Since the early 1800s started to appear the Croatian nationalism, soon in fight with the Italian nationalism: in one century and half of wars and political battles of every kind the Dalmatian Italians disappeared (being reduced in the Croatian census of 2011 to a few hundreds in an area that has nearly one million inhabitants!). This fact has originated the suspicion that the disappearance of the Dalmatian Italians could be related to an "ethnocide" (read in Italian: http://www.mlhistria.altervista.org/storiaecultura/testiedocumenti/tesiscaglioni/tesi.htm).
The cities on the Adriatic's coast (mainly Zara/Zadar & Spalato/Split) were populated by the most educated and instructed Dalmatia's Italians and so are the only that still have Italians residents living there in 2023. But the islands were populated by poor sailors and farmers and now have no more Italians living there, because all have been reduced to emigrate or to be "assimilated" by the croatian majority (let's remember that it is very difficult to force a "graduated" to change ethnicity for him/her and/or for his/her descendants!). This is the case -for example- of Lissa/Vis, a central dalmatian island that -according to the Lieutenant Colonel George Duncan Robertson, who occupied Lissa in 1812 for the British empire- was "populated by very friendly but also extremely poor venetian speaking people" (please read https://www.jstor.org/stable/44229394): now the island has no more romance speaking inhabitants.
The natural borders of Italy include the Dalmatia islands, according to the italian irredentism (to the map should be added the islands of Saseno and Corfu in front of Albania)
First of all, allow me to dedicate this issue to a Croat named "Neno", who -as he wrote, but I am not 100% sure- has some roots in the dalmatian Italians who lived in Lissa (actually called "Vis" in croatian language). He is very well informed about the Lissa history during the XIX & XX century and writes in a perfect italian language (to the point that sometimes I think he "is" italian!)
So, let's start remembering that, as we all know, the full Dalmatia was romanised when started the first barbarian invasions around the VII century, according to Theodore Mommsen (in his masterpiece "The Provinces of the Roman Empire"). The dalmatian islands were the main refuge (from these early Slav attacks) of many romance speaking inhabitants during these early Middle Ages centuries. However the first Croats who settled in the Dalmatian islands were a minority that was "assimilated" by the majority of the neolatin population (called "Dalmatian latins") before the X century. Only in the south dalmatian islands there was a huge presence of Croats (who were only partially assimilated): the "Narentane pirats", mainly in the Brazza/Brac, Lesina/Hvar and Curzola/Korcula islands.
It is indicative - in order to reject the many lies and exagerations written by the croatian propaganda, mainly during the Tito years- what wrote the arab Al Idrisi about the ethnic composition of the Dalmatian islands in the late Medioeval years:
The population of Dalmatia in the XII century
(The following is a description of Dalmatia from the famous “Book of Roger” (Tabula Rogeriana), written by the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi at the court of King Roger II of Sicily in 1154)
In his descriptions Al Idrisi made a clear distinction between the Slavs and the Dalmatians – the term ‘Dalmatian’ refers to the autochthonous Latin-speaking population who descended from the original Roman inhabitants.
Al-Idrisi wrote which towns and cities were inhabited by Slavs and which were inhabited by Dalmatians. The Dalmatians predominated in almost all the major towns and cities of Dalmatia (Zara, Spalato, Traù, Lissa, Ragusa, Cattaro), while the Slavs inhabited only one city (Antivari) and a couple of minor towns.
