tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16380728115147614972024-03-14T12:04:50.165-07:00ResearchomniaBjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.comBlogger127125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-28367557174097889112024-03-01T07:22:00.000-08:002024-03-14T07:17:35.345-07:00ITALIANS IN LATIN AMERICAITALIAN EMIGRATION IN LATIN ANERICA<br/>
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From 1876 to 1980 more than 26 million Italians emigrated abroad: it is interesting to note that this figure is equal to the total Italian population at the time of italian unification in 1861.<br/>
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According to the data available (since 1905), 48 percent of Italian emigrants returned before of the First World War, 1.52 percent between the two wars, 57 percent after the second world War. More than half of the emigrants returned home, on average at least once. The peak of the phenomenon was reached at the beginning of the 20th century, when more than half a million people left the country every year, and in 1913 with 872,000 units. Before the first war fourteen million people had already emigrated worldwide: 55 percent of the entire flow of a century. Initially the flow was mainly toward the Americas.<br/>
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At the end of the second decade of the 2000s, over 1.5 million Italians resided in Latin America, approximately a third of the 5.5 million registered in the Registry of Italians Resident Abroad (AIRE). Eight Latin American countries appear in the ranking of the top 25 Italian communities abroad: Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico. Other communities of a certain importance are found in Paraguay, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Bolivia, while in Honduras and Nicaragua there are less than a thousand Italian residents. Therefore, it is valid to say that Latin America is mostly a "continent of Italians".<br/>
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<b>"Festa do immigrante" (Immigrant Celebration) in Sao Paulo/Brasil</b>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/20%C2%AA_Festa_do_Imigrante_%2818848130328%29.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="521" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/20%C2%AA_Festa_do_Imigrante_%2818848130328%29.jpg"/></a></div><br/>
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The Italian presence was decisive in the formation of Argentina and Brazil as modern countries, but also in the others the influence of the Italians was felt to a notable extent. The direct contribution of the pioneers of emigration was strengthened by the contribution given by their descendants, who became local citizens. Natives are estimated at nearly 32 million in Brazil, more than 25 million in Argentina, 2 million in Colombia, 1.5 million in Uruguay, 1 million in Venezuela, and more than 850 thousand in Paraguay and Mexico. By adding the results of these estimates to the Italians registered with AIRE in all the world, we arrive at nearly exceeding the population resident in Italy in 2020 (that was 61 million, but some estimates -like those of researcher Mancini- judge that the descendants of italians in the world should be nearly 100 million!)<br/>
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The first flows were those of Risorgimento exiles followed, from the Unification of Italy onwards, by those who moved for work, driven to do so by a situation of poverty. The "Great Emigration" occurred from 1876 onwards, was intense for the entire duration of the century, and even increased in the following century until the eve of the First World War. Emigration reduced in intensity after the First World War and during the period of the fascist regime while the emigrants were mainly of southern origin in the XX century (because in the northern Italy the process of big industrialization -mainly in the triangle Milan/Torino/Genova- stopped the former huge emigration).<br/>
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After the Second World War, the flows resumed towards Latin America for only a few years and were directed with particular intensity towards Venezuela following its oil boom. Therefore, the destinations of that continent were supplanted by European ones and, moreover, Italy's internal development strongly reduced the tendency to exodus. Few Italians now emigrate to Latin American countries: for family, commercial or business reasons, as representatives of NGOs, or for other professional reasons, while temporary travel for tourism is more substantial. However, Latin Americans who have emigrated to Italy since the 1970s have become more numerous, i.e. since Italy began to become a country of immigration due to economic, social hardship and also political instability in Latin America.<br/>
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<b>Argentina fascists in 1939: the "Fascio" of Buenos Aires had 4000 members (a small number in the total italian population of the city). After the WW2 disappearance of fascism, nearly all of them become fanatical supporters of Peronism</b>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Marcha_Fascista_La_Plata_Argentina.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Marcha_Fascista_La_Plata_Argentina.jpg"/></a></div><br/>
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Actually the city with the highest number of people of Italian origin in the world is Sao Paulo, Brazil: six million and half of the 11 million "saopaulinhos" (or nearly 60% of the total population). Not only that: 44% of the population of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, and 52% of those who live in Buenos Aires, which has 12 million inhabitants, have Italian roots.<br/>
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Uruguay is the latinoamerican nation were was more strong the "italianism": the period of the late 1930s represented an era in which the Italian community achieved primary importance in Uruguayan society. It coincided with the rise to power of the Italian-Uruguayan Baldomir Ferrari (1938-1943). The Italian-Uruguayan President Ferrari obtained that the hydroelectric dam of the artificial lake "Rincón del Bonete", on the Rio Negro, was financed and partially built mainly by the Italian government in the late 1930. This President of Uruguay openly appreciated Italian fascism and attempted to imitate some of its corporate and political characteristics.<br/>
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In Montevideo, for example, there was a political Fascio with 1200 members, which gave 150 Italian-Uruguayan volunteers to the Italian conquest of Ethiopia in 1936. President Ferrari (and his predecessor) managed to obtain funding and technical support from Mussolini (and also from Hitler) to build the dam on the Rio Negro, creating the largest artificial lake in South America. Furthermore, he promoted the beginning of the industrialization process of Uruguay through Italian companies. The Italian diplomat Serafino Mazzolini stated that Mussolini considered Uruguay as the most "Italian" state in the Americas, with which to form a possible future political and ethnic-racial alliance.<br/>
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The italian language acquired considerable importance in Montevideo in those years and became compulsory in Uruguay's high schools in 1942, during the presidency of Baldomir Ferrari.<br/>
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<b>The Chile's Alessandri family, of Italian descent, in 1920, with two future presidents of Chile, Arturo Alessandri (1920–1925 and 1932–1938) and Jorge Alessandri (1958–1964)</b><br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Familia_Alessandri.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="605" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Familia_Alessandri.JPG"/></a></div><br/>
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The following are the ten highest percentages of Italian descendants (in parentesis the actual Italian citizens) in the main LatinoAmerican countries. It is noteworthy to pinpoint thar Brasil has the biggest amount of Italian descendants (32 million), while Argentina (63%), Uruguay (44%) and Paraguay (40%) have the highest percentage of them in the total national population:<br/>
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1) <i>Brasil</i>: 32 million (The Embassy of Italy in Brazil in 2013, reported the number of 32 million descendants of Italian immigrants in Brazil (about 15% of the population); half of them in the state of São Paulo, while there were around 450,000 Italian citizens in Brazil.<br/>
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2) <i>Argentina</i>: nearly 25 million (at least 25 million Argentines -62.7% of the country's population- have some degree of Italian ancestry, most of them in the Buenos Aires region. And there are nearly 700,000 Italian citizens in all Argentina)<br/>
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3) <i>Paraguay</i>: 2,500,000 (The Italian embassy calculates that nearly 40% of the Paraguayans have recent and/or distant Italian roots: about 2,500,000 Paraguayans are descendants of Italian emigrants to Paraguay. And actually 13,000 italians are residents, mainly in the capital area)<br/>
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4) <i>Colombia</i>: 2 million (nearly 2,000,000 Italian descendants of full or partial ancestry live in Colombia, corresponding to about 4% of the total population. There are also 20,315 Italians in 2019 (by citizenship) who reside in Colombia)<br>
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5) <i>Uruguay</i>: nearly 1,500,000 (an estimated 1,500,000 Uruguayans have Italian ancestry, about 44% of the total population of Uruguay. The italians residents in Uruguay are 90,000).<br/>
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6) <i>Peru</i>: more than 1,450,000 (the descendants of italians directly and indirectly -since colonial times- are around one million and half, or the 4.8% of the total population of Peru. The italian citizens are 35000).<br/>
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7) <i>Venezuela</i>: more than one million (some italian embassy estimates reach the 2 million descendants, while the Italian citizens are more than one hundred thousand)<br/>
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8) <i>Mexico</i>: nearly 900,000 (there are more than 850,000 Mexicans descended from Italian emigrants since colonial times. Population figures are uncertain because, unlike other countries, Mexico's census does not gather information on specific ethnic groups. Nearly 10,000 are italian citizens living in Mexico, mainly in the capital area) <br/>
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9) <i>Chile</i>: 700,000 (It is estimated that more than 650,000 Chileans are of full or partial Italian ancestry, corresponding to about 3.9% of the total population, while Italians by birth in Chile are about 52,000).<br>
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10) <i>Costa Rica</i>: 460,000 (according to the italian embassy there are nearly half a million Costa Ricans of Italian descent, corresponding to about 7.8% of Costa Rica's population, while there are around 2,300 Italian citizens)<br/>
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Finally we must remember that the province of Quebec in Canada is officially french speaking and can be considered one of the latino territories in the Americas. In the 2016 Quebec census there were 327,000 italians and italian descendants.<br/>
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<b>Giuliana Sansaloni, queen of the italian community in Oberá, Misiones, Argentina</b><br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Reina_de_Italia_-_fiesta_del_inmigrante_-_Obera.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="490" data-original-width="641" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Reina_de_Italia_-_fiesta_del_inmigrante_-_Obera.png"/></a></div><br/>
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The country in Latin America that has experienced the biggest italian emigration after WW2 is Venezuela.<br/>
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<i>Italians in Venezuela</i><br/>
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In the history of Italian emigration to Venezuela, four phases can be distinguished. Arrivals in the country, up until the 1920s, were few and the Italian presence numbered around 3 thousand units. The second phase of Italian emigration took place in the period of the great development of the oil industry until the beginning of the Second World War, when Venezuela became the first crude oil exporting country. Even in that period, the routes of emigrants towards traditional transoceanic destinations and in the Italian colonies in Africa prevailed: there were 3,137 Italians in Venezuela in 1941. The third phase began after the Second World War. Between 1950 and 1960, the period in which the "Venezuelan dream" took hold, the arrivals of Italians exceeded 100 thousand units. The Italians were not disappointed because they, thanks to their resourcefulness, together with the Spanish and the Portuguese contributed to the notable development of the country, entering all sectors. That was the period of the "enlightened dictatorship" of Marcos Perez Jimenez (1953-1958), who managed to promote strong development with the plan to strengthen infrastructure throughout the country.<br/>
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The Italians, among whom there were few technicians and many agricultural workers, were able to seize the opportunities of this expansion phase and spread throughout the territory, unlike other European communities who favored the capital. There were few Italians hired in the public sectors as doctors, veterinarians, architects and in other sectors. There were many who created their own family-run businesses, obtaining subcontracts from larger ones. Furthermore, with this multiplicity of companies they managed to offer the variety of services required by a society that was beginning to understand well-being. The fact that the national currency was strong and the favorable exchange rate compared to Italy allowed the emigrants who settled there, on the one hand, to send substantial savings to Italy and, on the other, to achieve family reunions. There was no shortage of those who preferred to operate as commuters between the two countries.<br/>
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At the 1961 census, there were 121,733 Italians in Venezuela, demonstrating the great growth of the community. However, the repatriations were also substantial, as there was a widespread tendency to stay in place for only a few years. The post-war years were those in which Italians managed to make themselves appreciated on a cultural level, as well as on an entrepreneurial level (especially in the food, construction and fashion sectors). Some data do not fail to make an impression. In the 1950s, at least 12% of the capital's constructions relied on the work of Italians. In the food sector, pasta prevailed over the classic corn flour, previously a national food, making Venezuela the second pasta consumer country after Italy. In turn, Italian fashion managed to impose itself on French fashion. Between 1952 and 1958 the production of footwear was in the hands of Italian protagonists. The share then rose to 80%, as emerged from the 1984-1985 industry census, highlighting that as many as 520 companies in the sector were managed by Italians.<br/>
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After such a strong development, a long phase of decline began (and continues), both in terms of arrivals from Italy and in terms of the economic management of the country. Five million Venezuelans, forced to leave their country and take refuge mostly in other Latin American countries, are a sign of the catastrophic situation in Venezuela.<br/>
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Compared to the past, the '90s and the first two decades of the new century were not satisfactory and, indeed, the last phases can be defined as dramatic due to the civil war, which saw the president of the National Assembly Antonio Guialdo Marquez, opposing the President of the Republic Nicolas Maduro Moros, who succeeded Hugo Chavez in 2013 (in office from 1999 to 2012). Maduro's government has become unwelcome at home and unsupported by most foreign countries. The 2018 elections did not restore calm.<br/>
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Furthermore, the crisis, made unbearable by economic decay, had already made itself evident in its institutional and political implications in the 1970s, when the country was struggling to channel the considerable resources deriving from oil into functional uses for local development: a very serious deficiency, taking into account that 90% of the industries and mineral resources were in public hands. State gigantism favored the phenomena of corruption and clientelism. For example, in the past it was foreseen the hiring of a lift attendant in all public and private buildings in which a lift had already been installed and there was a public influx.<br/>
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National policy was unable to remedy the decrease in oil revenues with the diversification of production activities. The result was the devaluation of the national currency, the collapse of employment, the proposal of severe measures by the International Monetary Fund and a generalized impoverishment with recurring popular uprisings. There was a temporary recovery in the two-year period 2004-2005 (GDP growth of 17.4% and 9.8% respectively), which populist politics was unable to exploit so that the GDP was barely a fifth compared to that of 2013. For critics of the regime it was a long inconclusive populism, incapable of reducing social inequalities through the prudent use of resources.<br/>
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<b>Pompeo D'Ambrosio (with his daughter Antonella and son Bruno) in 1977, when was vice-president of the main private bank of Venezuela and was responsable -with his brother Mino- of the "Deportivo Italia" (the football team of the italovenezuelans that was considered as the best Venezuelan team of the 20th century, according to the "International Federation of Football History and Education")</b><br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Pompeo_D%27Ambrosio.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="658" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Pompeo_D%27Ambrosio.jpg"/></a></div>
After the 1960s, Venezuela began to lose its attractive capacity and the numerical reduction of the Italian community also began, first gradually and then in an increasing manner, it experienced a continuous numerical decrease and in 1999 there were only 61,800 people: in that that year the Italian community was overtaken by the Spanish (133,661) and Portuguese (78,735), which in 1950 were smaller than it. Within the community, which was above average in terms of well-being, cases of hardship and poverty increased, because only higher income classes were protected from it. These are those people who traditionally organize themselves into exclusive clubs, which ensure prestige and professional and entrepreneurial opportunities. As known from recurring news stories, such notoriety comes at the cost of greater exposure to the kidnapping industry.<br/>
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By virtue of its internal growth, the Italian community is one of the largest on the Latin American continent, around 120 thousand units, the majority of Italians live between Caracas and the regions of Carabobo and Aragua. There are now few Italians who emigrate to Venezuela and, mostly, for a temporary stay: these are NGO workers, journalists and professionals. As has happened in other countries, traditional and regional associations no longer have the attraction of the past and young people are interested in other forms of aggregation.<br/>
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The Italian community, like the native one, is divided regarding the political regime. The problem arises of showing, with due care, the closeness to a community that is not only formally Italian, but feels its Italianness. The case of Venezuela, in the overall context of post-war migration, represents a significant case for the substantial flows of the two post-war decades, as it was also towards Canada and Australia. The "Venezuelan dream" was motivated by a rapidly expanding country and dissolved with the downsizing of such expectations following the tormented socio-political events of the last forty years.<br/>
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Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-16467418168603645412024-02-06T07:21:00.000-08:002024-02-27T07:22:23.482-08:00ITALIAN CORSICAThis month (following a request) I am going to translate some sections of the famous book written by Marco Cuzzi about the years 1938-1943 when the island of Corsica ("Corse" in French language) was (promoted, invaded & nearly made) "italian". These were the five years when italian irredentism fought (and nearly obtained the union) to return this island (geographically, culturally, ethnically and historically italian since roman centuries) to the Italians.<br/>
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Since the early 1930s the italian irredentism promoted the addition of this island to the kingdom of Italy, but only in November 1942 there was the military invasion (for unification) of Corsica by Mussolini's orders.<br/>
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Indeed in November 1942 the Italian naval special force, originally formed for the invasion of Malta (never undertaken), landed in Bastia, in the north-east of Corsica (on the night between 11 and 12 November); other forces reached Ajaccio and Porto Vecchio. The 20th "Friuli" Infantry Division of the Italian VII Army Corps landed in Corsica without encountering resistance. The absence of partisan movements on the island, and the desire to avoid disagreements with Marshal Pétain's puppet regime limited the recruitment of Corsicans by the Italians, except for a "worker battalion" in March 1943.<br/>
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<b>A famous map created by the italian irredentists of Corsica in November 1942</b><br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Anonimo%2C_corsica_terra_italiana%2C_a_cura_degli_irredentisti_corsi%2C_1940-41.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="574" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Anonimo%2C_corsica_terra_italiana%2C_a_cura_degli_irredentisti_corsi%2C_1940-41.jpg"/></a></div><br/'><br/>
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The Corsican population initially showed support to the Italians, partly as a consequence of irredentist propaganda. Many Corsicans welcomed the italian troops when entered in their villages and cities. The garrison of the VII Corps came to include, in addition to the 20th "Friuli" Division, the 44th "Cremona" Infantry Division, the 225th Coastal Division, the 226th Coastal Division, an Alpini battalion and an armored battalion. The command of the garrison was entrusted to General Umberto Mondino until December 1942, to General Giacomo Carboni until March 1943, followed by General Giovanni Magli until September 1943. The initial force of 30,000 personnel grew to almost 85,000 men; an enormous number, if compared to the population of 220,000 inhabitants that Corsica had at the time<br/>
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Some Corsican military officers collaborated with Italy, among them the retired major Pantalacci and his son Antonio, Colonel Mondielli, Colonel Simon Petru Cristofini and his wife Marta Renucci (the first Corsican female journalist). Cristofini collaborated early in January 1943 and (as head of the Ajaccio troops) helped the Italian army to repress the french resistance of the "maquis" during summer 1943, before the armistice of 8 September 1943. He was joined by the Corsican writer Petru Giovacchini, indicated as a potential governor of Corsica, if Italy had annexed it.<br/>
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In the first months of 1943 the irredentists, led by Giovacchini and Bertino Poli, carried out a propaganda campaign among the population (mostly pro-italian until late spring 1943), advocating the unification of the island as the "Governorate of Corsica", modeled on the "Governorate of Dalmatia" created in 1941. But Benito Mussolini suspended the unification process awaiting the peace treaty that would follow the hoped-for Axis victory (however the main cause of his reluctance was German aversion to irredentist claims).<br/>
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<b>ITALIAN CORSICA (1938-1943), by Marco Cuzzi</b><br/>
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During a lesson held in March 1942 to the students of a scientific high school in Bologna, professor Umberto Brauzzi summarized in a few well-studied sentences the entire Italian political action on Corsica and above all the concrete motivations underlying the fascist claim to the Tyrrhenian island:<br/>
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"The Sardinian-Corsican wall, with Corsica in the hands of strangers, would mean the most dangerous breach in our defense system, the paralysis of every movement, from the Ligurian arch to the Campania region. We could never say we were winners without Corsica; because, to peacefully bring to the world the contribution of our undisputed civilization and to the order of the new Europe, it is absolutely necessary that the foundations of our richest commercial movement are not undermined: that is, we need full possession of the island. And again, further on: Our launch platform, the peninsula, is profoundly vulnerable, due to the intrusion, in the middle of our land, of France which monitors and blocks the free ways of sea and air". Beyond the declarations of geographical continuity (Corsica was compared to Dalmatia, with the mirror function of the extreme limit of an Italian "great gulf": there the Adriatic, here the Tyrrhenian) and of national community (the Corsicans were defined as a natural "filiation" of the "Italic race"), what emerged from Brauzzi's reasoning was the exquisitely strategic dimension of the entire claimist system: the Tyrrhenian island had to pass under the control of Rome to perfect the "fortress Italy", closing in particular the area of the capital in a sort of "Italian lake" and allowing a doubling of the Sardinian natural aircraft carrier in the heart of the Mediterranean.<br/>
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Certainly the claim also found a remote motivation in resentments that never subsided, or rather amplified with the neighbor from beyond the Alps. Another statement by Brauzzi appeared emblematic: «We must infer the tough battle that Italy still has to endure to join the most Italian island in Italy». An emblematic phrase but also one of articulating political weight, if we take into account the period in which it was uttered, with a France half occupied and half poised between collaborative neutrality and total and convinced collaboration towards the Axis. Once again, as in the case of the other disputes with France (mainly Tunis, Djibouti and Nice), there was a complicated and at times painful schizophrenic relationship with Vichy, a state reality in words incorporated into the New Order but in deeds - and the survival of a French Corsica against all Brauzzi's claims was proof of this - an enemy to him, at least according to the considerations of Italian analysts.<br/>
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The fascist claim to the Tyrrhenian island dated back to the dawn of the Regime, and surpassed in seniority the transalpine disputes over Provence and Savoy.<br/>
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In 1924, on Mussolini's orders, a "Committee for Corsica" was established with the aim, as stated in a report commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1939, of "keeping alive the question of the Italian nature of the island between the kingdoms and the Corsicans".». The presidency of the association was given to Francesco Guerri, a university professor of Corsican origin, supported by a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Honorable Quirino Figlioli. The Ministry made an "adequate allocation" from the cabinet fund to support the Committee's initiatives. In the same period the dicastery was concerned with reorganizing the Italian diplomatic representation on the island. The objective was to make the irredentist initiative as effective as possible, giving it a solid and organized background made up of the official consular network: « Although for obvious reasons these consular representatives of ours have always had in principle instructions to « ignore » the irredentist action, carried out mainly through fiduciary elements, they have always actively contributed to facilitating this confidential activity, both by collaborating in specific cases in the implementation of some projects, and above all by providing Rome with precise elements of judgment taken from a daily control of the racing situation ». The entire operation, consular and linked to the initiatives of the War Committee, would have been coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the person of the cabinet official Marquis Blasco Lanza D'Ajeta. The dual action had the aims on the one hand of "keeping Italian national aspirations alive" and on the other of safeguarding the "Italian identity" of the island, "at the same time encouraging, after a century and a half of French domination, the rebirth of a movement of an irredentist nature".<br/>
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Even clearer were the orders given to the "Committee for Corsica", the deus ex machina of all future action for the island and on the island: "to safeguard the original Italian character of the population in multiple aspects and with all possible means; promote among the Corsicans a feeling of reaction to French domination (autonomism-irredentism-philo-fascism)». From this perspective, on the one hand, it was necessary to encourage every action aimed at promoting the Italian character of the island at home. On the other hand, an attempt was made to involve the indigenous autonomist movement, or rather the Corsican independence galaxy, identifying it as the closest interlocutor, animated by a one-way, pro-Italian separatism. After a long preparatory period, the claimist initiative had its first operational season in the aftermath of the Ethiopian crisis, but above all it exploded in all its virulence with the famous demonstration of 30 November 1938 in the Chamber, during which the deputies - expertly guided - shouted the claims of the French territories: Tunis, Nice, Djibouti and Corsica, originating, as De Felice recalls, the definitive shipwreck of the attempted
Italian-French rapprochements.<br/>
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<b>Map of 1494 showing Corsica in the "Genoa republic" (light green color)</b><br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Italia_1494-it.svg/401px-Italia_1494-it.svg.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="401" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Italia_1494-it.svg/401px-Italia_1494-it.svg.png"/></a></div>
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The propaganda tools from Italy resulted in three different initiatives<br/>
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1) First of all, an intense journalistic activity was activated, through the printing of a weekly insert of the Livorno newspaper "Il Telegrafo" (Livorno was one of the Italian cities with the highest number of citizens of Corsican origin); the weekly was placed under the direction of the omnipresent Francesco Guerri (under the pseudonym "Minuto Grosso") and was financed directly by D'Ajeta's office. The insert, which soon became the main organ of printed propaganda in favor of the cause, had collaborators almost exclusively of Corsican origin (either those who had escaped or had been in Italy for generations) and over the years would have dealt with various problems linked to the island Tyrrhenian Sea and the largest and most complex relations with France, supporting a very harsh campaign against the "republican, social democratic and Masonic" plot of Paris and the support of the French government for international and Italian anti-fascism in particular. The weekly was apparently distributed clandestinely in Corsica. The specific initiative of "Il Telegrafo" would be accompanied, with the approval and supervision of the Ministry of Popular Culture, by a propagandist action on some national newspapers which would have intensified, as DAjeta would have wisely written «particularly in moments of greatest discomfort with France». <br/>
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2) The second operational tool was represented by the various scientific and cultural initiatives. A quarterly magazine, "The Historical Archive of Corsica", under the prestigious direction of the historian of the regime Gioacchino Volpe, would have dealt with historical-literary studies inherent to the island, with particular reference to the phases of greatest connection with the Peninsula (the domination of the Grifone Republic, for example) to all those characters characterized by a strong autonomist or independence commitment (such as Pasquale Paoli) or to all the courses that had influenced French cultural and political life, in an attempt to demonstrate a Corsican superiority over the Power "colonizer" which subtly implied by syllogism a superiority of the "Italic race": the champion of these analyzes could only be, it goes without saying, the Great Corsican par excellence, Napoleon Bonaparte (or rather, Buonaparte, according to the original denomination of the surname, and which was reiterated by Italian scholars to underline its peninsular origin). Volpe's magazine was also allegedly distributed clandestinely on the Tyrrhenian island. The indefatigable Guerri was also responsible for directing a monthly scientific dissemination magazine ("Ancient and Modern Corsica"), with the departed former Corsican autonomist leader Marco Angeli as editor-in-chief. The periodical should have joined Volpe's magazine, completing its work with anthropological, ethnographic, geographical and even geological studies, all aimed at reiterating for the umpteenth time the link with the true and only "motherland". Finally, the University of Pavia professor Gino Bottiglioni coordinated the publications of the «Linguistic Atlas of Corsica», financed by a consortium between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs,
of the Interior and National Education as well as by the University of Cagliari, one of the universities most attentive to the operation towards the Tyrrhenian island. The purpose, evident from the name of the newspaper, was to identify all the possible glottological and linguistic links between Corsica and Italy, to arrive at the demonstration of the thesis according to which «the origins Corsican idioms are closely linked to the Tuscan, Sardinian and Sicilian ones »<br/>
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3) The third propaganda tool in Italy was characterized by the Corsican cultural groups (Gcc) established in Pavia in 1938 on the initiative of Pietro (Petru) Giovacchini, known as "the parish priest" (u parrucu). Born in 1909 in Corsica, in Canale di Verde, and moved to Pavia in 1930 where he graduated in medicine and surgery, Giovacchini, who was also a volunteer fascist Blackshirt in Spain, would become in the following years the main exponent of the pro-fascist irredentist movement. The aim of Giovacchini's GCC was, originally, to include all Italian citizens of Corsican origin and Corsicans who had escaped under a single acronym, with the aim of promoting the Italian nature of the island both from a cultural and linguistic point of view. In the days immediately following September 1939, D'Ajeta's office, through the "Committee for Corsica", began monitoring the declared 15 thousand members of the GCC (concentrated mainly in Liguria, Tuscany and Sardinia) to understand if there were conditions to transform, with corresponding and adequate funding from the Ministry, the cultural initiative of the Groups into active irredentist propaganda connected with the clandestine movements on the island. However, it was a hypothetical project which, at least until 1939, would not have been applied: the conditions did not exist and the GCC would have had to hold less disruptive roles. This organization, according to the Italian diplomat, could become a useful "opinion movement", capable of coordinating on the one hand the diffusion in the homeland of the battle for a Corsica that was first independent from France and therefore Italian again and on the other the insertion of Corsican citizens resident in Italy, or recently escaped from the Tyrrhenian island, in the midst of national life. In this D'Ajeta suggested to the Minculpop Chief of Staff, Luciano, to facilitate the inclusion of Corsicans resident in Italy in the life of the country, recognizing them a particular status not as foreign citizens (and shortly thereafter "belonging to an enemy nation »), but of "non-kingdom Italian citizens", according to a formula also adopted towards the Italians of Spalato and Dalmatians subjected to the Yugoslav administration. Furthermore, it would have been desirable for the courses to be admitted to the National Fascist Party, even if formally not Italian. In D'Ajeta's drawings, Giovacchini's GCC should have supported the authorities in supervising and channeling the inclusion of the Corsican community in Italy within the national life. The risks of this task were, however, very clear to the Italian diplomat: « […] a strict control would be maintained, which Giovacchini's well-known enthusiasms could sometimes prove to be untimely», while the Groups themselves would not be entrusted « […] managerial tasks" nor "[...] the possibility of being aware of the reserved Italian action as a whole": the characteristics of the Corsican temperament, D'Ajeta concluded not without irony, perhaps involuntary, and that is a temperament "easy to enthusiasm and to the demolition, partisan, factious, interested" they advised against a qualitative leap of the Groups into an explicitly subversive organisation, a sort of Tyrrhenian ustaša15. In reality, the exclusion of Giovacchini's GCC from merely irredentist action and their encroachment on propaganda and classification initiatives in Italy was suggested more than by reasons of unreliability of character by the delicate network that D'Ajeta's Office had spread over the the island through both Guerri's « Committee for Corsica » and the diplomatic network strengthened by the reform of the mid-twenties.<br/>
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The main instrument of the local initiative was the « Partitu corsu d'azzione » (Pca) of Pietro (Petru) Rocca, a former combatant, decorated with the Legion of Honor by the French General Staff. Through the official organ of the party, the bilingual Franco-Corsican weekly «A Muvra», Rocca's movement had rapidly moved from a moderately autonomist position to an increasingly strong independence and clearly pro-Italian position. Removed from the register of the Legion of Honour, Rocca was perpetually monitored by the French police, risking arrest on a daily basis while his newspaper had suffered numerous seizures until the mandatory suspension of publications immediately after the outbreak of the war with Germany. Without going into details, for "particularly confidential" issues, D'Ajeta listed the Party and Rocca's newspaper as "instruments" of the Italian initiative on the Tyrrhenian island, implying the nature and volume of the support that the government Rome reserved for the insular autonomist movement16: the main trait d'union between the autonomist Party and the Committee for Corsica would have been the former party leader Marco Angeli, editor-in-chief of
«Ancient and modern Corsica» and «dean» of exileism.<br/>
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In a subsequent very polemical letter towards the Giovacchini, considered incapable and unworthy of leading the GCC, Angeli would have summarized the program of Rocca's party as follows: «The program [...] is linked to the tradition of Pasquale Paoli, it reaffirms the combative spirit of the Corsicans against the French tyranny cloaked in hypocrisy and immoral principles and supports the reasons for the recovery for Corsica ».<br/>
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The Italian activities on the island were conducted overall with great skill and confidentiality, so much so that they did not arouse any suspicion, at least from the French diplomatic corps in Italy, on the contrary. In fact, it is interesting to note the relative transalpine disinterest towards the complex irredentist and claimsist activities in Italy. Almost two months after the "qualitative leap" of the irredentist movement, François-Poncet, the French ambassador to Italy, wrote a short report to his Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet in which he summarized with many uncertainties the propagandist network of D'Ajeta, Guerri and Giovacchini, revealing an inexplicable difficulty in gathering more precise information, also through the French consulate in Livorno, perceived by diplomats as the true operational center of irredentist propaganda. The closing comment is interesting: « J'ai cru devoir signaler, to all useful ends, to the attention of the Department these indications are evidently some fragmentary ones. Elles paraissent me cepoendant de nature à remove the same croissant that for the reasons for the many tactics, and thus obtain, the same ones, other advantages in exchange for an eventual desistement, the Italian government brings or affects the wearer from 'the lost island'". This rather disenchanted attitude and underestimation of the problem, from part of the French diplomacy, would also continue in the following months: «On constate qu'aujourd'hui, rien n'est fait ici [in Italy – Editor's note] pour enflammer à cet egard le moral de la nation», we read for example in a new dispatch from François-Poncet in Paris regarding the usual Italian claims, including Corsica. A trick, therefore, a propaganda balloon for internal rather than external use: no trace appears in the reports of the confidential operations conducted in Corsica by the War Committee and D'Ajeta's office of the transalpine diplomatic representatives in Italy. Inaugurated at the end of 1938, the irredentist operations slowed down in September 1939. The outbreak of hostilities had reduced the scope of the initiatives on the island. What the Italian diplomat defined as "contacts with Corsican personalities", without specifying their names or qualifications, appeared impossible from the first days of September. Even the grants that had been paid in previous years in favor of more pro-Italian island press seemed "very difficult", even if d'Ajeta was confident in an unspecified future improvement in the conditions for reopening a canal with some Corsican newspapers.<br/>
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The clandestine distribution of Italian publications was very precarious (from the insert of "Il Telegrafo" to cultural and scientific magazines). Apparently another instrument appeared in better conditions, probably even more important and deep-rooted than the Party of Rocca: « Faithful to our cause, to which they have rendered and continue to render precious services, some religious Orders with whom the « Committee » has confidential and appropriate contacts ». But, in general, the initiative on the spot appeared from the first month of the war somewhat limited, and Italian non-belligerence was of little use: the Italian trustees linked to the "Committee for Corsica" and charged by the diplomats with maintaining the quadrangular network (autonomists-local personalities-newspapers-clergy) ran "very considerable risks", while, being Corsica having been declared an "operational zone" by the French General Staff, would soon suffer the same fate as Alsace where, as D'Ajeta recalled, the local autonomist leaders of the pro-Nazi movement had recently been condemned to be shot for high treason: "We have some of our 'friends' in French military prisons." Furthermore: «The population is anti-Italian and certainly anti-fascist: the autonomists – a small number – certainly do not demonstrate ambitions for martyrdom. The bravest are undoubtedly now in Italy, having "deserted" the French army. Faced with such a framework, the Minister of Popular Culture, Alessandro Pavolini agreed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the opportunity to suspend activities in Corsica, maintaining contacts but avoiding worsening the already precarious situation of the "Committee" network with concrete initiatives: it was necessary to wait for the maturation political and military conditions.<br/>
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In the climate of expectation and uncertainty characterizing non-belligerence, the decision taken by the Government to suspend the initiative on the island also extended to propagandist activity in Italy. François-Poncet also noticed the fact and reported to Paris the reduction in propaganda activity in national newspapers, motivating it with the attempts of Italian diplomacy to reach mediation during the crisis of August 1939. The Committee ordered Giovacchini to suspend all action. It should be borne in mind that the outbreak of the war with Germany had a further impact in Italy too: more than half of the main exponents of the GCC, sometimes due to a rediscovered patriotic feeling and most of the time due to fear of reprisals from the Paris government, had returned to the Tyrrhenian island. Disciplined, against all the suspicions of D'Ajeta who, as has been said, considered him impulsive and restless, the irredentist leader sent a circular to all the groups distributed across the Peninsula which, although commanding silence, foreshadowed a future offensive that was even more military than propaganda: «Period of waiting and silent preparation. Refrain from any public or mass demonstration; do not hinder the work of our diplomacy. Don't discover our batteries, but don't abandon them. I will let you know when the time has come to get excited". The activity of the Giovacchini Groups and more generally of the Committee for Corsica was reduced until May 1940 and the commitment of the main leaders of the Corsican community in Italy appears much more prosaic and less ideal than the previous period, concentrated above all on a series of personal favors requested from Mussolini through both Foreign Affairs and Minculpop. On 22 May 1940 Giovacchini met with Pavolini: the date is fateful, at least for the brief history of the fascist claim of Corsica, and marks the change between the head of the GCC and Guerri's "Committee for Corsica", now definitively anesthetized , leading the propaganda initiative.<br/>
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Giovacchini illustrated the state of his organization to the Minister of Popular Culture, probably pushing the numbers and amplifying its actual possibilities. The Corsican culture groups amounted to 170 sections, both in Italy and abroad, for a total of 22 thousand members. There were around 250 active executives, even if only a part could actually be used in possible and unspecified "actions". Pavolini agreed with the president of the GCC - renamed himself "general president" perhaps in view of a qualitative leap in the war field - to intensify propaganda and to start the "establishment and training of an action nucleus, to be kept ready to be sent to Corsica at a given time ». It was an explicit response to a statement from Giovacchini to the minister only a few days earlier (« The irredeemed Corsicans gathered in Rome are determined to take action »). The minister allocated 30 thousand lire for propaganda costs, to which five thousand lire was added for the purchase by Minculopop of a brochure on Corsica edited by the Groups themselves. However, the long-awaited "action" did not come even after June 10th. The GCC did not budge and propaganda continued to be suspended.<br/>
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The only significant act corresponding to the new state of war was the transformation of the culture groups into "Corsican irredentist action groups" (GAIC). In a fit of enthusiasm, which was also illustrative of a certain organizational and organigrammatic confusion, Giovacchini shortly afterwards renamed the GAIC first into "Corsican irredentist movement" and then into "Corsican irredentist action movement" (Maic): the attempt was to throw the foundations for a real insurrectional organization that would support the Italian troops in the "liberation" of the island. A further sign of the desire of Giovacchini's irredentists to give themselves a more militant structure was the separation from the movement of the entire scientific-cultural initiative, through the establishment of the "National Institute of Corsican Studies" in Pavia, which organized university lectures, a exhibition in Venice on the Italian nature of the island, initiatives and mobilizations for the naming of squares and streets after Corsica and Pasquale Paoli. Free from cultural commitment, Giovacchini could finally launch himself into political and perhaps military enterprise. But the game was entirely diplomatic and included on the one hand the relations between Italy and Germany and on the other the complicated armistice issue with France. In the aftermath of the French collapse, the Italian government had included Corsica among the priority territorial requests: "Union with Italy" was stated in the cahier de doléances of the Ministry of Foreign affairs on the eve of the Italian-German summit of June 1940 « is the first and fundamental condition for its development and prosperity.<br/>
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Corsica is Italian geographically, historically and ethnically ». In the initial plans of the Italian Commission for the armistice with France (CIAF), Corsica would have been included among the apparently indispensable aspirations. However, the long negotiations at Villa Incisa and then the endless CIAF dispute would have seen the claim become increasingly blurred. A CIAF delegation arrived in Corsica in July 1940 and apparently the topic discussed with the local Vichysois authorities seemed more oriented towards the demilitarization of the island, according to the clauses of Villa Incisa. The Italian delegates therefore appeared very respectful of French authority, distancing themselves from the extremism of the followers of Giovacchini or Guerri. However, as Rainero recalls «Don't think that renouncing the immediate annexation of Corsica was among the easiest decisions of the regime; the claim remained almost "for future reference", awaiting a peace settlement [...]".<br/>
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On the other hand, it is no coincidence that Marshal Badoglio, only two months after the visit of the CIAF delegation to the island, submitted to Mussolini a project for the invasion of Corsica through two divisions, coming respectively from Livorno and Sardinia. The plan would develop over the following months. In the meeting between the chiefs of staff of the Italian and German navy, held in Merano on 13 and 14 February 1941, Admiral Riccardi clearly told his German colleague Raeder that the naval general staff had prepared a plan for the occupation of the island, also arousing disapproval on the German side: the occupation of Corsica was not only considered useless by the Third Reich, but rather harmful in the global strategy of the conflict, and would have definitively pushed Vichy (and certainly the whole of French North Africa, still wavering) into the arms of the British. Irritated by the opinions of their ally, but unable to ignore them given the balance of power within the Axis, the Italian commands continued to perfect the plan only theoretically, waiting for more favorable times, and transformed it into a joint project between navy and army. The new plan, drawn up by Admiral Vannutelli (who should have held the role of commander of the possible occupation contingent), significantly excluded the use of Rocca's separatists and much less Giovacchini's irredentists, both considered treacherous and bungling. While providing extensive protections to the "Corsican ethnic group" (recognition of the acquired rights of Corsican employees, use of the Corsican dialect in trials, etc.), the island would have been governed by a viceroy (like Albania) or by a high commissioner (like Slovenia) with full executive powers and two sub-governorates in Ajaccio and Bastia, corresponding to the two areas (the « Bande ») into which the Tyrrhenian island was traditionally divided.<br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Parlers_de_Corse.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Parlers_de_Corse.jpg"/></a></div>
<b>Map showing the actual Corsica dialects. It also shows 3 places (in red color) where it is spoken the old Genoa dialect: Calvi, Ajaccio and Bonifacio. Until 9 May 1859 the Italian language in Corsica was the official language, after which it became the French one. Another language spoken on the island was Corsican, a dialect of the Tuscan family. Corsican is made up of many variants contained in two main linguistic groups: the “Cismontano” spoken mainly in the north of the island and closer to Italian; then we have the “Oltremontano” more widespread instead in the south of Corsica, more archaic and close to the language spoken in the north of Sardinia.Since 2002 in the elementary schools of Corsica there has been the opportunity to learn the Corsican language originating from the island, recognized since 2013 also as a regional French language. In addition, road and tourist signs on the island are bilingual now: in French and Corsican. It is noteworthy to pinpoint that since the early 2020s there it is the proposal to add -again- the italian language to these two official languages in Corsica.</b><br/>
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Here it is the original text in italian:<br/>
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<i>CORSICA ITALIANA (1938-1943)<br/>
LA RIVENDICAZIONE DELLA CORSICA tra il 1930 ed il 1943<br/>
di Marco CUZZI<br/>
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Nel corso di una lezione tenuta nel marzo 1942 agli studenti di un liceo scientifico bolognese, il professore Umberto Brauzzi riassunse in alcune roboanti frasi l’intera azione politica italiana sulla Corsica e soprattutto le concrete motivazioni poste alla base della rivendicazione fascista dell’isola tirrenica :<br/>
