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| − | == Editing Incidents of Spalato ==
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| − | '''Incidents of Spalato''' refer to a series of ethnic disturbances, revolts and fights that happened in the [[Dalmatia]]n city of Spalato (now called [[Split, Croatia|Split]]) after [[WWI]]. The incidents were between the [[Italy|Italians]] and the [[Jugoslavia|Slavs]] for the control of the city.
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| − | ===Political background===
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| − | The incidents of Spalato were a group of violent fights -related to [[antiitalianism]]- that happenned in Spalato between 1918 and 1920 and that resulted in the murder of the Italian military ship "Puglia" captain, Tommaso Gulli (and a sailor named Aldo Rossi). He was hit on july 11, 1920 and was dead the next morning.
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| − | These fightings 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 jugoslavian [[nationalism]] at the end of the XIX century created a bloody confrontation in the Adriatic area.
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| − | 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:
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| − | {{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>}}
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| − | [[Image:antonio.bajamonti.jpg|thumb|right|400px|[[Antonio Bajamonti]], the last Italian major of Spalato]]
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| − | [[WWI]] and the related Italian victory, not welcomed by the Jugoslavians, were the events preceding the incidents of Spalato.
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| − | ===Italians of Spalato===
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| − | In the city of Spalato there was an [[Dalmatian Italians|autochtonous Italian community]], which was reorganized in November 1918 through the foundation of the "Spalato Fascist Party" (led by the [[Fascism|fascists]] Leonardo Pezzoli, Antonio Tacconi, Edoardo Pervan e Stefano Selem) from the ashes of the [[Autonomist Party (Dalmatia)|"Autonomist Party"]], dissolved by the Austrian authorities in 1915.
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| − | 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.
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| − | This census data had understated the number of Italians in the city area and this mistake seems to be confirmed by a series of subsequent events. Indeed -following the [[Treaty of Rapallo (1920)|Treaty of Rapallo]]- the Italians of Dalmatia could opt for the acquisition of Italian citizenship instead of the Jugoslavian one, while maintaining residence: despite a violent campaign of intimidation on the part of Jugoslavia, over 900 families of Italian speaking "Spalatini" had exercised the option to be Italians.<ref>Luciano Monzali.''Antonio Tacconi e la comunità italiana di Spalato'' p. 165</ref> Furthermore, in 1927 was carried out a Census of Italians living outside Italy: in Spalato and surrounding area were counted 3,337 Italian citizens.<ref>Luciano Monzali. ''Antonio Tacconi e la comunità italiana di Spalato'' p.167</ref>
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| − | So, given that about 1,000 Italians (with their families) left the city following its incorporation into the [[Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes]], and estimating a certain percentage of Italians who accepted the "forced" Jugoslavian citizenship, it is really possible that 7,000 Italians in the Spalato area -as said by Antonio Tacconi- obtained membership in Italian associations of Spalato in 1918/1919: this amount is more than 3 times the data from the 1910 Austrian Census.
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| − | ===History===
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| − | After the Austrian defeat, in the first half of November 1918 Italian troops occupied the Dalmatian territories assigned to Italy by the 1915 [[London Pact|Pact of London]].<ref>L. Monzali, ''Italiani di Dalmazia. 1914-1924''(section: ''Un difficile dopoguerra. L'occupazione italiana della Dalmazia settentrionale'') p. 50</ref> Spalato (the city was officially called "Split" only after the 1919 [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]]) was not one of those areas, but the Italians sent some ships and occupied the city as agreed with the Allies.
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| − | The jugoslavian nationalists, who controlled the city with their "National Guard", soon showed huge hostility toward the Italian troops, fearing they could remain forever in the city. Even the arrival of slav [[refugees]] from the London Pact italian-occupied areas increased the tensions: those refugees were responsible for most of the incidents in the next 2 years.<ref>G. Menini, ''Passione adriatica. Ricordi di Dalmazia 1918-1920''</ref>
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| − | [[Image:SPLIT-Overall view 1910.jpg|thumb|right|400px|View of Spalato in the 1910s]]
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| − | On November 9, 1918 two French [[destroyer]] entered the port of Spalato. The Italians - mostly concentrated within the old city - exposed on the windows of their homes the [[Italian Flag|Italian tricolor]] and went to the harbor to celebrate the [[Triple Entente]]. But the reaction of the Jugoslavian National Guard was immediate: they entered by force in the apartments, tore down the flags, beat some of those present and damaged the furniture. Meanwhile, the Austrian commander of a ship already docked at the port (and now with Jugoslavian flag) ordered with the megaphone to remove the flags, threatening to open fire.<ref>The whole episode is described in L. Monzali,''Antonio Tacconi e la comunita italiana di Spalato'' p. 110</ref>
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| − | This was the first of a long series of incidents, which also saw the creation of a classic pattern of propaganda that would be found very often in the next months: the Croatian newspapers - and especially the most extreme of them, ''Novo Doba'',<ref>Novo Doba. ''Split in the interwar period'' of Z. Jelaska.(''the oblique Vrste nasilja u Splitu svjetska između dva rata'' in Istriae Acta, 10, 2002) p.391</ref> denounced the "Italian provocation". The Italians, however, created a complaint report and forwarded it to the Allies.<ref>L. Monzali,''Italians of Dalmatia'' p.69</ref> In the following days the municipal Croatian authorities of Spalato were forced to submit a formal apology for the incident.
