to Italy in 1915 included
the Istrian Peninsula (center)
On February 10, 1947 a defeated Italy had to surrender nearly 3,000 square miles of the homeland to Yugoslavia. The Istrian peninsula had been added to Italy only three decades before, as a reward for its victory in the First World War.
But Istria already had Italic roots. It was part of “Unredeemed Italy” (Italia Irredenta). Under Emperor Augustus, Istria was incorporated into the region of Venetia et Histria, as part of Roman Italy. Roman scholar Pliny the Elder mentioned the grapes of the wine Pulcino (Vinum Pucinum), probably today’s Prosecco, which were grown there. Istrian Italians descend from Roman colonists as well as the indigenous Latinized population of Roman Histria and from Italic settlers from the time of the Republic of Venice which held the area from AD 930 to 1797.
Hundreds of thousands of Italians began fleeing Istria when Yugoslav Communists entered the area in 1945, hell-bent on ethnic cleansing originally aimed at Fascist families and Slavic collaborators. Eventually, the ‘cleansing’ (murders) included any Italians; the fewer living on the Istrian Peninsula the less likely Italy would be left in possession. Thousands were slaughtered utilizing the natural foibe (rock crevasses) to hide bodies in some cases, but mostly dumped in mass graves. The Italian Communist Party suppressed the story until it was exposed in 2004.
A treaty between Italy and the Allies was finalized in 1947 which doomed the surviving Italian population and left Italy with only the city of Trieste. Among the celebrities that fled were chef Lidia Matticchio (Bastianich), race car driver Mario Andretti, Olympic Gold Medal boxer Nino Benvenuti (1960), and a host of Italian screen personalities and intellectuals. With the breakup of Yugoslavia, Istria was divided between Croatia and Slovenia (homeland of Melania Trump).
Surrendering Istria was the last thing the group that ousted Mussolini in 1943 thought the defeated Italy would suffer. The “plan” by King Victor Emmanuel and his new Prime Minister, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, was to jail Mussolini and switch sides in the war. Surely, the Allies would welcome Italian cooperation against the Germans and have pity. The Italian colonies would have to go but not metropolitan Italy. Unfortunately, their half-baked strategy not only made Italy a horrific battleground for two years and unleashed a civil war, but it left open Istria to Yugoslav Communists. The Americans, British, and French may have had sympathy for Italians but they had to contend with Stalin and Tito, the Yugoslav leader. Prostrate Italy was the pawn.
Will Istria ever return to Italy? History takes many an odd turn. -JLM
tragically “ethnic cleansing” works.(just consider President Andrew Jackson and his expulsion of native Americans west of the Mississippi…). I don’t think there is any sizable Italian population in the area to worry about today, and now there are quite a lot of Roman tourist sites to generate revenue………The other thing I recall of the area was in Trieste, all the smuggling that was going on. Every Yugoslavian car was stuffed to the brim inside panels with goods, along with wearing 3 and 4 pairs of pants and shirts….., on and on……and as soon as they got into Yugoslavia they had to change all the clothes……especially Levi jeans…..this was in the late 60’s early 70’s. i am sure the authorities knew what was going on…………ironically too Croatian Fascist were allies of Hitler and Mussolini, and Tito was bent on revenge……it truly was a political cauldron….and of course boiled over after Tito’s death…..