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« L’antemurale Sardo-Corso, con la Corsica in mano agli estranei, vorrebbe significare la più pericolosa breccia nel nostro dispositivo di difesa, la paralisi di ogni movimento, dall’arco ligure sino al campano. Vincitori senza la Corsica non ci potremmo dire mai ; ché, per apportare al mondo, serenamente, il contributo dell’indiscussa nostra civiltà e all’ordinamento della nuova Europa, è assolutamente necessario che non siano menate le basi del nostro movimento commerciale più ricco : ci occorre cioè il pieno possesso dell’isola1. E ancora, più avanti : La nostra piattaforma di lancio, la penisola, è profondamente vulnerabile, per l’intrusione, nel bel mezzo di una terra nostra, della Francia che sorveglia e preclude le libere vie del mare e dell’aria »2.Al di là delle dichiarazioni di continuità geografica (la Corsica veniva paragonata alla Dalmazia, con la speculare funzione di limite estremo di un « gran golfo » italiano : là l’Adriatico, qui il Tirreno) e di comunità nazionale (i corsi erano definiti come una naturale « filiazione » della « razza italica »), ciò che emergeva dal ragionamento di Brauzzi era la dimensione squisitamente strategica dell’intero impianto rivendicazionista: l’isola tirrenica doveva passare sotto il controllo di Roma per perfezionare la « fortezza Italia », chiudendo in modo particolare l’area della capitale in una sorta di « lago italiano » e permettendo un raddoppio della portaerei naturale sarda nel pieno centro del Mediterraneo.Di certo la rivendicazione trovava anche una remota motivazione in rancori mai sopiti, anzi semmai amplificati con il vicino d’Oltralpe. Emblematica appariva un’altra affermazione del Brauzzi : « Noi dobbiamo arguire della dura battaglia che l’Italia deve ancora sostenere per aggregarsi l’isola più italiana d’Italia »3. Frase emblematica ma anche di articolare peso politico, se si tiene conto del periodo in cui venne enunciata, con una Francia per metà occupata e per metà in bilico tra una neutralità collaborativa e un collaborazionismo totale e convinto nei confronti dell’Asse. Nuovamente, come nel caso delle altre vertenze con la Francia (principalmente Tunisi, Gibuti e il Nizzardo), si assisteva a una complicata e a tratti penosa relazione schizofrenica con Vichy, realtà statale a parole inglobata nel Nuovo Ordine ma nei fatti – e la sopravvivenza di una Corsica francese contro tutte le affermazioni del Brauzzi ne era la testimonianza – ad esso nemico, almeno secondo le considerazioni degli analisti italiani.<br/>
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La rivendicazione fascista dell’isola tirrenica risaliva agli albori del Regime, e superava per anzianità le vertenze transalpine sulla Provenza e la Savoia. Nel 1924 venne istituito su ordine di Mussolini un « Comitato per la Corsica » avente lo scopo, come si legge in una relazione commissionata dal Ministero degli Esteri nel 1939, di « mantenere tra i regnicoli e i Corsi viva la questione dell’italianità dell’isola »4. La presidenza dell’ associazione fu data a Francesco Guerri, un docente universitario d’origine corsa, affiancato da un incaricato del Ministero degli Esteri e dall’onorevole Quirino Figlioli. Il Ministero dispose sul fondo del gabinetto un «congruo stanziamento» per sostenere le iniziative del Comitato. Nello stesso periodo il dicastero si preoccupò di riorganizzare la rappresentanza diplomatica italiana sull’isola. L’obiettivo era di rendere l’iniziativa irredentista più efficace possibile, dando ad essa un retroterra solido e organizzato composto dalla rete consolare ufficiale:« Benché per ovvie ragioni tali nostri Rappresentanti consolari abbiano sempre avuto in linea di massima istruzioni di « ignorare » l’azione irredentistica, svolta principalmente tramite elementi fiduciari, essi hanno sempre attivamente contribuito a facilitare questa attività riservata, sia collaborando in specifici casi alla messa in atto di alcuni progetti, sia e soprattutto fornendo a Roma precisi elementi di giudizio tratti da un diuturno controllo della situazione corsa »5. L’intera operazione, consolare e legata alle iniziative del Comitato di Guerri, sarebbe stata coordinata dal dicastero degli Esteri nella persona del funzionario del gabinetto marchese Blasco Lanza D’Ajeta. La duplice azione aveva scopi da un lato di « mantenere vive le aspirazioni nazionali italiane »6 e dall’altro di salvaguardare l’« identità italiana» dell’isola, «favorendo al tempo stesso dopo un secolo e mezzo di dominazione francese, la rinascita di un movimento a carattere irredentistico ». Ancora più chiari erano gli ordini dati al « Comitato per la Corsica », il deus ex machina di tutta la futura azione per l’isola e sull’isola : « salvaguardare nei suoi
molteplici aspetti e con tutti i possibili mezzi l’originaria italianità della popolazione ; favorire tra i corsi un sentimento di reazione al dominio francese (autonomismo-irredentismofilofascismo)». In quest’ottica fu giocoforza per un verso incentivare in patria ogni azione atta a propagandare l’italianità dell’ isola. D’altro canto si cercò di coinvolgere il movimento autonomista autoctono, o meglio la galassia indipendentista corsa, individuando in essa l’interlocutore più prossimo, animato da un separatismo a senso unico e filo italiano.Dopo un lungo periodo preparatorio, l’iniziativa rivendicazionista ebbe la sua prima stagione operativa all’indomani della crisi etiope, ma soprattutto esplose in tutta la sua virulenza con la celebre manifestazione del 30 novembre 1938 alla Camera, durante la quale i deputati – sapientemente pilotati – gridarono le rivendicazioni dei territori francesi : Tunisi, Nizza, Gibuti e Corsica, originando come ricorda De Felice il definitivo naufragio dei tentati
ravvicinamenti italo-francesi8. Gli strumenti di propaganda dall’Italia si risolsero in tre differenti iniziative.<br/>
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Anzitutto, fu attivata un’intesa attività giornalistica, attraverso la stampa di un inserto settimanale del quotidiano livornese « Il Telegrafo » (Livorno era una delle città italiane con il più alto numero di cittadini d’origine corsa) ; il settimanale venne posto sotto la direzione dell’ onnipresente Francesco Guerri (sotto lo pseudonimo di « Minuto Grosso ») e fu finanziato direttamente dall’ufficio di D’Ajeta. L’inserto, che divenne ben presto il principale organo di propaganda stampata a favore della causa, ebbe collaboratori quasi esclusivamente d’origine corsa (o fuoriusciti o in Italia da generazioni) e si sarebbe occupato negli anni sia di problemi vari legati all’isola tirrenica sia delle più vaste e articolate relazioni con la Francia, sostenendo una durissima campagna contro il complotto « repubblicano, socialdemocratico e massonico » di Parigi e il sostegno del governo d’oltralpe all’antifascismo internazionale e italiano in particolare. Il settimanale sarebbe stato distribuito clandestinamente in Corsica. All’ iniziativa specifica de « Il Telegrafo » si sarebbe affiancata, con il benestare e lasupervisione del Ministero della Cultura popolare, un’ azione propagandista su alcuni
quotidiani nazionali che si sarebbe intensificata, come avrebbe scritto sagacemente DAjeta «particolarmente nei momenti di maggior disagio con la Francia »9.Il secondo strumento operativo fu rappresentato dalle varie iniziative d’ordine scientifico e culturale. Un rivista trimestrale, « L’Archivio storico di Corsica », sotto la prestigiosa direzione dello storico del regime Gioacchino Volpe, si sarebbe occupata di studi storico-letterari inerenti all’isola, con particolare riferimento alle fasi di maggiore legame con la Penisola (la dominazione della Repubblica del Grifone, ad esempio) a tutti quei personaggi caratterizzati da uno spiccato impegno autonomista o indipendentista (come Pasquale Paoli) o a tutti i corsi che avevano influito sulla vita culturale e politica francese, nel tentativo di dimostrare una superiorità corsa rispetto alla Potenza « colonizzatrice » che sottilmente sottintendeva per sillogismo una superiorità della « razza italica » : campione di queste analisi non poteva che essere, ça va sans dire, il Grande Corso per eccellenza, Napoleone Bonaparte (anzi, Buonaparte, secondo la denominazione originale del cognome, e che veniva ribadita dagli studiosi italiani per sottolinearne l’origine peninsulare)10. Anche la rivista di Volpe sarebbe stata distribuita clandestinamente sull’isola tirrenica. L’infaticabile Guerri si sarebbe occupato altresì di dirigere un mensile di divulgazione scientifica (« Corsica antica e moderna »), con il fuoriuscito ex dirigente autonomista corso Marco Angeli come caporedattore11. Il periodico avrebbe dovuto affiancarsi alla rivista di Volpe, completandone l’opera con studi d’ordine antropologico, etnografico, geografico e finanche geologico, tutti atti a ribadire per l’ennesima volta il legame con la vera e unica « madrepatria ». Il docente dell’Università di Pavia Gino Bottiglioni avrebbe infine coordinato le pubblicazioni dell’ «Atlante linguistico della Corsica », finanziato da un consorzio tra i Ministeri degli Esteri,
dell’Interno e dell’Educazione nazionale nonché dall’Università di Cagliari, uno degli atenei più attenti all’operazione verso l’isola tirrenica. Lo scopo, intuibile sin dalla denominazione
della testata, era quello di individuare tutti i possibili legami glottologici e linguistici tra la Corsica e l’Italia, per giungere alla dimostrazione della tesi secondo la quale « le origini
idiomatiche corse sono strettamente legate a quelle toscane, sarde e sicule »12.<br/>
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Il terzo strumento di propaganda in Italia fu caratterizzato dai Gruppi di cultura corsi (Gcc) costituiti a Pavia nel 1938 su iniziativa di Pietro (Petru) Giovacchini, detto « il parroco » (u parrucu). Nato nel 1909 in Corsica, a Canale di Verde, e trasferitosi a Pavia nel 1930 dove si era laureato in medicina e chirurgia, Giovacchini, che fu anche camicia nera volontaria in Spagna, sarebbe diventato negli anni seguenti il principale esponente del movimento irredentista filofascista. Scopo dei Gcc di Giovacchini era, in origine, quello di inquadrare sotto un’unica sigla tutti i cittadini italiani d’origine corsa e i corsi fuoriusciti, allo scopo di promuovere l’italianità dell’isola sia dal punto di vista culturale che linguistico. Nei giorni immediatamente successivi al settembre 1939 l’ufficio di D’Ajeta, attraverso il « Comitato per la Corsica », iniziò un monitoraggio sui dichiarati 15 mila iscritti ai Gcc (concentrati soprattutto in Liguria, Toscana e Sardegna) per comprendere se vi erano le condizioni per trasformare, con corrispondente ed adeguato finanziamento da parte del Ministero, l’iniziativa culturale dei Gruppi nell’attiva propaganda irredentistica collegata con i movimenti clandestini sull’isola. Si trattava tuttavia di un progetto ipotetico che, almeno sino al 1939, non sarebbe stato applicato : le condizioni non sussistevano e i Gcc avrebbero dovuto ricoprire incarichi meno dirompenti13. Questa organizzazione, secondo il diplomatico italiano, poteva diventare un utile « movimento d’opinione », atto a coordinare da un lato la diffusione in madrepatria della battaglia per una Corsica prima indipendente dalla Francia e quindi di nuovo italiana e dall’altro l’inserimento dei cittadini corsi residenti in Italia, o recentemente fuoriusciti dall’isola tirrenica, nel pieno della vita nazionale. In questo D’Ajeta suggeriva al Capo di gabinetto del Minculpop, Luciano, di facilitare l’inserimento dei corsi residenti in Italia nella vita del Paese, riconoscendo loro uno status particolare non di cittadini stranieri (e di li a poco « appartenenti a nazione nemica ») , ma di « cittadini italiani non regnicoli », secondo una formula adottata anche nei confronti degli italiani di Spalato e dalmati sottoposti all’amministrazione jugoslava. Inoltre, sarebbe stato auspicabile che i corsi fossero ammessi nel Partito nazionale fascista, anche se formalmente non italiani14. Nei disegni di D’Ajeta i Gcc di Giovacchini avrebbero dovuto affiancarsi alle autorità nel sovrintendere e canalizzare l’inserimento della comunità corsa in Italia all’interno della
vita nazionale. I rischi di questo compito erano tuttavia ben chiari al diplomatico italiano : si sarebbe mantenuto « […] uno stretto controllo cui suoi ben noti entusiasmi di Giovacchini che potrebbero alle volte rivelarsi intempestivi », mentre ai Gruppi stessi non sarebbero stati affidati « […] compiti direttivi » né « […] la possibilità di essere a conoscenza della riservata azione italiana nel suo complesso » : le caratteristiche del temperamento corso, concludeva D’Ajeta non senza ironia, forse involontaria, e cioè un temperamento « facile all’entusiasmo ed all’abbattimento, partigiano, fazioso, interessato » sconsigliavano un salto qualitativo dei Gruppi in un’organizzazione esplicitamente eversiva, una sorta di ustaša tirrenici15. In realtà l’esclusione dei Gcc di Giovacchini dall’azione meramente irredentista e il loro sconfinamento ad iniziative propagandiste e d’inquadramento in Italia più che da motivi di inaffidabilità caratteriale era suggerita dalla delicata rete che l’Ufficio di D’Ajeta aveva esteso sull’isola attraverso sia il « Comitato per la Corsica » di Guerri, sia la rete diplomatica
rafforzata dalla riforma della metà degli anni venti.Principale strumento dell’iniziativa in loco fu il « Partitu corsu d’azzione » (Pca) di Pietro (Petru) Rocca, un ex combattente, decorato con la Legion d’Onore dallo Stato maggiore francese. Attraverso l’organo ufficiale del partito, il settimanale bilingue francocorso « A Muvra », il movimento di Rocca si era rapidamente spostato da una posizione moderatamente autonomista su una sempre più spiccata istanza indipendentista e nettamente filo italiana. Radiato dall’albo della Legion d’Onore, Rocca era perennemente controllato
dalla polizia francese, rischiando quotidianamente l’arresto mentre il suo giornale aveva subito numerosi sequestri sino alla sospensione d’obbligo delle pubblicazioni subito dopo lo scoppio della guerra con la Germania. Pur senza entrare nei dettagli, per questioni « di particolare riservatezza », D’Ajeta elencava il Partito e il giornale di Rocca come «strumenti» dell’iniziativa italiana sull’isola tirrenica, sottintendendo la natura e il volume degli appoggi che il governo di Roma riservava al movimento autonomista insulare16 : il principale trait d’union tra il Partito autonomista e il Comitato per la Corsica sarebbe stato l’ex dirigente del partito Marco Angeli, caporedattore di « Corsica antica e moderna » e « decano » del fuoriuscitismo. In una successiva lettera assai polemica nei confronti del
Giovacchini, ritenuto incapace e indegno di guidare i Gcc, Angeli avrebbe riassunto il programma del partito di Rocca come segue : « Il programma […] si riallaccia alla tradizione di Pasquale Paoli, riafferma lo spirito battagliero dei corsi contro la tirannide francese ammantata d’ipocrisia e d’immorali principi e sostiene per la Corsica le ragioni della riscossa ». Le attività italiane sull’isola vennero condotte complessivamente con grande abilità e riservatezza, tanto da non suscitare almeno da parte del corpo diplomatico francese in Italia alcun sospetto, anzi. È interessante notare infatti il relativo disinteresse transalpino nei confronti delle articolate attività irredentiste e rivendicazioniste in Italia. A distanza di quasi due mesi dal « salto qualitativo » del movimento irredentista François-Poncet, ambasciatore francese in Italia, scriveva al suo Ministro degli Esteri Georges Bonnet una breve relazione nella quale riassumeva con molte incertezze la rete propagandista di D’Ajeta, Guerri e
Giovacchini, facendo trasparire una inspiegabile difficoltà nel raccogliere informazioni più precise, anche attraverso il consolato francese a Livorno, intuita dai diplomatici come la vera centrale operativa della propaganda irredentista. Interessante il commento di chiusura : « J’ai
cru devoir signaler, à toutes fins utiles, à l’attention du Département ces indications évidemment quelque peu fragmentaires. Elles me paraissent cepoendant de nature à
démontrer l’intérêt croissant que pour des raisons au moins tactiques, et peut-être pour obtenir, le cas échéant, d’autres avantages en échange d’un éventuel désistement, le
gouvernement italien porte ou affecte de porter désormais à ‘l’île perdue’ »18.Questo atteggiamento piuttosto disincantato e di sottovalutazione del problema, da
parte della diplomazia francese, sarebbe proseguito anche nei mesi successivi : « On constate qu’aujourd’hui, rien n’est fait ici [in Italia – NdA] pour enflammer à cet egard le moral de la nation », si legge ad esempio in un nuovo dispaccio di François-Poncet a Parigi in merito alle
solite rivendicazioni italiane, tra le quali la Corsica. Un trucco, quindi, un ballon d’essai propagandistico ad uso più interno che esterno : delle operazioni riservate condotte in Corsica dal Comitato di Guerri e dall’ufficio di D’Ajeta, non compare alcuna traccia nelle relazioni
dei rappresentanti diplomatici transalpini in Italia.Inaugurate alla fine del 1938, le operazioni irredentiste avrebbero subito un rallentamento nel settembre 1939. Lo scoppio delle ostilità aveva ridotto la portata delle iniziative sull’isola. Quelli che il diplomatico italiano definiva « contatti con personalità corse », senza specificarne nomi e qualifiche, apparivano impossibili sin dai primi giorni del settembre. Anche le sovvenzioni che erano state erogate negli anni precedenti a favore della
stampa isolana più filo italiana sembravano « molto difficili », anche se d’Ajeta confidava in un non meglio precisato miglioramento futuro delle condizioni per riaprire un canale con
alcuni quotidiani corsi. Assai precaria risultava la distribuzione clandestina della pubblicistica italiana (dall’inserto de « Il Telegrafo » alle riviste culturali e scientifiche). Apparentemente
in condizioni migliori appariva un altro strumento, probabilmente ancora più importante e radicato del Partito di Rocca : « Fedeli alla nostra causa, alla quale hanno reso e rendono preziosi servizi, si sono dimostrati alcuni Ordini religiosi con i quali il « Comitato » intrattiene riservati e opportuni contatti ».Ma, in generale, l’iniziativa in loco apparve sin dal primo mese di guerra alquanto
limitata, e ben poco serviva la non belligeranza italiana : i fiduciari italiani legati al « Comitato per la Corsica » e incaricati dai diplomatici di mantenere la rete quadrangolare (autonomisti-personalità locali-giornali-clero) correvano « rischi notevolissimi », mentre, essendo la Corsica stata dichiarata « zona operativa » dallo Stato maggiore francese, avrebbe presto subito lo stesso destino dell’Alsazia dove, come ricordava D’Ajeta, i locali capi autonomisti del movimento pronazista erano stati da poco condannati alla fucilazione per alto tradimento : « Noi abbiamo qualcuno dei nostri ‘amici’ nelle prigioni militari francesi ». Inoltre : « La popolazione è antitaliana e certamente antifascista : gli autonomisti – un esiguo numero – non dimostrano certamente velleità di martirio. I più coraggiosi sono indubbiamente ora in Italia, avendo « disertato » l’esercito francese ».Dinanzi a un siffatto quadro, il Ministro della Cultura popolare, Alessandro Pavolini concordò con il Ministero degli Esteri sull’opportunità di sospendere le attività in Corsica, mantenendo i contatti ma evitando di aggravare la già precaria situazione della rete del « Comitato » con iniziative concrete : si doveva attendere la maturazione delle condizioni politiche e militari.<br/>
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Nel clima d’attesa e d’incertezza caratterizzante la non belligeranza, la decisione presa dal Governo di sospendere l’iniziativa sull’isola si allargò anche nei confronti dell’attività propagandista in Italia. Del fatto si accorse anche François-Poncet, che segnalò a Parigi la riduzione dell’attività propagandista sui giornali nazionali, motivandola con i tentativi della diplomazia italiana di giungere a una mediazione nel corso della crisi d’agosto 1939. Il Comitato ordinò a Giovacchini di sospendere ogni azione. Si tenga presente che lo scoppio della guerra con la Germania aveva avuto un’ulteriore risvolto anche in Italia : più di metà dei principali esponenti dei Gcc, talvolta per un riscoperto sentimento patriottico e il più delle volte per timore di rappresaglie del governo di Parigi, era rientrata sull’isola tirrenica24.Disciplinato, contro tutti i sospetti di D’Ajeta che come si è detto lo giudicava impulsivo e
irrequieto, il leader irredentista inviò a tutti i Gruppi distribuiti nella Penisola una circolare che, pur comandando il silenzio, lasciava presagire una futura offensiva addirittura più militare che di propaganda : « Periodo di attesa e di preparazione silenziosa. Astenersi da qualsiasi manifestazione pubblica o di massa ; non intralciare il lavoro della nostra diplomazia. Non scoprire le nostre batterie, ma non per questo abbandonarle. Io farò sapere quando sarà venuto il momento di agitarsi ».
L’attività dei Gruppi di Giovacchini e più generalmente del Comitato per la Corsica si ridussero sino al maggio 1940 e l’impegno dei principali dirigenti della comunità corsa in Italia appare assai più prosaico e meno ideale del periodo precedente, concentrato soprattutto su una serie di favori personali richiesti a Mussolini attraverso sia gli Esteri che il Minculpop26. Il 22 maggio 1940 Giovacchini si incontrò con Pavolini : la data è fatidica, almeno per la breve storia della rivendicazione fascista della Corsica, e segna l’avvicendamento tra il capo dei Gcc e il « Comitato per la Corsica » di Guerri, ormai definitivamente anestetizzato, alla guida dell’iniziativa propagandista.<br/>
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Giovacchini illustrò al Ministro della Cultura popolare lo stato della sua organizzazione, probabilmente forzando sui numeri e amplificandone le effettive possibilità. I Gruppi di cultura corsi ammontavano a 170 sezioni, sia in Italia che all’estero, per un totale di 22 mila iscritti. I quadri attivi erano circa 250, anche se solo una parte potevano essere effettivamente impiegati in eventuali e non precisate «azioni». Pavolini concordò con il presidente dei Gcc – ribattezzatosi forse in vista di un salto qualitativo in campo bellico « presidente generale» –di intensificare la propaganda e di dare il via alla « costituzione e addestramento di un nucleo d’azione, da tenere pronto per essere inviato in Corsica a un momento dato »27.Si trattava di un’esplicita risposta a una dichiarazione da Giovacchini al ministro soltanto alcuni giorni prima (« I Corsi irredenti riuniti a Roma sono decisi a passare all’azione »)28. Il ministro stanziò 30 mila lire per le spese di propaganda, alle quali si aggiunsero cinque mila lire per l’acquisto da parte del Minculopop di un opuscolo sulla Corsica a cura dei Gruppi stessi29. Tuttavia, la tanto agognata « azione » non venne neppure dopo il 10 giugno. I Gcc non si mossero e la propaganda continuò ad essere sospesa. L’unico significativo atto corrispondente al nuovo stato di guerra fu la trasformazione dei Gruppi di cultura in « Gruppi d’azione irredentista corsa » (Gaic). In un impeto di entusiasmo, esemplificativo peraltro di una certa confusione organizzativa e organigrammatica, Giovacchini ribattezzò poco dopo i Gaic prima in « Movimento irredentista corso » e quindi in « Movimento d’azione irredentista corso » (Maic) : il tentativo era quello di gettare le basi per una vera e propria organizzazione insurrezionale che affiancasse le truppe italiane nella « liberazione » dell’isola30. Ulteriore segnale della volontà degli irredentisti di Giovacchini di darsi una struttura più militante fu lo scorporo dal movimento di tutta l’iniziativa scientifico-culturale, attraverso la costituzione dell’« Istituto nazionale di studi corsi » a Pavia, il quale organizzò lezioni universitarie, una mostra a Venezia sull’italianità dell’isola, iniziative e mobilitazioni per l’intitolazione di piazze e vie alla Corsica e a Pasquale Paoli. Libero dall’impegno culturale, Giovacchini poteva lanciarsi finalmente nell’impresa politica e forse militare. Ma la partita era tutta diplomatica e comprendeva da un lato i rapporti tra Italia e Germania e dall’altro la complicata questione armistiziale con la Francia. All’indomani del crollo francese il governo italiano aveva inserito la Corsica tra le prioritarie richieste territoriali : « L’unione all’Italia » si leggeva nel cahier de doléances del Ministero degli esteri alla vigilia del vertice italo tedesco del giugno 1940 « è la condizione prima e fondamentale per il suo sviluppo e la sua prosperità. La Corsica è italiana geograficamente, storicamente ed etnicamente ». Nei progetti iniziali della Commissione italiana per l’armistizio con la Francia (Ciaf), la Corsica sarebbe stata inserita tra le aspirazioni apparentemente irrinunciabili.
Tuttavia, le lunghe trattative di Villa Incisa e poi l’infinita vertenza della Ciaf avrebbero visto la rivendicazione corsa in una posizione sempre più sfumata. Una delegazione della Ciaf giunse in Corsica nel luglio 1940 e apparentemente il tema trattato con le locali autorità vichysois sembrò più orientato verso la smilitarizzazione dell’isola, secondo le clausole di Villa Incisa. I delegati italiani apparvero quindi molto rispettosi dell’autorità francese, prendendo le distanze dall’estremismo dei seguaci di Giovacchini o di Guerri. Tuttavia, come ricorda Rainero « Non si creda che la rinuncia all’annessione immediata della Corsica sia passata tra le decisioni più facili del regime; la rivendicazione rimase quasi « a futura memoria », in attesa di un regolamento della pace [...] ». D’altronde non a caso il maresciallo Badoglio, soltanto due mesi dopo la visita della delegazione della Ciaf sull’isola, sottopose a Mussolini un progetto per l’invasione della Corsica mediante due divisioni, provenienti rispettivamente da Livorno e dalla Sardegna. Il piano si sarebbe sviluppato nei mesi successivi. Nell’incontro tra i capi di stato maggiore della marina italiana e tedesca, tenutosi a Merano il 13 e 14 febbraio 1941, l’ammiraglio Riccardi disse chiaramente al suo collega germanico Raeder che lo stato maggiore della marina aveva predisposto un piano per l’occupazione dell’isola, suscitando peraltro disapprovazione da parte tedesca : l’occupazione della Corsica non solo era considerata dal Terzo Reich inutile, ma anzi dannosa nella strategia globale del conflitto, e avrebbe spinto definitivamente Vichy (e senz’altro l’intero Nordafrica francese, ancora tentennante) tra le braccia dei britannici. Irritati delle opinioni dell’alleato, ma impossibilitati a prescindere da queste visti i rapporti di forza all’interno dell’Asse, i comandi italiani proseguirono nel perfezionamento solo teorico del piano, in attesa di tempi più favorevoli, e lo trasformarono in un progetto interforze tra marina ed esercito. Il nuovo piano, redatto dall’ammiraglio Vannutelli (che avrebbe dovuto ricoprire il ruolo di comandante dell’eventuale contingente d’occupazione), escludeva significativamente l’impiego dei separatisti di Rocca e tanto meno degli irredentisti di Giovacchini, entrambi considerati infidi e pasticcioni. Pur prevedendo ampie tutele all’« etnia corsa » (riconoscimento dei diritti acquisiti degli impiegati corsi, uso del dialetto corso nei processi eccetera), l’isola sarebbe stata governata da un viceré (come l’Albania) o da un alto commissario (come la Slovenia) con pieni poteri esecutivi e due sotto-governatorati ad Ajaccio e a Bastia, corrispondenti alle due zone (le « Bande ») in cui veniva tradizionalmente suddivisa l’isola tirrenica.</i><br/>
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<b>Italian troops entering in Corte (central Corsica) in November 1942. The smile of the italian soldier was indicative of the welcome received by the local population<br/></b>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL8yV_IFOt3IMsFr6y71RNzYPS8vcobDrveqI2Dvsh9tkHk5ic-WykRv-B-CI8OnAhxJx0ccvqS38fZtd137-neZtuoy9kYMlXHaMxb9FkZfgCTfKgPL3FknP2c9arL5z4z7q62z2tcgG3V8pVHsdPsj4Yd0Xk_XHUiDMCeorVUFTLcD6ahBvfyiu3cVYT/s1650/autoblindo-fiat-ansaldo-on-patrol-in-corsica-during-the-v0-rkmpxym71omb1.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="1650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL8yV_IFOt3IMsFr6y71RNzYPS8vcobDrveqI2Dvsh9tkHk5ic-WykRv-B-CI8OnAhxJx0ccvqS38fZtd137-neZtuoy9kYMlXHaMxb9FkZfgCTfKgPL3FknP2c9arL5z4z7q62z2tcgG3V8pVHsdPsj4Yd0Xk_XHUiDMCeorVUFTLcD6ahBvfyiu3cVYT/s600/autoblindo-fiat-ansaldo-on-patrol-in-corsica-during-the-v0-rkmpxym71omb1.jpg"/></a></div>
Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-30377822564464598372024-01-06T09:29:00.000-08:002024-01-19T07:33:12.475-08:00MAURIZIO RAVA (THE FASCIST JEW GOVERNOR OF ITALIAN SOMALIA)Only a few of us remember that -before the "appearance" of Hitler and his racism inside 1938 Mussolini's Italy- within the italian fascist party was strong the influence of italian jews (in October 1933 there were 4920 Italian Jews who were members of the Italian Fascist Party, nearly 10% of all the Jews living in Italy -while the jews were less than 1% of the total Italian population).<br/<>
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This month I want to research the life of the most famous of these nearly 5000 jews who were members of the Italian fascism in the 1930s: Maurizio Rava, Governor of Italian Somalia from 1931 to 1935 and Brigadier-General of the Italian Army from March 1939 to January 1941.<br/>
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The following are excerpts of what I wrote & got published in the wikipedia encyclopedia about Maurizio Rava (<a href="https://en.wikipedia-on-ipfs.org/wiki/Maurizio_Rava">https://en.wikipedia-on-ipfs.org/wiki/Maurizio_Rava</a>):<br/>
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<i>1916 photo of Maurizio Rava in the Trentino front</i>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Maurizio_Rava_-_WWI_-_commilitoni_%28cropped%29.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="306" data-original-width="282" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Maurizio_Rava_-_WWI_-_commilitoni_%28cropped%29.png"/></a></div><br/>
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Maurizio Rava (1878-1941) was a important Italian governor of Italian Somalia between 1931 and 1935. Before this activity, he worked as the fascist "Segretary" of Italian Tripolitania. He was also a famous writer and painter.<br/>
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<b>Life</b><br/>
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Maurizio Rava was born in 1878 to a Jewish family in Milan (Italy). He studied painting and started writing essays since he was a young student at a Milan Lyceum (Maurizio Rava graduated at the "Academy of Fine Arts of Rome"). Before WW1 he was a supporter of Italian nationalism and in 1919 he enrolled in the fascist party of Mussolini, creating with others the section of Roma and becoming one of his better collaborators.<br/>
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However, in the Great War he was an Alpine complement Officer, who was wounded and decorated with a silver and two bronze medals. He was moved to Major and later promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of the reserve.<br/>
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After personally participating in the 1922 "March on Rome", he was vice-secretary of the fascist party of Lazio in 1923.<br/>
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With the support of the Libya's governor Emilio De Bono, between August 1927 and June 1931 he was in this italian colony, first as general secretary, then from October 1930 as deputy governor and, from December 1928, as federal secretary of the "Fasci in Tripolitania". <br/>
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He attempted expansive projects in the Libya's internal areas, with settlements of new settlers and privileges for the large Italian agricultural companies with Italian labor (which, due to adaptability to the climate, he hoped from southern Italy); he pushed for a building development plan in Tripoli and attention to the construction quality of coastal cities; he also directed the local autonomous trade fair.<br/>
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From July 1931 Rava became governor of the other traditional Italian colony, Somalia (more pacified than Libya, but emerged from tensions aroused by the repressive policy of the former governor Cesare Maria De Vecchi, only attenuated by his successor Guido Corni). He also had the role of federal secretary of Mogadishu from 22 August 1931 until 1935.<br/>
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He followed a policy already started by his predecessor, aimed at economic ventures, settlements and public works that would make a colony with scarce resources more profitable (for further info, please read <a href="https://dadfeatured.blogspot.com/2018/05/">https://dadfeatured.blogspot.com/2018/05/</a>).<br/>
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In contact with the agricultural enterprises of the Duke of Abruzzi, Luigi Amedeo of Savoy-Aosta (who died on 18 March 1933 with Rava at his side), he developed the banana production in the Villabruzzi area; however, Rava fueled the monopoly of the concessionaires of banana cultivation, the main local production aimed at the italian homeland market, which it enriched some colonists, but burdened Italian consumers.<br/>
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In 1931 one of his first governor acts was the complete abolition of slavery in all italian Somalia and the creation of schools for somalian native kids on the same level of Italian children.<br/>
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In early 1935, Governor Maurizio Rava created the first system of postal service stations in Italian Somalia, that later was fully enlarged to all the "Italian East Africa".<br/>
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Until the end of March 1935 Rava was the "Governor" of Italian Somalia. But in the late 1930s he faced problems within the party because of Nazi Germany's influences against Italian Jews. However he was always respected by the fascists.<br/>
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After being nominated "senator" when returned to live in Italy, he was promoted to Brigadier-General in 1939 by the same Mussolini (even if he was a jew) and died in 1941 because of wounds received in Italian Libya, when was a general of brigade fighting the British.<br/>
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In the last years of his life he was very close to Italo Balbo (the second in charge in fascist Italy after Mussolini and a strong critic of the nazi-laws anti-jews) and promoted some links with the Israeli Navy through the Betar Naval academy in Civitavecchia (that created some of the future commanders of the Israeli Navy).<br/>
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His funeral in Rome was attended by many thousands of fascists (who rejected the racial laws imposed by Hitler) and got strong complains from the Nazi-Germany ambassador in Italy.<br/>
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<b>Links to Jabotinsky Revisionism</b><br/>
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Indeed Rava was linked to Jabotinsky (the main leader of the "Zionist Revisionism") who promoted the "Betar" (youth organization of the Revisionism) and who did the 1931 Betar Conference where was decided to promote the so called "maritime idea" of the 'Rodegal association' (read in Italian <a href="https://www.effedieffe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30882:lasse-roma-berlino-tel-aviv-parte-ii&catid=24&Itemid=143">https://www.effedieffe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30882:lasse-roma-berlino-tel-aviv-parte-ii&catid=24&Itemid=143</a>).<br/>
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In this conference the captain Irmiyahu Helpern was allowed to create a jewish "group for maritime selfdefense", that was to be prepared in the Italian navy school of Civitavecchia (located near Rome)<br/>
<br/>
Finally it is noteworthy to remember that until 1936 Fascist ideology was free of any element of anti-Semitism, and the party's membership rolls were open to Jews, who joined in roughly the same relative numbers as non-Jews. More than 200 Jews (like Maurizio Rava) participated in the 1922 march on Rome, which installed Mussolini in power.<br/>
<br/>
Jews who achieved prominence under Fascism included Aldo Finzi, a member of the first Fascist Grand Council; Guido Jung, Minister of Finance from 1932 to 1935; and of course Maurizio Rava, Governor of Italian Somaliland and a general in the Fascist militia.<br/>
<br/>Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-77429982576896094912023-12-01T07:40:00.000-08:002023-12-14T07:14:38.103-08:00COLLABORATION WITH ITALIANS IN DALMATIA (1941-1943)This December 2023 I want to research the collaborationism of local slavs with the Italians during WW2 in Dalmatia, with a special "look" at the Cetnik group (made of Serb-orthodox population) as written in a book of Lorenzo Salimbeni (that I have translated in english and edited some excerpts at the final section of my essay).<br/>
<br/>
As we all know Mussolini created the "Governorato di Dalmazia" in May 1941, and initially it was welcomed by most of the local slavs in Dalmatia until Germany attacked the Soviet Union and Stalin ordered the beginning of the Tito's partisan guerrilla in Dalmatia & former Yugoslavia.<br/>
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<i>Photo of Mussolini (to the right) and Pavelic in Rome when signed (May 7, 1941) the defined new borders between Croatia and the Kingdom of Italy's "Governorato di Dalmazia"</i>
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In summer 1941 the Italian government started a policy of "Italianization" in all the Governorate of Dalmatia (that had only 5000 Italians, in addition to the 20000 living in the province of Zara already Italian since 1918). New Italian schools were opened in Spalato. Administrative personnel from Italy moved to Spalato and Trau (nearly 6,700 Dalmatian Italians took refuge in Italy after the creation of Yugoslavia in 1919, and many of them were offered work if they returned to settle with their families in the Governorate of Dalmatia). The italian governor Bastianini started needed public works, building hospitals, sewage systems and roads in the area. Even the "Bank of Italy" opened a branch in Spalato.<br/>
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Furthermore, lacking a systematic hygienic-health organization in Dalmatia, apart from a few hospitals and hygiene offices, the Italian government favored the activation of a very efficient medical and obstetric system in the Governorate. New works were also started to improve the road & railway network, the port facilities of Šebenico and Spalato and the construction of new aqueducts on the smaller islands. All these improvements were received with good opinions by the local slavs, mainly the Serbs. Indeed, some of these Serbs requested officially the union of their territories around Tenin (the "Bucovizza" area) to the kingdom of Italy in May 1941.<br/>
<br/>
Indeed, the Serbian population of Knin, Gospić, Gračac and the other municipalities of the Kninska Krajina and the Lika necessarily supported the annexation of the region to Italy and the Italians, in turn, in full awareness of the importance of controlling that part of the dalmatian hinterland economically linked to the coast, took into consideration the possibility - initially supported by Mussolini himself - of assigning the entire area to Italy. The district civil commissioner of Knin, Carlo De Hoeberth, supported the initiative of two Serbian notables who were his fellow students in the Italian gymnasium of Austrian Zadar – Dr. Niko Novaković, municipal trustee of Knin and former minister, and the lawyer Boško Desnica of Obrovazzo - who delivered to the Italian authorities in Spalato a petition signed by over one hundred thousand Serbs from Bucovizza, a mountain region between Šebenico and Zara, requesting the annexation of the area to Italy (7 May).<br/>
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The petition also had notable repercussions among the Serbs of Bosnia and a few days later representatives of the communities of Bosanski Grahovo, Dervar (Drvar), Sanski Most, Bosanski Petrovac, Bihać, Bosanska Krupa, Ključ and Donj Lapac showed up at the command of the "Sassari Division", requesting a possible annexation to Italy. Favorable sentiments towards the Italians seem to have also been demonstrated by Muslims and the rest of the population of Herzegovina. However, the news of the petitions reached Mussolini too late, after the talks with Pavelić in Monfalcone on 7 May, when the borders of Dalmatia had already been defined.<br/>
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<i>Map (that I created for wikipedia) showing the Governorato di Dalmazia (limited by red points), with the Italian area of Croatia limited by blue points. The green points separate the Italian and German areas of influence.</i><br/>
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THE CETNIC-SLAV COLLABORATION WITH ITALIANS IN DALMATIA IN 1941-1943 (IL COLLABORAZIONISMO CETNICO IN DALMAZIA) , written by LORENZO SALIMBENI<br/>
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On May 8, 1941 a Croatian delegation went to Rome to offer the crown of Croatia to the House of Savoy. <br/>
<br/>
(The italian King and Emperor) Vittorio Emanuele II designated Aimone of Savoy of Aosta as Duke of Spoleto, the position he would have to take the name of "Tomislav II"; but ultimately he never set foot in his kingdom. That same day Benito Mussolini and Ante Pavelic (leader of the fascist Croatians, called "Ustasha") signed the treaties that guaranteed the Italian & Croatian small linguistic minorities. <br/>
<br/>
And, above all, they defined the boundaries between the two kingdoms: Castua, Sussak, Cabar, part of the district of Delnice, the hinterland of Zara, went to Italy, as well as Sebenico, the Bocca di Cattaro with the islands of Veglia, Aebe, Tirona, Solta, Lissa, Sant'Andrea, Pomo, Curzola and Melada. To the counterpart remained Ragusa, Dalmatia to the south of Spalato (a city that would have enjoyed a special customs regime) and the islands of Lesina and Brazza. <br/>
<br/>
The initial arrangement did not satisfy Mussolini since such a dismembered Dalmatia had no possibility of surviving from an economic point of view and would have been affected the process of assimilation of the natives Slavs to Italy, which the Duce believed it was ongoing; and also left Pavelic with a bad taste in his mouth, as he found himself increasingly cornered by the pro-German section of the ustasha movement led by Kvaternik senior (the Marshal Slavko, commander of the Armed Forces and former Habsburg officer) and son (Evgeny, head of the police) and who brought as a "dowry" no territorial mutilations to what was the presumed "Great Croatia", but rather the highly advantageous agreements signed on 16 May and 1 June which projected the Croatian economy into the Germany's area.<br/>
<br/>
In Zagabria a committee was set up directed by Edo Bulat from Spalato, officially to welcome Croatian refugees coming from the Croatia's coast, in reality to support the Croats who remained in the territories annexed to Italy. The Italian commands soon realized that army and Ustascian forces were feeling some hate towards Italy, following the mutilation of the Dalmatia coast and feared the same fate for Bosnia and Herzegovina.<br/>
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Since 7 April, the day of the armistice, the command of the VI Army Corps had held power in Dalmatia, although supported by the Commander Athos Bartolucci, former Federal Secretary and then Prefetto di Zara, who was promoted to this new role by the Supreme Command: he was not only concerned with guaranteeing the regular functioning of the service, but rather prepared the ground for the annexation which was now in the air. He has received the support of the District Commissioners Ildebrando Tacconi in Spalato and Guseppe Franchi in Zara; in effect, contrary to the customs of the international community, Dalmazia, like the "Autonomous Lubiana Province", was annexed to Italy before the war ended.<br/>
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<i>Designation of Aimone of Savoy (named Tomislav II) by Italian King Vittorio Emanuele II as "King of Croatia" on 18 May 1941. In front of him, Pavelić stands with the Croatian delegation</i>.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Designacija_Aimone_Tomislava_II._18.05.1941.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="472" data-original-width="442" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Designacija_Aimone_Tomislava_II._18.05.1941.jpg"/></a></div>
The Governorate of Dalmazia was established on 18 May 1941 and had at the top Giuseppe Bastianini, an early fascist squad member, like his successor Francesco Giunta (Florentine, but leader of the Fascio triestino in the immediate after the post-war period and therefore a leading exponent of the so-called "frontier Fascism", characterized by strong anti-Slavic characteristics) who was in office from February to 9 August 1943, the day on which the authority passed into the hands of the military. <br/>
<br/>
Consistently with the projects circulated in those months in the fascist spheres and which envisaged the return of those who had migrated from Dalmatia to Italy or Yugoslavia at the expense of those who had arrived there from 1919 onwards, Governor Bastianini immediately implemented a program of forced Italianization in the three provinces (Zara, Spalato and Cattaro) with prefects respectively the "fascistissimi" Vezio Orazio, Paolo Valerio Zerbino and Francesco Scassellati Sforzolini: the Croats who arrived in Dalmatia in the last decades faced dismissals, expulsions and limitations of the citizenship law, as well as the forced Italianization of cultural and political life and local social system, onto which the Fascist Party with all its elephantine apparatus was forcefully grafted. However, despite the forced transfers from the italian motherland, the administrative apparatus was weakened due to the removal of Yugoslavian personnel.<br/>
<br/>
From the outset, thge three provinces presented different characteristics: Cattaro was full of Montenegrin supporters, Spalato denounced a conspicuous communist militancy and a significant Serbian activity, whereas in the new acquisitions of Zara the foreign element welcomed the occupiers with detachment. In Knin, however, in the formally Croatian hinterland, but actually under the protection of the Italian Royal Army, the Italian occupiers had always had a protective attitude from the threats of the Catholic Ustasha and this fact had guaranteed the italian army a non-hostile attitude on the part of the countryside. At least at first the annexation to the Kingdom of Italy was seen, in these areas, as the least of the evils.<br/>
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In Dalmatia -thanks to the Orthodox community present in a compact manner between Obrovazzo and Derns and well rooted in Tenin (there were approximately 20,000 Serbian Orthodox)- the town of Tenin in which Division
Sassari placed his command, Spalato and Kistanje (the roman "Burnum") became points of reference for numerous fugitives. So much so that -already after Pavelic's seizure of power and foreshadowing the impending scandals figures- there were some of the most important members of the Serbian communities who would have been found in the territory of the Croatian state: Niko Novakovic (confirmed mayor of Tenin by Bartolucci who added to him the Civil Commissioner Carlo De Hoeberth), his brother Vlade, the pope of Strmica Momcilo Djujic, the rich landowner of Biskupje Pajo Popovic, the official of the Radical Union Stevo Redienovic and other businessman and former Yugoslav army officer.<br/>
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A delegation of them (who on May 25th the newspaper "Hrvatski Narod" defined as "fugitives from Orthodox troublemakers who, however, would soon be joined by Ustasha justice) made an act of submission and devotion to Italy on behalf of the 100,000 Serbs (partly ex "Morlacchi") from Bucovizza (between Sebenico and Zara). Senator Alessandro Dudàn believed that the same thing could happen by adequately stimulating the 60,000 Serbs residing between Ragusa and Cattaro who were already supporters of the Italian community against the Austrians before WW1. <br/>
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In short, the Governorate of Dalmatia had become the destination of almost 3,000 Serbs coming mostly from Drvar, Bosanski Grahovo, Donje, Lapac, Udbina and Gracac: new arrivals had therefore appeared added to the original community and Kistanje became the important center not only as a gathering centre, but also and above all politically important due to the relationships that the Serbian elders had there with the Italian authorities.<br/>
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On the Italian side, it was due to spontaneous motivations of a umanitary nature that the local authorities, in contravention of superior orders that required neutrality and detachment, worked in favor of the civil victims of the massacre like those perpetrated in Gracko, Evesinje, Ljubnje, Stolac, Mostar and Metkovic, done by the Ustasha. The situation became even more complex at the end of May, when -as the Ustasha persecutions increased- the Serbs from Trebinje (behind Ragusa) started to defend themselves with guns and those from Mostar were forced to form armed bands: In July the region of Luka (right next to the Dalmatia) rose up against the Ustasha<br/>
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<b>Since the first months of the Governorato there were many slav volunteers, who were joining the italian "Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia": at the moment of greatest consistency, they would have included more than 26,500 members; 6,500 of whom were employed by the XVIII Italian Army. Among these, approximately 5,000 would have served in the MV C "Dinara" division composed mainly of Greek Orthodox Serbs from the Knin district.</b><br/>
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Perpetually short of men and wary of their Croatian ally, the Italian commands were happy to have at their disposal these mobile units (made of Serb "Cetniks"), expert in the territory and, as they were nationalists and monarchs, that were strongly anti-communist, although hated by the Germans who considered them enemies in the same way as the partisans.<br/>
<br/>
in August 1941 Pietromarchi and Bastianini requested that the coastal strip from Fiume to Montenegro for a depth of at least about fifty kilometers was to be Italian in order to ensure tranquility of the coast. Thus it happened that between August and October that the Second Army took possession of the so-called Second Area (the territories that were located close to the italian border where the Croats could not have military posts) and Third Area (the innermost regions up to the demarcation line with a district garrisoned by Germans), also assuming political adminstrative powers in contact with the fictitious figure of a Croatian administrative Commissary united to the Italian military command.<br/>
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In early summer 1941 "governor forces" of local slavs were established in the provinces of Zara and Spalato, which received rifles & ammunitions from the Army Corps warehouses and they were framed as the "Anti-Communist Volunteer Corps of Italian Dalmatia". The enlistment applications were filled out on a special form form and presented to the command of the Royal Carabinieri, who, once
having authenticated the photos and extended a judgment on the volunteer, they would then have them forwarded to the Military Cabinet, which requested elements of absolute reliability and suitable from a physical, moral and political point of view.<br/>
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The first Serbian Orthodox volunteer groups began to operate in August 1941; they were recruited in the Dalmatian territory based on critera that were ethnic (there were also Croatian Catholic ones) and geographical (usually remained to act in the area of origin), and had to undergo a special oath of fidelity to Italy.<br/>
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The Slav volunteers were in two groups: the regular "Armed Bands" and the "Armed Villagers". The "Armed Bands" acted under the orders of local leaders and were divided into "Squads", while the "Armed Villagers" were
civilians residing in the villages who occasionally provided support and aid to the italian "Carabinieri". From a propaganda point of view, the three-weekly bilingual (Italian and Serbo-Croatian) "La Voce dei Volontari Anti-communists di Dalmazia" was well accepted by the Slavs, while the experiment of the Armed Villagers turned out to be a failure, who, due to their occasional use, soon became an easy target for the partisans. <br/>
<br/>
Furthermore, the volunteers from the annexed Dalmatia (mainly in the italian province of Zara) were included in the "Anti-Communist Zara Bands": they had their baptism of fire on July 27th, 1941 in the fighting at Monte Sopalj and in August they came under the authority of the Zara Troop Command; so, as part of the establishment of the 158th Infantry Division Zara, from September 1st 1941 they appeared as an Auxiliary Corp.<br/>
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<i>Momčilo Đujić, commander of the Dinara Division (left), with an Italian officer in 1942</i>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Mom%C4%8Dilo_%C4%90uji%C4%87_with_an_Italian_officer.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="777" data-original-width="551" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Mom%C4%8Dilo_%C4%90uji%C4%87_with_an_Italian_officer.jpg"/></a></div>
Additionally, he division "Dinara" was formed by Serbs in early January 1942: Ilija Trifunović-Birčanin played a central role in organizing the units of Chetnik leaders in western Bosnia, Lika, and northern Dalmatia into the Dinara Division and dispatched former Royal Yugoslav Army officers to help. This Division -ruled by Momcilo Dujic- was successful in fighting the Tito's guerrilla in collaboration with the Italians, but was reduced to only 3000 men in February 1943.<br/>
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Finally, it is noteworthy to pinpoint that the Serbian component of these volunteer groups, headed by the charismatic Trifunovic, had given -during the second half of 1941, all 1942 and until summer 1943- undisputed proof of anti-communism and always showed friendly links with the Italians.
Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-86152215824382314362023-11-01T07:41:00.097-07:002023-11-25T07:09:47.430-08:00THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE AUTHOCTHONOUS ITALIANS OF SPALATO (2)This November I am going to follow my last month research of information about the disappearance in Dalmatia of the authocthonous Italians of Spalato (a city called "Split" in Croatian language).<br/>
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<i>Antonio Bajamonti, famous Mayor of Spalato and leader of the Autonomist Party (ca. 1880)</i>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVPa3wuI__65AK3yLNL9PbyYLOzSKFhPD1TYKCjHb3I7JJqGN9DW9mt7LYqNVOzJHm3zX3H8DNwcNZD32CjxyZnpBIlJBeUlWfGClzbVuA-uZugLKv73VrRSOiRk4tCxezywRQ7k-Hhco0kJuRTyPgZUwE4mNagfDaqo4BOvP8nX0svLibn4Cc6R6sJzFz/s830/bajamonti.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="830" data-original-width="585" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVPa3wuI__65AK3yLNL9PbyYLOzSKFhPD1TYKCjHb3I7JJqGN9DW9mt7LYqNVOzJHm3zX3H8DNwcNZD32CjxyZnpBIlJBeUlWfGClzbVuA-uZugLKv73VrRSOiRk4tCxezywRQ7k-Hhco0kJuRTyPgZUwE4mNagfDaqo4BOvP8nX0svLibn4Cc6R6sJzFz/s600/bajamonti.jpg"/></a></div>
We all know that Spalato from roman times until the XIX century was a city where the romance speaking population was authocthonous and was the majority of the citizens. But in the last two centuries (when the city was united to Italy in two periods: with Napoleon's "Kingdom of Italy" & with the WW2 "Governorato di Dalmazia") this authocthonous population has disappeared in a way that some scholars define as an "ethnic cleansing" (please read my former issue of October 2023).<br/>
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Here are in small detail the approximate changes in percentage of the authocthonous romance population of Spalato before the "possible, but clearly evident" austrian-croatian ethnic cleansing:<br/>
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700 AD - 100% romance spealing (arrive the first few Slavs)<br/>
1000 AD - 80% romance speaking (20% Slavs, mostly after the X century)<br/>
1300 AD - 67% romance speaking (33% Slavs; Venice domination with first Slav refugees)<br/>
1500 AD - 55% romance speaking (45% Slavs, mostly Vlachs/Morlachs escaping the Turks)<br/>
1797 AD - 51% romance speaking (49% Slavs; ends Republic of Venice, begins nationalism) <br/>
1810 AD - 54% romance speaking (46% Slavs; Spalato is in the Napoleon's kingdom of Italy)<br/>
1825 AD - 50% romance speaking (50% Slavs; with Spalato population of nearly 10,000)<br/>
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It is noteworthy to pinpoint that croatian nationalists (like historian Grga Novak: "Povijest Splita. II. Split: Matica Hrvatska"; pp=264. Split, 1961) during Tito's dictatorship have asserted that most of the population of Spalato was croatian speaking around the year 1000 AD, because of studies about the family surnames of these medioeval years. But these studies were based on fake data (from church documents falsified by croatian nationalist priests during the austrian rule of the city; please read my issue of October 2023) and -most important- they are totally rejected by the only original document of these centuries (the famous “Book of Roger” or "Tabula Rogeriana", written by the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi at the court of King Roger II of Sicily in 1154 AD). In this book it is written that Spalato had a population of authocthonous Dalmatian latins with only a minority of (recently immigrated after the X century) Croatians!<br/>
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<i> Two "Manifesto" (promoted by Antonio Tacconi) requesting the union of Spalato to the kingdom of Italy, issued on November/December 1918, when WW1 finished"</i><br/>
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Furthermore as a confirmation of this "disappearance" it is noteworthy to pinpoint that -according to official census - there were in:<br/>
* 1890: italians 1,969 (12,5%), croats 12,961 (82,5%), germans 193 (1,2%), in a total of 15,697 inhabitants.<br/>
* 1910: italians 2,082 (9,7%), croats 18,235 (85,2%), germans 92 (0,4%), in a total of 21,407 inhabitants.<br/><br./>
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As in the previous month, because I want to research in full detail this issue, I am going to translate excerpts from the famous book of Luciano Monzali "ANTONIO TACCONI E LA COMUNITÀ ITALIANA DI SPALATO" (<a href="https://www.academia.edu/10190651/Antonio_Tacconi_e_la_Comunit%C3%A0_italiana_di_Spalato">https://www.academia.edu/10190651/Antonio_Tacconi_e_la_Comunit%C3%A0_italiana_di_Spalato</a>):<br/>
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<b>CHAPTER 3:THE ITALIANS OF SPALATO BETWEEN FASCIST ITALY AND ROYAL YUGOSLAVIA</b> (GLI ITALIANI DI SPALATO TRA ITALIA FASCISTA E IUGOSLAVIA MONARCHICA)<br/>
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<b><i>The Italians of Spalato (1922-1935)</b></i><br/>
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<b>"....the 1910 census helps us to outline a picture of the Italian presence in Dalmatia before the first world war. The largest Italian nucleus was concentrated in the captaincy (Bezirk) of Zara/Zadar, where, according to official data, there were 11,768 Italians compared to 70,838 Serbs and Croats: Italians were the majority nationality in the urban center of Zara, while the countryside was massively Croatian and Serbian. The other area with a high Italian concentration was the city of Spalato/Split, in whose captaincy 2,357 Italians were declared present (concentrated in the capital) together with 95,869 Croats and Serbs. There were also substantial Italian communities in the Dalmatian islands: 444 Italians in Curzola/Korcula, 265 in Brazza/Brac, 586 in Lesina/Hvar, 149 in Arbe/Rab, present in the main urban centers (Curzola, Arbe, San Pietro/Supetar, Neresica/Nerezica, Lesina/Hvar and Cittavecchia/Starigrad). Other not insignificant Italian nuclei existed in Lissa/Vir and in the captaincies of Sebenico/Sibenik (968), Ragusa/Dubrovnik (526) and Cattaro/Kotor (538), always concentrated in the cities. Important Italian communities were present in Veglia/Krk, Cherso/Cres and Lussino/Losinj, geographically Dalmatian islands, but on an administrative level belonging to Habsburg Istria. In these islands, a lot close to Istria and Italy, the consistency of the Italian element had remained very strong and compact, especially in the main urban centers with a clear Italian majority, also thanks to the fact that the administrative belonging to Istria, dominated from the "Italian liberal party", had guaranteed a certain favor from the austrian provincial and local authorities. In the captaincy of Lussino and Cherso the 1910 census reported the presence of 9,883 Italians and 9,998 Croats, while in that of Veglia/Krk there were 19,553 Croatians and 1,543 Italians, the latter largely concentrated in the town of Veglia (where they were the majority). Luciano Monzali: Italiani di Dalmazia"</b><br/>
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<i>The end of the Habsburg Empire, the rise of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the struggles between Italy and the Yugoslav state caused a progressive weakening of the Italian community of Spalato. A few hundred Italian families emigrated in search of better living conditions outside Yugoslavia. The remaining Italian community split when faced with the choice of citizenship, dividing itself between Yugoslav citizens and Italian opting citizens.<br/>
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Above: 1920 photo of Spalato's Riva Vecchia & Fontana Bajamonti----------Bottom: 1925 photo of Via Ognisanti (in the Italian area of Spalato)<br/>
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For the Italian and Yugoslav political culture of the time, which strongly identified national identity and the State, the "Italians" of Spalato after 1922 were exclusively the optants, those who were in possession of the citizenship of the Kingdom of Italy. The assumption of Italian citizenship meant that the optants were progressively excluded from the central hubs of the Spalato society. The exclusion of those opting from public administrations, an authentic stronghold of Italian Dalmatians until 1918, from the professions of lawyer, doctor, notary and engineer, led to the progressive loss of economic and intellectual importance of the Italian minority in Split and Dalmatia.<br/>
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This is what Carlo Galli noted at the end of the 1920s, when the process of weakening the Italian community of Spalato was further highlighted:<br/>
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"....The institute of "options" and the formation of the class of "opters" gave rise to the formation of our definitive minority in Dalmatia,...... but at the same time created a closed social group which as all closed social groups are condemned to emigrate or slowly die out."<br/>
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Despite this progressive weakening, the Italian community continued to exist in Spalato and to play a not entirely marginal role in the cultural and economic life of the city. But how many Italians were there in Spalato? Based on official data from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 1927 in the city of Split there were 3,337 Italian citizens (1,855 males and 1,482 females), of which 2,652 were natives. To these should be added a few thousand Spalato citizens of Italian language and culture who had decided to maintain Yugoslav citizenship: for the political culture of Italy between the two world wars, they were the so-called "renegades", men and women with little or weak national conscience, therefore politically unreliable people.</i><br/>
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<i>After 1919 together with the primary school of the Cultural League ("Lega Culturale"), the other main Italian institutions in Spalato in the interwar period were the Reading Cabinet ("Gabinetto di Lettura"), the Workers' Society ("Societa' Operaia") and the church of Holy spirit. The Reading Cabinet remained the meeting place of the Italian elite. With the emigration of many to Italy and abroad after 1918, the number of members of the society had a sharp decline: in 1939 the Reading Cabinet had only 61 members, mostly the last representatives of the old families of the authocthonous Italian bourgeoisie of Spalato: Bettiza, Boglich, Burich, Calebotta, Capogrosso, Capurso, Carstulovich, Cazafura, Dadich, Dal Lago, David, Dolcher, Fiorina, Foretich, Gliubich, Graf, Guina, Illich, Karaman, Korencan, Lunazzi, Michieli, Mitturi, Milisich, Miotto, Morpurgo, Olivieri, Pezzi, Pezzoli, Rolli, Roich,Romich, Romiti, Rubcich, Ruzzier, Sacerdote, Savo, Stoch, Storich, Tacconi, Tocigl, Valle, Vio and Vitale. The Società Operaia di Mutuo Soccorso was the most important Italian association as it had the largest number of members and had the function of mutual aid for its member compatriots....However, it experienced a decline in the number of members during the twenties and thirties, going from over a thousand to a few hundred members. The Italian church of Holy spirit was established on an administrative and financial level by the "Confraternity of the Saint Spirit and devotees of Saint Joseph", of which about thirty Italian citizens were members. Other Italian companies active in Spalato were the Popular library, the Italian Charity Association, the Unione Cooperativa and the Choral Society.<br/>
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During the 1920s and 1930s, the difficult political and economic conditions of life in Spalato favored the emigration of many Italians, who sold their goods and abandoned the city. This phenomenon greatly worried the political leaders of the minority and the government of Rome, who tried to slow down the exodus with economic and financial aid. In May and June 1927 Antonio Tacconi raised the need for government measures in favor of the Italians of the Yugoslav Dalmatia, in order to allow them to resist «the systematic action deployed by the Yugoslav Government to eliminate the Italian element in Dalmatia».<br/>
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Tacconi obtained from the italian government the granting of financial funds intended for new subsidies for Italian citizens and for the construction of the "Casa degli Italiani", which was completed in 1928........ The economic weakening of the Italians of Spalato and the international developments (with the war in Ethiopia, the new "world" directives of Mussolini's foreign policy and Italy's subsequent rapprochement with Hitler's Germany) facilitated the growing fascistization of the Italian community. The first half of the 1930s was an era of further economic crisis for the Italians of Spalato.<br/>
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During the second half of the 1930s Antonio Tacconi continued to fight to save the economic positions of the Italians of Spalato as much as possible, advocating aid for companies and families in Spalato with the Italian state and financial institutions. But Tacconi's efforts did not prevent a further decline of Spalato's Italian community.<br/>
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The strong economic crisis that hit Spalato and Dalmatia during the 1930s caused a further numerical weakening of the Italian-Dalmatian minority, in particular of those in possession of Italian citizenship. The number of Spalato citizens with Italian citizenship continued to decline. In 1937, the italian Consul Cuneo declared that in the entire consular district of Spalato (including the city, its hinterland and various islands of central Dalmatia) there were around 2,400 Italian citizens, of which approximately 1,800 "optioning" and 600 with full italian rights. The quantification of the number of Italians in possession of Yugoslav citizenship was more difficult: Cuneo said that "Regarding Yugoslav citizens of Italian nationality, the number undergoes very strong fluctuations whether or not all the elements relating to the nationality criterion are considered; so that people to be considered Italian nationals in every respect now number around 300; for constant use of language and traditions around 4,000; much higher number for knowledge and intermittent use of the language." In a city that doubled its population within twenty years, the Italian element regressed numerically. Spalato was less and less Italian and more and more Croatian and Yugoslav.<br/>
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But on April 6, 1941, German troops invaded Yugoslavia. It was the beginning of the war of aggression against the Yugoslav state in which Italy, Bulgaria and Hungary also participated. Within a few days the Yugoslavian army, undermined by the desertions of Slovenian and Croatian soldiers, many of whom saw the German aggression as the beginning of their definitive national emancipation, collapsed. Between 12 and 17 April the Italian armed forces invaded the main centers of Dalmatia. On 15 April the division Torino occupied Spalato. On the 18th of the same month, the hostilities had already ended, with the full victory of the Axis forces. After such an easy victory, the Italian government and public opinion enthusiastically took part in the division of the Yugoslav territories.<br/>
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<i>Photo of an Italian military band with many Italian "Spalatini" listening in summer 1941, after the italian conquest of the city during WW2</i>
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On April 16, 1941 the Italian consul in Spalato, Arduini, prepared a note on Dalmatia and the consistency of the Italian element in the region. For him the Italian citizens residing in "unredeemed Dalmatia" ("Dalmazia irredenta") on the eve of the WW2 conflict amounted to around 4,000, concentrated exclusively in the cities, of which 20% were royals and 80% opting. They were distributed as follows: 2,200 in Spalato, 300 in Sebenico, 500 in Ragusa, 1,000 in Veglia. According to Arduini, the majority of native Dalmatian Italians were made up of workers, artisans and, to a minimal extent, agricultural settlers: many of these lived in precarious economic conditions and they were subsidized by the Italian Consulates. In the Italian communities there was also a certain number of professionals, well-to-do traders and landowners, who, however, had become increasingly thinner from 1921 onwards due to the hostile policy of the Belgrade government, the application of the Yugoslav law of agrarian reform and the difficulty of finding employment in Dalmatia. In addition to Italian citizens, in Dalmatia there were also Italians with Yugoslav citizenship: Arduini wrote that "To the aforementioned compatriots must be added all those "Italians of origin" who for family needs, for work needs, for mere opportunism, have voluntarily assumed Yugoslav citizenship starting from 1921 and who constitute a very significant number to be calculated at approximately 10,000 people . The existence of such elements, who, apart from their more or less artificial and heartfelt hatred against everything Italian, live, think and maintain purely Italian customs and use our language fluently in the family alongside the Slavic one, will contribute without doubt to facilitate that process of re-assimilation of our people and their affirmation on the "third shore" which is the basis of our claims in Dalmatia".</i><br/>
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<i>For a few weeks, the disintegration of Yugoslavia seemed likely to consecrate the definitive rise of Antonio Tacconi to the level of an important political leader. Once Spalato was occupied, the government of Rome proposed the appointment of Tacconi as civil commissioner of the city. Tacconi expressed some doubts about this offer, but he ended up accepting. On 28 April Antonio Tacconi was appointed civil commissioner of Spalato. In those days Tacconi thought he had reached the peak of his political career. He, the political heir of the Italian Autonomist Party, had regained the city power that had been lost by Antonio Bajamonti in 1882.<br/>
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Tacconi tried to take advantage of the initial attitude towards the Italian occupation of a substantial part of the Spalaro croatian population, who for a few months considered it a lesser evil than inclusion in a Croatian state dominated by the Ustasha, an extremist party lacking a strong consensus in the city; many Spalatians, then, hoped that the Italian occupation would lead to an improvement in local economic conditions. Tacconi, a notable relative and linked to numerous local Croatian and Yugoslavian families, an observant Catholic and in good relations with ecclesiastical circles, hoped for the support of the Spalatine Catholic Church, led by Bishop Quirino Clement Bonefacic´ with whom he would have good relations, and of all those citizen groups (politicians, entrepreneurs, traders) of the Yugoslavian tendency who are opposed to the USSR and are in favor of Italian dominion for a simple reason of personal survival. It is no coincidence that Tacconi's first government actions aimed at calming the Croatian and Yugoslavian elements and at improving the living conditions of all the population of Spalato.<br/>
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But a serious problem for Tacconi was his political weakness within the fascist regime, which soon reduced the personal power of the senator and carried out an occupation policy in Dalmatia which ignored and contrasted the ideas and ideals of the old Spalato politician. After the annexation of central-northern Dalmatia, the fascist regime organized the new province, giving maximum political and administrative powers to the governor, the prefects and the secretaries of the fascist federations. Tacconi was deprived of the role of leader of the Dalmatian Fascists and, although civil commissioner of Spalato, found himself in a subordinate position with respect to the fascist hierarchs coming from the Peninsula and the representatives of the Italian State. With the creation, at the end of May 1941, of the Government of Dalmatia ("Governorato di Dalmazia"), the powers of the civil commissioners were drastically reduced (in June) : the central figure at the local level became the prefect, representing the Governorate and the central State (and consequently Tacconi lost most of his full power in Spalato).<br/>
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In the first months of italian occupation there was a certain calm in the city, with small and negligible incidents. But, in those weeks, a few kilometers north of Spalato, a cruel civil war broke out in Croatia, caused by the attempts of the Ustasha Party to create a totalitarian state of National Socialist inspiration and homogeneous from an ethnic point of view. nic and religious.The new Croatian power immediately proceeded with harsh persecution against political opponents, real and potential, and established a violent regime of repression against Serbs and Jews.<br/>
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Coming from Croatia and Serbia, many Jews and Serbs, seeking a difficult salvation, tried to take refuge in the Dalmatian territories annexed by Italy or simply occupied by the Italian armed forces.Despite formal entry bans, with the collaboration of local smugglers or Italian soldiers, many Serbian and Croatian Jews managed to take refuge in Dalmatia, and Spalato -the main city of the region- became a center where hundreds of Jews concentrated in search of safety.The little Jewish community of Spalato became the reference and assistance center for refugees, led by Vittorio Morpurgo, in close contact with the Italian Jewish communities.</i><br/>
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<i>The exodus of Dalmatian Italians during WW2: Photo of Dalmatian Italian families from the outskirts of Spalato going toward the ship that will bring them to Venice in October 1943.</i
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After the italian military conquest and some summer months of relative "peace & calm" (with the acceptance of the Italian control of the city by the majority of the local croatians), in Spalato started to begin the croatian rejection of the Italian "Governorato di Dalmazia": in September 1941 happened the first murder of italian soldiers by the communist resistance of Tito.<br/>
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Indeed the croatian communist guerrilla started inside the city (after the September 1943 surrender of Italy) and decimated also the italian civilians of Spalato.The final result: in 1945 the Dalmatian italians of Spalato (called "Spalatini") disappeared forever.<br/>
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Actually there it is only a small "Comunita' degli italiani di Spalato" that had 96 members (in 2010:<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080401160101/http://www.unione-italiana.hr/comunitad.asp?cat=12&id_com=40">https://web.archive.org/web/20080401160101/http://www.unione-italiana.hr/comunitad.asp?cat=12&id_com=40</a>), however many were not "Spalatini" but from Sebenico, Trau and the Brazza island.
Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-81232581268617409622023-10-04T10:39:00.065-07:002023-11-03T13:10:10.281-07:00THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE AUTHOCTHONOUS ITALIANS OF SPALATO This month I am going to deal with the disappearance in Dalmatia of the authocthonous Italians of Spalato (a city called "Split" in Croatian language).<br/>
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We all know that Spalato was a city developed inside & around the Diocletian roman palace, where the romance speaking inhabitants remained the majority of the population until the centuries of the Republic of Venice (if interested read in italian:<a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/2566529651?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true"> https://www.proquest.com/docview/2566529651?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true</a>). Let's remember that Spalato was one of the "Dalmatian City-States" (read my <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalmatian_city-states">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalmatian_city-states</a>), where the authocthonous Dalmatian romance language survived until the end of the early Middle Ages, when was started to be substituted by the venetian dialect (now called "Veneto da Mar").<br/>
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Furthermore, it is noteworthy to pinpoint that in 1721 Venice controlled all Dalmatia west of the "Linea Mocenigo": please see the following map.<br/>
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<i>Map showing the "Linea Mocenigo" in 1721</i>
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But -since the Habsburg took control of the city in the early XIX century- the Italians of Spalato started to "disappear" (substituted by the Croatians) in a way that some scholars judge as an "ethnic cleansing" (please read in italian: <a href="https://www.studiober.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/06-La-politica-antiitaliana-nelle-amministrazioni-Jugoslave.pdf">https://www.studiober.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/06-La-politica-antiitaliana-nelle-amministrazioni-Jugoslave.pdf</a>).<br/>
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Indeed, the city of Spalato in the 1910 Habsburg census had 21,407 inhabitants; of these, 2,082 (9.73%) declared Italian as their language of use, but the percentage of those who declared they used Italian was 12.54% in the 1880 austrian census and was nearly 20% in the mid 1800s!<br/>
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<b>Furthermore, the 1816 Austro-Hungarian census registered 66,000 Italian speaking people between the 301,000 inhabitants of Dalmatia, or 22% of the total dalmatian population (while Spalato had nearly 10,000 inhabitants of which more than half were italian language & venetian dialect speaking, according to the linguist Matteo Bartoli). But in 2010 they were reduced in Dalmatia to only a few hundreds and in Spalato to just a few dozen.</b><br/>
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It is noteworthy to remember that the Treaty of Rapallo stipulated by the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians on 12 November 1920 fixed the border in such a way as to leave only Zara/Zadar under Italian sovereignty: in D'Annunzio's Fiume/Rijeka the response would have been a bloody Christmas, in Dalmatia annexed to the kingdom of the Karađeorđević there would have been the exodus of almost all the Italian communities of Sebenico/Šibenik, Spalato/Split and Trau/Trogir; so 3,000 refugees stopped in Zara, thousands more poured into the italian peninsula, concentrating in Rome and Trieste in particular. <br/>
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This flow of nearly 20,000 exiles from Dalmatia was in continuity with the emigration of those Dalmatians who at the end of the nineteenth century suffered the discriminatory Austro-Hungarian policies which had favored the rise of the Croatian component, more loyalist than the Italians suspected of irredentism. Sebenico in 1873, Spalato in 1882 and in between many other municipal administrations have previously passed from the traditional Italian ruling class to the Croatian one; furthermore in 1905 Italian was banned from official documents and Zara remained the last cornerstone of Dalmatian Italianity. In the first two decades of the XX century, the attacks from croatian fanatics increased in a huge way, until the July 1920 murder of Italians in Spalato, that was the cause of the Trieste burning of the Narodni Dom (the "Balkan"). If interested for further detailed info, please read in italian:<a href="http://www.arcipelagoadriatico.it/storia/dalmazia/DALMAZIA.html">http://www.arcipelagoadriatico.it/storia/dalmazia/DALMAZIA.html</a>. <br/>
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Only during the Second World War (read <a href="https://www.ilpostalista.it/pm_file/pm_122.htm">https://www.ilpostalista.it/pm_file/pm_122.htm</a>) did Italy return to Dalmatia & Spalato, creating the "Governorate of Dalmatia" (see the following map) between 1941 and 1943, while Istria was Italian after the First World War for about thirty years (1918-1947) - even though it was actually Italian until September 1943 (or for 25 years). <br/>
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<i>Map of summer 1941 with the initial borders between the provinces of Zara/Zadar and that of Spalato/Split (which included Sebenico/Sibenik). Subsequently, the boundary between the two provinces was moved south of Sebenico to the border line established in the Treaty of London of 1915 between Italy and Yugoslavia.</i> <br/>
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Because I want to research in full detail this issue, I am going to translate excerpts from the famous book of Luciano Monzali "ANTONIO TACCONI E LA COMUNITÀ ITALIANA DI SPALATO" (<a href="https://www.academia.edu/10190651/Antonio_Tacconi_e_la_Comunit%C3%A0_italiana_di_Spalato">https://www.academia.edu/10190651/Antonio_Tacconi_e_la_Comunit%C3%A0_italiana_di_Spalato</a>):<br/>
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<b>CHAPTER 2: THE IRREDENTIST DREAM. ANTONIO TACCONI & THE NATIONAL STRUGGLES IN SPALATO FROM THE AUSTRIA-HUNGARY CRISIS TO THE WW1 AFTERWAR</b> (IL SOGNO IRREDENTISTA. ANTONIO TACCONIE LE LOTTE NAZIONALI A SPALATO DALLA CRISI DELL’AUSTRIA-UNGHERIA AL PRIMO DOPOGUERRA)<br/>
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Antonio Tacconi spent his youth and adolescence in Spalato, where he studied in primary school in the Croatian gymnasium: thanks to these studies he acquired a perfect knowledge of Croatian and Serbian. Tacconi was a leader of the "Autonomous Italian Party" in the last years of the Habsburg domination, and then became one of the animators of the "Italian National Fascio" of Spalato, the organization that fought for the annexation of Spalato to Italy after 1918. Appointed senator of the Kingdom of Italy in 1923, Tacconi was the political leader of the Italian community of Spalato between the two world wars, becoming Mayor of the city during the fascist occupation (1941-1943) when Spalato was the capital of the italian "Governorato di Dalmazia". Like most of his compatriots, he was forced to abandon Dalmatia after the Second World War, to move to Italy, where he died in 1962.<br/>
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The Tacconis were fervent Catholics, and this was an element that strongly marked Antonio, throughout his life as a practicing religious person and in close relations with the ecclesiastical circles of Split. He grew up in a Spalato which was now politically dominated by the Croatian parties. But the domination of Croatian nationalism in Spalato, as we have seen, did not coincide for many years with a real and exclusive cultural and national hegemony: the presence of a strong Italian, mostly Italian, community in the old town, the use of the Venetian dialect by the Spalato population, the love of many Spalato Croatians and Dalmatian Slavs for the Italian culture meant that the social life of all "Spalatini" were strongly impregnated by the Italian language and culture. The last part of the nineteenth century and the first The twentieth century, however, were years during which the national struggles in Spalato worsened and began to dominate the political life of the city.<br/>
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It is noteworthy to pinpoint that the pro-Serbian nationalist enthusiasm of the Croatian militants was the source of numerous incidents in Spalato. The radicalization of Croatian-Yugoslav nationalism in the years of the Balkan wars, especially among the new generations, caused a growing intolerance of the most extremist militants towards the survival of culture and of an Italian minority in Spalato. This intolerance manifested itself in numerous acts of hooliganism and intimidation towards shops with Italian writings and towards homes of autonomists and Italians. The children who attended the Italian school of the Italian National League were insulted and often attacked. Every public demonstration that had an Italian or autonomist character (from funerals to musical performances) was contested and disturbed by students and young Yugoslav with Croatian nationalist militants. Between the end of 1913 and the beginning of 1914 the campaign launched by extremist groups for the boycott of shops owned by citizens of the Italian Kingdom or of Italian nationality operating in Spalato and the incidents caused by the prohibition, decided by the Spalato municipal administration, for Italian autonomist musical groups and associations to participate in the traditional parade in honor of San Doimo, caused a great stir and created strong agitation among the Italian minority.<br/>
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The outbreak of war between Italy and Austria-Hungary in 1915 resulted in the crisis of Spalato's autonomist associations. The Autonomous Italian Party (of which Tacconi was a member and manager), the National League and the Society of Italian Students of Dalmatia were dissolved, and all the Italian schools in Spalato were suppressed. All Italian associations ceased to operate and be active. Some Italian Spalatini fled to Italy making an explicit irredentist choice (like Francesco Rismondo).<br/>
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<i>Francesco Rismondo, a "Spalatino italiano" decorated with the Italian military gold medal in WW1</i><br/>
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In the mythology of Italian Dalmatian irredentism, Francesco Rismondo, a young man from Spalato, who fled to Italy and enlisted in the Italian army, became famous.<br/>
<br/> Rismondo fell prisoner into the hands of the Habsburg army in the Carso battles and was executed by hanging at the end of 1915.<br/>
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More generally, the entire political establishment of Spalato was hit hard by the outbreak of the Austro-Serbian and then Austro-Italian war.<br/>
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After the collapse of Austria-Hungary in the autumn of 1918, Italy occupied with its troops the territories that had been promised to the Italian kingdom in the London Pact: in Dalmatia the cities of Zara/Zadar and Sebenico/Šibenik, their hinterland and the islands of Cherso/Cres, Lussino/Losinj, Veglia/Krk, Lesina/Hvar, Lissa/Vis and Curzola/Korcula. But in accordance with the provisions of the armistice between the Entente, the United States and Austria, Trau/Trogir, Spalato/Split and the rest of the Dalmatian coast were excluded from the Italian occupation zone. At the end of October 1918, in the Spalato region the collapse of the Habsburg state led to the formation of a provincial government led by a (croatian) committee composed of the (fanatic) Smodlaka and (double-face) Tartaglia, which proclaimed the union of Dalmatia with the Serbo-Croatian-Slovenian state.<br/>
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<i>Antonio Tacconi, Mayor of "Spalato italiana" (28 April 1941 – 8 September 1943)</i>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/52/Antonio_Tacconi.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="307" data-original-width="240" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/52/Antonio_Tacconi.jpg"/></a></div>
In those weeks, the leaders of the Spalato's Italian Autonomous Party decided to create a new political organization, the "Italian National Fascio", led by a Committee in which Antonio Tacconi participated: the explicit objective of this National Fascio, a political organization that had nothing to do with Mussolini's subsequent Fascism, was to fight for the union of Spalato with Italy.<br/>
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-----to be continued next month of November 2023....<br/>
<br/>Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-41109287931794072662023-09-15T10:25:00.045-07:002023-09-30T12:49:43.252-07:00ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION TO ISRAEL NAVY'S CREATION IN 1930-1938Some years ago I wrote on Wikipedia about the help given by the kingdom of Italy in the 1930s to the creation of the Israel Navy (please read <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betar_Naval_Academy">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betar_Naval_Academy</a>). I also wrote in my Researchomnia on November 2018 a simple essay about this italian help (<a href="https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2018/11/israeli-navy-creation-civitavecchia.html">https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2018/11/israeli-navy-creation-civitavecchia.html</a>). <br/>
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Of course, allow me to pinpoint that this help was mainly due to the fact that Mussolini wanted to jeopardise the British control over Palestinian territories, promoting the creation of a possible jewish state's navy force. However this help also shows that -in those years before the "appearance" of Hitler and his racism inside 1938 Mussolini's Italy- within the italian fascist party was strong the influence of italian jews (like Somalia's Governor Maurizio Rava: in October 1933 there were 4920 Italian Jews who were members of the Italian Fascist Party, nearly 10% of all the Jews living in Italy -while the jews were less than 1% of the total Italian population).<br/>
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But now I want to enter in full details about this help and so I add -in this September issue- some excerpts (translated in English, but also in original iIalian) from a very well documented book about the same contribution:<br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9e/Sarah1.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="725" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9e/Sarah1.jpg"/></a></div>
<b>The ships of Zion. The Italian contribution to the birth of Israel's naval forces</b> (of Emanuele Farruggia and Gianni Scipione Rossi)<br/>
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<i>Considering the consequences of the Piedmontese intervention in Crimea, it can be said that Italian unity itself was a geopolitical consequence of the Eastern Question. Heir to the Levantine and North African policies of the ancient states, the great Italian strategy was oriented towards obtaining full participation with the other two Mediterranean Great Powers in the exploitation of the Suez route and the geo-economic control of the Ottoman dominions: a policy marked by convergences and contrasts , with the war in Libya, the acquisition of the Dodecanese and the inclusion, among the requests granted by the Entente with the Pact of London (1915) and with the agreements of San Giovanni di Moriana (1917), of a zone of influence in Asia Minor.<br/>
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In that context, with the "Imperial Note" of May 1918 to the general secretary of the Zionist Organization Nahum Sokolow, Italy recognized the aspiration to create a "Jewish national home" in Palestine, recognized by Great Britain with the Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917. The objective of the Jewish National Home was included by the LoN among the tasks of the British Mandate, which provided for the creation of a Jewish Agency for this purpose. As Kedar and Cecini recall, Italian expectations in Asia Minor were substantially disappointed. Italy was in fact excluded from the Middle Eastern Mandates (already provisionally at the Sanremo inter-allied conference of 19-26 April 1920, then definitively by the LoN's decision of 24 July 1922), and had to settle for the simple recognition of Italian rights and of the presidency of the Commission for the Mandates of the LoN, held from 1920 to 1936 by the Marquis Alberto Theodoli. It is in this context that Italian-Zionist relations developed, starting in 1904 with the audience granted by Vittorio Emanuele III to Theodor Herzl.<br/>
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The King had also shown himself open to the prospect of a Jewish settlement in Palestine, rather than in Uganda, as Chamberlain hypothesized. The small but influential Italian Jewish community and, in particular the Zionist Federation of the lawyer Felice Ravenna, facilitated contacts between the Zionists and the Italian authorities. For its part, the Italian foreign ministry made use of contact with the Movement since 1918. Levi Bianchini, already a member of the Italian delegation at the Paris and Sanremo Conferences, was sent by Minister Sforza on a mission to the Levant in 1920 where he was killed in an attack by Bedouins on the train between Damascus and Haifa.<br/>
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The inuence of the Italian position in the Palestinian question was well present to the head of the World Zionist Organization (WZO), Chaim Weizmann – the promoter of the Balfour Declaration – and to Vladimir Jabotinsky, destined to become the leader of the revisionist movement (World Union of Zionists-Revisionists – Ha Zohar). Jabotinsky, a native of Odessa, had lived in Italy for three years (1898-1901). Translator of Dante into Hebrew, Jabotinsky considered Italy as his spiritual homeland and the Risorgimento as a model for the Zionist movement.<br/>
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As a promoter of the Jewish Legion, in whose ranks he fought as an officer in the latter stages of Allenby's campaign, Jabotinsky had become a leading figure among Zionists, not only in the diaspora but also in Palestine, where he had been briefly imprisoned by the British as early as 1920. On the eve of the LoN Council's decision on the assignment of mandates, Jabotinsky, a member of the WZO Executive, went on a mission to Rome to meet the representatives of the main political parties. Including Mussolini, who, in an article (read: Sergio Minerbi, Levi-Bianchini and his work in the Levant 1918-1920, 1967) dated 14 July 1922 in the newspaper "Il Popolo d'Italia" («The gratitude of the Syrians ») had explicitly expressed his closeness to the aspirations of the Arab nationalists. <br/>
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The meeting never took place, since Mussolini did not show up for the meeting but was preceded (16 July) by a signicant letter from Jabotinsky in Italian, in which he set out the advantages of supporting the Zionist cause - in particular for the diffusion of the Italian language - as well as the contraindications of supporting pan-Arabism, in light of the conflict in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. The tone of the letter was decidedly marked by frankness ("Since I am told that you are violently opposed to our movement, I believe that we are enemies") and was aimed at modifying the perception of Zionism and the Jewish people, tainted by clichés then in vogue ("Mr. Mussolini, it seems to me that you don't know the Jew"; "If you want to know our level of vitality, study your fascists, just add a little more tragedy, a little more tenacity - perhaps even more experienced"). <br/>
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Shortly after the March on Rome, on 4 January 1923, Weizmann met Mussolini to obtain reassurances regarding the attitude that Italy would take at the Lausanne Conference on the issue of the Palestinian Mandate. Against this background lies the singular story of the relationship between fascist Italy and the Jewish Revisionist Movement which led to the holding of navigation courses for the young people of the movement at the Naval School of Civitavecchia.<br/>
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It falls within the period of time, between 1932 and 1938, which will mark a turning point in the foreign policy of fascist Italy, until then characterized by substantial continuity with that of liberal Italy. The Italian ambition to undermine British dominance in the Middle East, calling into question the system of mandates, the repercussions of the Ethiopian crisis and the looming of Nazism, met with the will of the revisionists to free themselves from the British Empire ("the ethic of independence" by Jabotinsky) seeking support in Italy. If from a political-diplomatic point of view the temporary collaboration between revisionists and fascist Italy did not achieve any useful results, the training of sailors at the Civitavecchia School provided an important contribution to the birth of the naval force of the State of Israel (Hail HaYam HaYsraelyi). <br/>
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A first survey at the end of 1931 - through the Consulate General of Jerusalem - with the Secretary of the PNF, Giuriati, by the young revisionist Moshe Krivoshe and a Royal Navy officer of Jewish religion, Angelo Levi Bianchini, delegate to the Commission Zionist in Palestine, it did not end well, above all due to the doubts raised by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dino Grandi, who did not want to alienate London's friendship.<br/>
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The first ofcial contacts between the revisionists and the regime date back to 1932 through the president of the Italian grouping of revisionist Zionists, Leone Carpi, and above all through Ignazio Sciaky, a jurist originally from Thessaloniki, a disciple of Giovanni Gentile and well-connected in the capital's environments. Jabotinsky wanted to obtain authorization to open a self-defense school for "Betar", the revisionist youth organization, in Italy. <br/>
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After an initial survey in Paris through the entrepreneur Angelo Donati, Sciaky obtained a meeting with the Director General for Political Affairs of Europe and the Levant, Raffaele Guariglia, one of Minister Grandi's main collaborators. Sciaky informally submitted Jabotinsky's letter for the creation of a Central School of Jewish Instructors to Guariglia. As reported by Guariglia in a note dated 30 July 1932 «to the Head of Government and Foreign Minister Mussolini», the establishment of the center in Italy would be part «of Mr. Jabotinsky's plan to begin a process of spiritual orientation of the Jewish masses in the sense of the Latin, and precisely Italian, spirit".<br/>
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Guariglia underlined how France had been equally interested and therefore there could be an interest in favoring this project also to influence the revisionist movement. Undersecretary Sovich's marginal note left no doubt about Mussolini's opinion:
«The Head of Government is against it. Revisionist Zionism is a fabrication of an organization with military purposes. He believes that welcoming this center into Italy could put us in difficulty with the Arabs, with the Semitic currents of neighboring states and with the moderate Israelites who live in Italy. On the other hand, Dr Weitzmann still has a notable following.»<br/>
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Despite this refusal, the revisionist side continued to focus on Italy. At the Vienna Congress of the Movement, in September of the same year, the Italian delegate, Leone Carpi, spoke of the "elective affinities" (wahlverwandtschaften) between Revisionism and Fascism. The Duce, wary of the revisionists, kept channels open with Weitzmann. The 1934 meeting at Palazzo Venezia was famous, a real "tea with Mussolini", opened by the Duce with a reference to the alleged subjection of the Zionists to British imperialism and to the fact that "not all Italian Jews are Zionists", to which Weitzmann promptly retorted "and not all Italians are fascists." But then Mussolini got to the point, proposing Rome's support for the establishment of a national Jewish state with Tel Aviv as its capital, while evoking the question of Jerusalem and underlining that a possible declaration of independence would not have been sufficient without international recognition. <br/>
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Including Mussolini's attempt to detach Zionism from Great Britain, Weitzmann returned to the importance of Italy aligning itself with London and Paris against Nazi Germany. In his memoirs Weitzmann reiterated his belief that having separated Rome from Berlin perhaps would not have prevented the outbreak of the Second World War but would certainly have made a difference, particularly in the Mediterranean context. <br/>
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Having abandoned, for the moment, the attempt to found a «Central Jewish School for Self-Defense», through other, much more informal ways, the first course for Jewish students at the local Maritime Professional School was started in Civitavecchia. The decision to train revisionist youth in the maritime field was taken in 1931 by the Danzig Congress of the Betar. IrmiyahuHalperin, sports manager of the organization was in charge of organizing the courses. The Betar delegate in Rome, Maurizio Mendes, put Halperin in contact with Captain Nicola Fusco, director of the School.<br/>
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To obtain ofcial approval of the project, on 28 October 1934 Leone Carpi wrote to Admiral Thaon de Revel, president of the Consortium of Maritime Professional Schools. Without waiting for a response, the courses began on November 28th. Only at the end of January 1935 did Carpi receive verbal authorization from the Prefecture of Milan. Once it had been ascertained, in fact, that the costs of the courses would be borne by BETAR, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave a favorable opinion on the basis of various reasons (spread of the fascist idea in Palestine; of the Italian language and culture; increase in exports Italian companies; hiring of Italian fishermen by future Jewish shipowners…!).
The foundation of the New Zionist Organization in Vienna in September 1935 pushed Jabotinsky to open up even more towards fascist Italy. Sciaky organized a meeting between Jabotinsky and Guariglia on October 15, in a strictly private manner. Guariglia, therefore, recommended to the Duce to support revisionist Zionism, defined as "pro-Italian", as opposed to ofcial Zionism, considered an "instrument of British imperialism". Hence the approval of the Betar courses in Civitavecchia as well as the authorization to open a "Central Self-Defense School", which however never saw the light. Corrado Tedeschi's propaganda mission in Palestine on behalf of the CAUR (Action Committees for the Universality of Rome) is framed in this context. This change can also be attributed to the pro-Italian position taken by Jabotinsky regarding the Ethiopian crisis, which distinguished him from the pro-British attitudes of the official Zionists. <br/>
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During 1936, Sciaky's meetings with Theodoli intensified, in Rome and Geneva, with the aim of obtaining Italian support for a petition from the revisionists to the Commission on Mandates. This was done in the belief that Italy could be considered an Ersatz of Great Britain as a proxy power or in any case a useful side in the Palestinian question, in particular after the start of the Arab revolt. Likewise, through the Consulate General in Jerusalem, various offers of collaboration with Italy arrived from revisionist exponents, such as Scheschkin, however without Jabotinsky's approval. Having overcome the bureaucratic obstacles, at the instigation of Jabotinsky, the entrepreneur Efraim Kirschner financed the purchase, for 150,000 lire, of a 700 ton 4-masted motor sailing vessel - with 2 100 HP diesel engines - the italian "Quattro Venti" which was called SARA I.<br/>
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The training ship, under the Italian flag, began a cruise in the Mediterranean on 31 August 1935, with 26 students under the command of Captain Tiberio Paone of the Maritime School. Among the students there was the Lithuanian Hirsus Koliadikas who, with the new name of Zvi Kolitz, will be the author of the first (and only) biography of Mussolini in Hebrew. Halperin was also present on board, and he did not miss the opportunity to engage in politics and propaganda, in particular during the stop in Seville, where, together with his students, he met with the local Jewish community, encouraging them to boycott German goods. This was followed by a stop in Algiers, where the sight of the sailors with the "Menorah" on their blue uniform caused discontent among the Arab population. The reports of the Consuls in Seville and Algiers earned Sciaky a reprimand from Guariglia's successor, Giovan Battista Guarnaschelli, worried about the possible political repercussions. Jabotinsky himself went to Genoa in person to call Halperin and his students to order. The incident was overcome after Sciaky's clarifications and promises of good conduct and, in October 1936, with the authorization of Duce Mussolini, the SARA I set sail again from Civitavecchia, this time with a route limited to the Italian coasts except for the stopovers in Nice and Marseille.<br/>
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The course saw maintenance costs increase. Joanna Jabotinsky managed to convince some supporters, including Baron Robertde Rothschild, to found a League of Friends of Jewish Shipping. Despite the increased turnout of students (more than 50 enrolled), the 1937 course began in a less favorable political context. The Tripoli incident of November 1936, with the public harassment of Jewish shopkeepers who had not respected the injunction to stay open on Saturdays and, subsequently, Mussolini's visit to Libya, with the delivery of the "sword of Islam" , were interpreted as a harshness towards the Jewish communities and a pro-Arab turn.<br/>
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In February 1937 Fusco personally went to London to meet Jabotinsky and the revisionist leaders and agree on the continuation of the courses, which were increasingly linked to fishing. For this purpose, two trawlers, the Neca and the Lea, were also purchased. The 1937 training trip aimed at the Eastern Mediterranean and Palestine. In fact, to overcome the ban of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on calling at foreign ports (to avoid accidents such as those in Seville and Algiers), the SARA I was sold to a French shell company. Ciano, although not appreciating this expedient, however, did not oppose it. The SARA I, the first Jewish vessel to land in Palestine, arrived in the port of Haifa on 1 September 1937. <br/>
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Despite the boycott of the representatives of the Jewish Agency and the Histadrut (the Zionist trade union organisation), Halperin and the students were received in Tel Aviv by Mayor Rokach and then also in Jerusalem, where the Italian Consul General, Quinto Mazzolini, represented by the interpreter. To the latter, Halperin expressed gratitude for fascist Italy and proposed the establishment of an "Italian-Palestinian office" with the mission, in addition to encouraging young people to dedicate themselves to fishing, to create a maritime school in Palestine. Rome rejected the proposal. <br/>
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The cruise continued without incident with stops in Rhodes, Thessaloniki and Tunis, before returning to Marseille. In Tunis, Halperin's propaganda activity, although appreciated by the Italian Consul, provoked anti-Semitic demonstrations organized by the Destour movement. Although Mussolini had already focused on the Arab map to destabilize the British Empire, in particular with the Arabic broadcasts of Radio Bari and with the support of the Grand Mufti, Haji Amin Al Husseini, and the rapprochement with Nazi Germany had already begun also, he authorized the courses in 1938. <br/>
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The start of the anti-Semitic campaign, with the publication of the book "The Jews in Italy" by Paolo Orano, in April 1938, and Hitler's visit to Rome, in May, further confirmed the regime's anti-Jewish turn. Despite some difficulties in returning the students to Civitavecchia, the courses ended on 31 August 1938. Curiously, on 8 May, Hitler was hosted at the Odescalchi Castle in Santa Marinella, 10 kilometers away from the School.<br/>
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From 1934 to 1937, 153 Betar students attended courses at the Civitavecchia School while another 50 sailors were trained in Latvia. Among the students, those who survived the Holocaust and the war formed the cadres of the Israeli merchant and military navy. Among them Shlomo Erell, the seventh commander of the Heil HaYam HaYsraelyi (1966-1968) and Avram Blass, also an admiral.<br/>
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Halperin continued during the conflict, with the help of the Rothschilde of the Royal Navy, to train Jewish sailors and divers. After the birth of the State of Israel he settled in Eilat to carry out oceanographic studies in the Red Sea. The Naval Museum in Eilat is dedicated to him. The Halperin Foundation has financed scholarships from the University of Haifa as well as the construction of a vessel, the RV Halperin, for oceanographic research activities. The experience of the Civitavecchia School was narrated by Halperin in his "History of Hebrew Seamanship".</i><br/>
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<b>Jewish Cadets of the Civitavecchia Maritime School near the "Sarah I" stern in 1937</b>
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<b>Le navi di Sion. Il contributo italiano alla nascita delle forze navali di Israele</b> (of Emanuele Farruggia e Gianni Scipione Rossi)<br/>
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Considerando le conseguenze dell’intervento piemontese in Crimea, si può dire che la stessa unità italiana sia stata una conseguenza geopoliticadella Questione d’Oriente. Erede della politica levantina e nordafricanadegli antichi stati, la grande strategia italiana fu orientata ad ottenere una piena compartecipazione con le altre due Grandi Potenze mediterranee allo sfruttamento della rotta di Suez ed al controllo geo-economico dei domini ottomani: una politica segnata da convergenze e contrasti, con la guerra di Libia, l’acquisizionedel Dodecaneso e l’inclusione, tra le richieste concesse dall’Intesa col Patto di Londra (1915) e con gli accordi di San Giovanni di Moriana (1917), di una zona di influenza in Asia Minore.<br/>
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In quel quadro, con la "Nota Imperiali" del maggio 1918 al segretario generale dell’Organizzazione Sionista Nahum Sokolow, l'Italia riconobbe l’aspirazione alla creazione di un «focolare nazionale ebraico» in Palestina, riconosciuto dalla Gran Bretagna con la Dichiarazione Balfour del 2novembre 1917. L’obiettivo della Jewish National Home fu incluso dalla SdN tra i compiti del Mandato britannico, che prevedeva a tal fine la creazione di un’Agenzia Ebraica. Come ricordano Kedar e Cecini, le aspettative italiane in Asia Minore furono sostanzialmente deluse. L’Italia fu infatti esclusa dai Mandati medio-orientali (già in via provvisoria alla conferenza interalleata di Sanremo del 19-26 aprile 1920, poi in via definitiva dalla decisione 24 luglio 1922 della SdN), e dovette accontentarsi del semplice riconoscimento dei diritti italiani e della presidenza della Commissione per i Mandati della SdN, ricoperta dal 1920 al 1936 dal marchese Alberto Theodoli. E’in tale contesto che si svilupparono i rapporti italo-sionisti, avviati nel 1904 con l’udienza concessa da Vittorio Emanuele III a Theodor Herzl.<br/>
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Il Re si era mostrato aperto anche alla prospettiva di un insediamento ebraico in Palestina, piuttosto che in Uganda, come ipotizzava Chamberlain. La piccola ma influente comunità ebraica italiana e, in particolare la Federazione Sionista dell’Avvocato Felice Ravenna, agevolarono i contatti trasionisti e autorità italiane. Dal canto suo, il ministero degli esteri italiano sin dal 1918, si avvalse di un contatto col Movimento. Levi Bianchini, già membro della delegazione italiana alla Conferenza di Parigi ed a quella di Sanremo, nel 1920 fu inviato dal Ministro Sforza in missione nel Levante dove trovò la morte in un attacco di beduini al treno tra Damasco e Haifa.<br/>
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L’inuenza della posizione italiana nella questione palestinese era ben presente al capo dell’Organizzazione Mondiale Sionista (WZO), Chaim Weizmann – il promotore della Dichiarazione Balfour – e a Vladimir Jabotinsky, destinato a diventare il leader del movimento revisionista (World Union of Zionists-Revisionists – Ha Zohar). Jabotinsky, nativo di Odessa, aveva vissuto in Italia per tre anni (1898-1901). Traduttore di Dante in ebraico, Jabotinsky considerava l’Italia come la sua patria spirituale e il Risorgimento modello per il movimento sionista.<br/>
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Come promotore della Legione Ebraica, nei cui ranghi combatté come ufficiale nelle ultime fasi della c ampagna di Allenby, Jabotinsky era diventato una figuradi spicco tra i sionisti, non solo nella diaspora ma anche in Palestina, dove erastato brevemente incarcerato dagli inglesi già nel 1920. Alla vigilia della decisione del Consiglio della SdN sull’assegnazione dei Mandati, Jabotinsky, membro dell’Esecutivo della WZO, si recò in missione a Roma per incontrare gli esponenti dei principali partiti politici. Tra cui Mussolini, il quale, in un articolo (leggasi: Sergio Minerbi, Levi-Bianchini e la sua opera nel Levante 1918-1920, 1967) del 14 luglio 1922 sul quotidiano "Il Popolo d’Italia" («La gratitudine dei Siriani») aveva espresso inmaniera esplicita la sua vicinanza alle aspirazioni dei nazionalisti arabi. <br/>
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L’incontro non ebbe mai luogo, poiché Mussolini non si presentò all’appuntamento ma fu preceduto (16 luglio) da una signicativa lettera di Jabotinsky in italiano, in cui esponeva i vantaggi di un appoggio alla causa sionista – in particolare per ladiffusione della lingua italiana – nonché le controindicazioni del sostegno al panarabismo, alla luce del confklitto in Tripolitania e Cirenaica. Il tono della lettera era decisamente improntato alla franchezza («Siccome mi si dice ch’Ella è violentemente avverso al movimento nostro, credo che siamo nemici») ed era volta a modicare la percezione del sionismo e del popolo ebraico, viziata dai clichés allora in voga («Signor Mussolini mi pare ch’Ella non conosca l’ebreo»; «Se vuol conoscere il grado di vitalità nostro, studi i suoi fascisti, soltanto vi aggiunga un po’ più di tragedia, un po’ più di tenacità - forse anche più di esperienza»). <br/>
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Poco dopo la Marcia su Roma, il 4 gennaio 1923, Weizmann incontrò Mussolini per ottenere rassicurazioni circa l’atteggiamento che l’Italia avrebbe tenuto alla Conferenza di Losanna sulla questione del Mandato palestinese. Su questo sfondo si colloca la singolare vicenda dei rapporti tra l’Italia fascista ed il Movimento Revisionista ebraico che portò allo svolgimento di corsi di navigazione per i giovani del movimento presso la Scuola Navale di Civitavecchia.<br/>
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Essa si colloca nell’arco di tempo, tra il 1932 ed il 1938 che segnerà un punto di volta della politica estera dell’Italia fascista, sino ad allora caratterizzata da una sostanziale continuità con quella dell’Italia liberale. L’ambizione italiana di insidiare il predominio britannico in Medio Oriente, rimettendo in discussione il sistema dei mandati, le ripercussioni della crisi etiopica ed il profilarsi del nazismo, si incontrarono con la volontà dei revisionisti di affrancarsi dall’Impero britannico («l’etica dell’indipendenza» di Jabotinsky) cercando una sponda nell’Italia. Se sotto l’aspetto politico-diplomatico la collaborazione temporanea tra revisionisti ed Italia fascista non conseguì alcun risultato utile, la formazionedi marinai presso la Scuola di Civitavecchia, fornì un contributo importante alla nascita della forza navale dello Stato di Israele (Hail HaYam HaYsraelyi).<br/>
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Un primo sondaggio sul finire del 1931 - attraverso il Consolato Generale di Gerusalemme – col Segretario del PNF, Giuriati, da parte del giovane revisionista Moshe Krivoshe e di un ufciale della Regia Marina di religione ebraica, Angelo Levi Bianchini, delegato presso la Commissione Sionista in Palestina, non andò a buon ne, soprattutto per le perplessità avanzate dal Ministro degli Affari Esteri, Dino Grandi, che non voleva alienarsi l’amiciziadi Londra.<br/>
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I primi contatti ufciali tra i revisionisti ed il regime risalgono al 1932 per il tramite del presidente del raggruppamento d’Italia dei sionisti revisionisti, Leone Carpi, e soprattutto di Ignazio Sciaky, giurista originario di Salonicco, discepolo di Giovanni Gentile e bene introdotto negli ambienti della capitale. Jabotinsky voleva ottenere l’autorizzazione all’apertura in Italia di un scuola di autodifesa del «Betar», l’organizzazione giovanile revisionista. <br/>
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Dopo un primosondaggio a Parigi per il tramite dell’imprenditore Angelo Donati, Sciaky ottenne un incontro col Direttore Generale per gli Affari Politici dell’Europa e delLevante, Raffaele Guariglia, uno dei principali collaboratori del Ministro Grandi. Sciaky sottopose informalmente a Guariglia la lettera di Jabotinsky per la creazione di una Scuola Centrale di Istruttori Ebrei. Come riportato da Guariglia in un Appunto del 30 luglio 1932 «al Capo del Governo e Ministro degli Esteri Mussolini», l’istituzione del centro in Italia sarebbe rientrata «nel piano del Signor Jabotinsky di iniziare un processo di orientamento spirituale delle masse ebraiche nel senso dello spirito latino, e precisamente italiano».<br/>
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Guariglia sottolineava come la Francia fosse stata egualmente interessata e quindi poteva esserci un interesse nel favorire tale progetto anche per influenzare il movimento revisionista. L’annotazione a margine del Sottosegretario Suvich non lasciava dubbi sull’opinione di Mussolini:
«Il Capo del Governo è contrario. Il sionismo revisionista è una montatura di un’organizzazione con fini militari. Ritiene che accogliere in Italia questo centro potrebbe metterci in difficoltà con gli Arabi, con le correntianti semitiche degli Stati vicini e con gli israeliti di tendenza moderata che stanno in Italia. D’altra parte il Dr Weitzmann ha ancora sempre un seguito notevole.»<br/>
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Nonostante tale rifiuto, da parte revisionista si continuò a puntare sull’Italia. Al Congresso di Vienna del Movimento, a settembre dello stesso anno, il delegato italiano, Leone Carpi, parlò delle «affinità elettive» (wahlverwandtschaften) tra Revisionismo e Fascismo. Il Duce, diffidente nei confronti dei revisionisti, manteneva aperti i canali con Weitzmann. Celebre l’incontro del 1934 a Palazzo Venezia, un vero e proprio «tè con Mussolini», aperto dal Duce con un accenno alla presunta sudditanza dei sionisti all’imperialismo britannico e al fatto che «non tutti gli ebrei italiani sono sionisti», cui Weitzmann ribatté prontamente «e non tutti gli italiani sono fascisti». Ma poi Mussolini andò al sodo, proponendo l’appoggio di Roma alla costituzione di uno Stato nazionale ebraico con capitale Tel Aviv, evocando però la questione di Gerusalemme e sottolineando che un’eventuale dichiarazione d’indipendenza non sarebbe stata sufficiente senza il riconoscimento internazionale.<br/>
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Compreso il tentativo di Mussolini di staccare il sionismo dalla Gran Bretagna, Weitzmann ritornò sull’importanza di un allineamento dell’Italia con Londra e Parigi contro la Germania nazista. Nelle sue memorie Weitzmann ribadì la convinzione secondo cui l’avere staccato Roma da Berlino forse non avrebbe prevenuto lo scoppio della seconda guerra mondiale ma avrebbe certamente fatto la differenza, in particolare nello scacchiere mediterraneo.<br/>
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Tramontato, per il momento, il tentativo di fondare una «Scuola Centrale Ebraica per l’Autodifesa», per altre vie, molto più informali, si giunse all’avvio a Civitavecchia del primo corso per allievi ebrei presso la locale Scuola Professionale Marittima. La decisione di formare la gioventù revisionista in campo marittimo era stata presa nel 1931 dal Congresso di Danzica della Betar. IrmiyahuHalperin, responsabile sportivo dell’organizzazione fu incaricato dell’organizzazione dei corsi. Il delegato della Betar a Roma, Maurizio Mendes, mise in contatto Halperin col Capitano Nicola Fusco, direttore della Scuola.<br/>
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Per ottenereun’approvazione ufciale del progetto, il 28 ottobre 1934 Leone Carpi scrisse all’Ammiraglio Thaon de Revel, presidente del Consorzio delle Scuole Professionali Marittime. Senza attendere una risposta i corsi iniziarono il 28 novembre. Soltanto a fine gennaio 1935 Carpi ricevette un’autorizzazione verbale dalla Prefettura di Milano. Una volta accertato, infatti, che le spese dei corsi sarebbero state a carico della BETAR, il Ministero degli Esteri aveva dato parere favorevole sulla base di diverse motivazioni (diffusione dell’idea fascista in Palestina; della lingua e della cultura italiana; aumento delle esportazioni italiane; assunzione di pescatori italiani da parte dei futuri armatori ebrei…!).
La fondazione, a Vienna, nel settembre 1935, della Nuova Organizzazione Sionista spinse Jabotinsky ad aprire ancora di più verso l’Italia fascista. Sciaky organizzò il 15 ottobre un incontro tra Jabotinsky e Guariglia, in forma strettamente privata. Guariglia, quindi, raccomandò al Duce di sostenere il sionismo revisionista, definito «pro-italiano», in contrapposizione al sionismo ufciale, considerato «strumento dell’imperialismo britannico». Di qui il beneplacito ai corsi della Betar a Civitavecchia nonché l’autorizzazione ad aprire una «Scuola Centrale di Autodifesa», che però non vide mai la luce. In tale contesto si inquadra la missione propagandistica di Corrado Tedeschi in Palestina per conto dei CAUR (Comitati d’Azione per l’Universalità di Roma). Tale cambiamento può attribuirsianche alla posizione pro-italiana assunta da Jabotinsky rispetto alla crisi etiopica,che lo distingueva dagli atteggiamenti lo-britannici dei sionisti ufciali. <br/>
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Nel corso del 1936 si intensificarono gli incontri di Sciaky con Theodoli, a Roma eda Ginevra, al ne di ottenere l’appoggio italiano ad una petizione dei revisionistialla Commissione sui Mandati. Ciò nella convinzione che l’Italia potesse essere considerata un Ersatz della Gran Bretagna come potenza mandataria o comunque un’utile sponda nella questione palestinese, in particolare dopo l’inizio della rivolta araba. Allo stesso modo, attraverso il Consolato Generale di Gerusalemme, giunsero varie offerte di collaborazione con l’Italia da parte di esponenti revisionisti, come Scheschkin, peraltro senza l’approvazione di Jabotinsky. Superati gli ostacoli burocratici, su impulso di Jabotinsky, l’imprenditore Efraim Kirschner \finanziò l’acquisto, per 150.000 lire, di un motoveliero a 4 alberi di 700 tonnellate – con 2 motori diesel da 100 CV – il Quattro Venti che venne denominato SARA I.<br/>
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La nave scuola, sotto bandiera italiana, iniziò, il 31 agosto 1935, con 26 allievi al comando del Capitano Tiberio Paone della Scuola Marittima, una crociera nel Mediterraneo. Tra gli allievi vi era il lituano Hirsus Koliadikas che, col nuovo nome di Zvi Kolitz sarà l’autore della prima (e unica) biograa di Mussolini in lingua ebraica. A bordo era presente anche Halperin, il quale non perdette l’occasione per fare politica e propaganda, in particolare durante la tappa a Siviglia, dove, assieme agli allievi si incontrò con la locale comunità ebraica, spronandola al boicottaggio delle merci tedesche. Seguì la tappa ad Algeri, dove la vista dei marinai con la «Menorah» sull’uniforme azzurra causò malumori tra la popolazione araba. I rapporti dei Consoli a Siviglia a ad Algeri fruttarono a Sciaky una reprimenda da parte del successore di Guariglia, Giovan Battista Guarnaschelli, preoccupato delle possibili ripercussioni politiche. Lo stesso Jabotinsky si recò di persona a Genova per richiamare all’ordine Halperin e gli allievi. L’incidente venne superato dopo i chiarimenti di Sciaky e le promesse di buona condotta e, ad ottobre del 1936, con l’autorizzazione del Duce Mussolini, la SARA I salpò nuovamente da Civitavecchia, questa volta con una rotta limitata alle coste italiane eccettuati gli scali a Nizza e a Marsiglia.<br/>
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Il corso vide aumentare i costi di mantenimento. Joanna Jabotinsky riuscì a convincere alcuni sostenitori, tra cui il barone Robertde Rotschild, a fondare una Lega degli Amici della Navigazione Ebraica. Nonostante l’aumentata afuenza degli allievi (più di 50 iscritti), il corso del 1937 si avviò in un contesto politico meno propizio. L’incidente di Tripoli del novembre 1936, con la pubblica agellazione di negozianti ebrei che non avevano rispettato l’ingiunzione di restare aperti il sabato e, successivamente, la visita di Mussolini in Libia, con la consegna della “spada dell’Islam”, furono interpretati come un inasprimento verso le comunità ebraiche e una svolta filo-araba.<br/>
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Nel febbraio del 1937 Fusco si recò personalmente a Londra per incontrare Jabotinsky ed i dirigenti revisionisti e concordare la prosecuzione dei corsi, sempre più legati alla pesca. A tal fine furono anche acquistati due motopescherecci, il Neca ed il Lea, Il viaggio di istruzione del 1937 puntava sul Mediterraneo Orientale e sulla Palestina. Per superare, infatti, il divieto del Ministero degli Esteri italiano di far scalo in porti esteri (per evitare incidenti come quelli di Siviglia e di Algeri ), la SARA I era stata venduta ad una società di comodo francese. Ciano, pur non apprezzando tale espediente, tuttavia, non si oppose. La SARA I, primo battello ebraico ad approdare in Palestina, giunse nel porto di Haifa il 1° settembre 1937. <br/>
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Nonostante il boicottaggio dei rappresentanti dell’Agenzia Ebraica e dell’Histadrut (l’organizzazione sindacale sionista), Halperin e gli allievi vennero ricevuti a Tel Aviv dal sindaco Rokach e poi anche a Gerusalemme, dove il Console Generale italiano, Quinto Mazzolini, si fece rappresentare dall’interprete. A quest’ultimo Halperin espresse riconoscenza per l’Italia fascista e propose la costituzione di un “ufficio italo- palestinese” con la missione, oltre che di incoraggiare i giovani a dedicarsi alla pesca, di creare una scuola marittima in Palestina. Roma respinse la proposta. <br/>
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La crociera proseguì senza incidenti con scali a Rodi, Salonicco e Tunisi, prima del rientro a Marsiglia. A Tunisi, l’attività propagandistica di Halperin, per quanto apprezzata dal Console italiano, provocò manifestazioni antisemite organizzate dal movimento Destour. Nonostante Mussolini avesse già puntato, per destabilizzare l’Impero britannico, sulla carta araba, in particolare con le trasmissioni in arabo di Radio Bari e con l’appoggio al Gran Muftì, Haji Amin Al Husseini, e fosse già iniziato l’avvicinamento alla Germania nazista anche nel 1938 i corsi furono autorizzati. <br/.
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L’avvio della campagna antisemita, con la pubblicazione del libro "Gli Ebrei in Italia" di Paolo Orano, nell’aprile 1938, e la visita di Hitler a Roma, a maggio, giunsero ad ulteriore conferma della svolta antiebraica del regime. Nonostante alcune difcoltà nel far rientrare gli allievi a Civitavecchia, i corsi si conclusero il 31 agosto 1938. Curiosamente, l’8 maggio, Hitler venne ospitato presso il Castello Odescalchi di Santa Marinella, a 10 chilometri di distanza dalla Scuola.<br/>
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Dal 1934 al 1937, 153 allievi della Betar frequentarono i corsi della Scuola di Civitavecchia mentre altri 50 marinai furono addestrati in Lettonia. Tra gli allievi, quelli che sopravvissero all’Olocausto ed alla guerra, formarono i quadri della marina mercantile e militare israeliana. Tra di essi Shlomo Erell, il settimo comandante della Heil HaYam HaYsraelyi (1966-1968) ed Avram Blass, anch’egli ammiraglio.<br/>
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Halperin durante il conflitto continuò, con l’aiuto dei Rothschilde della Royal Navy, ad addestrare marinai e sommozzatori ebrei. Dopo la nascita dello Stato di Israele si stabilì ad Eilat per compiere studi oceanograci nel Mar Rosso. Il Museo Navale di Eilat è a lui dedicato. La Fondazione Halperin ha finanziato borse di studio dell’Università di Haifa nonché la costruzione di un battello, la RV Halperin, per attività di ricerca oceanograca. L’esperienza della Scuola di Civitavecchia è stata narrata da Halperin nella sua "History of Hebrew Seamanship".<br/>
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Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-9704536918398453782023-08-01T08:42:00.105-07:002023-11-01T10:23:06.481-07:00THE EXTERMINATION OF ITALIANS IN THE DALMATIA ISLANDS (STARTED BY THE HABSBURG & FULLY COMPLETED BY THE CROATS) - PART 2This august 2023 -as a follow up of the "Part 1"- I want to research about the responsabilities of the Croats in the complete extermination of the romance speaking autochtonous population of the Dalmatian islands. Of course we have to remember that some dozen Italians "survive" in Cherso/Chres and Lussino/Lusinj, because these northen dalmatian islands were officially part of the kingdom of Italy from 1918 until 1947. But -let's pinpoint it- in all the other dalmatian islands there are no more Italians in 2023! The two most "italian" islands of Dalmatia in the first half of the XIX century, Veglia/Krk in the north and Lissa/Vis in the center-south, have no italians at all in 2023!!!!<br/>
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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: <a href="http://www.mlhistria.altervista.org/storiaecultura/testiedocumenti/tesiscaglioni/tesi.htm">http://www.mlhistria.altervista.org/storiaecultura/testiedocumenti/tesiscaglioni/tesi.htm</a>).</b><br/>
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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 <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44229394">https://www.jstor.org/stable/44229394</a>): now the island has no more romance speaking inhabitants.<br/>
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<i>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)</i><br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeusFQQRK5WWXG1hAWAXxh9txJ_N7pwSmRF_N-FFrMl5OrkbQ9Il8QFY1iqTqpjf-9IX8aoMANcn5SGv8uQiHC4W1GOA-YF4Aw6JcnbtOdCoDGw5r3iTieUL91xUIcJb_pEGJSebxeOw_JRzovDKtejjwwdhNZaubb9DiFcQBeaYbxiX-gXbaZTa_eFjY6/s1078/I%20confini%20naturali%20d%27Italia.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="1078" data-original-width="856" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeusFQQRK5WWXG1hAWAXxh9txJ_N7pwSmRF_N-FFrMl5OrkbQ9Il8QFY1iqTqpjf-9IX8aoMANcn5SGv8uQiHC4W1GOA-YF4Aw6JcnbtOdCoDGw5r3iTieUL91xUIcJb_pEGJSebxeOw_JRzovDKtejjwwdhNZaubb9DiFcQBeaYbxiX-gXbaZTa_eFjY6/s600/I%20confini%20naturali%20d%27Italia.jpg"/></a></div><br/>
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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!)<br/>
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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.<br/>
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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:<br/>
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<b>The population of Dalmatia in the XII century</b><br/>
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(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)<br/>
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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.