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| − | But other incidents and demonstrations against Italy and the Dalmatian Italians happened in other cities, like [[Trogir|Trau]] and the "Castelli". The worst happened on December 23 when groups of fanatical Slavs destroyed the offices of the main Italian institutions in Spalato (the "Fascio Nazionale", the "Gabinetto di Lettura" and the "Società Operaia") and hit many dozens of Italians on the streets, while destroying a lot of Italian-owned shops. The same happened on january 6, 1919 in Trau.<ref>Luciano Monzali. ''Antonio Tacconi e la comunita italiana di Spalato''. p. 113-114</ref>
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| − | Italian Admiral [[Enrico Millo]], who was just promoted to Governor of Dalmatia for the area occupied by Italy, quickly sent ships to defend the Italians of Spalato: on January 12 arrived the destroyer "Puglia" in the port of the city, between huge protests from the Slav community.<ref>Silvio Salza. ''La marina italiana nella grande guerra'' p.808</ref>
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| − | On February 24, while an "Allies Commission for the Adriatic" (made of US admiral [[Albert P. Niblack]], French admiral Jean-Etienne-Charles-Marcel Ratyè, British admiral Edward Burton Kiddle and Italian admiral Umberto Cagni) was visiting Spalato, a huge group of Slavs -in order to show that they were the majority in Spalato and rejected the Italians- attacked the Italian sailors of the "Puglia": the captain Giulio Menini was hit together with some Italians walking on the nearby streets, and again were damaged some shops owned by the Italian community.<ref>G.Menini, ''Passione adriatica. Ricordi di Dalmazia 1918-1920'' p.82-83</ref> The Croatian authorities were forced to do another apology and until summer there were only minor incidents.
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| − | But on September 12 [[Gabriele D'Annunzio]] occupied Fiume (actual [[Rijeka]]) and later went even to [[Zadar|Zara]]. As a consequence the Italian count Fanfogna organized a similar tentative of occupation in [[Trogir|Trau]] <ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F1061FFD3D5C1A718DDDA10A94D1405B898DF1D3 New York Times: Count Fanfogna "Dictator" of Trau]</ref> and the Slavs of Spalato feared something similar was going to happen in their city: tensions arose and other incidents against the Italians happened in Spalato in November (the "Caffe Nani" was destroyed and many Italian owned shop were damaged.<ref>G.Menini, ''Passione adriatica. Ricordi di Dalmazia 1918-1920'' p.187-188</ref>)
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| − | ===The murder of captain Tommaso Gulli===
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| − | Until the beginning of 1920 the Italians of Spalato never attacked the Slavs (even because of obvious numerical inferiority) and were harrassed by Croatian nationalists continuously, as has happened since the end of the XIX century in all Dalmatia<ref>[http://xoomer.alice.it/histria/storiaecultura/testiedocumenti/bombardieritesti/particolari_dalmazia.htm Attacks on Dalmatian Italians before WWI (in Italian)]</ref>
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| − | But after the attack of January 27, 1920 in which were damaged nearly all the Italian-owned shops and the offices of Italian institutions, some Italian sailors of the "Puglia" now under the command of captain Tommaso Gulli, started to defend themselves and the Dalmatian Italians menacing to use their guns.
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| − | On July 27 another attack against the Italians of Spalato was done and a group of officials of the "Puglia" found refuge in a place near the docks: captain Gulli ordered a boat to rescue them, but it was blocked by some Slavs and was forced to fire "alarm shots" in the sky to get help<ref>G.Menini, Passione adriatica.'' p.207</ref>
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| − | [[Image:Narodni dom triest.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The Hotel Balkan (called in Slovenian "Narodni dom") was destroyed in Trieste the day after Tommaso Gulli's murder]]
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| − | Soon Gulli went to the rescue with a [[MAS (boat)|MAS]], but approaching the docks found a huge crowd of nationalist Slavs. Shots were fired to the Italians and for the first time they returned fire. A hand granade was thrown to the Mas and hit the sailor Aldo Rossi and others.<ref>L.Monzali. ''Antonio Tacconi e la comunità italiana di Spalato'' p.137</ref>
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| − | Another shot hit captain Gulli, while the Italians killed a man on the docks, whose name was Matej Mis. Anyway, many versions about wat happened were done in the next days, by the Jugoslavians and by the Italians.
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| − | Captain Gulli was helped in a Hospital but died the next day, while sailor Rossi survived only a few hours.<ref>L.Monzali, ''Antonio Tacconi e la comunità italiana di Spalato'' p.208</ref>
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| − | In the Kingdom of Italy the reaction to what happened in Spalato was of rage and indignation: in [[Trieste]] fascists and nationalists attacked the Hotel Balkan (called in [[Slovenian language|Slovenian]] "Narodni dom" and center of the Slav activities in Trieste) the next day.
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| − | In the following years the Italians of Spalato -under the Jugoslavian rule of "Split", as was officially called the city- were continuously harrassed in their institutions, schools and shops & business: they declined in a slow but steady way.<ref>Read ''Il lento declino. Gli italiani di Spalato 1922-1935'' in L.Monzali, ''Antonio Tacconi e la comunità italiana di Spalato'' p. 235</ref>
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| | ==Notes== | | ==Notes== |