According to Al Idrisi, this was the ethnic composition (of autochthonous Dalmatian latins and immigrated Croats) of the Dalmatia islands in the XII century:
Castelmuschio (Veglia/Krk) - Populated by Dalmatians
Lussino/Lusinj - Populated by Dalmatians and a few Croats
Cherso/Chres - Populated by Dalmatians
Arbe/Rab - Populated by Dalmatians
Zaton-Aenona/Nin - Populated by Dalmatians
Spalato/Split - Populated by Dalmatians and a few Croats
Traù Vecchia/Trogir old - Populated by Dalmatians
Traù/Trogir - Populated by Dalmatians
Lissa/Vis - Populated by Dalmatians
Brazza/Brac - Populated by Croats and a few Dalmatians
Lesina/Hvar - Populated by Croats and Dalmatians
Curzola/Korcula - Populated by Dalmatians and a few Croats
Additionally, his contemporary William of Tyre, in his chronicle Historia, described Dalmatia this way: “Dalmatia is inhabited by a very fierce people, given over to plunder and murder. ...with the exception of those who live on the coast and who differ from the rest in customs and language. Those on the coast use the Latin language, while the others (in the hinterland) use the Slavonic tongue and have the habits of barbarians.”
Furthermore, in these centuries after the year 1000 AD, the Dalmatian language started to disappear, assimilated by the Venetian dialect. Dalmatian was spoken on the Dalmatian coast from Fiume (now Rijeka) as far south as Cottorum (Kotor) in Montenegro. Speakers lived mainly in the coastal towns of Jadera (Zadar), Tragurium (Trogir), Spalatum (Split), Ragusium (Dubrovnik), and also on the islands of Curicta-Veglia (Krk), Crepsa-Cherso (Cres), and Arba-Arbe (Rab). Almost every city developed its own dialect, but the most important dialects now known were "Vegliot", a northern dialect spoken on the island of Curicta-Veglia KrK), and "Ragusan", a southern dialect spoken in and around Ragusa (Dubrovnik). The last speaker of this romance language -Tuone Udaina- died in Veglia/Krk in 1898, after being interviewed by yhe italian linguist Matteo Bartoli.
It is noteworthy to remember that in those centuries there was a huge influence in all Dalmatia from southern Italy (mainly because of commerce): if interested , please read: http://istria-fiume-dalmatia.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-cultural-ties-between-dalmatia-and.html .
After the XII century the terrible epidemies ("Black death". etc..) that hit Europe depopulated the Dalmatian islands and with the Ottoman invasion of the Balkans many Slavs settled in these depopulated Dalmatian islands, changing forever the local ethnic composition that has been always with a romance speaking majority.
When the Republic of Venice ended in 1797 there were only a few dalmatian islands with a majority of romance speaking inhabitants: Cherso (Chres), Veglia (Krk) and Lussino (Lusinj) in the north with Lissa (Vis) in the center of Dalmatia. But a huge minority was still present in the islands of Arbe (Rab), Ugliano (Uglian) and Pago (Pag) in the north & Lesina (Hvar) in the south, while Trau (Trogir), Brazza (Brac) Curzola (Korcula) and Lagosta (Lastovo) had some small minorities. The french occupied the region and united all Dalmatia to their kingdom of Italy. In all Dalmatia nearly one third was italian speaking in those years of the Napoleon's kingdom of Italy, according to the famous linguist Bartoli (Bartoli, Matteo. "Le parlate italiane della Venezia Giulia e della Dalmazia". p.46).
The XIX century and the beginning of the disappearance
The croatian historian Pericic (Š.Peričić, "O broju Talijana/talijanaša u Dalmaciji XIX". stoljeća, in Radovi Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Zadru, n. 45/2003, p. 342) wrote that in 1809 there were 75000 native speakers of italian in Dalmatia, a region that had 250000 inhabitants: that means that in the region nearly 30% were italians and 70% croatians.
In the middle of the XIX century the historian F. Pagliacco wrote that "A.Schmidl in «Koenigreich DalmatienJJ (Stuttgart, 1842) su una popolazione della Dalmazia di 375.000 anime dà 320.000 slavi e oltre 45.000 italiani.........Schmidtl in 1842 published in his Koenigreich Dalmatien that the population of Dalmatia was 375000 with 320000 Slavs and more than 45000 italians". That means that the romance speaking population was only about 20% after some decades of austrian rule. Indeed, he also wrote that since the Dalmatian islands were occupied by the Austrian empire with the Napoleon defeat, the romance population started to be harassed, with a reduction that started in great percentages mainly after 1861 when was created the kingom of Italy.
