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[[Image:SPLIT-City plan 1912.jpg|thumb|right|400px| Split during WWI. In the map can be seen the original four quarters: Borgo Grande, Borgo Luciaz, Borgo Manus and Borgo Pozzobon]]

In '''1918–1920''', a series of '''incidents took place at Spalato''' (now Split) between [[Dalmatian Italians]] and local South Slavs fighting for the control of the city.

 

[[Image:SPLIT-City plan 1912.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Spalato (now called [[Split, Croatia|Split]]) during WWI. In the map can be seen the original four quarters: Borgo Grande, Borgo Luciaz, Borgo Manus and Borgo Pozzobon]]

In '''1918–1920''', a series of '''incidents took place at Spalato''' (now [[Split, Croatia|Split]]) between [[Dalmatian Italians]] and local [[South Slavs]] fighting for the control of the city.

==Political background==

==Political background==

The incidents of Spalato were a group of violent fights – related to [[antiitalianism]] – that happened in Spalato between 1918 and 1920 and that resulted in the killing of Captain Tommaso Gulli of the Italian military ship "Puglia" (and a sailor named Aldo Rossi). He was hit on July 11, 1920 and was dead the next morning.

The incidents of Spalato were a group of violent fights – related to antiitalianism – that happened in Split between 1918 and 1920 and that resulted in the killing of Captain Tommaso Gulli of the Italian military ship "Puglia" (and a sailor named Aldo Rossi). He was hit on July 11, 1920 and was dead the next morning.

These battles belong to a centuries-long struggle for the control of the Adriatic eastern coast between Slavs (mainly [[Croats]] and [[Slovenians]]) and Italians. A struggle that hugely increased during the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]], when the [[Italian irredentism]] and the Yugoslavian nationalism at the end of the XIX century created a bloody confrontation in the Adriatic area.  

These battles belong to a centuries-long struggle for the control of the Adriatic eastern coast between Slavs (mainly Croats and Slovenians) and Italians. A struggle that hugely increased during the [[Austria|Austro]]-Hungarian Empire]], when the Italian irredentism and the Yugoslavian nationalism at the end of the XIX century created a bloody confrontation in the Adriatic area.  

Indeed, during the second half of the XIX century in Spalato there was the struggle between the [[Autonomist Party (Dalmatia)|"Autonomist Party"]] pro-Italians and the [[People's Party (Dalmatia)|"National Party"]] pro-Slavs: the last Italian major was [[Antonio Bajamonti]] in 1882 and since then the city had experienced a process of [[Croatization]]. Bajamonti, the most prominent [[Dalmatian Italian]] in History, once remarked:

Indeed, during the second half of the XIX century in Spalato there was the struggle between the [[Autonomist Party (Dalmatia)|"Autonomist Party"]] pro-Italians and the [[People's Party (Dalmatia)|"National Party"]] pro-Slavs: the last Italian major was [[Antonio Bajamonti]] in 1882 and since then the city had experienced a process of [[Croatization]]. Bajamonti, the most prominent [[Dalmatian Italian]] in History, once remarked:

{{blockquote|No joy, only pain and tears, is brought by being a part of the Italian Party in Dalmatia. We, the Italians of Dalmatia, retain a single right: to suffer.<ref>A.Bajamonti, ''Discorso inaugurale della Società Politica dalmata'', Spalato 1886</ref>}}

{{blockquote|No joy, only pain and tears, is brought by being a part of the Italian Party in Dalmatia. We, the Italians of Dalmatia, retain a single right: to suffer.<ref>A.Bajamonti, ''Discorso inaugurale della Società Politica dalmata'', Spalato 1886</ref>}}

[[Image:antonio.bajamonti.jpg|thumb|right|400px|[[Antonio Bajamonti]], the last Italian major of Spalato]]

[[Image:antonio.bajamonti.jpg|thumb|right|400px|[[Antonio Bajamonti]], the last Italian major of Split]]

World War I and the related Italian victory, not welcomed by the Yugoslavians, were the events preceding the incidents of Spalato.

World War I and the related Italian victory, not welcomed by the Slavs, were the events preceding the incidents of Split.

==Italians of Spalato==

==Italians of Spalato==

In the city of Spalato there was an [[Dalmatian Italians|autochthonous Italian community]], which was reorganized in November 1918 through the foundation of the "National Fasces" (not to be confused with [[Fascism]]) led by Leonardo Pezzoli, Antonio Tacconi, Edoardo Pervan and Stefano Selem) from the ashes of the [[Autonomist Party (Dalmatia)|"Autonomist Party"]], dissolved by the Austrian authorities in 1915.

In the city of Split there was an [[Dalmatian Italians|autochthonous Italian community]], which was reorganized in November 1918 through the foundation of the "National Fasces" (not to be confused with [[Fascism]]) led by Leonardo Pezzoli, Antonio Tacconi, Edoardo Pervan and Stefano Selem) from the ashes of the [[Autonomist Party (Dalmatia)|"Autonomist Party"]], dissolved by the Austrian authorities in 1915.

There were 2,082 Italians in Spalato according to the 1910 Austrian Census and they were only the 9.73% of the total population,<ref>G.Perselli, ''I censimenti della popolazione dell'Istria, con Fiume e Trieste, e di alcune città della Dalmazia tra il 1850 e il 1936'', Unione Italiana Fiume-Università Popolare di Trieste, Trieste-Rovigno 1993.</ref> but they had the best economic status in the Spalato society.

There were 2,082 Italians in Spalato according to the 1910 Austrian Census and they were only the 9.73% of the total population,<ref>G.Perselli, ''I censimenti della popolazione dell'Istria, con Fiume e Trieste, e di alcune città della Dalmazia tra il 1850 e il 1936'', Unione Italiana Fiume-Università Popolare di Trieste, Trieste-Rovigno 1993.</ref> but they had the best economic status in the Spalato society.

==See also==

==See also==

* [[Dalmatian Italians]]

* [[Dalmatian Italians]]

* [http://www.prassi.cnr.it/prassi/content.html?id=2236 ''L'incidente di Spalato e reazione a Trieste'', in ''Prassi italiana di diritto internazionale'', 1356/3 (in Italian)]

* [http://www.prassi.cnr.it/prassi/content.html?id=2236 ''L'incidente di Spalato e reazione a Trieste'', in ''Prassi italiana di diritto internazionale'', 1356/3 (in Italian)]

* [http://www.brancadori.eu/Immagini/Viaggi/Museo%20Venezia/Museo_navale_VE%20(29).JPG Italian Navy: Torpediniera "Puglia"]

* [http://www.brancadori.eu/Immagini/Viaggi/Museo%20Venezia/Museo_navale_VE%20(29).JPG Italian Navy: Torpediniera "Puglia"]