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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.<br/>
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According to Al Idrisi, this was the ethnic composition (of autochthonous Dalmatian latins and immigrated Croats) of the Dalmatia islands in the XII century:<br/>
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Castelmuschio (Veglia/Krk) - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Lussino/Lusinj - Populated by Dalmatians and a few Croats<br/>
Cherso/Chres - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Arbe/Rab - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Zaton-Aenona/Nin - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Spalato/Split - Populated by Dalmatians and a few Croats<br/>
Traù Vecchia/Trogir old - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Traù/Trogir - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Lissa/Vis - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Brazza/Brac - Populated by Croats and a few Dalmatians<br/>
Lesina/Hvar - Populated by Croats and Dalmatians<br/>
Curzola/Korcula - Populated by Dalmatians and a few Croats<br/>
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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.”<br/>
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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.<br/>
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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: <a href="http://istria-fiume-dalmatia.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-cultural-ties-between-dalmatia-and.html">http://istria-fiume-dalmatia.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-cultural-ties-between-dalmatia-and.html</a> .<br/>
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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.<br/>
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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). <br/>
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<b>The XIX century and the beginning of the disappearance</b><br/>
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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.<br/>
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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.<br/>
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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)<br/>
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The following are sections from a book written by Nino Bracco about Lussino island (and his town Neresine/Nerezine):<br/>
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<i>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.<br/>
......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.<br/>
.......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. <br/>
......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).<br/>
......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.<br/>
.......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).</i><br/>
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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. <br/>
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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.<br/>
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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).<br/>
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<b>The Dalmatia's full croatisation</b><br/>
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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)!<br/>
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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).<br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i1WJXx4Ht90/YQxYCvdPecI/AAAAAAAAAuI/PX84JVMsk7Qve5qzz8DHiu_BGVlaaGDyACLcBGAsYHQ/s365/Retrocopertina-Domenica-del-Corriere-1919-Lissa-Sbarco-di%2B%25282%2529.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="292" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i1WJXx4Ht90/YQxYCvdPecI/AAAAAAAAAuI/PX84JVMsk7Qve5qzz8DHiu_BGVlaaGDyACLcBGAsYHQ/s600/Retrocopertina-Domenica-del-Corriere-1919-Lissa-Sbarco-di%2B%25282%2529.jpg"/></a></div>
<b>The Lissa population welcomed the Italian sailors in 1866, when they started to land in the island and brought food (as in the above image)</b><br/>
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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 <a href="https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2013/09/dalmatias-neolatin-city-states.html">https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2013/09/dalmatias-neolatin-city-states.html</a>) where the neolatin society had totally survived centuries of "attacks" from the croatian assimilation in Dalmatia.<br/>
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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 <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=hhD0R8DBr_UC&pg=PA3&source=gbs_toc_r&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=true">https://books.google.com/books?id=hhD0R8DBr_UC&pg=PA3&source=gbs_toc_r&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=true</a><br/>
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Furthermore -in order to understand this process of full croatisation - please read the following excerpts from "Esodi di Italiani dalla Dalmazia" of Carlo Cipriani:
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<i>"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."</i><br/>
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<i>"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)."</i><br/>
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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.<br/>
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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 <a href="http://www.assdiplar.it/documentprogr/costantinonigraambasciatoreavienna.pdf">http://www.assdiplar.it/documentprogr/costantinonigraambasciatoreavienna.pdf</a>).<br/>
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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.<br/>
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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)<br/>
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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.<br/>
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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.<br/>
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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.<br/>
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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.<br/>
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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".<br/>
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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.<br/>
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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).<br/>
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Indeed the disappearance of the Italians of Dalmatia was nearly complete in 1930, when Federico Pagnacco (<a href="https://www.openstarts.units.it/server/api/core/bitstreams/83f515c0-b586-4f2f-9eea-5747dbc4f2ee/content"> https://www.openstarts.units.it/server/api/core/bitstreams/83f515c0-b586-4f2f-9eea-5747dbc4f2ee/content</a>) 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.<br/>
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<b>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:<br/>
* Veglia/Krk: 1790:98% Italians-02% Croats; 1890: 71% Italians-29% Croats; 1990: 0.01% Italians-99.9% Croats<br/>
* Lissa/Vis: 1790:80% Italians-20% Croats; 1890: 3% Italians-97% Croats; 1990: 0% Italians-100% Croats</b><br/>
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N.B.: For further info about the extermination totally completed by the Croats (mainly during the Tito years), please read my issues:1)<a href="https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2022/12/julian-dalmatian-exodus-diaspora-1944.html">https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2022/12/julian-dalmatian-exodus-diaspora-1944.html</a>; and 2)<a href="https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-disappearance-of-dalmatian-italians.html">https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-disappearance-of-dalmatian-italians.html</a>
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<b>Bibliography</b><br/>
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1) Neresine:Cherso & Lussino. ([<a href="http://www.neresine.it/Neresine%20last.pdf">http://www.neresine.it/Neresine%20last.pdf</a>])<br/>
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2) Il primo esodo dei Dalmati (<a href="https://secolo-trentino.com/2020/02/11/primo-esodo-dalmati-1870-1880-1920/">https://secolo-trentino.com/2020/02/11/primo-esodo-dalmati-1870-1880-1920/</a>)<br/>
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3) Banca d'Italia in Jugoslavia tra il 1941 ed il 1945 <a href="https://www.academia.edu/20551087/Prima_e_dopo_l8_settembre_Lamministrazione_della_Banca_dItalia_in_Jugoslavia_1941_1944_?email_work_card=view-paper">https://www.academia.edu/20551087/Prima_e_dopo_l8_settembre_Lamministrazione_della_Banca_dItalia_in_Jugoslavia_1941_1944_?email_work_card=view-paper</a><br/>
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4) Capris- Croatia is stealing our history and heritage in Dalmatia
( <a href="https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2014/01/croatia-is-erasing-falsificating-and.html">https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2014/01/croatia-is-erasing-falsificating-and.html</a> )<br/>
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Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-5549387924322651432023-07-14T07:56:00.032-07:002023-08-01T09:12:10.824-07:00THE EXTERMINATION OF ITALIANS IN THE DALMATIA ISLANDS (STARTED BY THE HABSBURG & FULLY COMPLETED BY THE CROATS) - PART 1During the second half of this July month I want to continue my article written 3 months ago and research in detail the extermination of the Italians in the Dalmatian islands (Lissa, Lagosta, etc...), an ethnocide started by the Habsburg and completed by the Croats.<br/>
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<b>Historically the disappearance started with the barbarian invasions (of the Avars and Slavs) of the eight century, that forced the autochthonous population of the Roman Dalmatians to take refuge in the Dalmatian islands and in some city-islands near the coast (like Ragusa, Trau and Zara, now called Dubrovnik, Trogir and Zadar). These "Adriatic" areas were nearly all romance-speaking until the "Duecento" (XIII century), when started the Ottoman invasion of the Balkan peninsula. Since then the Republic of Venice -that ruled the region until the Dinaric Alps for many centuries- was forced to accept many refugees (mostly Slavs, but also a lot of Slavicized Vlachs called "Morlachs") from the Muslim conquered regions of the western Balkans and soon the newly arrived become majority in the coastal region. When Napoleon conquered the Republic of Venice in 1797, the Italian linguist Bartoli calculated that in the "Dalmatian Venetia" more than two thirds of the population was Croatian speaking (with pockets of Serbian speaking areas): the Dalmatian Italians were a minority of less than 33% of the total Dalmatian population and were concentrated in the main cities. Because of higher fertility rate and further emigration toward the relatively rich and developed Dalmatian coast from the poor inland mountain regions, the Slavs in the first half of the XIX century become more than 80% of the Dalmatian population. The Austrian census done in 1857 registered -south of the Quarnero islands (Cherso, Lussino, Veglia and Arbe, now called Chres, Losinj, Krk and Rab)- 45,000 Dalmatian Italians (nearly all in the islands and in the main cities, where they were the majority in some towns like Zara and Veglia) and 369,310 Slavs: the romance speaking population of coastal Dalmatia & its islands was reduced to less than 20%! ((<a href="https://books.google.cl/books?id=r60EAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA38&dq=%C3%96sterreichisches+K%C3%BCstenland&as_brr=1&hl=de#v=onepage&q&f=false">https://books.google.cl/books?id=r60EAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA38&dq=%C3%96sterreichisches+K%C3%BCstenland&as_brr=1&hl=de#v=onepage&q&f=false </a> )
Since then 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: <a href="http://www.mlhistria.altervista.org/storiaecultura/testiedocumenti/tesiscaglioni/tesi.htm">http://www.mlhistria.altervista.org/storiaecultura/testiedocumenti/tesiscaglioni/tesi.htm</a>).</b><br/>
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<i>The exodus of Dalmatian Italians during WW2: the photo shows Dalmatian Italian families from the outskirts of Spalato going toward the ship that will bring them to Venice in September 1943.</i
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DIVRhFzAd30/WL4xyrbYJnI/AAAAAAAAAQo/SjBpe9fhafw8PNdsCtoDMoDNCqyxSaD5QCLcB/s1600/Spalatiniitalianiprofughi1943%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DIVRhFzAd30/WL4xyrbYJnI/AAAAAAAAAQo/SjBpe9fhafw8PNdsCtoDMoDNCqyxSaD5QCLcB/s320/Spalatiniitalianiprofughi1943%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="370" height="223" data-original-width="1026" data-original-height="556" /></a></div><br/><br/>
The cities on the coast (mainly Zara/Zadar & Spalato/Split) were populated by the most educated and instructed Dalmatian Italians and so are the only that still have Italians residents living there in 2023.<br/>
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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 and/or his 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<br/>
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The only exceptions are the northern dalmatian islands that were inside the Kingdom of Italy from 1918 until 1947: Cherso/Kres & Lussino/Lusinj (where there are -still now- a few dozen Italians). For example, from Lissa/Vis (please read my <a href="https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2014/09/lissa-perfect-ethnic-cleansing-of-local.html">https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2014/09/lissa-perfect-ethnic-cleansing-of-local.html</a>) to Lagosta/Lastovo (<a href="https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2013/08/lagosta-perfect-ethnic-cleansing.html">https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2013/08/lagosta-perfect-ethnic-cleansing.html</a>) all the italian speaking population of these islands has TOTALLY disappeared!<br/>
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<i>Excerpts from the book "Esodi diItaliani dalla Dalmazia" of Carlo Cipriani:<br/>
<br/.
"...the Dalmatian-Croats wanted the annexation of Dalmatia to Croatia, but the Dalmatian-Italians wanted to remain autonomous within the Empire. From this conflict arose two parties: the "Unionist" (of the Croats) and the "Autonomist" (of the Dalmatian-Venetians, since then called Dalmatian-Italians). The position of other cultural groups was uncertain: the Orthodox (identified as Serbs) often united with the Croats for Slavic fraternity, sometimes with the Italians by party rivalry; the Jews and the Albanians (many of them in the south) were not considered. The Dalmatian-Italians recognized the numerical superiority of the Dalmatian-Slavs, but they believed that this could not lead to elimnation of the Dalmatian-Italians indispensable for the growth of the region, being able to favor their contacts with the Kingdom of Italy, which was in a period of considerable development. On the contrary, the Dalmatian-Croatians were convinced that anyone in Dalmatia must be Croatian and who did not agree with this position was to be considered a "traitor to the fatherland". Gradually it happened that the 'Italian' administrations were overthrown in the municipal elections and the Italian-language schools were suppressed.<br/>
.... In 1880 with the support of austrian military force it fell the Italian administration of Spalato/Split. And in the elections held only in 1882, the frauds and a menacing military presence ensured that the Croatian party won; in this city -that was becoming the largest Dalmatian city- all Italian-language schools were closed. The same happened later in all the other cities: little by little the Italians came excluded from all administrations: italian young people had to study in schools with croatian language whereas previously there were schools in Croatian and in Italian. Dalmatians Italians had, where they succeeded for economic reasons, to open private language schools in Italian for their children.<br/>
.....In 1909, the Italian language was banned in all dalmatians offices. Only the city of Zara/Zadar managed to maintain a city administration and schools in Italian until 1916. A series of activities completed the Italian presence with societies and clubs, especially sports, which cemented the citizens' italian national spirit. But as these events developed, more and more emigration began for large number of Italian Dalmatians. <br/>
.......In the second half of the 19th century started a migration towards the north of the western Adriatic: Trieste, Fiume, Venice and towards the Americas. In part it had the same economic reasons which, in those decades, drove the emigrations from all of Europe, but for the Italian Dalmatians, especially after 1870, perhaps it was added unknowingly a national aspect for the impossibility of educating their children in Italian language, which was possible to do in other places of the Empire. In some cases the abandonment of Dalmatia was motivated by explicit national reasons, as happened to the journalist Arturo Colautti, who in 1880 was attacked by a group of soldiers and had to flee to the Kingdom of Italy. Many Italian Dalmatians declared themselves to live in peace as Croatians, while continuing to speak Italian at home and in public; the evident sign of this emigration and of not publicly declaring oneself Italian, is the progressive decrease of Italians in censuses: from nearly 55,000 (12.5% of the population) in 1865 to 18,000 (2.7% of the population) in 1910.<br/>
......At the end of world war 1, the hostility of the president of the USA and the rivalry of the French meant that Italy saw its rights to the Italian territories of the northern and eastern Adriatic contested. The Kingdom of Italy had to confront itself with the newborn Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, Slovenes - SHS- (the citizens of this kingdom up to a few weeks before had previously fought against Italy), for the territories of the eastern Adriatic, which also in large part had been occupied by Italian troops after 4 November 1918. The incapacity of the Italian rulers of the time meant that with the Treaty of Rapallo of 1920, Dalmatia was left to the SHS Kingdom, except for the city of Zara and the islet of Làgosta. The Dalmatian Italians were faced with a triple choice: move to Italy, remain in Dalmatia with Italian citizenship, remain in Dalmatia becoming yugoslavs. This choice divided the families and everyone made a different decision, however we cannot establish with certainty how many Italians remained and how many emigrated; summary calculations speak of at least 3,500 emigrants in Italy and about 7,000 Dalmatians who remained with Italian citizenship in Dalmatia which passed to Yugoslavia until 1920. There was then a certain amount of Italian Dalmatians who hadn't had the courage to leave houses, relatives, interests and who took Yugoslav citizenship to live in peace: it was estimated 300 on the island of Veglia/Krk and about 3,000 in Spalato/Split, but there is no indication for the other locations (obviously the 15,000 and more Dalmatians of Zara are not calculated).<br/>
.......One of the problems of the emigrants was the imminent departure organized in a very short time time on the impetus of the Foreign Minister, who showed himself sensitive to requests of yugoslav people. The Italian government of the pro-Yugoslavs, Giolitti and Sforza, in February 1921 established that the cession of Dalmatia occupied by Italy to Yugoslavia would take place in three phases: outermost areas on April 1, 1921, Sebenico/Šibenik district and southern islands on April 21, the Zara/Zadar district successively. The people had to give in in a few days the properties, pack up the household goods and leave for unknown destinations in search of work and a new accommodation. In some cases, such as the abandonment of Sebenico/Šibenik, of the islands of Arbe/Rab, Veglia/Krk and Cursola/Korcula, the dates were suddenly brought forward by a few days throwing the Italians who were leaving into panic and chaos. As far as the Royal Italian Government implemented some support measures, life as refugees was not easy and for years many found themselves moving from one place to another in Italy in search of an accommodation. Life was no easier for the remaining Italian Dalmatians. Those that had Italian citizenship they encountered difficulties in their work, especially the free professionals, in dealings with local authorities and had problems with schools children in smaller towns. The same difficulty also faced those who had accepted to become Yugoslav citizens; the ban was added to the lack of Italian schools for young people of Yugoslav citizenship even if of Italian nationality, when they wanted to attend the few Italian schools left in operation. Then, there was the moral aspect of being culturally Italian, but forced to renounce it in order to survive.<br/>
.......Some dalmatian italian families were forced to split up in 1920: it is noteworthy to remember the Tartaglia with Ivo Slavic mayor of Split and his brother Renato who moved to Trieste; the Bettizas with Marino who opted for Yugoslavia while Vincenzo and John chose Italy. Little by little things stabilized even if, gradually, in a quiet flow, many Italian Dalmatians left Dalmatia, until the outbreak of World War II. The Italian Dalmatians living in Yugoslavia indeed had many work and life difficulties. Meanwhile in the city of Zara annexed to the Kingdom of Italy lived a compact Italian community of about 20,000 people and another thousand were on the island of Lagosta (that was also officially part of the Kingdom of Italy until 1947).<br/>
.......The terrible violences that happened during WW2 (Foibe, Zara bombing, etc...) caused a new strong wave of refugees. In 1955–1956 of the more than twenty thousand Italians who lived in Zara before the war world 2, there were only a few dozen left.........."</i><br/>
<br/>
....to be continued the next month "PART 2" with sections (translated in english) of the book written after WW1 in italian by Federico Pagnacco and titled "Italiani di Dalmazia"....<br/>
<br/>
<b>Bibliography</b>:<br/>
<br/>
1- "Italiani di Dalmazia" of Federico Pagnacco (<a href="https://www.openstarts.units.it/server/api/core/bitstreams/83f515c0-b586-4f2f-9eea-5747dbc4f2ee/content"> https://www.openstarts.units.it/server/api/core/bitstreams/83f515c0-b586-4f2f-9eea-5747dbc4f2ee/content</a>)<br/>
<br/>
2- "Esodi di Italiani dalla Dalmazia" of Carlo Cipriani (<a href="file:///C:/Temp/Esodi_di_Italiani_dalla_Dalmazia_e_.pdf">file:///C:/Temp/Esodi_di_Italiani_dalla_Dalmazia_e_.pdf</a>)<br/>
<br/>
3- "LUSSINO, DICEMBRE 1944: OPERAZIONE "ANTAGONISE" of William Klinger (<a href="https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/369584">https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/369584</a>)<br/>
<br/>
4- "Gli internati militari italiani: dai Balcani, in Germania e nell’Urss.1943-1945" of Maria Teresa Giusti <a href="https://ricerca.unich.it/retrieve/handle/11564/702656/159303/Gli%20internati%20militari%20italiani%3A%20dai%20Balcani%2C%20in%20Germania%20e%20nell%27Urss.%201943-1945.pdf">https://ricerca.unich.it/retrieve/handle/11564/702656/159303/Gli%20internati%20militari%20italiani%3A%20dai%20Balcani%2C%20in%20Germania%20e%20nell%27Urss.%201943-1945.pdf</a><br/>
<br/>
5- "La Gran Bretagna e la questione Jugoslava (1941-1947", of Rosario Milano (<a href="https://www.academia.edu/18588898/La_Gran_Bretagna_e_la_questione_jugoslava_1941_1947_?email_work_card=title">https://www.academia.edu/18588898/La_Gran_Bretagna_e_la_questione_jugoslava_1941_1947_?email_work_card=title</a>)
Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-47301653348289024662023-07-01T07:23:00.015-07:002023-07-05T07:42:15.939-07:00SOUTHERN-ITALY'S NORMAN IFRIQIYA (1135-1160 AD)<b>The "Norman Southern-italian kingdom" in north Africa (1135-1160 AD)</b><br/>
<br/>
We all know that the mediterranean coast of Africa has been under christian-european control during some centuries, from the roman-byzantine centuries to the colonial era in the XIX & XX centuries. But in some circumnstances there has been some periods when the rule lasted only a few decades, like when the Normans of Southern Italy created their "kingdom of Ifriqiya" from 1135 to 1160 AD.<br/>
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<i><b>Map I have created in wikipedia, showing the Norman Kingdom of Africa (that lasted only 25 years) between red points.</i></b>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Regnonormanno1160.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="648" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Regnonormanno1160.jpg"/></a></div><br/>
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I am going to research -this month of July- what has happened in those 25 years:<br/>
<br/>
First of all, let us remember that from the times of the berber Saint Augustine all north Africa was a christian country that has been -more or less, of course- fully romanised (mainly in the area that is now Eastern Algeria/Tunisia/Western Libya), until the arab invasion of the VIII century. <br/>
<br/>
The long muslim domination of the north Africa region started with the bloody defeat of the christian berber queen Kahina and the deportation as slaves of nearly half a million christian berbers to be sold as slaves in the Damascus & middle-east markets (it was one of worst massacres in human history! they were forced to walk from southern Tunisia until Syria, while crossing desert areas and consequently dying by the many dozen of thousands before arriving to the markets).<br/>
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Only in southern Tunisia and in the Nile delta survived some christian communities: in the year 1000 AD there were christians (speaking the romance language called "African Latin") in the coastal and southern areas of Tunisia, like in Gafsa - according to the arab Al-Idrisi.<br/>
<br/>
Indeed amongst the Berbers of Ifriqiya, African Romance was linked to Christianity, a religion which survived until the 14th century in North Africa outside of Egypt (where it it is still existing with the Copts). Spoken Latin or Romance is attested in Gabès by Ibn Khordadbeh; in Béja, Biskra, Tlemcen, and Niffis by al-Bakri; and in Gafsa and Monastir by al-Idrisi, who observes that the people in Gafsa "are Berberised, and most of them speak the African Latin tongue." There is also a possible reference to spoken Latin or African Romance in the 11th century, when the Rustamid governor Abu Ubayda Abd al-Hamid al-Jannawni (who lived in the Nafusa Mountains of northwestern Libya) was said to have sworn his oath of office in Arabic, Berber and in an unspecified "town language", which might be interpreted as a Romance variety.<br/>
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It is noteworthy to pinpoint that in their quest to conquer the Kingdom of Africa in the 12th century, the Normans were aided by the remaining Christian population of Tunisia, who some linguists - among them Vermondo Brugnatelli - argue had been speaking a Romance language for centuries since the end of the eastern roman empire rule of the region.<br/>
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Indeed in 1135 AD the norman king Roger II made his first permanent conquest (if Pantelleria in 1123 is not counted African): the isle of Djerba. This little island, according to Arabic sources, "acknowledged no sultan" and was a den of pirates, was captured by Roger, who carried off many of its inhabitants. Sicilian Muslims participated in the conquest of Djerba, but it is unknown what happened to the ancient Jewish community on the island, which was still there (or re-established) in the early thirteenth century. Djerba gave Roger a base from which to exert more influence over Mahdia, which, unable to pay for its grain, was forced to become a protectorate of Sicily by 1142. Its foreign affairs fell to Roger, who forbade alliances with other Muslim states inimical to Sicily, and probably received its customs revenues in lieu of payment for the grain needed to feed it. <br/>
<br/>
Roger II conquered all the coast of northern Africa from eastern Algeria to Tripolitana in Libya. But he died in 1154 AD and soon his kingdom started to be attacked by the Arabs, who reconquered it in a few years: in 1160 the capital Mahdia was lost by the Normans of southern Italy and the kingdom was "history" after only a quarter of a century.<br/>
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Only the islands of Gabes and Kerkenna were reconquered for more than a century by the southern Italian kingdom of Sicily from 1284 to 1392 (while Libya's Tripoli was conquered for a few years from 1510 to 1551), as can be seen in the following map:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRnSHUGUyh2dAqWvVYRVUb_zthEgsJJxIYW_D_gZvQ-hRJIbltult9RwqQjbEtS_7ufml8yr11_CIa5o9JvRfafPQ3d8NDI0N5jjnaDtH40UkVRy0EvdlqrPFifo1JtWE1Cb3hrLM9B3JiARrSa56XdSyA8H2zWrizASZrhZVr9gMiT3tz7mWG6s7Fq5pP/s1320/Kingdom_of_Sicily-1320x625.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="1320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRnSHUGUyh2dAqWvVYRVUb_zthEgsJJxIYW_D_gZvQ-hRJIbltult9RwqQjbEtS_7ufml8yr11_CIa5o9JvRfafPQ3d8NDI0N5jjnaDtH40UkVRy0EvdlqrPFifo1JtWE1Cb3hrLM9B3JiARrSa56XdSyA8H2zWrizASZrhZVr9gMiT3tz7mWG6s7Fq5pP/s600/Kingdom_of_Sicily-1320x625.png"/></a></div><br/>
<br/>
Here there are some excerpts from a very well written and detailed book:
<b><i>Bridging Europe and Africa:Norman Sicily’s Other Kingdom</b></i>, by Charles Dalli of the University of Malta.<br/>
<br/>
<i>The Norman conquest of Sicily detached the island from its North African framework, and a century of Latin Christian rule effectively transformed its society. But the island was not completely disconnected from the southern Mediterranean, as long term trade contacts, political links and military ambitions intervened to cast relations between the two sides. A Norman thalassocracy in the mid-12th century created a short-lived political bridge between Europe and Africa. <br/>
<br/>
A variety of factors contributed to step up Sicilian ambitions to formalize their regional hegemony. Sicily under Roger II was steered towards an adventurous but ultimately misguided foreign policy by the ruler and his admirals, including cAbd ar-Rahmān or Christodoulos, and George of Antioch. In particular, George of Antioch, a political exile who rose to serve as chief minister to Roger II, and to become a major exponent ofthe Sicilian thalassocracy20. In a sense, the new generation of leaders ater Roger I and Temīm were drawn into the dominant political-religious discourse which governed the Muslim-Christian conlict around the Mediterranean. The regional balance of power which had rested on peaceful commercial exchange was challenged on the drawing board with stillborn plans in Ifrīqiya to regain Sicily, and upset in fact with a partlyrealized programme in Palermo to establish a Norman kingdom of Africa.<br/>
<br/>
The Normans learned how to exploit to their own advantage the factional divisions which weakened the control of the Zīrid prince of al-Mahdīya in other parts of Ifrīqiya. Sicilian-African hostilities broke out in 1117-18 when Roger II was called to assist the
governor of Gabes against the emir of al-Mahdīya. Signiicantly, the conlict was triggered by a plan to attract foreign commerce to the port of Gabes, thereby challenging al-Mahdīya’s monopolist pretensions. According to Ibn al-Athīr, Roger exchanged bitterly-worded letters with the ambitious prince at al-Mahdīya, Alī, leading the latter to invoke Almoravid help for the Muslim reconquest of Sicily22. Roger demanded the release of his trading agents, and the immediate renewal of the Sicilian-African agreement, but it became increasingly clear that the Sicilians were determined to draw more political advantages as regional power brokers.<br/>
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An ill-thought provocation soon provided the pretext for war when an Almoravid squadron attacked the Calabrian town of Nicotera in 11, sailing away with captive women and children. Knowing that Norman retribution was only a matter of time, the terriied rulers at al-Mahdīya contacted the Fātimid court in Egypt to intercede with Roger II on behalf of Ifrīqiya. George of Antioch was dispatched as Roger’s envoy to Egypt, but the diplomatic exchange did not halt the Sicilian war plans. In 1123 Roger II dispatched a leet of three hundred ships, carrying an army led by ‘a thousand and one knights’, to capture al-Mahdīya. he Sicilian armada was dispersed by a storm; some ships reached Pantelleria. A large number of its men were killed, while the women and children were captured, and the island was annexed to Sicily. According to Ibn al-Athīr, when the Sicilian forces reached the African coast and took control of the castle of ad-Dīmās, they were surprised by the determined Muslim resistance. Galvanized with cries of Akbar Allāh, the Muslims fell on the invaders, forcing the enemy troops to kill their own horses and lee to their ships. he Christian garrison of the castle of
ad-Dīmās, lacking provisions and exhausted from constant battling, inally surrendered and were killed to the last man. Abandoning the siege of al-Mahdīya, the remainder of the Sicilian forces sailed away. Underlining the new discourse legitimating violence, Ibn al-Athīr remarked that this victory was celebrated around the Muslim world in verse by several poets. Four years later, another Almoravid force sacked Syracuse after making landings at Patti and Catania.<br/>
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All the same, Muslim audacity did not bring an end to the Sicilian ruler’s role as regional power broker. he internal divisions of Ifrīqiya played in the hands of the Sicilian thalassocrats. he emir of al-Mahdīya enjoyed little efective authority outside his capital, and the provincial governors could not be expected to show loyalty towards the Zīrid prince. In an ironic twist, the same prince, al-Hasan ibn cAlī, who triumphed against the Sicilian invaders in 1123, was forced to invoke Roger’s protection in 1135
to ward of a Hammādid invasion. Reportedly, it was the discontented subjects of the Ifrīqiyan vassal king who had appealed for the intervention of Yahyā, Hammādid emir of Bougie, in 1134. Following a successful intervention by the Sicilian leet, Roger II obtained from al-Hasan extensive rights in Ifrīqiya, including the control of all customs revenues generated through trading activities, purportedly to ensure the regular collection of the Sicilian tributes. From 1135 onwards, al-Mahdīya was virtually Roger’s protectorate. Forced to accept ignominious terms, al-Hasan efectively agreed to partition Ifrīqiya with Roger II by recognizing the latter’s right to impose Sicilian authority over those parts of Ifrīqiya which were not under direct Zīrid government. Moreover,
Muslim communities which were to rise in revolt against Norman rule were to get no help from al-Mahdīya.<br/>
<br/>
George of Antioch captured the island of Djerba in 1135 ater surrounding it with his ships. In a letter addressed to the Fātimid caliph in Egypt, Roger II explained that he had occupied Djerba to destroy its pirates, thereby protecting Sicilian shipping. George of Antioch’s occupation of Djerba, marked by the pillage of the island and the deportation of captive women and children to Sicily, confirmed his thalassocratic ambitions. Roger granted the surviving Djerban community the "amān" (or safe conduct) to ransom their relatives and friends. <br/>
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<i><b>Roger II, the "King of Southern Italy and Africa" (Statue in front of Napoli's Royal Palace)</b></i>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/A_Ruggero_il_Normanno.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="491" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/A_Ruggero_il_Normanno.jpg"/></a></div>
Al-Idrīsī remarked, almost in justification of the Sicilian occupation, that the Berber kharijite inhabitants of Djerba were generally “brown-skinned, inclined towards evil and of a hypocritical character. [Both] the upper classes and the rest of population speak only Berber. They are wont to rebel and disobey”. Following their rebellion against Norman occupation in 1153, the Djerbans were “reduced to slavery and transported to Palermo”.<br/>
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A Norman-held Djerba, with a royal governor installed there, opened the way for further expansion along the North African coast. It was also a consequence of a marked shit in policy, from peaceful commercial cooperation to military intervention, already signalled in the failed Sicilian attack on al-Mahdīya. From 1123 to its capture by George of Antioch in 1148, the Zīrid capital was transformed into an economic and political satellite. Despite the consideration that the risks would outweigh the beneits, and that gains would be made at too heavy a price, the Christian rulers of Sicily embarked on an expansionist programme in the Maghrib, formalizing the advantages. The programmes assumed the ability to establish, and manage in the long run, profitable forms of overlordship as had been achieved in the wake of the Sicilian conquest. They must have known that the making of a Christian realm in Sicily was still very much a work in progress. Naturally, this expansionist policy entailed administrative and inancial restructuring at home.<br/>
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Allowing for the fact that al-Maqrīzī was writing in the 15th century, his biographical sketch of George of Antioch provides vital insight on Roger II and his chief minister. The ‘orientalization’ of Roger II’s image, court, and trilingual administration, and the extension of Norman lordship to parts of Ifrīqiya, were, in a sense, an acknowledgment of the strategic location of the Norman kingdom as a bridge between civilizations. Whilst nourishing wider ambitions in the Latin East – claiming, unsuccessfully, the principality of Antioch ater Bohemond II’s death in 1130 – Roger’s best opportunity for Mediterranean expansion seemed to lie southwards. These ambitions had immediate international reverberations – in 1135 it was reported at a German imperial meeting by alarmed Byzantine and Venetian envoys that Roger had taken “Africa, which is known to be a third part of the world”.<br/>
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The 1140s were very difficult years for Ifrīqiya, which was troubled by large scale famine, as well as the plague. According to Ibn al-Athīr, the “great mortality” struck the country in 1142-3, killing many people, while those with means led to Sicily, “where they met with cruel suferings”<br/>
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Recurring famines which alicted Ifrīqiya constrained al-Mahdīya to depend increasingly on Sicilian grain shipments, forcing the emir al-Hasan to sink deeper in debt with Roger. In a show of force, in 1141/2, George of Antioch appeared with his fleet of Ifrīqiya, seizing shipments sent from Egypt to alleviate al-Mahdīya’s plight, to enforce payment3. Despite the renewal of the protectorate, in 1142/3 the Sicilian fleet attacked several coastal areas of the kingdom, claiming to act on behalf of al-Mahdīya against rebellious communities. he town of Tripoli “of the West”, which had asserted its autonomy from al-Mahdīya under the Banū Mātrūh chiefs, was attacked in June 1143, but Arab help enabled the Libyan town to repel the Sicilian attack36. Rearming in Sicily, the leet went out again, this time burning down the Hammādid town of Djidjel, between Bougie and Bône. In 1144/45 the port of Bresk was taken. According to Ibn al-Athīr, its inhabitants were massacred, while women and children were enslaved and sold in Sicily “to the Muslims”. <br/>
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The same fate met the inhabitants of the Kerkenna islands north of Djerba, which were captured in 1145/46; al-Hasan wrote to Roger to remind him of their bond, but Roger justiied his action by claiming that the islanders were disobedient towards al-Mahdīya. Ibn al-Athīr noted the following under the year 541 (= 13 June 1146-1 June 1147) “This year the Franks, may God curse them, took possession of Tripoli of the West”. “Roger the Frank, king of Sicily”, prepared a great fleet and sent it to Tripoli, which was surrounded by land and by sea on the third day of Muharram (15 June). The Tripolitanians came out to combat the invaders, and the battle lasted for three days. Exploiting internal divisions in Tripoli, where a town faction had expelled the Banū Mātrūh and brought it an Almoravid militia (the Mulattāmīn), the Sicilians took possession of Tripoli. Following the usual pillage of goods and capture of women, a universal amān was issued, allowing those who had led the town to return. Soon they delegated authority to the Banū Mātrūh. Under Roger’s overlordship, Tripoli prospered. According to al-Idrīsī, who recorded the slaughter of the townsmen and the enslavement of their women, the town lourished under Roger, and its district was “without equal in the products of the land, unlike any other inhabited place in the world”. Nevertheless, Roger’s geographer was careful to refer to Tripoli’s earlier period of splendour as a trading centre, blaming tribal attacks for its decline.<br/>
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In 542 (= 2 June 1147- 21 May 1148) it was the turn of Gabes to be taken by a Sicilian force, exploiting a chaotic situation in that town resulting from the disputed succession to the late governor al-Rashīd. A scheming freedman named Yūsuf threatened al-Mahdīya to submit Gabes to Roger of Sicily, as the governors of Tripoli had done, unless he was allowed to place Muhammad, a minor in his inluence, in the governor’sseat. Roger II duly dispatched Yūsuf his robe and charter as wālī or governor. The emir al-Hasan sent an army from al-Mahdīya to quell the rebellion in Gabes, and Yūsuf met an ignominious death. Following this incident at Gabes, where Norman expansion was checked, Roger was determined to eliminate Zīrid rule at al-Mahdīya, taking advantage of the widespread famine which continued to ravage the Maghrib. Indeed, if Ibn al-Athīr is to be trusted, “the worst came in the year 542, so that the notable families abandoned the towns and the countryside [of Ifrīqiya], and in their majority crossed over to Sicily; while the others ate each other, and there was a great mortality”.<br/>
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The Sicilian fleet – which, according to al-Maqrīzī, included two hundred galleys, and one hundred oared horse-carriers – passed by Pantelleria, where it encountered a ship coming from al-Mahdīya. Taking carrier pigeons from the Ifrīqiyan ship, George tried to deceive al-Hasan by sending him news that the Sicilian leet was sailing eastwards to attack the Byzantine islands. Nevertheless, a terrible wind “unleashed by God” wrecked George’s plan to take al-Mahdīya by surprise. he Sicilian commander requested alMahdīya’s help to defend the rights of the young Muhammad at Gabes. Realizing that this was just a pretext for capturing the capital, the Zīrid ruler declared that he could not join the Christian force to ight against fellow Muslims at Gabes. At the same time, he could not stay behind to defend his capital, because the Norman force was superior and it would block the city’s access to provisions. Preferring “the salvation of Muslims more than [his] kingdom”, the ruler and his household abandoned the city and found refuge in the ruins of ancient Carthage. Many of his subjects also led the city, while other Muslims hid in Christian churches. By the time the wind had abated, permitting the Norman ships to drop their anchors inside the port, many inhabitants were already gone. George entered the royal castle and took possession of the Zīrid treasure and the prince’s numerous concubines. Following a two-hour sack of al-Mahdīya, the pillage was stopped and a general amān was decreed, extending to the militiamen of the city, and the large numbers of inhabitants who had managed to escape. George was even reported to provide transports for the women and children. Having taken possession of al-Mahdīya, George sent armies to occupy Sfax and Sousse, treating the populations there with similar moderation.<br/>
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There can be little doubt that Rome looked favourably at the Norman annexation of coastal Ifrīqiya; an “Archbishop of Africa” was consecrated in 114841. According to Ibn al-Athīr, Roger would have conquered “the whole of Africa” were it not for his conlict with Byzantium. Towards the end of his life, there are signs that Roger wished to be seen as a great Christian ruler. A Norman leet commanded by George of Antioch’s successor in the admiralty, the eunuch Philip of al-Mahdīya, captured the city of Bône in 1153. Upon his return, Philip was arrested and accused of having shown excessive clemency towards the Muslim population. Moreover, he was charged with practising Islam in secret, and condemned to death. In a public display of Christian zeal, Roger had his former admiral burned at the stake. he story, which was recorded by Ibn al-Athīr, was noted in great detail by a later editor of the chronicle of Romuald of Salerno, but the emphasis in the latter text is on Roger’s unimpeachable credentials as a Christian king – a man “consumed by love for the Christian faith” – who would not desist from punishing his closest servants for their sins43. A blow to Sicilian Muslims, Philip’s execution marked a traumatic ending to Roger’s reign – for “God allowed Roger to live for onlya short time afterwards”.<br/>
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<i><b>Photo of pages from a french book ("Mahdia.Notes historiques et archeologiques", of J.J. De Smet) about the Normans in Mahdia</i></b>
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The network established by the Sicilian thalassocracy across parts of Ifrīqiya seems to have extended to the important city of Tunis – the modern-day capital – only in a secondary way. For a time, according to a Venetian source, Tunis was forced to pay tribute to the Norman rulers of Sicily44. he project of Norman Ifrīqiya involved the resettlement of immigrant Christians across new areas under Norman lordship. It also brought about new hopes for surviving Christian communities in Ifrīqiya. Very recently, a major study has revealed some of the complexities of the evolving relationship between the Norman rulers of Sicily and the papacy45. The beneits accruing from the extension of Christian rule in the eastern Maghrib were not lost on Rome. Norman Africa, and the prospect of Christian expansion there, may have provided an additional motive for Rome’s reapprochement with Palermo in 1156. William I’s chief minister, Maio of Bari, a chief broker of the Siculo-Roman peace, may have shited the focus from African to Italian politics in this crucial period, and was popularly blamed for the loss of Norman Africa in 1160. The ammiratus ammiratorum Maio was assassinated later that year in a revolt lead by Matthew Bonello; and Maio’s character was likewise assassinated by ‘Hugo Falcandus’ in the pages of his "Liber de Regno Sicilie".<br/>
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The present contribution has underlined the medieval historian’s role in tracing the evolution of the relationship across the Mediterranean waters from one of commercial cooperation, to one of unequal exchange, to the establishment of a Sicilian protectorate over al-Mahdīya, and the Norman military interventions leading to a short-lived overlordship. It has been claimed that “Norman rule in Africa aimed to be benign”.<br/>
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Nevertheless, a benevolent form of government, including the delegation of administrative tasks to local notables, could hardly mask the reality of subjection to a Christian overlord. he accounts of the uprisings in 1158-59 leave no room for doubt; in the minds of Sicily’s African subjects, the beneits of living under a restored Muslim rule vastly outweighed any consideration of mild Christian government. Sporadic signs of resistance to