The reason of this initial reduction of the romance speaking population in the dalmatian islands during the first seven decades of the XIX century: the higher fertility rate (and immigration from the poor Dinaric Alps) of the Croats, the emigration of the Italians to the more rich northern Italy (and to the Americas), but also the beginning of the nationalism in the croatian society. Nationalism that was initially promoted by the croatian clergy (as can be understood in the following excerpts)
The following are sections from a book written by Nino Bracco about Lussino island (and his town Neresine/Nerezine):
In Cherso and Lussino, the first political problems began to arise after the annexation of Istria and Dalmazia by Austria, after the fall of Napoleon, but especially after the outbreak of Italian revolutionary independence movements, (and other parts of Europe) in the first half of 1800. In this period the central government of Vienna began to fear the spread of the legitimate national aspirations of the various subjected peoples, especially fearing the extension of irredentism in their Italian territorial possessions, where the Italian language, and prevailing culture was Italian as in the territories of Trento, Trieste, Istria, and Dalmatia. In these regions, then began an intense policy of "deitalianization", with the intensification of police controls, and strong political restrictions with discrimination against Italioan speaking people, to which was added, in areas of lower Italian cultural prevalence (like in the Dalmatian islands), even a strong policy of Slavenisation, based on the ancient teaching of the Romans "divide et impera", and on the supposed easier subjugation of Slavic peoples, less acculturated, and less contaminated with "germs" of the French Revolution.
......Drastic measures in Istria, and Dalmatia: The first drastic action given by this anti-italian policy was the decision of the Government of Vienna, taken in 1825, to separate administratively and politically the three islands of Quarnero (Cherso, Lussino and Veglia) from the rest of Dalmatia, which was already at an advanced stage Slsvenisation. This was done also for natural reasons and territorial ethnicity, by passing the new northern boundary of Dalmatia between the islands of Veglia (Krk), and that of Arbe (Rab), and between the islands of Cherso and Lussino with the island of Pago. Simultaneously, in 1825 was formed the Captaincy of Lussino which joined the Mangraviato of Istria, from which depended these three main islands of Quarnero: Veglia, Cherso and Lussino. This separation was dictated by the will of the government of Habsburg: croatize the stubbornly "Italian" Dalmatian possessions. Not by chance was chosen as the focus of this policy the most Italian of the three islands, namely that of Veglia, where was also established the new bishopry for the region, removed from Ossero, with the clergy pertaining to it assuming the role of a bridgehead for deitalianizzation of the region by introducing the ancient religious rites in the Old Slavonic language, the "Glagolitic", and removing the Latin.
.......To better understand these events, it is useful to report the data on the population of the island of Veglia taken from a census conducted in the early nineteenth century: the entire island population was 11,500, including 3,393 in the capital city, including 3,215 Italian speaking only Italians, 100 of Serb Croatian speaking also Italian and 78 foreign (Slovenians, Fiume/Rijeka people, Italians, Austrians, and others). The Croatian-Serbs were virtually all members of the clergy, and employees of the Bishop's seat. A subsequent survey in December 1900 gave the following result: residents of the city of Veglia 1,598, of which 1,450 Italians, 132 Croatian-Serbs and 31 foreigners. In the census of 1925, i.e. after the passage of the island under the sovereignty of the newly formed Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the inhabitants turned out 3,600 including 1,200 in the town of Veglia. As you can see these political changes have resulted in the exodus from the island's most ancient inhabitants, a dramatic change if you put in the account the number of new immigrants from the Slavic regions of the hinterland. In essence, in the hundred years of Austrian rule, the inhabitants of the island of Veglia decreased by more than one third, while in other islands of the Quarnero Bay, and surrounding areas, the population continued to grow regularly: this was the first great exodus, and political ethnic cleansing of the Quarnero region.
