Changes

The history of Dalmatia is compromised by strategic interests and political correctness. The current ignorance about the eastern Adriatic coast is appalling and widespread. It is, in short, the consequence of a “damnatio memoriae” of political nature. On one side, in the West nobody knows the real history of the region. On the other side, ”’today a phalanx of nationalistic Croatian historians, political leaders, journalists and tourist operators, profiting from this vacuum are erasing, falsifying and misappropriating the real history on an international level using books, newspapers, tourist propaganda and Internet sites”’.  

The history of Dalmatia is compromised by strategic interests and political correctness. The current ignorance about the eastern Adriatic coast is appalling and widespread. It is, in short, the consequence of a “damnatio memoriae” of political nature. On one side, in the West nobody knows the real history of the region. On the other side, ”’today a phalanx of nationalistic Croatian historians, political leaders, journalists and tourist operators, profiting from this vacuum are erasing, falsifying and misappropriating the real history on an international level using books, newspapers, tourist propaganda and Internet sites”’.  

=== The the late 1800’s. ===

=== The late 1800’s. ===

   

   

Today’s Croatian coastline in the second half of the 1800’s Towns had Italian names:

Today’s Croatian coastline in the second half of the 1800’s Towns had Italian names:

'''Helped''' by the [[Austria|Austrian]] government (then all Eastern Adriatic coastline was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), Croatians launched a political campaign against the “Italian Dalmatia” to annex the territory. Since the beginning it was an integral part of the political national aspirations of Croatians struggling to form their own state. It continued to be so during the turbulent formation of the first, monarchic, Yugoslavia, when Croatia accepted willy-nilly the Serbian domination. The Serbs and the Croatians continued the assault, violent, almost a civil war-against all Dalmatian towns inhabited by ethnic Italians.  

'''Helped''' by the [[Austria|Austrian]] government (then all Eastern Adriatic coastline was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), Croatians launched a political campaign against the “Italian Dalmatia” to annex the territory. Since the beginning it was an integral part of the political national aspirations of Croatians struggling to form their own state. It continued to be so during the turbulent formation of the first, monarchic, Yugoslavia, when Croatia accepted willy-nilly the Serbian domination. The Serbs and the Croatians continued the assault, violent, almost a civil war-against all Dalmatian towns inhabited by ethnic Italians.  

Following a first exodus toward the end of the 1800s, in 1905 in Rome a ''Dalmatian Italian Association'' to help the refugees was founded. Then, after [[World War I|World War One]] tens of thousands of Dalmatian Italians abandoned their towns and villages in 1920-1930s and settled on Italian territory. During [[World War Two]] a third and final exodus.  

Following a first exodus toward the end of the 1800s, in 1905 in Rome a ''Dalmatian Italian Association'' to help the refugees was founded. Then, after [[World War I|World War One]] tens of thousands of Dalmatian Italians abandoned their towns and villages in 1920-1930s and settled on Italian territory. During [[World War Two]] a third and final exodus.

 

===Yugoslav Communist===

===Yugoslav Communist===

The winning [[Communists|Communist]] movement embraced the Croatian’s irredentist cause and included it in its war strategy and national political platform. The consequence was the violent expulsion of  Italian<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=RWZLZaxPUXQC&pg=PA17&dq=Communist+Retaliation+and+Persecution+on+Yugoslav+Territory+During+and+After+germans&lr=lang_en&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=true Retaliation and Persecution on Yugoslav Territory During and After WWII Dr. Ph. Michael Portmann] -The following article deals with repressive measures undertaken by communist-dominated Partisan forces during and especially after WWII in order to take revenge on former enemies, to punish collaborators, and “people’s enemies“ and to decimate and eliminate the potential of opponents to a new, socialist Yugoslavia. The text represents a summary of a master thesis referring to the above-mentioned topic written and accepted at '''Vienna University''' in 2002.</ref><ref>[http://books.google.be/books?id=hhD0R8DBr_UC&pg=PA89&vq=trieste&dq=%22In+Opicina,+after+a+bomb&source=gbs_search_s&cad=0 A Tragedy Revealed''] The Story of the Italian Population of Istria & Dalmatia by Arrigo Petacco & Konrad Eisenbichler. Page 89</ref> speaking autochthonous inhabitants from the entire Eastern Adriatic coastline - from the southern Dalmatia to the Istrian peninsula - and the consequential erasing of two millennia of a very rich civilisation. Ethnic cleansing had happened in many parts of Europe in both old and modern times, so the demographic and cultural extirpation of Italian presence in Dalmatia, the Quarnero region and Istria is not really a new phenomena. But this slow, brutal and in 1945 also military operation had an unexpected development, something very peculiar. After erasing almost all the Italian speaking population in Dalmatia proper, without succeeding completely in the Quarner region and Istria, [[Titoism and Totalitarianism|Communist Yugoslavia]] adapted a new form of genocide: the stealing of the “enemy’s” history in order to obliterate his memory and aggrandise the country. Completely ignored in the West, this skulduggery is a new Pandora’s box-Balkan style.  

The winning [[Communists|Communist]] movement embraced the Croatian’s irredentist cause and included it in its war strategy and national political platform. The consequence was the violent expulsion of  Italian<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=RWZLZaxPUXQC&pg=PA17&dq=Communist+Retaliation+and+Persecution+on+Yugoslav+Territory+During+and+After+germans&lr=lang_en&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=true Retaliation and Persecution on Yugoslav Territory During and After WWII Dr. Ph. Michael Portmann] -The following article deals with repressive measures undertaken by communist-dominated Partisan forces during and especially after WWII in order to take revenge on former enemies, to punish collaborators, and “people’s enemies“ and to decimate and eliminate the potential of opponents to a new, socialist Yugoslavia. The text represents a summary of a master thesis referring to the above-mentioned topic written and accepted at '''Vienna University''' in 2002.</ref><ref>[http://books.google.be/books?id=hhD0R8DBr_UC&pg=PA89&vq=trieste&dq=%22In+Opicina,+after+a+bomb&source=gbs_search_s&cad=0 A Tragedy Revealed''] The Story of the Italian Population of Istria & Dalmatia by Arrigo Petacco & Konrad Eisenbichler. Page 89</ref> speaking autochthonous inhabitants from the entire Eastern Adriatic coastline - from the southern Dalmatia to the Istrian peninsula - and the consequential erasing of two millennia of a very rich civilisation. Ethnic cleansing had happened in many parts of Europe in both old and modern times, so the demographic and cultural extirpation of Italian presence in Dalmatia, the Quarnero region and Istria is not really a new phenomena. But this slow, brutal and in 1945 also military operation had an unexpected development, something very peculiar. After erasing almost all the Italian speaking population in Dalmatia proper, without succeeding completely in the Quarner region and Istria, [[Titoism and Totalitarianism|Communist Yugoslavia]] adapted a new form of genocide: the stealing of the “enemy’s” history in order to obliterate his memory and aggrandise the country. Completely ignored in the West, this skulduggery is a new Pandora’s box-Balkan style.