Christian rule emerged in the early 1150s, notably the Djerban revolt in 1153, which was crushed thanks to a major naval expedition, leading to the Norman re-conquest of the island, together with the subjection of the Kerkenna archipelago. In William I’s early years of rule Sicily’s leets ranged across the Mediterranean, in a campaign in the Nile Delta (1155), as well as expeditions against Byzantine Negropont and Muslim Ibiza (1157). At the approach of the Almohad army, a series of revolts spread quickly to bring the Norman presence to an end. Town ater town rapidly subjected themselves to the Almohads. he Muslim reconquista of Ifrīqiya was accelerated, according to Ibn al-Athīr, when the Almohads created two huge mountains of wheat and barley. The politics of grain were not lost on the Almohads, it seems.<br/>
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The campaign culminated in the triumphal entry of the Almohads into al-Mahdīya in January 1160; the Almohad caliph cAbd al-Mucmin is said to have wondered why the last Zīrid ruler of the city, who had become his protégée, had surrendered the fortress to Roger in 1148. Although a formal peace was not reached with Sicily before 1180, it has been shown how Genoese merchants were actively involved in linking Sicily and its former Ifrīqiyan domains under the new Almohad princes.<br/>
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The formalization of Sicilian regional hegemony in the establishment of a Norman Ifrīqiya was the inal stage of a process which originated in commercial cooperation across the Christian-Muslim divide in the central Mediterranean. Radically redrawn with the Norman conquest of Sicily, the divide was shown to be bridgeable through peaceful commercial exchange. By the early 12th century, Sicily and Ifrīqiya were linked through their economic interdependence. From 1135, al-Mahdīya became a de facto Sicilian protectorate, and in the 1140s much of coastal Ifrīqiya was subjected to Roger II’s overlordship while the Zīrid state ceased to exist. By 1160 it was the turn of Roger’s African dominion to meet the same fate. Ironically, the inal Muslim victory saved Norman Ifrīqiya from historiographical extinction – by drawing Muslim chroniclers to write at length about the developments that would lead to a inal Muslim victory. In doing so, they also recorded the degeneration of a relationship which, at irst, avoided confrontation and turned to commercial cooperation to bridge the Christian-Muslim divide. Seizing on an excellent example, which foreshadowed the Muslim defeat of the Latin East and marked the prestigious success against a notable Christian thalassocracy, they became its chief narrators.Exploiting the beneits of hindsight, the Muslim historians reconstructed with meticulous detail the chain of events marking the rise and fall of Norman Ifrīqiya, relaying precious information on the making of a short-lived policies which, for hardly 3 decades, bridged the Mediterranean.</i><br/>
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<b><i>Another photo of pages from the same book of De Smet, related to what happened with christians in Mahdia in the next centuries after the end of the Norman Ifriqiya</i></b>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Mahdia_%28Africa%29_21.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Mahdia_%28Africa%29_21.jpg"/></a></div>
Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-83050097736833323262023-06-01T08:21:00.048-07:002023-06-07T07:53:15.737-07:00CHAKAVIAN LANGUAGE (RESEARCH)This month I want to do a research about the most "italian" of the slav dialects/languages in the eastern Adriatic sea: the CHAKAVIAN (called "Ciacavo" in italian). I want to pinpoint that one of the main features of Chakavian is the strong influence of Romance languages in its lexicon and phonology (especially from Italian, Dalmatian and Venetian). <br/>
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Furthermore, Italian linguist Matteo Bartoli wrote in 1919 that more than one half of the Chakavian spoken in Istria was loanworded from Neo-Latin (Romance) languages, a percentage similar to the one in the "Gheg" albanian dialect of northern coastal Albania. But in southern Dalmatia the percentage of Italian loanwords is only around 2/5, while in northwestern Istria is around a huge 4/5.<br/>
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However it is noteworthy to remember that prof. Balestrino of the "Universita' di Genova" wrote that there are languages that are not-neolatins, but are called "Sub-Romance languages" -like English and Maltese- because have more than half of their words loanworded from latin & neolatin languages and <b>Chacavian can be included in this group</b>. <br/>
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It is also well known that the Chacavian has given to Croatian many romance maritime words and terms, missing in the Croatian standard language.<br/>
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<i>Map showing the areas where is spoken the Chakavian and its sub-dialects. According to the reflex of the Common Slavic phoneme yat */ě/, there are five varieties: A) <b>Ekavian</b> (northeastern Istria, Rijeka/Fiume and Cres/Cherso island): */ě/ > /e/; B) <b>Ikavian–Ekavian</b> (islands Lošinj/Lussino, Krk/Veglia, Rab/Arbe, Pag/Pago, Ugljan/Ugliano): */ě/ > /i/ or /e/, according to Jakubinskij's law; C) <b>>Ikavian</b> (southwestern Istria, islands Brač/Brazza, Hvar/Lesina, Vis/Lissa, Korčula/Cursola, Dalmatian coast at Zadar/Zara and Split/Spalato): */ě/ > /i/; D) <b>Ijekavian</b> (Lastovo/Lagosta island): */ě/je/ or /ije/; E} <b>Ikavski */ě/ > /e/</b> (northwestern Istria) > )</i><br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Cakavstina.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="603" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Cakavstina.png"/></a></div><br/>
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Actually the Chakavian speech still has many expressions, sentences and technical words (approximately 60%, according to academics like Della Volpe) that originate from Italian and autochthonous Dalmatian romance, e.g.: bicerin/bicchierino/little cup, bocûn/boccone/bite (confirmed in the dictionary of G. Boerio), ćƖkara/cup, damìžana/damigiana/dishware, katrîga/chair, mudante/mutande/underwear, kogûma/coffee kettle, posada/posata/cutlery, vesta/vestito/dress.<br/>
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And also there are some expressions that come from the italian dialect of Trieste, e.g. bokâl/boccale and fíbra/fibra, kolȅt/colletto/collar (lexemes whose confirmation we find in "Grande Dizionario del Dialetto Triestino" by Maria Dorie).<br/>
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Furthermore, according to Matasović, most of the Romanesque in Croatian comes from Venetian (thanks mainly to Chakavian), because, as previously mentioned, Venice ruled much of Dalmatia and Istria until the end of the 18th century. Therefore, in Croatian & Chakavian standard language there are many Venetian words, such as rúža (rosa/rose), brȉga (briga/concern), kùverta (coperta/envelope), mòrnār (marinaio/sailor).<br/>
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Indeed, many slav topographical names in Istria and Dalmatia have roots in romance languages, because assimilated to slav languages as a kind of special "loanwords" durig the early Middle Ages. To give an example, the actual croatian name of the island of "Losinj" (exactly the same in Chakavian and standard Croatian) comes from the italian "Lussino" (and the word "Dalmacija" is nearly the same like in latin, while the word "Istra" is very similar to the Italian!)<br/>
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<b><i>Map with Italian names of cities/villages in the historical Dalmatia</i></b>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Dalmazia_toponomastica_italiana.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Dalmazia_toponomastica_italiana.png"/></a></div><br/>
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Historically the Chakavian was spoken not only in the Dalmatian islands (like happens now) but also in all coastal Dalmatia; however now it is reduced to areas around Fiume/Rijeka, Zara/Zadar and Spalato/Split (exactly the same that now have italian-speaking communities).<br/>
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This Chakavian was originally classified as a dialect, but has been "upgraded" to language a couple of years ago with ISO language ID code: "ckm"; please read the following interesting essay related to this improvement:<br/>
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<b>CHAKAVIAN OFFICIALLY DECLARED A LANGUAGE IN 2020, CROATIA PAYS NO ATTENTION</b>, by Lauren Simmonds<br/>
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As R. Danas/M. Tudor wrote, back during the pandemic-dominated year of 2020, without much fanfare and completely unnoticed by local media, Chakavian became a language which was officially recognised by the main international academic organisation that deals with the classification of all languages spoken by mankind. Chakavian thus received its own special ISO language ID code: <b>ckm</b><br/>
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This significant (at least linguistically) historical event paves the way for Chakavian speakers to receive much greater local and national recognition, which has been totally lacking until now because Chakavian was considered to merely be yet another dialect.<br/>
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American professor of linguistics from the prestigious University of California, Kirk Miller, known in the academic world as a successful field linguist responsible for the research and popularisation of the lesser-known languages spoken by mankind, thought about the need to perpetuate Chakavian as one of the languages of our world.<br/>
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Seeing that nobody had remembered to classify and identify Chakavian as an official language, Miller himself decided to send a painstakingly thought out and written request on September the 2nd, 2019, for the recognition and documentation of the Chakavian language to an organisation called SIL International.<br/>
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The Summer Institute of Linguistics International is the full name of an international non-profit organisation based in Dallas, Texas, whose main purpose is to study, develop and document all languages used throughout the world, with the aim of expanding linguistic knowledge, promoting literacy in all languages, and ensuring the language development of linguistic minorities.<br/>
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Once a year, SIL International publishes the prestigious academic magazine Ethnologue. It is a reference publication available both in print and online that provides statistics and other information about the world’s living languages. What is actually perhaps an even more important responsibility of SIL International is to issue ISO type 639-3 codes for comprehensive coverage on behalf of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO, based in Geneva – of which Croatia is a member).<br/>
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It is interesting to note that Professor Miller based a part of his request on the previous request of the main association of speakers of the Kajkavian language, which already managed to win the recognition of Kajkavian as an independent language back in 2014. SIL International then recognised Kajkavian as an independent language, but only in the literary form that was used in the period from the 16th to the 19th century and in some works from the 20th century.<br/>
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Miller’s entire argument was already confirmed as valid by SIL International back in 2020. Owing to his efforts, the Chakavian language was given the highest possible linguistic recognition that exists: it was recognised as a living (independent) language of its own, and not merely a dialect.<br/>
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Who actually invented the word ”narjecje” – the term the Croatian language mixes up with ”dialect”?<br/>
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Chakavian and Kajkavian have long been considered languages in the international world of linguistic science, and not a mere branch of the Croatian standard language, that is, the Shtokavian Croatian language as we know it. Of course, both languages are actually much older languages than the standardised version of Shtokavian (in the first few centuries, all Croatian dictionaries were actually written only in Chakavian), which continued to exist and develop even after the creation of that standard, so, they in fact cannot be dialects of that standard at all. Chakavian might even be considered an international language of sorts, because it is spoken in Croatia and in four other member states of the European Union (in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia).<br/>
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Despite this, former Yugoslavian (and later a significant number of Croatian linguists) placed both Chakavian and Kajkavian in the category of “dialects” (narjecje) for decades.<br/>
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The very term “narjecja” has always been a disputed concept when it comes to linguistics outside the vague borders of the Balkans. It’s enough to know that there is no direct translation for this word in any other language of the world, nor is there one for the concept that we encompass within that word. In international linguistics, only the terms “language”, “dialect” and “sub-dialect” are known. That is why Croatian and ex Yugoslavian linguists were forced to invent a rough English translation for the word themselves – “supradialect” (i.e. super-dialect) – in the desire to explain to the whole world the local concept of something that has all the linguistic, social and historical characteristics of a language, but we for some reason or another have the need to consider less than a language.<br/>
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As is often the case, this approach is the product of the fact that in Croatia, political circumstances heavily directed science, and it wasn’t that science gave the main direction to politics: the Croatian people fought frantically for their place under the sun for almost a century and a half. Being recognised by the world as an independent national community required enormous effort, dogged determination and deep desire of more than six generations of Croats. That meant that entire generations of Chakavian and Kajkavian intellectuals and scientists preferred to neglect their mother tongue and native culture in favour of the greater good of the entire Croatian nation, of which they strongly felt a part throughout history. It was a logical and noble move at the time, but it has left its scars.<br/>
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<i>Map showing the original extention of the Chakavian (blue color), before Ottoman conquests</i>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Serbo_croatian_dialects_historical_distribution.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="679" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Serbo_croatian_dialects_historical_distribution.png"/></a></div>
<b><i>Language – the soul and heart of any culture</b></i><br/>
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“If a culture were a house, then language would be the key to the front door, and to all the rooms in it,” says Khaled Hosseini, an American writer and doctor born in Afghanistan, who was also New York Times’ bestseller three times.<br/>
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Language is indeed the very essence of culture, because its soul begins and ends with language. It shapes the way people think, dream, communicate with each other, build relationships and create a sense of community. It’s the main guardian of a value system, because it directly transmits a set of symbols, meanings and norms.<br/>
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It is that first form of communication with the universe, those first children’s words that initiate verbal contact between people. Knowing one’s linguistic roots so well automatically enables one to more easily identify with the community around them and to keep the welfare of that community close to their hearts in the deepest sense.<br/>
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Language is a technology that enhances and expands the capacities of categorisation that we share with those around us and those who came before us, and therefore plays a key role in the transmission of human culture to those who will come after us.<br/>
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All of this of course also applies to that part of Croatia where Chakavian is the autochthonous language. Croatian culture will disappear when and if the languages on which it is based are lost to the hands of time. This isn’t such an incredible possibility: if we continue with today’s trends, it is quite likely that in two generations, Chakavian will more or less have the status of an extinct language. When it disappears, native Croatian culture will also disappear with it.<br/>
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Unfortunately, the statesmen and strategists of Croatia’s national branding failed to use the independence of our country, nor the next three decades of freedom, to valorise the linguistic and cultural specificities of its native people. If the Republic of Croatia and its representatives believe that culture is at least somewhat important, then they will have to activate themselves and work much harder to promote the Chakavian (and Kajkavian) languages.<br/>
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<i>Map showing in blue color the "Ikavski" area of the Istria's Chakavian, that has 4/5 of its words that are loanworded from romance languages (mainly Italian). The "Ikavian" pink area (southwestern Istria) was the second most romance speaking area of Chakavian, with 2/3 of its words loanworded from neolatin & latin.</i>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/Map_Istrian_Dialects_Cakavian_Brozovic.svg/610px-Map_Istrian_Dialects_Cakavian_Brozovic.svg.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="610" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/Map_Istrian_Dialects_Cakavian_Brozovic.svg/610px-Map_Istrian_Dialects_Cakavian_Brozovic.svg.png"/></a></div>
<b><i>Chakavian’s future</b></i><br/>
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This international recognition for the Chakavian speaking world is not only significant, but a truly epochal event. At the global level, the Chakavian language will be studied more seriously and more study and learning of the Chakavian language will be promoted at Slavic departments of universities outside of Croatian borders. A small boom in academic and non-academic literature on the Chakavian language is also to be expected over the next few years.<br/>
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But above all, this brand new status will really open the door wide for Chakavian speakers to request official recognition of their language where it most needs to be recognised, that is, in the countries where Chakavians have lived for almost 1,500 years and maybe for even longer. It would indeed be a very sad and perversely ironic historical turning point if, after surviving all kinds of enemy invasions, legal prohibitions and changes in language fashions for at least twelve long and arduous centuries, the Chakavian language dies out precisely in the era of the first truly independent and free state of the Croatian people.<br/>
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The international recognition of the Chakavian language and Croatia’s next steps will thus surely become an important cultural factor on the European path of this proud little country and Croatian civilisation itself, because in Europe, local and minority languages have been lovingly nurtured for decades, and unique languages have some very efficiently (and profitably) regional and national brands built on them, and through these, the true respect of the people towards their local communities is promoted.<br/>
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All municipalities and counties in which Chakavian is the original autochthonous language are now given the opportunity to recognise Chakavian at the very highest level, as a parity language alongside the standard one, and it is now the turn of Croatia to launch some proper initiatives and political guidelines to first preserve the language, and then to help the Chakavians to standardise it all to some extent and effectively promote it at both the local and global level.<br/>
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Of course, this requires a lot of work and the orchestrated multi-year work of all participants in the Chakavian speaking world, but the goal is a worthy one and one which is definitely achievable (especially with the help of all the instruments and means offered by the European Community for these purposes). If it is possible to revive languages that have completely died out in Cornwall and the Isle of Man under the constant pressure of the most heavily spoken language in the world (English), or to revive the unwritten Maori language in New Zealand, then reversing the negative trend of a language that is still fluently and daily used by hundreds of thousands of people in a modern European country can’t be that hard at all. It only requires good will, diligence and, of course, love. Things that were never missing among Chakavian speakers.<br/>
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Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-67257403151986442062023-05-04T07:50:00.051-07:002023-12-07T07:33:05.408-08:00THE EXTERMINATION OF ITALIANS IN DALMATIA ISLANDS (STARTED BY THE HABSBURG)This month I want to research in detail what has happened -initially because of the Habsburg- to the Italians who lived in the Dalmatian islands in the XIX century. And also what happened -according to the historian Bortoluzzi- with the Italians in the dalmatian island of Lagosta (that was an island of the Kingdom of Italy from 1918 until -officially- 1947, the year when changed its name in the croat word "Lastovo") and in other areas of Dalmatia.<br/>
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Of course we must remember that in 1804 all Dalmatia was united to the Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy and the Italians -according to the french Marmont, ruler of Italian Dalmatia between 1805 and 1809- were nearly 1/3 of the total population while were concentrated in the main cities (where they were the majority). After the Congress of Vienna in 1814 started a small reduction of their presence in Dalmatia -now ruled by the Austrian empire- while their percentage went down to just 20% around 1848 (when started the Italian Wars of Independence). Their reduction increased furthermore after 1866 when started also their disappearance, as I am going to explain in this essay (if interested in further info, please read -with "google translate"- this nice essay written by Maria cipriano: <a href="http://www.tuttostoria.net/documenti/DALMAZIA_LA_REGIONE_LONTANA.pdf">http://www.tuttostoria.net/documenti/DALMAZIA_LA_REGIONE_LONTANA.pdf</a>) <br/>
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The following are excerpts on this research, taken from Italian books & magazines about Dalmatia, Lagosta and other nearby localities":<br/>
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<i> Coat of arms of Dalmatia as used during the Habsburg Monarchy</i><br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/CoA_of_Dalmatia_%28Habsburg_Monarchy%29.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: left; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="488" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/CoA_of_Dalmatia_%28Habsburg_Monarchy%29.png"/></a></div>
<i><b>The Habsburg genocide in Dalmatia</i></b><br/>
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(Written by Marco De Turris; taken from “L'Italia e' la mia Patria”, September 13, 2010)<br/>
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The so-called Austrian Empire (Austria-Hungary after 1866) was responsible for a great deal of persecution, abuse and violence against the Italian nation. We know how this decisively contributed to perpetuating the long state of division of Italy, the colonial possession of its vast territories under foreign rule, the condition of economic exploitation, cultural repression, political oppression and ethnic discrimination of its Italian subjects. <br/>
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However, what is less known is how the Empire planned and accomplished after 1866 a true genocide (in the sense of forced denationalization) to the detriment of the Italian residents in their possessions. An objective and truthful assessment of the Habsburg Empire, founded on the principle of the hegemony of the ethnic Austrian element, can be introduced by recalling the minutes of the decision expressed in the Imperial Council of Ministers on November 12, 1866, held under the presidency of Emperor Franz Joseph. The minutes of the meeting reads as follows:<br/>
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“<b>His Majesty has expressed the precise order that we decisively oppose the influence of the Italian element still present in some Crown lands, and to aim unsparingly and without the slightest compunction at the Germanization or Slavicization – depending on the circumstances – of the areas in question, through a suitable entrustment of posts to political magistrates and teachers, as well as through the influence of the press in South Tyrol, Dalmatia, and the Adriatic Coast.</b>”<br/>
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[See Luciano Monzali, "Italiani di Dalmazia", Florence 2004, p. 69; Angelo Filipuzzi (edited by), “La campagna del 1866 nei documenti militari austriaci: operazioni terrestri”, Padua 1966, pp. 396.]<br/>
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The Imperial decision of Franz Joseph to carry out an ethnic cleansing against the Italians in Trentino-Alto Adige, Venezia Giulia, and Dalmatia, can be found in Die Protokolle des Österreichischen Ministerrates 1848-1867. VI Abteilung: Das Ministerium Belcredi. Band 2: 8. April 1866-6. Februar 1867, Österreichischer Bundesverlag für Unterricht, Wissenschaft und Kunst (Wien 1973); the quote appears in Section VI, vol. 2, meeting of November 12, 1866, p. 297. The quotation in German appears in a section titled "Measures against the Italian element in some territories of the Crown", or rather "Maßregeln gegen das italienische Element in einigen Kronländern":<br/>
<br/>
“Se. Majestät sprach den bestimmten Befehl aus, daß auf die entschiedenste Art dem Einflusse des in einigen Kronländern noch vorhandenen italienischen Elementes entgegengetreten und durch geeignete Besetzung der Stellen von politischen, Gerichtsbeamten, Lehrern sowie durch den Einfluß der Presse in Südtirol, Dalmatien und dem Küstenlande auf die Germanisierung oder Slawisierung der betreffenden Landesteile je nach Umständen mit aller Energie und ohne alle Rücksicht hingearbeitet werde. Se. Majestät legt es allen Zentralstellen als strenge Pflicht auf, in diesem Sinne planmäßig vorzugehen.”<br/>
<br/>
This was followed by a call to all the central offices, giving them the strict duty of carrying out the order according to the will of the emperor. This government decision, made at the highest level by Emperor Franz Joseph and his council, to proceed with the Germanization and Slavicization of the regions with Italian population, Trentino, Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia, "unsparingly and without the slightest compunction", attests unequivocally to the discriminatory and oppressive nature of the Habsburg Empire against the Italian minority: remember however that this is only one example among many of the anti-Italian policy of Austria. This act of the government, directly ordered by the emperor himself, expresses a clear intention to perpetrate an anti-Italian genocide (not in the sense of physical extermination, but in the sense of eradicating national and cultural identity, that would lead precisely to the "death of a people"), which was then actually realized in Dalmatia (Austrian censuses report the reduction of the Italian ethnic group from nearly 20% to just over 2%) and undertaken in Venezia Giulia and Trentino: only the war and the Italian victory prevented the same from happening in these last two regions that happened in Dalmatia, where the Italian presence was eliminated.<br/>
<br/>
This project, consciously elaborated by the highest authorities of the Habsburg Empire and by the manifest will of Franz Joseph himself, was then carried out against the Italians in a plurality of ways. The rear measures against the Italians were carried out from 1866 until 1918 and were different according to the place, the time, and the authorities (civil or military, central or local) that promoted it.<br/>
<br/>
However, they all followed the pattern laid down by a substantial hostility of the Austrian ruling class against the Italians:<br/>
1)Mass expulsions (in the first years of the 20th century alone more than 35,000 Italians were expelled from Venezia Giulia);<br/>
2)Deportation to concentration camps (over 100,000 Italians deported during World War I);<br/>
3)Use of Slavic nationalist squads to exercise massive amounts of violence against Italians (with countless acts of violence, bombings, assaults, murders, etc. These actions were often substantially tolerated by the authorities or were not effectively suppressed);<br/>
4)Police repression;<br/>
5)Immigration of Slavs and Germans into Italian territories favored by the imperial authorities, to promote the gradual "submersion" of the native Italians;<br/>
6)Educational and cultural Germanization and Slavicization (Italian school closed, elimination of Italian place names and proper names, prohibition of Italian culture in all its forms: the question of education in Dalmatia in particular was very serious);<br/>
7)Deprivation or restriction of political rights (elections in Dalmatia saw very heavy vote rigging in favour of Slavic nationalists; <br/>
8)communes ruled by Italians were dissolved by the Austrian authorities, etc.);<br/>
9)Restriction of civil rights (dissolution of political associations, cultural associations, trade unions, people were arrested or convicted for trivial reasons, etc).<br/>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ei3GTdIk9rM/UhfPy4wBxvI/AAAAAAAAACM/jn1E3Pp4h1o/s1600/Lagosta+italiana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" qsa="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ei3GTdIk9rM/UhfPy4wBxvI/AAAAAAAAACM/jn1E3Pp4h1o/s320/Lagosta+italiana.jpg" width="350" /></a></div>
<i><b>Lagosta's Italians</i></b><br/>
<br/>
(Written by Mario Bortoluzzi, taken from the magazine “Il Borghese”, May 2004)<br/>
<br/>
Unlike most of the other Dalmatian islands which were given to Yugoslavia after World War I despite being promised to Italy in the Treaty of London, the small Dalmatian island of Lagosta, which had been occupied by Italian troops since 1918, was formally acknowledged as Italian territory by the Treaty of Rapallo, signed in 1920 between Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.<br/>
<br/>
Lagosta (now called "Lastovo") thenceforth would belong to the Kingdom of Italy for the next thirty years, or thereabouts, forming part of the Province of Zara together with the islands of Cazza, Pelagosa and Saseno.<br/>
<br/>
According to the 1921 census, the island's population counted some 1400 inhabitants, of which 208 (about 15%) were Dalmatian Italians. In the following years, several hundred other Dalmatian Italians – fleeing from the nearby Dalmatian territories which had been annexed to Yugoslavia – would settle on the island, so that by 1939 the Italian Dalmatian population had risen to 933 (38%). Many of them came from the nearby islands of Lissa, Curzola, Lesina, and from the Dalmatian city of Traù, which had been subject to Yugoslav rule since the Treaty of Rapallo.<br/>
<br/>
The Italo-Dalmatian refugees preferred to live under Italian administration, rather than face difficulties or potential persecution under the Yugoslavs. The island of Lagosta thus became their new home.<br/>
<br/>
The living standards of Lagosta improved significantly under the Kingdom of Italy. As in the rest of Italy during this period, many public works were initiated, and in 1939 the island reached its peak population with 2,458 inhabitants. A small fish farming industry was established in the village of San Pietro by fishermen from Puglia in 1941, aiding in the economic productivity of the island.<br/>
<br/>
In August 1943 the island counted nearly 3000 inhabitants – including civilians and some military personnel – and was enjoying economic prosperity despite the ongoing war. The Italians numbered some 1500 people, or about half the island's population.<br/>
<br/>
The extermination of the Italian population began on September 14, 1943, when Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslav Partisans occupied the island. The ethnic cleansing initially took the form of forced expulsion. In September 1943 about 100 Italians were expelled from Lagosta. These consisted of Italian citizens who were resident in Lagosta, but who were not born on the island.<br/>
<br/>
Between October and December 1943, nearly 200 Italians were killed or disappeared. Tito's men began by killing the local governor Tomasin. They continued the terror by murdering Don Nicola Fantela, a priest of the Diocese of Ragusa, on October 25, 1944; the Communist Partisans tied a stone around his neck and drowned him in the sea between Ragusa and Lagosta.<br/>
<br/>
Don Nicola Fantela was born on September 9, 1880 in Lagosta. After studying in Ragusa and Zara, he entered the priesthood in Zara in 1904. In September 1905 he became an assistant to the parish priest of Curzola. Later he served in Toppollo, Stagno Piccolo, Sarajevo and Sebenico. From 1930 to 1932 he was the parish priest and dean of Stagno. In 1934-1935 he was rector of San Biagio in Ragusa. After retiring as a military employee in 1935, he lived in Castelnuovo. In 1943 he happily returned to Lagosta, his native land.<br/>
<br/>
However, after only four months, on February 6, 1944, he was subject to interrogation by the Yugoslav Partisan Kommissar, during which time he was harshly tortured, disfigured and mutilated. He was transferred to the partisan boat PC-62 “Ivo” in the bay of San Michele, just north of Lagosta, where, on the night of February 7, 1944 (other sources say October 25, 1944), a stone was tied around his neck and he was was thrown into the sea.<br/>
<br/>
Aurora Corsano, a native of Lagosta, was shot to death on March 1, 1944 following a show trial by the Yugoslav Partisans. In 1944 and early 1945 the Yugoslavs conducted many such show trials and summary executions, murdering many Italians on the island and generally terrorizing the Dalmatian Italian population. Through these methods, they forced almost all of the Dalmatian Italians to completely abandon their homes by mid-1945.<br/>
<br/>
After World War II, Lagosta was annexed to Communist Yugoslavia – made official by the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947 – and its name was officially changed to "Lastovo". In the same year the government proclaimed that only Yugoslav military personnel were permitted to live on the island. The few Dalmatian Italians who still remained – about 200 in number – were forced into exile.<br/>
<br/>
<b>So, in the span of only four years (from 1943 to 1947) an entire population and ancient community was wiped out: a perfect genocide, as happened in other Dalmatian islands - like in Lissa! (if interested about Lissa, please read my <a href="https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2014/09/lissa-perfect-ethnic-cleansing-of-local.html">https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2014/09/lissa-perfect-ethnic-cleansing-of-local.html)</a></b><br/>
<br/>
Indeed, following the same fate as neighboring Lissa, the island of Lagosta became a Yugoslav militarized region immediately after the war, which led to economic stagnation and the depopulation of the island. This sealed the island's fate for the next several decades up to the present day.<br/>
<br/>
Today the island has only 792 inhabitants, almost all Croats. According to the 2011 census, the Italian community has been reduced to just five people.<br/>
<br/>
As a result of Yugoslav policy and the ethnic cleansing of the Dalmatian Italians – who comprised the productive element of the population – the island today remains one of the most impoverished and underdeveloped areas of southern Dalmatia.<br/>
<br/>
--------------------------------------------<br/>
<br/>
The following are excerpts from the B. D'Ambrosio essay on "Lagosta:a perfect ethnic cleansing":<br/>
<br/>
As early as 996 the Venetians ruled the islands of Lagosta and Lissa, and, though they retired for a time before the Ragusans, their power was effectually established in 1278. Vecia Issa in Lissa, then the chief settlement, was destroyed by Ferdinand of Naples in 1483 and by the Turks in 1571. The present city of Lissa arose shortly afterwards and was mostly populated by the local Dalmatian italians (while Lagosta was partially -66%- populated by Slavs). During the Napoleonic wars, the French held Lissa and Lagosta from 1805 until 1811, and during this period the islands prospered greatly, its population increasing from 4000 to 12,000 between 1808 and 1811 (with many Slavs settling in the islands).<br/>
<br/.
The (Lagosta) island's population, now completely Slavic, until WWII had a significant percentage of Italians. In fact, until the early 1920s the Dalmatian Italians were around 7% (families Martelletti, Sangaletti etc..) of the inhabitants. Some families emigrated to Lagosta after WWI from Lissa (now Vis), Curzola (now Korcula) and Lesina (now Hvar) because of these islands' assignment to Yugoslavia following the Treaty of Rapallo: the Italian census of 1921 counted 208 Italians in the 1,558 residents, or about 15%. But it is with the unofficial "census" of 1939 (based on the total of the 1936 official Italian census), that is more noticeable the wave of immigration: in fact, the population has grown to such an extent that it is not possible to attribute it to the simple natural balance. Indeed grew both italian and croat components, but especially the italian which rised to 933 souls (38%), while the croat reached 1525 (62%), for a total of 2458 islanders. This means that in Lagosta, when the island was part of the Italian Province of Spalato in the "Governorate of Dalmatia" (between 1941 and 1943), more than 40% of the population was Italian-speaking (even because of the transfer to the island of fishermen from Puglia in 1940/41 in the village of San Pietro, today called Uble). Percentage which exceeded the 50% of the total, if considered the Italian military allocated in the island until 1943.<br/>
<br/>
Visiting the island, you can still see traces of twenty five years of Italian administration (theoretically Lagosta was Italian for almost thirty years since November 1918, when landed in the island some sailors of the Italian Royal Navy, until February 1947 when Italy gave officially the island to Tito). After the Second World War, the Treaty of Paris of 1947 assigned the island to the former Yugoslavia (with the croatian name "Lastovo") and is now part of Croatia.<br/>
<br/>
Currently there are no Italians in the island: all survivors of the massacres made by Tito -initiated in September 1943 with the execution of Italian governor Tomasin and continued even with the drowning in the sea between Ragusa and Lagosta with a millstone around the neck of Don Nicola Fantela, canon of the Diocese of Ragusa/Lagosta in October 1944 - were forced to exile in 1947. The eradication of the Italians was started on September 14, 1943, when Tito occupied the island and immediately sent away the "regnicoli", as were called the Italians not born in Lagosta. In the months following the Tito partizans killed many Italians of the island, executing someone even with false trials in 1944 that terrorized the whole small Italian community: the Italians of Lagosta were forced by these methods to exile almost completely before summer 1945. As an example we should remember Aurora Corsano, born in Lagosta, shot 1-3-1944 in the cemetery of Lagosta, after a fake trial.<br/>
<br/>
After the end of the war the few remaining were forced to leave in 1947, when the island was declared by Tito a "militarized territory" where only the Croats could remain.<br/>
<br/>
<b>Here it is a resumen of the ethnic cleaning in Lagosta:<br/>
1) August 1943: there were nearly 1500 Italians in the island of Lagosta. They were half the population of the island<br/>
2) September 1943: In the second half of this month happened the Tito occupation of the island and the expulsion of the Italians (nearly one hundred, called "Regnicoli") not born in Lagosta.<br/>
3) October-December 1943: nearly two hundred Italians -mostly linked to fascist or Italian government organizations- were killed (someone drowned) or "disappear", so the Italians in Lagosta were reduced to nearly 1200.<br/>
4) January 1944-April 1945: nearly 1000 Italians were forced to "exile", after a continuous climate of terror was created by Tito's partizans in the island with fake trials against Italians (like the one when Aurora Corsano was put on trial with false accusations, and executed in the Lagosta cemetery in March 1944).<br/>
5) May 1945-summer 1947: the remaing 200 Italians were all forced to go away from the island because Tito declared Lagosta (from February 1947 officially called Lastovo) a "military territory" of Yugoslavia. Only Croatians were allowed to remain in the island, because of security reasons.<br/>
6) August 1947: There were no more Italians in Lagosta.</b><br/>
<br/>
In simple words: all the 1500 Italians of Lagosta "disappeared" in just 4 years, from August 1943 to August 1947. What a perfect ethnic cleansing!<br/>
<br/>
The island of Cazza during the Venetian rule was inhabited by over 200 people (most of them venetian speaking), and live there today only the family of the lighthouse keeper and a pastor. On the island of about 5 km2 there are the remains of two churches. The oldest dates from the fourth century. Cazza remained depopulated after the Second World War
<br/>
<br/>
In addition we would like to remind once again that the Italian province of Zara between the two world wars was formed with the territory of Zara and also with the island of Lagosta. So we wonder when we will have in Lagosta something similar to what we have in Zara (now Zadar) as an "Italian organization" heir and/or result of that province? Perhaps a small branch of the Italian community of Zara (or even of Lesina) could be created in Lagosta?<br/>
<br/>
On the other hand there are many in Lagosta who have kinship (far away, but sometimes even close) with the 40% of the population of the island that was Italian in 1940, and someone -may be because of tourism- still speaks a little bit of "veneto da mar" (venetian dialect).... Furthermore a friend of mine, who has visited the island five years ago, argued that some of the actual inhabitants of Lagosta (now called Lastovo) would like to have in the island something like the Italian kindergarten "Pinocchio" of Zara, but bilingual Italian-Croatian (or Croatian but with courses in Italian). We must remember that in 1941 arose a village in Lagosta (now called Uble), in which many Italian fishermen had moved from Puglia: they created a small industry of fish conservation (destroyed later by Tito), but they even were making the Italian the most spoken language of the island.<br/>
<br/>
Indeed Lagosta in summer of 1943 enjoyed a certain economic well-being and had almost 3000 people (about half Italian speaking), while from 1945 in the hands of Tito's Yugoslavia the island has been depopulated and impoverished<br/>
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<i>Dalmatia in the XIV century (in pink color the territories of the Republic of Venice)</i><br/>
<br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/Adri%C3%A1ticoVenecianoSigloXV.svg/1280px-Adri%C3%A1ticoVenecianoSigloXV.svg.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" width="700" data-original-height="228" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/Adri%C3%A1ticoVenecianoSigloXV.svg/1280px-Adri%C3%A1ticoVenecianoSigloXV.svg.png"/></a></div><br/>
<br/>
<i><b>The population of Dalmatia in the XII/XIII centuries</i></b><br/>
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(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)<br/>
<br/>
In his descriptions Idrisi makes 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.<br/>
<br/>
<b>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.
<br/>
<br/>
According to Idrisi, this was the ethnic composition of Dalmatia in the 12th century:<br/>
<br/>
Segna - Populated by Slavs<br/>
Castelmuschio (Veglia) - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Arbe - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Zatton - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Zara - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Zaravecchia - Populated by Dalmatians and Slavs<br/>
Traù Vecchia - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Traù - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Spalato - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Lissa - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Stagno - Populated by Slavs<br/>
Ragusa - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Antivari - Populated by Slavs<br/>
Cattaro - Populated by Dalmatians<br/>
Dulcigno - Populated by Latins (Dalmatians)</b><br/><br/>
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.”<br/>
<br/>
Also in the 13th century the chronicler Raymond of Aguilers, in his "Historia Francorum", described Dalmatia in the same way. He makes a distinction between the civilized Latins who inhabit the cities and urban centres of the Dalmatian coast and speak a Latin language, and on the other hand the rural Slavs who live in the countryside, whom he describes as “primitive people, barbaric robbers, ignorant of God” (“rudes, latrones, aggrestes hominem qui deum ignorabant”).<br/>
<br/>
These testimonies make clear that the Dalmatian coast in the 12th and 13th centuries was not Slavic, but overwhelmingly Latin and belonged to Latin civilization. The cities of Zara, Spalato, Traù, Ragusa, Cattaro and Arbe, among others, were Latin cities whose population spoke Latin and later Italian. These Latin cities would remain Italian-speaking until the modern period.<br/>
<br/>
ADDENDUM: further info can be found in the books of "RIVISTA MILITARE" (https://issuu.com/rivista.militare1)
Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-84354553104631964512023-04-04T10:21:00.026-07:002023-04-21T07:26:48.464-07:00 ITALIAN ARMED FORCES IN CHINA (1898-1943)During its short colonial history, Italy occupied several African territories such as Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia and Libya: rather vast and interesting dominions. It is lesser known, on the contrary, the story of another small and far colony in China: Tientsin (a town ca. 200 km south of Beijing) and the so-called commercial quarters of Shanghai and Beijing (under the direct sovereignty of Rome as from 1901, after the failed Boxers' revolt), two small Italian enclaves inside the Chinese state, which hosted Italians as well as larger English, French, Russian, German and Japanese territories since the end of XIX century. Additionally, there were also a few forts and commercial places under Italian control.<br/>
<br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Italian_concessions_and_forts_in_China.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="624" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Italian_concessions_and_forts_in_China.jpg"/></a></div>
<i>Map showing the Italian concessions & forts in China. Additionally there were (but together with other colonial powers): Taku (fort with Great Britain) and Beihai (port with only commerce rights). However Italy had full colonial controls only in the Tientsin concession</i><br/>
<br/>
<b>Seven locations & one treaty port</b><br/>
<br/>
Italy in the first half of the 20th century has had concessions in Peking, Tientsin, Shanghai, Amoy and Hankow with two forts (Shan Hai Kuan and TaKu). However it is noteworhy to pinpoint that only in Tientsin, Peking and Shan Hai kuan, the italian government was in control (with colonial property rights). In the other locations Italy was united (or affiliated) with other colonial powers - like with Great Britain in the Taku forts.