......The December 1 of 1866, should be considered as the official date for the beginning of "Dalmatia croatisation", when the Imperial Royal Government of Vienna issued the decree, which ordered the replacement of the Italian language in all public administrations, a legacy of more than four centuries of Venetian administration, with the Serbo-Croat. The decree provided that no State official should be hired unless he can demonstrate in front of a committee, that he knows, besides Italian the Serbian-Croatian language. This important policy shift was considered as the consequence of the disastrous defeat of the Italian fleet at the Battle of Lissa (July 20, 1866). The first alleged presence of Croatian population in Neresine has begun to materialize, not coincidentally, during this period, despite the total absence of Croatian culture in town. The Croatian language was completely unknown from the same population as it spoke a language predominantly Slavic-romanised, this did not contain significant elements of language similar to the SerbCroatian, from the personal names of the inhabitants. The first operational Istrian territory change, and therefore also in newly annexed islands of Quarnero, of the new policy was the closure of the Italian schools, and the establishment of Croatian schools wherever possible (in Neresine this attempt, as we have seen, created serious problems, and disorders), and the promotion, and support, including financial, of Slavic nationalism (Slovenian in Trieste, and Croatian in the rest of the region).
......In Neresine the croatisation policy was promoted by the Franciscan Catholic clergy dependent on the new Diocese of Veglia, by the Franciscan friars of the convent of San Francesco, gradually replaced by other more ideologically oriented, with the task of awakening, or even create from scratch in the country, Croatian nationalist sentiments, but also instill in the population feelings against Italians. The croatian friars, who were also "Franciscans", simply bring in a few slavic prayers in their church, and started to promote Croatian nationalism, in view of the fact that the local native language of Neresine was of partial Slavic origin. The political problems were furthermore accentuated around 1870, when, after the end of the Italian wars of independence, the Austrians were driven out from Italy, that was unified under the Savoyard monarchy, who incorporated also Rome, and the States of the Church.
.......The commitment of nationalistic friars: but in the main centers of the islands of Cherso and Lussino (i.e. Cherso, Lussinpiccolo, Lussingrande) and in the same Ossero, this policy had not borne fruit, because there were no vehicles suitable for the purpose, since the population of these towns was native Italian speakers...... As already mentioned, one of the tools used was sending in the Franciscan friars committed to spreading the Croatian nationalism. The culmination of this policy was reached in 1894, when in Neresine arrived as a catholic guardian Father Francis Smolje. This croatian Smolje, impregnated more with nationalistic fanaticism that charitable Franciscanism, began an intensive political indoctrination by relying on women's religiosity and abolishing the Latin and Italian in religious ceremonies, such as baptisms, weddings, and funerals (while introducing in their place the Croatian language).
There were numerous public denunciations against the actions of the Slavic clergy, who were carrying out their work with the open support of the Habsburg authorities. In 1877 Francesco Sbisà, an Istrian deputy of the Parliament in Vienna, presented a query denouncing the Slavicization of Italian names and surnames. In 1897 the Istrian linguist Matteo Bartoli mentioned that 20,000 names were changed by croatian & austrian authorities, especially on the islands of Cherso, Lussino and Veglia (later officially called in croatian language Chres, Losinj and Krk), which were almost entirely inhabited by Italians. In 1905, during a meeting of the Istrian Diet, the Istrian deputy and attorney Pietro Ghersa, using extensive documentation derived from extensive research, denounced the government's conniving work of Slavicizing approximately 20,000 Italian names in the Istrian Province.
It should be noted that the research of Bartoli and Ghersa took place independently of each other: the former dealt primarily with the islands of the Quarnaro (now called "Kvarner"), while the latter instead dealt with the Istrian peninsula. Moreover, these findings took place in two different periods. The figure of 20,000 Slavicized Italian surnames, reported by both men, must therefore be referring to two different areas and therefore represents only a fraction of the total amount of names that were Slavicized in the regions of Istria and the Quarnaro.
