Gorizia and Gradisca, Trieste, Istria, and the current Italian municipalities of Tarvisio, Pontebba, and Malborghetto Valbruna. With exception of the island of Krk, and the municipality of Kastav, which were given to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Rijeka-Fiume became a city state, called the Free State of Fiume, but was abolished in 1924 and divided between Italy and Yugoslavia.
The new provinces of Gorizia (which was merged with the Province of Udine between 1924 and 1927), Trieste, Pola and Fiume (after 1924), were created. Italianslived mostly in urban areas and along the coast, while Slavs inhabited the hinterland. Fascist persecution, characterised as "centralising, oppressive and dedicated to the forcible Italianisation of the minorities" caused the emigration of around 105,000 Slovenes and Croats from the Julian March, mostly to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (around 70,000), but also to Argentina (some 30,000). On the other hand, several thousand Dalmatian Italians moved from Yugoslavia to Italy after 1918, many of them to Istria and Trieste. In response to the forced Fascist Italianization of Slovene ethnic areas, the Slovene militant anti-Fascist organization TIGR emerged in 1927, co-ordinating the Slovene resistance against Fascist Italy until its dismantlement by the Fascist secret police in 1941, after which some of TIGR ex-members joined the Yugoslav Partisans.
In 1941, in the Province of Ljubljana occupied by Fascist Italy, the Partisans
emerged and spread by 1942 in the rest of the ethnic Slovene areas, annexed by Kingdom of Italy twenty years earlier.
German occupation and resistance (1943–1945)
After the Italian armistice of September 1943, an uprising by the local populations took place in many areas: the town of Gorizia was temporary liberated by the Partisans, while in the Upper Soča Valley, a liberated zone, known as the Kobarid Republic, lasted for three months, between September and November 1943. The German Army started occupying the region, but encountered severe resistance by Yugoslav partisans, especially in the lower Vipava Valley and in the Alpine regions. By winter of 1943, most of the lowlands were occupied by the Nazis, but Yugoslav resistance remained active throughout the region, withdrawing to the mountainous areas.
In the aftermath of the Italian armistice, in autumn of 1943, the first cases of what would later become known as Foibe massacres occurred, mostly in what is today Croatian Istria. There, the Yugoslav Partisans executed several hundred Italian civilians,[citation needed] mostly high ranking Fascist Party members and Italian state officials, but also other individuals alleged of collaboration with the Fascist regime.
In 1943, the Germans established the Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral, which was officially part of the Italian Social Republic, but was de facto under exclusive German administration. Many areas, especially north and north-east of Gorizia were controlled by the Partisan resistance, which was very active also on the Karst Plateau and in the internal areas of Istria. The Nazis tried to repress the Yugoslav guerrilla with brutalities against the civilian population: entire villages were burned down and thousands of people interned in Nazi concentration camps. Nevertheless, the Yugoslav resistance took over most of the region by the spring of 1945. Italian resistance in the Operational Zone was very active in Friuli but much weaker in the Julian March, where it was confined to intelligence and underground resistance in larger towns, especially in Trieste and Pula.
In May 1945 the Yugoslav Army entered Trieste and in the following days, virtually the entire Julian March was occupied by Yugoslav forces. Much retaliation against real and potential political opponents took place, mostly at the expenses of the Italian population.
Contested region (1945–1954)
See also: Morgan Line, Free Territory of Trieste, Foibe massacres, and Istrian exodus
The division of the Julian March between June 1945 and September 1947, with the Morgan Line in red. Western allies adopted the term "Julian March" as the official name for the territories, contested between Italy and the People's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between 1945 and 1947. In June 1945, the Morgan Line was drawn, dividing the region into two militarily administered zones. Zone B was under Yugoslav administration, excluding the cities of Pula, Gorizia, Trieste, the Soča Valley and most of the Karst Plateau, which were under joint British-American administration. During this period, many Italians left the area under Yugoslav occupation, a phenomenon known as the Istrian exodus.
In 1946, U.S. President Harry S. Truman ordered the augmentation of U.S. troops within their occupation zone (Zone A) and the reinforcement of air forces in northern Italy after Yugoslav forces had shot down two US Army transport planes flying over the region.
In 1947, from four proposed solutions, an agreement on the border was reached at the Paris Peace Conference. Yugoslavia acquired all the northern portion of the region east of Gorizia, as well as most of Istria and the city of Fiume.
A Free Territory of Trieste was created, divided into two zones, one under Allied, and the other under Yugoslav military administration. Tensions however continued and in 1954 the Territory was abolished and divided between Italy (which got the city of Trieste and its surroundings) and Yugoslavia.
After 1954
See also: Treaty of Osimo
In Slovenia, the region is referred to as Slovenian Littoral, which is a common denomination for the two traditional regions of Goriška and Slovenian Istria. The name Slovenian Littoral is sometimes extended to comprise the Slovene-speaking territories in the Provinces of Gorizia and Trieste. In Croatia, only the traditional name of Istria is used. After the division of 1947 and 1954, the term "Julian March" survived in the name of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. This is however only a formal designation, since no official borders between Friuli and the Julian March exist within the region, and their historical borders overlap (both include the province of Gorizia).