There was even the Treaty Port in Beihai (southern China), that was allowed to have a small area for Italian commerce.<br/>
<br/>
<b>History</b><br/>
<br/>
It all started with the "Boxer rebellion" and consequent war of the Boxers & China against the "eight powers"(Great Britain, France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, the United States and Japan).<br/>
<br/>
<i>
THE BOXERS REBELLION:<br/>
On 20.4.1900, the so-called "war of the Boxers" began (the members of a secret society with a xenophobic orientation were so called). In Pao-Ti-Fung, in fact, a first bloody battle developed between gangs of insurgents and a community of missionaries and Chinese converts to Christianity (as such, considered bearers of Western culture). The clashes spread in a very short time and immediately the main powers sent their ships to Taku (port near Tien-Tsin) to land units of sailors. The command of the operations was assumed by the British Admiral Seymour. At that time only Elba and Calabria were found in Italy for Italy; both landed a group of 40 sailors (the former under the command of T.V. Paolini and the latter under the command of T.V. Sirianni) who together with other allied contingents headed, respectively, for Peking and Tien-Tsin to protect the existing Legations. After these moves the Allied strength at Peking reached 428 men and at Tien-Tsin 402 men. It was therefore a small force that could be reinforced with another 950 men or so who could be unloaded from ships already existing on site (without affecting their operational efficiency); of these, about 20 men could still be taken by Italian ships. Shortly after the situation worsened and Adm. Seymour then decided to land the rest of the available men as well; from the ship Elba therefore landed another 20 sailors who, under the command of the S.T.V. Carlotto, were sent to Tien-Tsin. In the meantime, the ships of the great powers continued to arrive at Taku with a relative influx of new contingents. Thus, on 10.6.1900, Adm. Seymour decided to resign marching towards Beijing in command of a column of 1782 men which also included 20 Italians. A few days later (June 17), an allied force made up of 5 gunboats of Russian, German and French nationality (on which a group of 24 Italian sailors under the command of the S.T.V. Tanca had also been embarked) instead conquered the forts of Taku in order to ensure the free connection between allied ships and troops on land. In response to the loss of Taku's forts, the Boxers, who already occupied the walled city of the Chinese quarter of Tien-Tsin, attacked the Legations located on the European side of the city and it was therefore in this phase that the death of S.T.V. Carlotto (this was the first of our fallen in the Boxer War; later, for various causes, another 64 Italian soldiers died). Thus we arrived at 26 June when Adm. Seymour, unable to reach Beijing due to the great numerical superiority of the insurgents and the continuous clashes with the latter (in which five of our sailors died), made his return to Tien-Tsin (where in the meantime the city had also fallen into the hands of the allies Chinese wall). At the same time, the news arriving from Beijing was increasingly dramatic. On the allied side (in the meantime reinforced by the arrival of new contingents of infantry) it was therefore decided to intervene by sending an expeditionary corps from Tien-Tsin. To this end, a contingent of land and sea troops was set up, armed with 70 cannons, divided into two columns: one by Japanese, English and Americans (about 12,700 men) who had to follow the right side of the Pei-ho river and the other by Russians, French, Germans and Italians (about 5,000 men, among which the Italians were 35) who had to follow the left side of the river. These men set out on August 4th. Meanwhile in Beijing the Legation Quarter had been subjected to a massive siege with continuous bombings by the Chinese; on June 21st the Belgian and Austrian legations went up in flames and on the 22nd it was also the turn of the Italian one. The fighting between a few defenders of various nationalities and the hordes of insurgents who launched themselves in waves to attack the defense lines of the Legation quarter succeeded each other more and more bloody throughout the month of July and in the first two weeks of August until, on 14 August , the contingent departed from Tien-Tsin arrived at contact with the enemy by subjecting him to shelling. It was the column made up of Japanese, English and Americans as the one made up of Russians, Germans, French and Italians had been forced to return to Tien-Tsin after only two days of march being essentially made up of sailors with little training in the long run marches; this second column was in any case immediately replaced by another made up of infantry elements (which in any case also included the Italian sailors under the command of Ten. Sirianni) which arrived in Beijing when the liberation was now complete. In a few hours the troops allies breached the city walls arriving near the imperial palace and forcing the Empress to flee (15.8.1900); thus ended the siege of Beijing, which lasted 55 days. In that famous event, the losses of the allies were 63 dead, of which 13 were Italians.However, the conquest of Beijing was now a fait accompli and therefore the use of the new arrivals, not only Italians but also of other nationalities), was destined for other areas that had until then remained at the mercy of the insurgents, from where news of massacres of missionaries and local Christians. Although often in uncoordinated formations, the various contingents began a series of operations to restore order and normality in places still marked by turbulence. The main operations in which the Italian units were engaged were: - from 9 to 12 September : an expedition to Tu-Liu. From this location, it was feared that a Boxer attack on Tien-Tsin might be launched. Of our expeditionary corps, 350 bersaglieri and 600 men of infantry took part. - From 19 to 21 September: the occupation of the forts of Pei-Tang. Around 1,000 Italians took part together with the allies. - From 29 September to 2 October: occupation of the forts of Chan-ai-Kouan. For Italy, 330 Bersaglieri and 140 sailors.-October 12 to 19: occupation of Pao-ting-fu. The operation was conducted by forming two columns of international troops: the one coming from Tien-Tsin included 358 Italians while the one leaving Beijing included 516 Italians.-3/ November 4: Cu-nan-shien is occupied. The action was conducted under the command of Col. Garioni and around 170 Italians took part. - From 12 to 26 November: expedition to Kalgan. 599 Italians took part in the occupation of the city and other neighboring localities. Thus we arrived in the middle of winter, with temperatures that often reached 10 degrees below zero. Nonetheless, our troops took part in numerous expeditions whose purpose was to quell in the bud the outbreaks of tension or to punish small armed bands operating in the area. The main actions of this kind were carried out at Er-lan-ciuan; Tung-Hi; Ma-fang-tshwange Ping-Ku-shien. After these operations the situation moved towards normality. The peace definitive text was signed in Peking on 09.07.1901. The Boxer War was therefore officially over.
</i><br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Troops_of_the_Eight-Nation_Alliance_%28except_Russia%29_that_fought_against_the_Boxer_Rebellion_in_China%2C_1900._From_the_left_Britain%2C_United_States%2C_Australia%2C_India%2C_Germany%2C_France%2C_Austria-Hungary%2C_Italy%2C_Japan._%2849652330563%29.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="491" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Troops_of_the_Eight-Nation_Alliance_%28except_Russia%29_that_fought_against_the_Boxer_Rebellion_in_China%2C_1900._From_the_left_Britain%2C_United_States%2C_Australia%2C_India%2C_Germany%2C_France%2C_Austria-Hungary%2C_Italy%2C_Japan._%2849652330563%29.jpg"/></a></div>
<i>Photo of some soldiers of the "Eight powers" (from left: Britain, United States, Australia, India, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Japan. Australia and India were under Britain control), but without Russia</i><br/>
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The history and the vicissitudes of those eastern settlements, which remained under the Italian dominion for nearly half a century, involved not only the diplomatic representatives and the few Italian colonists but also the forces of the Army and the Navy. The larger part of about Italian 20,000 soldiers and officers who fought in the victorious campaign (June-August 1900) against the Boxers' rebel Chinese nationalists troops - allied to the United States, Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia and Japan - were recalled from Beijing after the end of the conflict. One year later, the signing of the peace treaty between Empress Tsu Hsi and the colonial powers (7th September 1901) made Italy the right to occupy a portion (nearly one square kilometre wide) of Tientsin and two commercial quarters in Beijing and Shanghai (it was temporarily enlarged in 1927 with the addition of the former Austro-Hungarian concession)<br/>
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The Savoy government decided to implement the growth of missions, communities and commercial companies in those new settlements by sending diplomatic attachés and one special military force in charge of the protection of those tricolour territories. In 1915, when Italy entered the war alongside the Central Powers, the colony of Tientsin counted about 10,000 inhabitants (Chinese) and 350 to 400 Italians, most of whom were traders. At that time the defence of the settlement was entrusted to only ca. 200 soldiers and officers (mostly Bersaglieri) supported by a special battalion (composed by Austro-Hungarian POWs of Italian origin captured in Galizien by the Imperial Russian troops and then released and transferred by train to Far East to reinforce the Italian garrison in China) and by some fifty Chinese militiamen. A few years later, when the war ended, the government of Rome finally decided to strengthen the garrison with a well-armed and trained intervention force. On 5th March 1925 the Battaglione Italiano in Cina was ready to be shipped to China. It was a very skilled unit, mostly composed of soldiers of the elite Reggimento San Marco. The battalion was quartered in the new barracks named Ermanno Carlotto and consisted of three companies of 100 men each: the San Marco Company, the Libia Company and the San Giorgio Company<br/>
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On 18th April 1928, the San Marco Company was inspected by the former Chinese emperor Pu-Yi during his visit in the Italian settlement. At the beginning of 30s, the Italian colony began to steady, also thanks to the good diplomatic relationship set between Rome and Beijing and also to the improvement of the trading and technical exchange set up between the two countries (the Chinese government even entitled two Italians, Gibello Socco and Evaristo Caretti, respectively for the direction of the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Post). Tientsin as well as the Italian quarters of Shanghai and Beijing had quite a serene period during the first half of 1930s, characterised by a fairly good commercial town planning and entrepreneurial growth. With the arrival of Mussolini's son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano appointed secretary at the Beijing's legation and then minister plenipotentiary in Shanghai this process further improved, together with the relationship between Rome and the new Chinese leader Chiang Kai Shek. In particular, Ciano became close friend with a leading exponent of the Chinese nationalist's military elite, especially with Marshall Chang Hsueh Luang a true admirer of the Mussolini's fascist regime. In 1932, soon after the Mukden's accident (the first act of Japan's clear hostility against China) to prove once more the friendship towards Italy Chiang Kai Shek choose Ciano as a go-between with the Japanese representative. In 1932 - under Ciano's pressures for creating an even stronger economic and military alliance between China and Italy the Italian shipping company Lloyd Triestino opened a new service linking Italy to Shanghai by scheduling on that route two modern transatlantic vessels, the Conte Biancamano and the Conte Rosso (which immediately settled a speed world record of only 23 days during the first voyage). With this new service, supported by those ones of other companies employed in the trade of various goods and products, the economic exchange between Italy and China reached such good levels to alert Great Britain and France<br/>
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It was in that period that Italy started to provide Beijing with military aircraft. After he presented Chiang Kai Shek with a three-engined Savoia Marchetti, Mussolini sent to China a huge delegation of pilots, engineers, technicians and trainers to convince the Nanking's government and the young Chinese aviation's representatives to purchase Italian military airplanes and to accept the survey for the creation of factories to build on purpose licensed models offered by Rome. The Italian aeronautical delegation , commanded by General Roberto Lordi and composed by renown aces and test pilots such as Valentino Cus and Mario Bernardi (become famous thanks to his speed record of 700 km/h set by his special Macchi hydroplane) did not succeed in its goal. The Chinese government decided in fact to purchase only a small number of Fiat CR32 and some bomber-reconnoitres Caproni Ca101, Ca111 and Ca133. On 6th November 1937 when Italy joined the Anticomintern Pact - the relationship between the two countries suddenly changed. Mussolini, by signing that agreement, got close to Tokyo, opening a series of good exchanges with powerful Japan, which in the meantime had become the worst enemy of weak Nationalist China. It goes without saying that Chiang Kai Shek did not like at all this decision and broke off any relationship with Rome.<br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/www.me-dia-re.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/rivolta-dei-boxer.jpg?fit=622%2C868&ssl=1" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="573" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.me-dia-re.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/rivolta-dei-boxer.jpg?fit=622%2C868&ssl=1"/></a></div>
<i>Magazine image of the Italian troops ("Bersaglieri") conquering a fort in China in 1900</i><br/>
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The new situation caused the immediate isolation to the Italian colony of Tientsin and the quarters of Shanghai and Beijing, which felt immediately hostility from all around. The military responsible of the colony and the Partito Nazionale Fascista's representatives (at that time in China the party's secretary was Carlo Fumagalli) realised soon the dangerous situation, considering the insufficient Italian forces set to defend the garrison. They immediately demand from Rome for an urgent supply of men and warships. This request even if it was dealt with a small quantity was fulfilled in quite a short time, but unfortunately not before the war between China and Japan broke out. Some months before, in July 1937 - when the first fights had started between Japanese and Chinese troops - Commander Bacigalupi of the gunboat Lepanto had got in charge of the first Italian defence detachment, composed by part of the Ermanno Carlotto's and Lepanto's crews. The Tientsin based Battaglione Italiano in Cina joined soon to these forces. A few months later when the well-trained and combat hardened Japanese armies had spread out the Chinese territory - the Italian Comando Supremo decided to send more forces (some hundreds of soldiers) and the light cruiser Raimondo Montecuccoli to Tientsin. This cruiser sailed from Napoli on August 27th and arrived to Shanghai on September 15th, just to coincide with the first Japanese air bombings on the town. By then, at least what with 1,200 Army's and Navy's soldiers were in China to defend the safety and the interests of its 500 to 600 resident compatriots.<br/>
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On the whole, in 1937, in Tientsin and Shanghai there were stationed 764 men with officers and soldiers of Battaglione Granatieri di Sardegna arrived by ships from Massaua (Eritrea). Part of these effectives supported the English (2,500 men) and the American (1,400 men) contingents who were already in Beijing and particularly in Shanghai to protect the Anglo-Saxon citizens (in Shanghai there were 308 American civilians, 971 English, 199 Germans, 654 Japanese, 182 Russians and 42 Italians). On September 27th and October 24th, some Japanese bombers Mitsubishi attacked the Italian light cruiser Montecuccoli during a raid against Shanghai. During these two missions was the Italian vessel hit by splinters and had one dead and several injured (the accident compromised seriously the diplomatic relationship between Rome and Tokyo).<br/>
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<i>Foreign Troops (1933) in Shanghai : British Forces: 2,160; French Forces: 1,982; Japanese Forces: 1,934; U.S. Forces: 1,758; Italian Forces: 108 (<a href="https://www.worldstatesmen.org/China_Foreign_colonies.html">https://www.worldstatesmen.org/China_Foreign_colonies.html</a>)</i><br/>
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On August 6th 1937, the Italian Comando Supremo decided to move 30 soldiers stationed in Shanghai and Hankow to protect the local Italian consulate. This small group was transferred to its destination from the Montecuccoli, which definitely left China for Italy on August 29th. On December 23rd the cruiser was replaced by its sister vessel, the light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni, which stood in defense of the Italian garrisons in China until 5th September 1939, when it was called back to Italy due to the Second Conflict's outbreak. In the same year, part of the contingent (composed also by effectives of Air Force, Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza (i.e. Revenue Guard Corps)) was repatriated, leaving to the garrison part of the weaponry and two small naval units (the gunboats Lepanto and Carlotto in Shanghai and Tientsin).<br/>
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After the Italian declaration of war (10th June 1940), the Navy's Comando Supremo ordered to some Massaua-based units to sail to Far East. This decision was made due well-grounded fear that in case of fall of the East Africa Empire, the English could have had the chance to get hold of the Italian ships. Thus, in February 1941 (less than two months before the British capture of the Massaua's base) the colonial ship Eritrea (armed with four 120 mm, two 40 mm guns and two 13.2 mm machine guns) and two armed vessels (Ramb1 and Ramb2: two modern and fast banana-carriers converted into auxiliary cruisers by the equipment of four 120 mm guns and some anti-aircraft 13.2 mm machine guns) sailed to Kobe (Japan) and, in alternative, the ports of Shanghai and Tientsin. While the Eritrea and the Ramb2 reached their destination, avoiding the patrolling of the Royal Navy, the Ramb1 met off the Maldives Islands with the New Zealand light cruiser Leander, by which it was sunk.<br/>
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Between March 1941 and September 1943 the Italian concession of Tientsin and the consulates of Shanghai, Hankow and Beijing lived a quite peaceful period, in spite of the not optimal relationships with the Japanese occupation military Command. This last one, in fact, did not like the presence of Europeans - even if Japanese allieds like the Italians - in the government of towns or even quarters located in their zone of influence. Notwithstanding this, the Italian military attaches and diplomats in China and Japan tried to lower as much as possible the reasons of friction, even when Tokyo forbade to Eritrea and Ramb2 to carry out offensive cruises against the English fleet in the Pacific Ocean (the Japanese, at least until 7th December 1941 - date of the unexpected attack to Pearl Harbor - did their utmost in order to avoid whichever embarrassing situation with USA and Great Britain). Only after Japan's official entering in war, Eritrea was allowed to lend support to the Italian oceanic submarines reaching Penang and Singapore from the far base of Bordeaux, loaded with strategic products and goods destined to the Japanese industry of war. Concerning the many Italian cargo ships which were within Chinese and Japanese water when Italy entered the war allied to Germany against Great Britain and France, most of them (such as the large steamer Conte Verde) remained unemployed or had to perform voyages for the Japanese, while some others tried to reach the French coast (Bordeaux), by breaking the British blockage. Some of these latter succeeded in their goal, carrying to Europe quite good quantities of strategic cargoes (rubber, quinine, tin).<br/>
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Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-44924397847912953172023-03-03T07:47:00.117-08:002023-04-28T07:40:20.409-07:00ADDIS ABEBA ITALIANA (1936-1941)ITALIAN ADDIS ABEBA (1936-1941)<br/>
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The following is an essay about Addis Abeba (the capital of Ethiopia) when was under Italian rule from 1936 until 1941. The essay was written by Bruno D'Ambrosio of the University of Genova (Universita' Statale di Genova - Italia):<br/>
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<b><i>ADDIS ABEBA ITALIANA</i></b><br/>
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<i>Map of Italian Plan for Addis Abeba marketplace site: (1) Italian City; (2) Natives' City. Original in "Gli Annali Dell'Africa Italiana". Anno II -Numero 4 -1939 -XVIII</i> <br/>
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On 5 May 1936, Italian troops occupied Addis Ababa (usually called Addis Abeba) during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, making it the capital of "Italian East Africa". Addis Ababa was governed by the Italian Governors of Addis Abeba from 1936 to 1941 (<a href="http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Ethiopia.html#Italian-East-Africa%29">https://www.worldstatesmen.org/Ethiopia.html#Italian-East-Africa</a>). In those five years the Italian government made many improvements to the city, from the construction of Hospitals and roads to the creation of stadiums like the Addis Abeba stadium (<a href="http://www.artefascista.it/adis_abeba__fascismo__architettur.htm">www.artefascista.it/adis_abeba__fascismo__architettur.htm</a>).<br/>
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Indeed in less than three years (1938/1940) -after the arrival of the Viceroy Amedeo D'Aosta and the first successes against the Ethiopian guerrilla (called "arbegnocs") with the complete "pacification" of the region (called "Scioa" and sometimes "Shewa") around Addis Abeba- there was in the city & surroundings:<br/>
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1) a rapid increase in public works, 2 the construction of an extensive road network with six thousand kilometers of paved roads, 3) a visible improvement of agriculture and veterinary services, 4) the construction of clinics and (previously non-existent) health care places located every thirty kilometers, 5) an appreciable spread of education and various forms of assistance and 6) a generalized development of Italian entrepreneurship and work.<br/>
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<i>The first radio broadcasts in Addis Abeba & Ethiopia were created in 1937, when many radio-programs were done in Italian language for the Italian colonists</i><br/>
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The Ansaldo Corporation of Italy in 1935 created a one-kilowatt station in the outskirts of Addis Abeba, inaugurated with a speech of emperor Selassie. The Italians took over the station in early 1936 and planned to develop it into a communications center for their new empire, joining those already established in Somalia and in Asmara (Radio Marina). A more powerful radio station of seven kilowatts was started by the Italians in 1937 (broadcasting the first radio-programs of Ethiopia, as can be seen in the above photo).
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The Bank of Italy issued the loan "City of Addis Ababa" for 200 million lire, and in the spring of 1940 the city appeared to be a huge construction site with big investments done by the italian government. When Italy entered the war in 1940, the attack on British Somalia in the summer of 1940 and the British counter-offensive in early 1941 blocked all the works of Addis Ababa.<br/>
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The news of the construction of the new capital disappeared from the Italian press after the end of WW2, as nearly all the traces of the Italian occupation were later canceled from the current city.<br/>
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<i>Aerial view of the Addis Abeba center in the urban masterplan of 1939 Italian Ethiopia</i><br/>
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Mussolini promoted the development of Addis Abeba: he spent 53 billion current lire for the war and civilian building projects in Ethiopia. This remarkable sum (no other colonial power had spent so much money on the colonies, and in such a short time) reached over 10 % of Italy's GNP in 1936, the year of greatest expenditure.<br/>
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<blockquote><i>Total State expenditure for civilian works in Italian East Africa between 1937 and 1941 amounted to about 10 billion current lire, of which over 8 were spent on roads and about 2 for other building works.
The road building plan, directly conceived by Mussolini, met with several of the regime’s aims: a political aim, because the new roads would represent, vis-à-vis the rest of the world, the unmistakable sign of fascism’s new imperial civilisation; a military aim, because roads would open up the whole of the Ethiopian territory to the Italian army; moreover, road-building would also have great social relevance, by facilitating the migration and settlement of Italian colonists; finally, roads would also be economically important, because they would help develop a wider market for both Italian and local wares, and would involve thousands of building and transport firms in the actual construction works, as well as about 200 000 Italian and 100 000 African workers.G. Podesta'</i></blockquote><br/>
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It is noteworthy to pinpoint that in 1940 there was a satisfactory management -by the Italian government- of relations with different religious cults and that in Addis Abeba (and Ethiopia) there was the construction of churches and mosques without problems.<br/>
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The Italians favored the development of catholicism in Addis Abeba, also between the ethiopian natives. They enlarged and improved the Cathedral of Addis Abeba.<br/>
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<b>BRIEF HISTORY</b>br/>
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<i>Map showing the Italian conquest of Addis Abeba and Ethiopia in 1935-1936</i><br/>
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The city of Addis Abeba was conquered by Italian troops in 1936 and soon was declared the capital of the new Italian empire.<br/>
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Addis Abeba grew from 45,000 inhabitants in spring 1936 (when the Italians won the Italo-Ethiopian war) to nearly 150,000 in spring 1941, when the Italians were defeated and the Allies (with emperor Selassie) returned to the city.<br/>
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The city, that looked in 1935 like a medieval town (also because of thousands of slaves living in dire conditions) in just five years was transformed in a modern capital where more than 40,000 Italians lived in a city with a typical XX century society, free of slavery and full of developments & improvements.<br/>
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Indeed during Italian rule, the Italians abolished slavery in all Ethiopia, issuing two laws in October 1935 and in April 1936 by which they declared to have freed 420,000 people. After Italian defeat in Second World War, Emperor Haile Selassie, who returned to power, abandoned his previous ideas about a slow and gradual abolition of slavery in favor of one that mirrored Italy’s civilized abrogation (<a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2012/02/abolition-of-slavery-in-ethiopia">abolition-of-slavery-in-ethiopia</a>)<br/>
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<i>Italian propaganda postcard showing the freedom from slavery of Ethiopians by the Italian troops of the "Divisione Sabauda" in 1935</i><br/>
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So, the first thing the Italians did in the just conquered city was to proclaim the end of slavery and to make free nearly 10,000 slaves in the Scioa region.<br/>
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The british Lady Kathleen Simon of the "Anti-Slavery Protection Society" was one of the first to appreciate this action and the definitive end of slavery in Ethiopia.<br/>
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Indeed in Addis Ababa the situation was full of expectatives after the Mussolini proclamation of the "Italian Empire" in May 9, 1936.
The capital of the empire was due to become, in Mussolini’s opinion, the most beautiful and futuristic city in Africa, the beacon of the new fascist civilization. The preparation of the new town planning scheme was very long and problematic, involving top professional people like Giò Ponti, Enrico Del Debbio, Giuseppe Vaccaro and even Le Corbusier, who personally asked Mussolini to be allowed to design the plan for the new city (<a href="https://failedarchitecture.com/le-corbusiers-visions-for-fascist-addis-ababa/">Le-corbusiers-visions-for-fascist-addis-ababa/</a>).<br/>
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However the city in May 1936 had no major infrastructures: there was no electricity in many areas, there were no sewers at all, only a few roads were asphalted and the city lacked a road network connecting with other Ethiopian urban centers. But there was an aqueduct in operation, which supplied only some areas, while fast transport was provided only by the Gibuti-Addis Ababa railway line, built by the French and inaugurated in 1917. The Italians solved all these infrastructure problems in a few years of hard work!<br/>
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The famous "Villa Italia" in the outskirts of the city was improved in late 1936, as a residence of the main Italian authorities ( <a href="https://baldi.diplomacy.edu/diplo/texts/Del_Papa_VillaItalia.pdf">https://baldi.diplomacy.edu/diplo/texts/Del_Papa_VillaItalia.pdf</a>).<br/>
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In autumn 1937, the result of the initial works managed by the Governorate of Addis Ababa in a year and a half of activity was, all in all, positive: the repaving of the main roads, the restoration of existing health facilities, the expansion of some hotels and the restructuring of the natives market. Moreover six buildings of the I.N.C.I.S ( housing institution for government employees) were built. And also the "Casa del Fascio", both inaugurated on 28 October; while the Regulatory Plan Office had expropriated property in the industrial zone and some areas had been given in concession to institutions and private individuals.<br/>
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<i>Video of initial Italian constructions in 1936 Addis Abeba: </i><br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe class="BLOG_video_class" allowfullscreen="" youtube-src-id="Vl62UoJbr_s" width="600" height="498" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vl62UoJbr_s"></iframe></div><br/><br/>
However work started on a full scale only in 1939. The fourth and last definitive Addis Abeba urban plan -approved by Mussolini- provided for a clear separation between the European and indigenous areas. This would have meant transferring the African population and building tens of thousands of new homes.<br/>
<br/>
Indeed the definitive Urban Plan for Addis Abeba was approved by Mussolini in late 1938 (with the "green" separation of the native southern quarters from the Italian northern quarters), but was never fully created, because of WW2.<br/>
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After the conquest of the city, some Ethiopians started a guerrilla war with terrorism in all Ethiopia and many italian and eritrean soldiers were attacked and sometimes murdered even in Addis Abeba. In February 1937 -after nearly 200 Italians and Eritreans (including women) have been attacked & murdered by the "arbergnocs" in the city's area- happened the attempted assassination of Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, Marquis of Negele, Viceroy of Italian East Africa. As a consequence the Italians did a massacre of suspected Ethiopians and since then the city was fully "pacified" until the british conquest in 1941. <br/>
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Because of the complete lack of terrorism in Addis Abeba, many Italian colonists settled in the city after 1937 and the city flourished in an astonishing way: Italian settlers had increased from a few thousands in early 1937 (with 150 families) to over 40,000 in March 1940 (33,059 men, 6,998 women and about 4,000 families) whilst the African population had practically doubled and was estimated at about 100,000 people.<br/>
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When started WW2 Addis Abeba was a capital with nearly 150000 inhabitants and looked more like a busy european city with a booming development than a lazy african colonial city.<br/>
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Furthermore ut is noteworthy to pinpoint that the "Health Corps" of Italian Africa was created only in 1936, and it was made up of about 200 doctors and health inspectors, by organising a special public competition which took place between 1937 and 1938. Three centres were gradually built in Addis Ababa, Asmara and Mogadishu, specialised in the cure of malaria, as well as numerous hospitals and clinics. Following direct orders by Mussolini, since 1936 special attention was naturally given to the prevention and cure of venereal diseases (since the authorities could not prevent contact between Italian men and African women), by rounding up and imposing forced hospitalisation on thousand of native women in special “syphilis homes”.<br/>
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As a consequence towards the end of 1938 the incidence of sexual diseases had dropped: the percentage of Italian soldiers suffering from venereal diseases was about 5 % compared to 10 % in 1937, whilst that of civilians, which was much lower, had decreased from 1.4 to 0.9 %. An improvement was also registered among indigenous military personnel, from 3.7 % to 2 %.
These data of course reinforced Mussolini’s will to increase the number of whole families emigrating from Italy to AOI. A remarkable effort was made to improve healthcare: beside the doctors belonging to the Italian Africa Health Corps, flanked by 450 military doctors, there were about 500 civilian doctors (232 specialists, among whom 30 paediatricians, and 262 general practicioners). Special maternity wards were built in the hospitals situated in the main locations.<br/>
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The new Italian hospital in Addis Ababa had a delivery room and a pediatric clinic for Italians, with a capacity of over 100 beds in its various sections: expectant mothers, postpartum mothers, babies’ room, gynaecological ward, infectious diseases, visitors’ room, etc. The children’s hospital was subdivided into separate wards for babies and older children, for infectious, gastro-intestinal or pulmonary diseases, etc. Moreover, a university-type faculty was founded in early 1940 in Asmara to train nurses and the same was planned for Addis Abeba.<br/>
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In Addis Ababa the number of new-born Italian babies was continually growing, rising from 50 in 1937 to 570 in 1939 and the number of weddings being celebrated shot up too, despite the dramatic housing shortage. Italians lived in all possible ways: many continued to live in temporary shelters (tents, huts and prefabricated houses), whilst a lot of families used indigenous homes that had been expropriated or rented. <br/>
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Mussolini found this situation intolerable, and he constantly urged the Italian East Africa’s government to ensure a more vigorous policy of racial separation (on his orders the African market had been forbidden to Europeans, but the measure was later withdrawn, because indigenous trade was indispensable for the provision of food by whites). <br/>
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As Amedeo d’Aosta (the new Viceroy of AOI since 1938) once remarked, the solution of the problem of racial prestige was incompatible with the housing situation: firstly, there was not enough money to build houses for Italians or tukuls in the new indigenous town, then there were huge difficulties in sourcing water and building materials; that is why most Ethiopians, after cashing in their expropriation indemnity, went back to the old quarters.<br/>
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<i>The 1938 arrival to Addis Abeba of Viceroy Amedeo D'Aosta</i><br/>
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To confront the situation, given that, as the Viceroy Amedeo repeated, it was impossible to separate the two races “by evicting one hundred thousand natives”, and whilst waiting for the implementation of a low-cost building programme for the colonists, it was necessary to stop new family units emigrating to Italian East Africa.<br/>
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To house the families of AOI government employees, who had been forced by Mussolini to take their wives and children to Africa, the national housing body for civil servants (INCIS - "Istituto Nazionale Case degli Impiegati dello Stato") financed the construction of 42 buildings with 119 flats, largely insufficient to satisfy all requests. Private individuals did not have any incentives to invest in residential building save for exceptional cases. Notwithstanding the “winds of war”, only in July 1939 a law was emanated which authorised banks operating in AOI to grant loans and mortgages to institutions, societies or private citizens who wished to build civilian houses (including cheap homes), and the planning schemes of the most important towns were completed only on the eve of WWII.<br/>
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The war definitely put an end to all works in progress, and today there are just a few traces of the five years of Italian occupation .<br/>
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But if the new imperial cities had trouble in taking shape, social life in Addis Ababa and Asmara was pulsating just like that of any other European town. At the heart of the city were the markets: in the Ethiopia capital in 1939 over 75,000 heads of cattle had been slaughtered and thousands of tons of foodstuffs had been sold. Dozens of shops and even department stores were opened in the Scioa cities. Leisure activities also boomed: in Addis Ababa four cinemas had been built for Europeans and one for Africans.<br/>
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New dancehalls, restaurants and bars were being opened everywhere. The working men’s clubs and numerous sports and recreational societies, supported by local government and by the PNF, organised the colonists’ free time. In the Scioa governorate, near the strategic hubs where companies and the army had located their logistic bases, new urban agglomerates rose from scratch, with plenty of restaurants and clubs.<br/>
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The Italians were the first to promote the football in Ethiopia, after 1937. No overall Ethiopian championship was played in 1938 and 1939, but there were regional leagues in the provinces of Amhara (capital Gondar), Harar (capital Harar), Scioa (capital Addis Abeba) and Galla e Sidama (capital Jimma). <br/>
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In the Scioa governorate the team participants were made of amateur Italian players -playing mostly in the newly created "Campo Sportivo "Littorio" (video of Littorio's inauguration: http://senato.archivioluce.it/senato-luce/scheda/video/IL5000027374/2/Impero-Italiano-Addis-Abeba.html ), the first football stadium of Addis Abeba. Successively it was enlarged in 1940 (with tribune and athletic lanes). These teams included: Ala Littoria; A.S.A. Citao; Littorio; M.V.S.N.; S.S.Pastrengo ; Piave ; A.S. Roma d'Etiopia-Addis Abeba. However the war stopped these amateur Championships in 1940. <br/>
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In 1944 the first Ethiopian Championship was held in Addis Abeba, with 5 teams representing the various communities in the capital conquered by the Allies. In the final match the BMME of the British Army won the Fortitudo of the remaining Italian colonists.
Participants: St. George (Ethiopian); BMME (British); Fortitudo (Italian); Ararat (Armenian); Olympiakos (Greek).<br/>
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<i>Italian soldiers paving-asphalting roads in 1937 Addis Abeba center</i><br/>
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The Italian Fascist Party (PNF) was a crucial instrument in moulding colonial society in a fascist sense and also in the involvement and training of those Africans destined to fill some inferior role in the civil administration or in the army, through school education and the Gioventù Indigena del Littorio (GIL – the fascist indigenous youth organisation). <br/>
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Italian colonists’ degree of adhesion to the fascist party was massive, well above the percentage of party members back in Italy, especially among women: at the end of 1939 the PNF had 51,146 members in the colonies, whilst pending applications for membership amounted to 24,397 and those transferred from Italy were 9,950: nearly one third were in Ethiopia (mainly in the capital area).
There were 3,308 women enrolled in the fascist organisations (12.8 % of the female population). There also were 237 fascist working men’s clubs with 38,235 members and 106 sports societies with 19,822 members.<br/>
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Colonisation represented a major turning point in the life of thousands of settlers. The regime conceived a new social plan for the empire, consisting of a society made up by brave and hard-working Italian colonists.<br/>
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<i>1938 map of the Scioa governorate around Addis Abeba, South of the capital can be seen the "Azienda Agricola Biscioftu" (a huge farm development, with Italian colonists)</i><br/>
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Furthermore, since 1937 the peripheral lands around Addis Abeba were improved with colonization projects: the full "pacification" of the Ethiopian guerrilla in the Scioa region allowed in 1938 to start farm projects with Italian colonists.<br/>
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So, in the same year the O.N.C. ("Opera Nazionale Combattenti") created two modern farms in Olettà, a center about 40 kilometers from Addis Ababa and in Biscioftù, at the same distance from the capital but on the route to Djibouti. <br/>
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For the valorization of the country around Addis Abeba, other development models were taken into consideration, such as the "capitalist-type colonization" guided by the large private capital (for example, in Addis Alem a factory for the production of slaked lime was established under the Italian management, and in its first year of production it turned out 30,000 hundredweights of the material). <br/>
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It was considered also the so called "industrial-type colonization", in which the concessionary companies would manage the transformation of agricultural and mining products. Belonging to the latter type was the "Villaggio Torino", designed by Giorgio Rigotti and built about 35 kilometers from Addis Ababa. This was an industrial plant linked to agriculture with a high-rise mill, a pasta factory and a biscuit factory, annexed to which there was a small Italian workers' settlement and an indigenous neighborhood<br/>
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In 1940 an Italian government study found that there were nearly half a million native Ethiopians (mainly living in the Scioa governorate, where the capital was Addis Abeba) who were receiving salaries from the Italians (in the Army, in the civilian administration, in many private companies and also inside Italian families as maids/nurses/housekeepers): the living standards of the autochthonous Etiopians in these areas increased to levels never historically reached before (G. Podesta, "Emigrazione in Africa Orientale" <a href="https://www.ilcornodafrica.it/rds-01emigrazione.pdf">emigrazione italiana nelle colonie africane</a> ).<br/>
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After their conquest of Ethiopia, the Italians acted quickly to reorganize the educational system in Ethiopia, that was in a very low level of development (in a country of nearly 6 millions there were only 8,000 students enrolled in twenty public schools in 1935). <br/>
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A remarkable effort was made to establish a school system in AOI, both for Italians and for Africans. Schools for Italian students were built in thirty locations. Some secondary schools of all kinds were also created in Addis Abeba and in the main Ethiopian towns.<br/>
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The two most important Italian schools in Addis Abeba were the Liceo-Ginnasio Vittorio Emanuele III and the Istituto Tecnico Benito Mussolini, both reserved for Italian children, while the prewar Empress Menen School for girls was converted into the Regina Elena military hospital. In the city some elementary schools were established for the Italians (<a href="https://srisa.org/rw_common/plugins/stacks/armadillo/media/Education_in_the_Italian_colonies_during.pdf"> educazione italiana nelle colonie africane </a>),
while also a few new schools were created for the native population: the Italian government pinpointed in 1939 that there were thirteen primary schools in the Scioa governorate, staffed by over sixty teachers and having an enrollment of 1481 Italians & native Ethiopians.<br/>
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Additionally it is noteworthy to pinpoint that the 512 young Italians enrolled in the "Gioventu Universitaria Fascista" (GUF) in Addis Abeba requested the creation of a university institution in the capital of Ethiopia. In 1939 the GUF asked the government to study this possibility (or at least to allow exams to be done directly in Addis Abeba), but the start of WW2 stopped all this process and the first university in Ethiopia was created only in the 1950s by the French Jesuit Lucien Matte. <br/>
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<i>Video showing the 1938 welcome to the "Vicere" (Viceroy) Amedeo Savoia-Aosta of Italian Ethiopia in Addis Abeba:</i> <br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe class="BLOG_video_class" allowfullscreen="" youtube-src-id="SeKDOjaJwBA" width="400" height="322" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SeKDOjaJwBA"></iframe></div><br/>
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However Ethiopia -and Africa Orientale Italiana (AOI)- proved to be extremely expensive to maintain, as the budget for the fiscal year 1936-37 had been set at 19.136 billion lire to create the necessary infrastructure for the colony. At the time, Italy's entire yearly revenue was only 18.581 billion lire (<a href="https://storicamente.org/gagliardi_colonie_italiane_africa_fascismo">https://storicamente.org/gagliardi_colonie_italiane_africa_fascismo</a> ).<br/>
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WW2 put an end to the Italian empire: in April 1941 Addis Abeba was occupied by the British. After signing the surrender, his last italian governor, Agenore Frangipani, committed suicide because was forced to surrender the city to them without fighting - in order to save the lives of the Italian civilians living in Addis Abeba (mainly women and children) from the vengeance of the ethiopian nationalists (the "Arbegnocs", who already had done a massacre with the Italian civilians in the city of Harar, defended harshly by italian troops some days before). Frangipane considered "a lack of honor" for himself the surrender without fighting.<br/>
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It is noteworthy to pinpoint that after the Italian surrender in Addis abeba, some Italians started a guerrilla war against the Allies, in the hope of a possible Rommel victory in Egypt and with the return of the Axis troops in Ethiopia later. <br/>
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One of them was Rosa Dainelli, a doctor. She -in August 1942- succeeded in entering the main ammunition depot of the British army in Addis Abeba, and blowing it up, miraculously surviving the huge explosion. Her sabotage destroyed the ammunition for the new British Sten submachine gun, delaying the use of the newly created piece of equipment for many months. Doctor Dainelli was proposed for the Italian iron medal of honor (croce di ferro). Some sources claim the date of attack was actually in September 1941 (<a href="https://www.mentaerosmarino.it/wp-content//uploads/2017/10/Rosa-Costanza-Danielli.pdf">https://www.mentaerosmarino.it/wp-content//uploads/2017/10/Rosa-Costanza-Danielli.pdf</a>).<br/>
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<b>HERITAGE</b><br/>
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The main heritage is the construction of an extensive network with nearly six thousand kilometers of paved roads in all Ethiopia, as recognised by the same emperor Haile Selassie. The main road created by the Italians was the fully asphalted Addis Abeba-Asmara/Massaua, that broke the historical road "isolation" of the Ethiopian capital.<br/>
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Additionally it is noteworthy to remember that actually (2023) there are only a few Italian-ethiopians descendants -may be nearly one thousand- of the 40000 colonists (who settled in the city in the fascist years). But there it is still a good Italian heritage from them in contemporary Addis Abeba (from constructions to food, etc..). There it is also an area in actual Addis Abeba called "Old Italian district" around the historical "piassa" (<a href="https://ethiopianbusinessreview.net/piassa/">https://ethiopianbusinessreview.net/piassa/</a>).<br/>
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<i>Photo of a typical ethiopian food: "injera" with italian spaghetti -heritage from the "Etiopia italiana" years- and now called "pasta saltata" in Addis Abeba (<a href="https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/138982/how-colonialism-brought-a-new-evolution-of-pasta-to-east-africa">https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/138982/how-colonialism-brought-a-new-evolution-of-pasta-to-east-africa</a>).</i><br/>
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<blockquote><i>Visiting places, speaking to people, going into a restaurant or bar, you discover a huge Italian heritage. Places like "Piassa", which means square in Italian, or "Merkato" which means market in Italian, or "Casainchis" which is taken from Casa INCIS, the former Italian Institute which built the compound for Italian civil servants during the thirties, obviously are Italian names. Also in the architecture the Italian heritage in Addis is relevant. Some prestigious buildings in the Piassa area as well as the monumental Cathedral of Saint George were all built by Italian architects. However, most of the Italian ties can be retrieved in Ethiopian food; and not only in the famous macchiato coffee, (Caffe' macchiato) you can find it in many coffees made with traditional Italian espresso machines. The population largely eats pasta and you can find lasagne, pasta al forno, penne, spaghetti (all perfect Italian names for different kinds of pastas) in many Ethiopian restaurants and homes, together with the famous pizza. To highlight the special relationship between Ethiopia and Italy is one common dish made by mixing "injera" with spaghetti, called locally, "pasta saltata". Finally, you can find other Italian ties in names like "makina", which means car. Markos Berhanus</i></blockquote><br/>
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In 2020 the small community of the Italians and Italo-ethiopians of Addis Abeba lived around this famous "piazza" (square) - called locally "piassa" (<a href="https://salamboinaddis.com/2012/12/19/the-italians-of-addis/">https://salamboinaddis.com/2012/12/19/the-italians-of-addis/</a>) and located in the oldest area of the city.<br/>
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<b>INFRASTRUCTURES</b><br/>
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<i>Map showing the roads created by the Italians in 1937-1940 (in dark black the fully asphalted)</i><br/>
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The Italians invested a lot in Ethiopian infrastructure development, mainly in the capital region. They created the "imperial road" between Addis Abeba and Asmara/Massaua, the Addis Abeba - Mogadishu and the Addis Abeba - Assab. Also, the Addis Abeba-Berbera/Hargeisa was nearly completed when WW2 blocked all the road constructions.<br/>
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Indeed in the few years of Italian rule in Ethiopia were done two important improvements: the complete abolishment of slavery and the road construction of a communication system in a mountainous country.<br/>
<br/>
<blockquote><i>"No paved roads existed in Ethiopia before the Italian conquest of 1936. Historian Bertazzini wrote that "...At the outset of the Italian-Ethiopian war, few roads were completed and none had modern asphalt surface. Only two major -but unpaved- tracks for lorries existed in 1935, the Jimma-Addis Ababa and the Addis Ababa-Dessié'...The simple list of the projected roads gives an idea of the magnitude of the investments undertaken (by the Italians). The vast majority of the works were managed by the AASS(Azienda Autonoma Statale della Strada), a public company purposely created by the Minister of the public works. The AASS obtained an incredibly large budget from Rome: not only did the six-year development plan destine more than 7.7bn Italian Lire (out of the total 12bn!) for road construction, but the AASS even received additional 3.1bn Lire, for the financial year 1936-7. In 1939, the newly built colonial transportation network totaled roughly 4,625 km of paved roads and 4,877 km of unpaved tracks.