Probably the number was over 50000 in these two areas, according to historian Della Volpe. It should be noted that the data indicated above, regarding Italian surnames forcibly Slavicized in Istria, are largely incomplete for this region itself, since many others in Istria were modified without being restored to their original form. Additionally, these practices also occurred in other parts of Julian Venetia, in all Dalmatia (mostly in the Dalmatia islands), and in the Trentino and Alto Adige (where they engaged in Germanization).
The Dalmatia's full croatisation
As written above by Nino Bracco, the Dalmatia's croatisation started officially in 1866, after the austrian emperor made a shameful decree against the "survival" of the italians in Julian Venetia and Dalmatia: he ordered that the romance speaking population had to be replaced by the Croats (and possibly by the Germans in some northern areas)!
The welcome given by the italian population to the Italian sailors that landed in Lissa/Vis in October 1866 (just before the italian disaster at the navy-battle of Lissa) pushed the austrian authorities to behave harshly with those Lissa's Italians, promoting huge harassment against them while also using the croatian fanatics in the island for this "vengeance". As a consequence the italians in Lissa diminished drastically in the next years: in the 1880 austrian census they were in Lissa city 3292 but in the 1890 census they were only 300, according to Federico Pagnacco ("Italiani di Dalmazia", p. 174).
It is interesting to note that the italian academic Bartoli in the last decades of the nineteenth century calculated that the Italians were nearly 12.5% of the Dalmatian population (according to Austro-hungarian census) and he even did a classification of the Dalmatian cities based on an index of 3 groups related to the "italian language spoken": first group of fully italian (Zara, Veglia, Ossero, Arbe, Lussinpiccolo, Lesina); second group of partially italian with a minority of slavs (Cherso, Pago, Lussingrande, Cittavecchia di Lesina, Curzola, Sebenico, Traù, Spalato, Almissa, Cattaro); third group of italian minority (Nona, Scardona, Macarsca, Stagno Grande, Ragusa, Lissa, Castelnuovo di Cattaro, Perasto, Budua). So, without doubts this index showed that Zara, Veglia and Arbe were the only original "Neolatin city states" (read my https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2013/09/dalmatias-neolatin-city-states.html) where the neolatin society had totally survived centuries of "attacks" from the croatian assimilation in Dalmatia.
But during the XX century, with the two world wars, even these cities lost their neolatin characteristics! Please read for complete info: "A tragedy revealed" of Arrigo Petacco https://books.google.com/books?id=hhD0R8DBr_UC&pg=PA3&source=gbs_toc_r&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=true
Furthermore -in order to understand this process of full croatisation - please read the following excerpts from "Esodi di Italiani dalla Dalmazia" of Carlo Cipriani:
"A decree of the Austrian Government of 8• November 1866 transforms numerous Dalmatian schools from Italian into Croatian. Another Austrian decree, dated 1st December 1866, obliges the employees of the province to the knowledge of the Slavic language. Then begins the collapse of the Municipalities: that of Gelsa falls into the hands of the Croatians in l868. In 1873 the Municipality of Sebenico/Šibenik was demolished which, amid violence and abuses of all kinds, it falls into the hands of the Slavs. In the 1875 the Municipality of Curzola/Korčula falls; in 1876 the Municipality of Sìgna (Sinj) was taken away from the Italians; Ragusa'Dubrovnik fell in 1878; in 1881 fell Trau/Trogir; in 1882, amid unheard-of violence and with the menacing predominance of Austrian warships in the port, the glorious Municipality of Spalato/Split, fiercely defended, fell, says Antonio Bajamonti; Lissa/Vis falls in the hands of the Croats in 1886 and 1887 ca, de Cittavecchia. In the round less than twenty years nine municipalities - the main ones in Dalmatia - they pass from an Italian administration to an administration of Croatians. Only Zara resists."
