A Contribution to the Plan for a Synthesis of the History of (Croatian) Istria in the Period of the Kingdom of Italy

Abstract

In his article the author presents us with a comprehensive overview of the landmarks of the development of (Croatian) Istria in the period between World War I and II. The developments during this period are connected to the past of this region as up until the year 1797, the Istrian peninsula was divided up between the Venetian and the Hapsburg Monarchy. From the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918, up until 1943, Istria shared the destiny of other Slovene and Croatian territories which were under the rule of the Kingdom of Italy. The organized ethnic cleansing of the majority of the Croatian population begun in this period was financed by the state and continued even more brutally by the Fascists. Thus, armed attempts at resistance and other resistance movements were smothered in blood, Croatian institutions destroyed, violent means implemented, and denationalization legalized. The National Liberation War started in Istria in 1941 and the first detachment of resistance fighters was formed in 1942. After the collapse of Italy in September 1943, the Provincial National Liberation Committee independently declared the secession of Croatian Istria from Italy and its unification with the Croatian homeland in Yugoslavia. The declaration was ratified at the Second Meeting of the Anti-Fascist Council of the National Liberation of Yugoslavia.