"1865. Kingdom of Dalmatia/ Province of the Austrian Empire: Mostly Italian diet. The ten main municipalities are Italian: Zara, Spalato, Sebenico, Ragusa, Traù, Lissa, Korčula, Signa, Cittavecchia, Gelsa. Language used by the offices,: Italian. Middle schools, all Italian. Primary schools, 9 Italian, 125 Italian-Slavic, 23 Slavic. Population: Slavs 384,180 and Italians 55,020 (12.5% of the total)...........1910. Kingdom of Dalmatia/Province ofthe Austrian empire: Eleven deputies, all Slavs. Provincial Diet, 39. Slavs and 6 Italians. All Communes to the Slavs, except Zara. All the schools of the Province, and of the State, Slavic. Official language, Slavic. Population 610,669 Slavs and 18,028 Italians (2.8% of the total)."
On 14 June 1867 another austrian decree ordered the croatisation of the gymnasium-lyceum of Zara/Zadar; in the same year the first anti-Italian street riots caused by masses of croatian peasants; italian speaking citizens were forbidden to enter the countryside; the Italian landowners had their vines cut down, their trees felled, their crops stolen; at Signa/Sign the Croatian friars refused to administer the holy sacraments to the Italian population.
This austrian policy against the Italian component found particular application in Dalmatia, especially after the announcement of the 1896 marriage of the Prince hereditary Vittorio Emanuele III with Princess Elena of Montenegro who, according to Vienna's suspicions, she would have brought the Italian nationalities even closer and closer to Serbia in the region, in an anti-Croat and consequently anti-empire key (please read http://www.assdiplar.it/documentprogr/costantinonigraambasciatoreavienna.pdf).
Indeed in Sebenico on July 31, 1869, the Croatian mob attacked and seriously injured 14 sailors of the royal Italian ship Monzambano at anchor in the port of the Dalmatian city. On February 15, 1870, an attempt was made to set fire to the Teatro Verdi in Zara, the temple of Italian art. All these episodes led to a first beginning of the exodus of the Dalmatian populations towards Zara, Istria and the motherland. The Croatian Slavic irredentism which claimed to annex Dalmatia to Croatia thus managed to destroy in a short time centuries of peaceful coexistence guaranteed by the good governance of the Republic of St. Mark.
Hundreds of attacks on the italians and their properties were done before and during WW1 by croatian nationalist in all Dalmatia.....and the austrian government never tried to block all these harassments! As a consequence more and more dalmatian Italians emigrated, mainly from the dalmatian islands (where they were a small community without any defense)
The attacks and harassments by the croats continued in all Dalmatia in the next years after the end of the first world war. And there was also "the war of numbers", linked to the falsification of the number of Italians still living in Dalmatia. Furthermore, in 1919 the Spalatini (native neolatin citizens of Spalato/Split) had affixed 8,000 signatures - authenticated - to a petition sent to the Italian Delegation to the Peace Conference to demand the annexation of the city to Italy. That is, in the city of Spàlato/Split alone there were at least 8,000 Italians able to sign., but the Croats never admitted this amount.
The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in order to have more precise data, had to ask the Consular Representatives for information on the spot that they answered with a series of notes between February and April 1921.The Italian Vice Consul in Cùrzola reported the "huge number of citizens of Cùrzola/Korcula - 118 families with 564 members - who announced themselves to this civil commissioner with the intention of leaving the city and moving to the Kingdom". And he added: "Excluding the regnicoli here domiciled and the officials of the ceased Austrian regime entered our service [who are almost all Italians] and not even calculated the Italians of fresh date, declared such after our occupation, still remain between Cùrzola and the neighbor Petrara Village as many as 189 families with 835 members ". Overall, therefore, the Italians were more than a thousand.
From Sebenìco"Sebenik, that Consul informed that in the city lived 190 Italian families with 650 people and, with the surrounding territory, they would have been at least 800. Data for defect, since when the so-called "second zone" (Sebenìco) was evicted - as far as we know - 20 families left on 20 April 1921. A week after 300 people, and on June 13 another 653.
In Lissa/Vis, April 17, 1921, the Italian flag was lowered. The minutes of the handover were countersigned by the mayor Lorenzo Doimi of de Lupis and 30 Italian family leaders.
In relation to Ragusa/Dubrovnik, the Consul General of Spàlato, reported on the existence of about 100 families of "Regnicoli" (Italians born in the Italian Peninsula), and added: "Italian Dalmatian families who will opt will be fifty".
In this search for data, the list of names of the Dalmatian magistrates and chancellors who were displaced in the Peninsula can be of some interest. These are 74 former Austrian employees placed in the roles of the Italian judiciary in Dalmatia since 1919.The Consul General Umilta, in his book of memories, would have written that, "Including Zara, remained annexed to Italy, the Italians were certainly not inferior to 50/60 thousand." And he added: "Then we must mention those who, isolated in the countryside and in small villages, were to be called Slavs not to be slaughtered by the "Croatian energumens", then the indifferent who, while they wished that their country was annexed to Italy, did not dare to demonstrate openly their aspiration, so as not to see any possibility of life precluded ". Finally, a more political than statistical consideration: "In short, among Italians proper and sympathizers, there were no less than one hundred thousand people in Dalmatia, who did not expect anything good from the union of Dalmatia to Yugoslavia.
This first slow and constant ethnic cleansing created the premises for that policy of re-Italianisation which in the years following the First World War affected those few lands of Dalmatia, which passed to the Italian state after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The croatisation of Dalmatia and the gradual expulsion of the Italian element were now accomplished facts in 1918-1920. All of this took place before the advent of the fascist regime, before the attempt by the Italians to re-Italianise those lands (1921-1941).
Indeed the disappearance of the Italians of Dalmatia was nearly complete in 1930, when Federico Pagnacco ( https://www.openstarts.units.it/server/api/core/bitstreams/83f515c0-b586-4f2f-9eea-5747dbc4f2ee/content) wrote in his "Italiani di Dalmazia" that: << According to the position of June 1, 1929 there are all over the Jugoslavia shores of Dalmatia 5,609 Italians and according to the position of 1st June 1930, only 4,900, because 709 people emigrated in the last year. In front of the total population of our shores that count 764,699 inhabitants, Italians represent 0.64%>>. Of course there were the nearly 20000 italians living in the enclave of Zara and those in Cherso, Lussino and Lagosta, but soon they were exterminated during WW2.
Finally, here it is the ethnic extermination in percentages for the two dalmatian islands that were the most "italian", according to the french Marmont in 1810:
* Veglia/Krk: 1790:98% Italians-02% Croats; 1890: 71% Italians-29% Croats; 1990: 0.01% Italians-99.9% Croats
* Lissa/Vis: 1790:80% Italians-20% Croats; 1890: 3% Italians-97% Croats; 1990: 0% Italians-100% Croats
N.B.: For further info about the extermination totally completed by the Croats (mainly during the Tito years), please read my issues:1)https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2022/12/julian-dalmatian-exodus-diaspora-1944.html; and 2)https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-disappearance-of-dalmatian-italians.html
Bibliography
1) Neresine:Cherso & Lussino. ([http://www.neresine.it/Neresine%20last.pdf])
2) Il primo esodo dei Dalmati (https://secolo-trentino.com/2020/02/11/primo-esodo-dalmati-1870-1880-1920/)
3) Banca d'Italia in Jugoslavia tra il 1941 ed il 1945 https://www.academia.edu/20551087/Prima_e_dopo_l8_settembre_Lamministrazione_della_Banca_dItalia_in_Jugoslavia_1941_1944_?email_work_card=view-paper
4) Capris- Croatia is stealing our history and heritage in Dalmatia ( https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2014/01/croatia-is-erasing-falsificating-and.html )