The total development of the new roads by the end of 1940 in Ethiopia and "Africa Orientale Italiana" (AOI) was almost 6,000 km"</i></blockquote><br/>
<br/>
Furthermore, 900 km of railways were reconstructed or initiated (like the railway between Addis Abeba and Assab), dams and hydroelectric plants were built and many public and private companies were established in the underdeveloped country.<br/>
<br/>
The most important -with their headquarters in Addis Abeba- were: "Compagnie per il cotone d'Etiopia" (Cotton industry); "Cementerie d'Etiopia" (Cement industry); "Compagnia etiopica mineraria" (Minerals industry); "Imprese elettriche d'Etiopia" (Electricity industry); "Compagnia etiopica degli esplosivi" (Armament industry); "Trasporti automobilistici (Citao)" (Mechanic & Transport industry). <br/>
<br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqY1GEKSCD2uz_OnLjd9XIOHPAsMgCklerkoJCoswHHSH9biRVqWEcRcb0xzgAyUcf3_MnoLynN2jy5LLDr8MBTG2c2WEqmKuqX4CK-R-dbtJ0ZUqFJy3suv66JIBtcbj0XsBNfjjaimXaYB694qFtuwaN6KFn7o8dGD05j7LD3AQuVmKhp-pD0D7R6A/s500/Ethiopian_electric_power_corporation_Addis_Abeba.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="334" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqY1GEKSCD2uz_OnLjd9XIOHPAsMgCklerkoJCoswHHSH9biRVqWEcRcb0xzgAyUcf3_MnoLynN2jy5LLDr8MBTG2c2WEqmKuqX4CK-R-dbtJ0ZUqFJy3suv66JIBtcbj0XsBNfjjaimXaYB694qFtuwaN6KFn7o8dGD05j7LD3AQuVmKhp-pD0D7R6A/s600/Ethiopian_electric_power_corporation_Addis_Abeba.jpg"/></a></div>
<i>Actual photo of the Italian-era building of the Ethiopian Electricity company, built in the early 1940s in typical modern Italian style.</i><br/>
<br/>
Italians even enlarged and created new airports (like the "Ivo Olivetti aeroporto", that actually is called "Lideta airport" in the outskirts of Addis Abeba) and in 1936 started the worldwide famous "Linea dell'Impero", a flight connecting Addis Abeba to Rome.<br/>
<br/>
Addis Ababa was incorporated into the imperial italian network of fligths, being served four times a week with the Savoia Marchetti, SM-73 airplanes: in two days (and no more in a week) Italy was connected with Ethiopia, also with a new daily postal service.<br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6wOWwTJ_LNJh8rSETNNFfNk-NBs4HNOYXeFNBpzknspK_5JRXF3ECG3knPe8eewISeMqmWRpRr_uOLAJlhnhq9lJnx4KnTvFQ8OH5a3aEceIZvvAxrk4V8bQobLZMdnFazhW1tZ8NgjUkwi8Qo3uGZLLpklxZmLDVs3ZPN8qmL87Bl_ulAaEH0ZWkeA/s900/ala38afa.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="447" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6wOWwTJ_LNJh8rSETNNFfNk-NBs4HNOYXeFNBpzknspK_5JRXF3ECG3knPe8eewISeMqmWRpRr_uOLAJlhnhq9lJnx4KnTvFQ8OH5a3aEceIZvvAxrk4V8bQobLZMdnFazhW1tZ8NgjUkwi8Qo3uGZLLpklxZmLDVs3ZPN8qmL87Bl_ulAaEH0ZWkeA/s600/ala38afa.jpg"/></a></div><br/>
<i>ALA LITTORIA: <a href="http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/ala38af.htm">"Orario estivo del 1938" (Timetable of the "Linea dell'Impero")</a></i> <br/>
<br/>
The line was opened after the Italian conquest of Ethiopia and was followed by the first air links with the Italian colonies in Africa Orientale Italiana (Italian East Africa), which began in a pioneering way since 1934. The route was enlarged to 6,379 km and initially joined Rome with Addis Ababa via Syracuse, Benghazi, Cairo, Wadi Halfa, Khartoum, Kassala, Asmara, Dire Dawa .<br/>
<br/>
There was a change of aircraft in Benghazi (or sometimes in Tripoli). The route was carried out in two and a half days of daytime flight and the frequency was four flights per week in both directions. Later from Addis Ababa there were three flights a week that continued to Mogadishu, capital of Italian Somalia.<br/>
<br/>
The most important railway line in the African colonies of the Kingdom of Italy as the Djibouti-Addis Ababa. It was long 784 km and was acquired following the conquest of the Ethiopian Empire by the Italians in 1936.<br/>
<br/>
The route of the railway was protected by special Italian military units since 1936 and until 1938, when the Ethiopian guerrilla finished and all the regions crossed by the trains were fully "pacified".<br/>
<br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRy_jiYlo1jjwOjpqBrfXNi0T5kg4VZelQeKR8UfBCLgrZEL87lsTlFY2DXrDoOundbmlXyBDY8wBGAK9RErSSsxazgYaPmF3m8AnjUKjWEVI-ieBdkz4Sv7z73UyYVdoN2HSwKlkr4L945DRGNrHmiXGUOgl6N_Jz688sVB8V8eokE0oJYMoZUKRCSg/s800/13%20Convoi%20Militaire%20Protection%20Italienne%201937.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRy_jiYlo1jjwOjpqBrfXNi0T5kg4VZelQeKR8UfBCLgrZEL87lsTlFY2DXrDoOundbmlXyBDY8wBGAK9RErSSsxazgYaPmF3m8AnjUKjWEVI-ieBdkz4Sv7z73UyYVdoN2HSwKlkr4L945DRGNrHmiXGUOgl6N_Jz688sVB8V8eokE0oJYMoZUKRCSg/s600/13%20Convoi%20Militaire%20Protection%20Italienne%201937.jpg"/></a></div><br/>
<i>The railway Addis Abeba-Djibouti was officially declared safe and "pacified" from summer 1938</i><br/>
<br/>
The route was served until 1935 by steam trains that took about 36 hours to do the total trip between the capital of Ethiopia and the port of Djibouti. Following the Italian conquest was obtained in 1938 the increase of speed for the trains with the introduction of four railcars high capacity "type 038" derived from the model Fiat ALn56 (<a href="http://www.train-franco-ethiopien.com/photos_cfe/autorails_fiat_cfe/pages/image/imagepage15.html">http://www.train-franco-ethiopien.com/photos_cfe/autorails_fiat_cfe/pages/image/imagepage15.html</a> ).
These diesel trains were able to reach 70 km/h and so the time travel was cut in half to just 18 hours: they were used until the mid 1960s (<a href="rain-franco-ethiopien.com/photos_cfe/autorails_fiat_cfe/pages/image/imagepage30.html">http://www.train-franco-ethiopien.com/photos_cfe/autorails_fiat_cfe/pages/image/imagepage30.html</a>). At the main stations there were some bus connections to the other cities of Italian Ethiopia not served by the railway (<a href="http://www.train-franco-ethiopien.com/photos_cfe/gare_diredawa_cfe/pages/image/imagepage15.html">http://www.train-franco-ethiopien.com/photos_cfe/gare_diredawa_cfe/pages/image/imagepage15.html</a>).<br/>
<br/>
Additionally, near the Addis Ababa station was created a special unit against fire, that was the only one in all Africa (Railways map -enlarge to world map!: [https://openrailwaymap.org/?style=standard&lat=45.37626702418105&lon=6.249847412109375&zoom=9 ]).<br/>
<br/>
<b>ARCHITECTURE</b><br/>
<br/>
Cinemas & Theaters<br/>
<br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmZIUlxmSXUabcgQVWaDFvCrvKFzPlcy6R37EWuJr2m5zD90BEfXlfzjJzkt97NEczx8KuyQ9Qa4vzEVxzsqIWOyfEjowMjY4GQT1DH2fTZcGUelry7trlId54GmkG1j0nejpmdydpPKe1LnVNpflUdKYiVnBeJKnMutjnnsV-HHQUZDxc1XS8oAambw/s1600/new-book-knowledge-encyclopaedia-s-social-history-vintage-black-white-photo-italian-cinema-addis-ababa-abyssinia-179000060.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="1134" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmZIUlxmSXUabcgQVWaDFvCrvKFzPlcy6R37EWuJr2m5zD90BEfXlfzjJzkt97NEczx8KuyQ9Qa4vzEVxzsqIWOyfEjowMjY4GQT1DH2fTZcGUelry7trlId54GmkG1j0nejpmdydpPKe1LnVNpflUdKYiVnBeJKnMutjnnsV-HHQUZDxc1XS8oAambw/s600/new-book-knowledge-encyclopaedia-s-social-history-vintage-black-white-photo-italian-cinema-addis-ababa-abyssinia-179000060.jpg"/></a></div><br/>
The first Italian cinema in Addis Abeba was the "Romano", opened in October 1936 , followed by the "Marconi" in via Tripoli. The "Cinque Maggio" and the "Italia" cine-theater of the 'House of the Fascist Hospitality' were inaugurated both in 1937. <br/>
<br/>
The "Italia" was a super cinema with 1200 seats. It was used also as a theater and for opera activities.<br/>
<br/>
The "Impero" in via Massaia and the "Roma" were built later, just before WW2 started. <br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxkllgifDbgvE6EW_xCkZ-ZkzblpnG08gY51N8OvBcD1_Mw-08fEKAfRQQtbUEZx38sHN4npMRrfrVoZtEYyDsbReKvkfvshAih61ji2OjxuYU3OC3G3goHzSqBxvJ0THd5Y7sMhVfTn__cCJ5THZ73w95ZsZqCSSJz6YndxVpo4BACClRqDt7i8DjLw/s576/08602_NonAVCreation_luce_it_IL_NonAVCreation_AOIIL0600008600_1.jpeg.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="433" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxkllgifDbgvE6EW_xCkZ-ZkzblpnG08gY51N8OvBcD1_Mw-08fEKAfRQQtbUEZx38sHN4npMRrfrVoZtEYyDsbReKvkfvshAih61ji2OjxuYU3OC3G3goHzSqBxvJ0THd5Y7sMhVfTn__cCJ5THZ73w95ZsZqCSSJz6YndxVpo4BACClRqDt7i8DjLw/s600/08602_NonAVCreation_luce_it_IL_NonAVCreation_AOIIL0600008600_1.jpeg.jpg"/></a></div><br/>
<i>Late 1939 photo of the cinema "Impero"</i><br/><br/>
In 1939, the new "Marconi" cinema-theater was designed by Ippolito Battaglia.<br/>
<br/>
The cinema showed the same morphology of the elements used in the project of the building for the government offices (prepared in the same years by architect Plinio Marconi for the monumental area of the city).<br/>
<br/>
Hospitals<br/>
<br/>
In Addis Ababa, at the time of taking possession of the city, were recovered and restructured by the Italian government some of the existing health facilities: the Ospedale Italiano/Italian Hospital "Principessa di Piemonte" (built by the "Italica Gens" - A.N.M.I.), the Hospital "Duca degli Abruzzi" (only for Italians) and the Hospital "Vittorio Emanuele III" (only for indigenous Ethiopians). <br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdpl8lniruj2bBTfHXqX9zC15QG90jH-1hyJZscKRJKzK53vHTSldzZjwZIZKvCkq40eZr2fCZaiKryfxl9AITyYaZCddpuWfo0MhTRHTClUl3_wukltqMjgQi8isLza_Rg7Up-fVbBvTKqDZBJgwBidjSmRrP4-R4B_pq_Mr3Al0ZBqXn7dRgzYGv-g/s1174/Addis-Abeba-Ospedale-Italiano-Etiopia-Africa-Orientale-Colonie.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="805" data-original-width="1174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdpl8lniruj2bBTfHXqX9zC15QG90jH-1hyJZscKRJKzK53vHTSldzZjwZIZKvCkq40eZr2fCZaiKryfxl9AITyYaZCddpuWfo0MhTRHTClUl3_wukltqMjgQi8isLza_Rg7Up-fVbBvTKqDZBJgwBidjSmRrP4-R4B_pq_Mr3Al0ZBqXn7dRgzYGv-g/s600/Addis-Abeba-Ospedale-Italiano-Etiopia-Africa-Orientale-Colonie.jpg"/></a></div>
The Italian hospital, showed a "classicism" shape with clad in light yellow trachyte stone and decorated by red brick; it was built from 1931 to 1934 on a project by engineer Piero Molli from Turin and it was among the first three-story buildings of the city, built with reinforced concrete frames. The engineer of the works was Mario Bayon, while the structural calculations were performed by the engineer Giberti. In October 1939, an additional expansion was studied.<br/>
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<b>INSTITUTIONS</b><br/>
<br/>
Schools<br/>
<br/>
*Scuola elementare mista Vittorio Emanuele III of Addis Abéba. <br/>
*Ginnasio-Liceo Vittorio Emanuele III<br/>
*Istituto tecnico Benito Mussolini <br/>
*Missione della consolata (asilo d infanzia e scuola elementare parificata mista).<br/>
*Scuola parificata mista del Littorio. Missione delle suore canossiane (scuola parificata, a Cabanà). Missione San Vincenzo da Paola (scuola governativa per tracomatosi). <br/>
*Missione della Consolata (scuola parificata, brefotrofio per bambine, orfanotrofio). <br/>
*Missione della Consolata (college for the sons of Ethiopian authorities, under the "Direzione superiore affari politici"). <br/>
*School for muslims<br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR7Mk1APuMMbxZk8lDA6Sml0iVlehGdK89B9t3tHHwU8BUR7-iHt2BnJMfQ87mRFIbHgMi_OQ_YGb-gGqodMKGBuSF_yPxb-mmi7R34MiM42AShiRPyzM8KBeVhQJZ7-XBE73E1VZt601rf0_IVh_BnNVpfCqDsH5i7aMRs_LP-XJmhxN9TwG-4mj0uA/s1024/1939-ADDIS-ABEBA-ETIOPIA-AOI-Rurali-dellOPERA-NAZIONALE.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="1024" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR7Mk1APuMMbxZk8lDA6Sml0iVlehGdK89B9t3tHHwU8BUR7-iHt2BnJMfQ87mRFIbHgMi_OQ_YGb-gGqodMKGBuSF_yPxb-mmi7R34MiM42AShiRPyzM8KBeVhQJZ7-XBE73E1VZt601rf0_IVh_BnNVpfCqDsH5i7aMRs_LP-XJmhxN9TwG-4mj0uA/s600/1939-ADDIS-ABEBA-ETIOPIA-AOI-Rurali-dellOPERA-NAZIONALE.jpg"/></a></div>
<i>Photo of Italian colonists in a 1939 folklorist meeting in the Addis Abeba outskirts, celebrating with Italian regional dances</i> <br/>
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Viceroy Amedeo D'Aosta planned to bring 20,000 Italian colonists in 1942 to live in the Scioa region, imitating what was done in Libya with the 20,000 colonists who successfully settled there in 1938. Mussolini by 1956 (in order to commemorate twenty years of the Italian empire existence) wanted to move half a million Italians to live in the Ethiopian Highlands, but WW2 blocked all these projects<br/>
<br/>
Associations<br/>
<br/>
* Sopraintendenza scolastica.
*Casa del fascio.
*Istituto di cultura fascista. Opera nazionale dopolavoro.<br/>
*Gioventù italiana del littorio. <br/>
*Fascist university group. The Gioventu Universitaria Fascista (GUF) of Addis Ababa, made up of volunteers from the Ethiopian war and directed by Fabio Roversi Monaco, played an important role in the promotion of cultural activities in the empire. The preparation of prelates and assistance to graduates for enrollment in Italian faculties were also fundamental. In 1939 the GUF asked the government to evaluate the possible creation of a university of the empire or, at least, to allow the exams to take place directly in Addis Abeba.<br/>
*Ufficio stampa e propaganda AOI. <br/>
*Casa dei giornalisti. <br/>
*Ufficio superiore cartografico. <br/>
*Museo dell impero. <br/>
*Opera nazionale combattenti.<br/>
*Regio automobile club d Italia. <br/>
*Consociazione turistica italiana; Compagnia italiana turismo cinema, teatri, radio.<br/>
* Istituto luce Impero Italiano<br/>
*Cinema teatro Italia (Casa dell ospitalità fascista) <br/>
*Cinema Impero <br/>
*Cinema Romano <br/>
*Cinema Cinque maggio (for native ethiopians) <br/>
* Stazione radiofonica Eiar (with auditorium) of the Istituto Luce (Ethiopia). <br/>
<br/>
Newspapers and magazines<br/>
<br/>
*«Corriere dell Impero» newspaper (called "Quotidiano di Addis Abeba" from March 1938 until February 1938 as journal of the "Federazione dei fasci di combattimento"; from May to December 1936 called «Il Giornale di Addis Abeba»)<br/>
*«Il Lunedì dell Impero» (magazine of the «Corriere dell Impero») <br/>
*«Marciare» («Magazine of "Goliardia fascista dell Impero". Giornale mensile di avanguardia del Guf») <br/>
*«Ye Chessar Menghist Melchtegnà» («Corriere dell Impero» in Ethiopian language). Weekly magazine published by the «Barid al-imbiraturiyyah» <br/>
*«Il messaggero dell Impero»; weekly newspaper in arab language published by the " Ufficio stampa e propaganda"; from March to December1938 «Kuriri di Imbiru»( inside the «Corriere dell Impero]) <br/>
*«Ye Roma Berhan» («Luce di Roma»).Monthly magazine in Aramaic language.<br/>
*«Addis Abeba» (monthly magazine of the Addis Abeba city hall)<br/>
*«Etiopia Latina» (monthly magazine) <br/>
*«L Impero illustrato» (weekly magazine); «Notiziario mensile della MVSN nell AOI»; «L Impero del Lavoro» (magazine of the "Ispettorato fascista del lavoro")<br/>
*«Rassegna sanitaria dell AOI» (weekly magazine published by the "Società di medicina dell impero") <br/>
*«La Consolata in AOI» (monthly magazine of the "Missione della Consolata editori"<br/>
*Tipografia del Governo; Generale Stamperia del Littorio <br/>
*Tipografia della missione della Consolata<br/>
*Bulletins/Journals: Giornale ufficiale del governo Generale dell Africa Orientale Italiana e Bollettino ufficiale del Governo dello Scioa» (weekly); «Foglio d ordini e di comunicazioni del Governo Generale dell Africa Orientale Italiana» (monthly) ; «Foglio d ordini dello Stato Maggiore del Governo Generale dell Africa Orientale Italiana» (monthly) ; «Foglio d ordini e di comunicazioni del Governo dello Scioa» (monthly) ; «Bollettino dell Ufficio dell Economia Corporativa dello Scioa» (monthly); «Bollettino dell Economia Corporativa dello Scioa» (monthly) «Scioa» (monthly published by the "Ufficio della produzione e del lavoro"); «Bollettino di idrobiologia, caccia e pesca dell Africa Orientale Italiana» (news from the "Servizio di idrobiologia e pesca e della Sovrintendenza alla caccia"<br/>
<br/>
<b>LINKS</b><br/>
<br/>
* PHOTOS of Italian Addis Abeba: <a href="http://senato.archivioluce.it/senato-luce/ricerca/libera/esito.html?query=addis+abeba%20Photos%20of%20Italian%20Addis%20Abeba">http://senato.archivioluce.it/senato-luce/ricerca/libera/esito.html?query=addis+abeba Photos of Italian Addis Abeba</a><br/>
* VIDEOS of "ISTITUTO LUCE" related to Addis Abeba:<a href="https://patrimonio.archivioluce.com/luce-web/search/result.html?luoghi=%22Addis%20Abeba%22&activeFilter=luoghi">https://patrimonio.archivioluce.com/luce-web/search<br/>/result.html?luoghi=%22Addis%20Abeba%22&activeFilter=luoghi</a><br/>
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Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-72984738309325834002023-02-03T07:35:00.042-08:002023-02-07T17:03:44.539-08:00DAY OF REMEMBRANCE (FEBRUARY TEN)<b>February 10: National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe</b><br/>
<br/>
In a few days more is going go be the "National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe" , called <i>GIORNO DEL RICORDO</i> in italian or "Day of Remembrance" in english. <br/>
<br/>
We all know that at the end of WW2 there has been an ethnic cleansing of the authocthonous italian population in Dalmatia and a tentative to do the same in Istria and Venezia Giula. Historian Guido Rumici wrote that more than 11000 Italians in those years were killed in the "Foibe" (please read: Guido Rumici, "Infoibati (1943-1945). I Nomi, I Luoghi, I Testimoni, I Documenti". Mursia, 2002. ISBN 978-88-425-2999-6), while some thousands were killed in different ways and more than 350000 were forced to exile. In a few words: nearly 400000 italians suffered the "ethnic cleansing" of Tito, the Yugoslavia's communist dictator!<br/>
<br/>
As happened in other "cleansing" in History -like in Armenia- those who shamefully did this uncivilised act usually deny it. That is why I am adding to my february essay the translation in english of an italian book, related to the evidences and proof about the yugoslavian ethnic cleansing of Italians in the eastern Adriatic coast.<br/>
<br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Foibe_seats.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="568" data-original-width="599" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Foibe_seats.png"/></a></div>
<i>Map showing the most famous "Foibe" in Istria and surroundings</i><br/>
<br/>
The following excerpts from a book published in 2019 by the "Nova Rivista Storica" of the editrice Dante Alighieri deal with post-war population movements, expulsion, and ethnic massacres affecting Yugoslavia, during the years 1943-1947, with a focus on the Italian Eastern Border. <br/>
<br/>
The author Eugenio Di Rienzo argued that Yugoslav political and military leaders considered the aftermath of the Second World War, in their neighbourhood, a convenient window of opportunity for "adjusting" the ethnic structure in specific regions according to their ideological visions and nationalistic ideals. Such an “ethnic cleansing” combined with Bolshevik social engineering occurred in Istria-Venezia Giulia, Dalmatia and partially also in the city of Trieste.<br/>
<br/>
<b><i>QUANDO LA STORIA DIVENTA SMEMORATA ("When History forgets"), of E. Di Rienzo<br/>
<br/>
Indeed, there was no doubt that on the eastern coasts of the ancient «Venetian sea» there was a planned depopulation action (compulsory, forced and forced exodus/physical elimination) aimed at the Italian-speaking populations, for two reasons:<br/>
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1 ) The killing of our (Italian) compatriots was not only a form of political struggle because it was not limited to the fascist militiamen and soldiers of the Royal Army, who had participated in counter-guerrilla actions and forced de-Slavization programs, but concerned the Italian population as a whole and even militants of the Liberation Committee who had fought shoulder to shoulder with the IX Korpus of Tito's Yugoslavia. On the Slavic-communist side, an attempt was made to dominate and subordinate the Italian units to its own directives and, in case of failure, it passed, as in the case of the "Osoppo-Friuli Brigade" (composed of volunteers of secular, liberal, Catholic, monarchist inspiration) to the ferocious and treasonous violence against them. Even the communist partisans, naturally more inclined to comply with the Tito directives, were put in a position not to offer resistance to the violent and sudden progress of the "Slawisierung" (slavisation) carried out with the arms policy. Most of them were forced by the Slavic commands to operate far from Italian territory in order to weaken the military presence of our compatriots in Venezia Giulia, on the Dalmatian coast and in Trieste in particular.<br/>
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2) Those massacres were not even only the result of a war of class unleashed by the Slavic peasant masses against the elites
Italians from the coast, because the "infoibati" were Italians of every social stratum, without distinction of wealth, class, affiliation or political conviction (except for the militants of democratic anti-fascism), age or sex. As we read, in fact, in the mournful diary of the Tito occupation of Trieste (1 May - 12 June 1945), written by Pier Antonio Quarantotti Gambini, one of the most important figures of Italian and Trieste culture of the twentieth century:<blockquote> "It is almost impossible to know if an arrested person is still here in Trieste, or if he hasn't already been led away towards a foiba, his hands tied with wire behind his back, in those columns of deported or dying people who cross the city every night. What is surprising is that there is no news of any capture of large exponents of Nazi-fascism or of policemen. Only continuous arrests and mysterious disappearances of petite people, and moreover obscure: young dilettantes, enlisted in the Civic Guard to escape the calls of the German republics and who took up arms against the Nazis alongside the Volunteers in the insurrection; Finance policemen, Carabinieri, commoners who have disputed with the citizens of Tito these days, or who had long since been noted for their national sentiments, Italians from the old provinces of the humblest classes, boys stopped in some group on the street, and also women and girls. To vanish into thin air it is enough to be Italian. Having been Fascists or Republicans has nothing to do with all these arrests; on the contrary, it would seem that the Titos have almost a preference in targeting those who have never given proof of fascism and even above all those who have been anti-fascists. And, to those who point out to them how they have already persecuted and even killed many anti-fascists in 1943, and are now doing the same, they respond with the formula that they have created for these cases, because Tito's movement, even more than Mussolini's and of Hitler, always moves within the tracks of some formulas, which most of the time are nothing more than sentences. But, for every situation, for every case, for every circumstance his sentence is ready. And then, they say “we must hit the fascists even without a card and without a badge"</blockquote>.
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It is noteworthy to pinpoint that in the Balkan appendix of the "socialist paradise" the ethnic reclamation -perpetrated with military hands- was current practice from 1945 to 1948 and beyond. Indeed until 1950, about 57,000 ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia territories fell to the blows of Slavic-Bolshevik violence and a much higher number of German prisoners of war died by lynching, summary executions, "infoibamenti", or died of starvation in the so-called "expiation marches", organized by the Yugoslav Communists, which stretched for about 1,300 km, from the southern border of Austria to the northern border of Greece. Even more numerous were, then, those reduced to the condition of "worker-slaves" by the armed forces of Tito and by their willing collaborators who did not wear any uniform.<br/>
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And this enormous number of deaths must not be forgotten in order to understand the meaning of what happened on the Italian Adriatic coast between 1943 and 1947. An event that cannot be described except with the term "democide" (created by Rudolph Rummel), i.e. mass murder planned by part of a government against the members of an ethnic community to which it was decided to deny not only the right of citizenship but also that of existence.</i></b><br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Norma_Cossetto_1943.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="460" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Norma_Cossetto_1943.jpg"/></a></div>
<i>Photo of Norma Cossetto, an istrian girl killed in a Foiba in 1943 only because she was italian. After the Second World War, Norma Cossetto's death has been considered emblematic of Foibe massacres and ethnic cleansings of Italians by Yugoslavs in Istria. In 1949, the University of Padova conferred to her the laurea "honorary" and in 2005 the Italian President Ciampi awarded her the "Medaglia d'oro al merito civile".</i><br/>
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In order to close (with complete information) this february essay, allow me to pinpoint the full statistics of this "democide": Rummel calculated that -in addition to 24,000 italian deaths because of foibe, lynching, hanging, drowning, summary executions by firing squads, etc...- between May 1945 and the end of 1947, more than 190,000 Italians crossed the border. There were also 160,000 people, including ex-partisans and anti-fascists, who left after Stalin’s break with Tito (1948-49) or as a result of the "Trieste crisis" in 1954.<br/>
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Finally, we must remember that in the territories of former Yugoslavia now (2023) there are only about 40,000 Italians (nearly all in north-west Istria and in Fiume-actual Rijeka). This fact means that in the territories lost to Jugoslavia by Italy because of defeat in WW2 and that had more than 430,000 italian inhabitants in 1945, only 8% of them remain: <b>a nearly perfect ethnic cleansing!</b><br/>
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And in Dalmatia this democide is complete: for example, in Zara (actual Zadar) there are only a dozen italians, while the city in 1940 was fully italian and with 21,372 inhabitants!Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-80968954111592422362023-01-01T07:33:00.044-08:002023-03-11T13:43:22.231-08:00THE AROMANIANS OF GREECE<i><b>The neolatin Aromanians of northern Greece</i></b><br/.<br><br/>
The Aromanians (called often "Vlachs" in the Balkans) speak a language that evolved from Latin. Latin was transmitted by Romans to many peoples and was used as an international language for centuries. Most Vlach populations live in and around the borders of modern Greece. <br/>
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The word „Vlachs‟ appears in the Byzantine documents at about the 10th century, but few details are connected with it and it is unclear what it means for various authors. It has been variously hypothesized that Vlachs are descendants of Roman soldiers, Thracians, diaspora Romanians, or Latinized Greeks. However, the ethnic makeup of the empires that ruled the Balkans and the use of the language as a lingua franca suggest that the Vlachs probably do not have one single origin. DNA studies might clarify relationships, but these have not yet been done.<br/>
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After the year 1000 AD the Vlachs grew in importance in the Greek area: The Aromanians had control of most of actual Thessaly (called "Great Vlachia" during the Middle Ages) in the XIII, XIV and early XV centuries. <br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/ShepherdByzempire1265.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="629" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/ShepherdByzempire1265.jpg"/></a></div>
<i>Map of 1265 "Great Vlachia" (in dark blue): this was a province and region in southeastern Thessaly used to denote the entire region of Thessaly in the 13th, 14th and early 15th centuries</i><br/>
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The chronicles of Nicetas Choniates, Benjamin of Tudela, Geoffroy de Villehardouin, Henri de Valenciennes, Robert de Clary, and other sources account for the existence of this state, comprising Thessaly, as opposed to other two "Wallachias", "Little Wallachia" in Acarnania and Aetolia, and an "Upper Wallachia" in Epirus. But actually the Aromanians have been nearly fully assimilated in these regions of Greece. However they actually remain in relatively huge numbers in the Pindus region, in villages located on the mountains just south of Albania.<br/>
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In the 19th century Vlach was spoken by shepherds in Albania who had practically no relationship with Hellenism as well as by urban Macedonians who had Greek education dating back to at least the 17th century and who considered themselves Greek. The latter gave rise to many politicians, literary figures, and national benefactors in Greece. Because of the language, various religious and political special interests tried to attract the Vlachs in the 19th and early 20th centuries. At the same time, the Greek church and government were hostile to their language. The disputes of the era culminated in emigrations, alienation of thousands of people, and near-disappearance of the language. Nevertheless, due to assimilation and marriages with Greek speakers, a significant segment of the Greek population (may be a third) in Macedonia and elsewhere nearby descends from Vlachs<br/>
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Traditionally, Aromanians lived in the southern Balkans. Areas with considerable Vlach population exist in central and southern Albania (e.g. the destroyed Moschopolis) and the area that was earlier called Pelagonia and is now in FYROM, with cities such as Krusovo and Monastir (Vitolia).<br/>
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However, most Vlach habitations appear to be in Greece. The mountain villages form a line that goes from Rome (Italy) to Istanbul (Turkey). At the sides of Pindus, from Grammosta to Pertouli there are about 80 mountain villages, despite the extensive demographic changes of the 20th century. Traditional groups in the plains still exist from Xanthi to Corfu and from the mouth of the river Acheloos to the mouth of Sperchios and also in Evoia.<br/>
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At the end of the 19th century, there were about 150,000 Aromanians in the southern Balkans, and about half the Greek population of Thessaloniki in fact consisted of Vlachs. After 1912-13 about 100,000 (2/3 of them) became Greek citizens. Since then, they have been much reduced due to emigration and assimilation. The 1951 census,the last time that minorities were counted in Greece, recorded 39,385 Vlachs. Around 2003, there may be 20,000 people in Greece who consider themselves Vlach. Now (in 2023) for greek authorities they are the same amount more or less.<br/>
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However, these estimates are difficult due to a lack of census information and political bias: it is noteworthy to remember that there are some estimates of as high as 600 000 Aromanians now living in Greece (like the one of Thede Kahl). If one takes into account all potential speakers who consider themselves belonging to the Vlach/Aromanian nation, we should perhaps speak of a maximum of 300 000 Aromanians in Greece and a number of fluent Aromanian speakers as around 100 000.<br/>
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Historically Weigand (in 1895) concluded that there were about 100,000 in Greece and another 500.000 in the Balkans, and Winnifrith (in 2002) agrees with a larger number (that approached the million in all the Balkans until up to Italy and Chekoslovakia). The Romanian propaganda mentioned 1,200,000. Indeed after the union of northern Greece, of the approximately 160,000 Macedonian Vlachs, 102,000 ended up in Greece, 30,000 in FYROM, 13,500 in Albania and about 10,000 in Bulgaria, Kosovo, Serbia, and Bosnia (Koukoudis, 2000, vol. 3, p. 40).<br/>
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Furthermore, much has been written about the educated urban elites of Moschopolis and Pelagonia, who were often Vlach traders traveling as far as Hungary, Romania and India. At least as far back as the 17th century, urban Vlachs cultivated the Greek language and literature during the darkest periods of the Ottoman empire with translations and printing presses. Records show that they considered themselves Greek, usually had Greek names, and several became greek-national benefactors. Evidence includes 24 letters of Moschopolis merchants, the printing press of Moschopolis and the records of commercial fraternities of Transylvania.<br/>
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Examples of Aromanians who were Greek scholars are Rigas Velestinlis (Feraios) and Konstantinos Mertzios. The latter was a rich merchant of the 18th century, who discovered and rescued the Greek archive of Venice and later became a Greek Academy member. The archive of the Greek high school in Monastir during the 19th and 20th century shows that almost all the students and teachers were Vlachs, often from poor families.<br/>
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Several people maintained the Greek conscience in modern FYROM, despite the passage of 90 years since Pelagonia became Serbian. These families maintained a simultaneous use of Greek and Vlach languages for centuries.<br/>
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Indeed in Greece the Aromanians had a huge influence in the society. <br/>
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Historically the members of this „minority‟ have acted as the backbone of Hellenism: fighters against Ottoman occupation, like Rigas Feraios, Giorgakis Olympios, and possibly Theodoros Kolokotronis; leaders of leftist resistance against the Germans (EAM), such as Alexandros Svolos and Andreas Tzimas. Distinguished writers like Kostas Krystallis and Christos Zalokostas were Vlach, as were contemporary composers like Apostolos Kaldaras, Kostas Virvos, Babis Bakalis, and Mitropanos. Many became rich Balkan merchants during the 18th and 19th centuries and many Greek national benefactors were Aromanias, such as Nikolaos Stournaris, Georgios Arsakis, Michael and Georgios Tositsas, Georgios Sinas. Simon Sinas financed the construction of the Academy of Athens, while Georgios Averoff contributed to the first Olympic games.<br/>
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There was at least one Vlach prime minister, Ioannis Kolettis (1773-1847), ministers (like Evangelos Averoff), and countless senators. Without the majority realizing it, the government of Greece was many times under the control of this „minority‟.<br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Ioannis_Kolettis_in_Paris%2C_1842.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="450" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="598" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Ioannis_Kolettis_in_Paris%2C_1842.jpg"/></a></div>
<i>The Aromanian Ioannis Kolettis (centre), then ambassador of Greece to France, in Paris in 1842 (he -born in a village of Pindus mountains- was Prime Minister of Greece twice: in 1834-1835 and in 1844-1847)</i><br/>
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<b>Aromanian history in Greece during the last two centuries</b><br/>
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The emergence of a consciousness which can be characterised as "national" probably did not occur among the Aromanians before the beginning of
national movements of the peoples of Southeastern Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. In the Byzantine and Ottoman period, orthodox Christians defined themselves, regardless of language and culture, as Romans: in Greek Romaioi, later Romioi, in Latin Romani, later Români and Armâńi.<br/>
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Before Aromanians began to develop their own consciousness or to orient themselves in respect to other peoples and their national movements, the most important aspect of self-identification was mainly as belonging to an Ottoman millet (orthodox Christians) and secondarily to a professional group (shepherds, craftsmen, merchants etc.). Due to traditional work as nomadic herders and due to persecution (especially by Turkish-Albanian troops), Aromanians were dispersed all over the Balkans. When at the beginning of the 19th century an Aromanian movement could be observed especially in the Aromanian diaspora in Buda and Vienna, large numbers of Aromanians were already assimilated into the societies of many regions or were in the state of being assimilated.<br/>
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Thus we have to distinguish between the "national Aromanian movement" as such on the one hand, and their participation in other national movements on the other hand. Most common streams of national orientation among Aromanians were (and are) pro-Greek and pro-Romanian. The Greek-Romanian conflict on the so called "Aromanian question" split the Aromanians into different factions, i.e. those who consider themselves as being Romanian, those who consider themselves as being Greek and those who consider themselves as being Aromanian.<br/>
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Since the Aromanians belonged to the Greek Patriarchate and their cultural and economic activities were bound to the Greek church, especially the wealthy urbanised Aromanians have been active promoters of the Greek language and Greek culture for a long time in the former centuries before the French Revolution.. Greek was already in the 17th and 18th century a lingua franca in large parts of Southeastern Europe.<br/>
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The knowledge of Greek was the key to education and to a higher social status and in this process it did not play any role if Greek was spoken as a mother or as a foreign language. The first written documents in Aromanian were written with the Greek alphabet and did not have the intention to teach Aromanian, but to spread the Greek language. The success of the Greek language among the Aromanians was not only caused by a few individuals promoting Greek culture, but mostly by increasing contacts with Greek neighbours and the Greek language as the most important commercial language.<br/>
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A lot of settlements in central Greece became hellenised without the influence of political or church activists in the early XIX century. The development of a specifically Aromanian identity can be observed in the early Aromanian diaspora. Especially Aromanian grammars and language booklets document a clear consciousness of latinity/romanity; in 1815 the Aromanians of Buda and Pest asked to have their language used for orthodox liturgy. Peyfuss emphasises that "this Aromanian movement cannot be reduced to activity of Romanian propaganda in Turkey", but has characteristics of a "typical national movement for the 19th century".<br/>
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In the 1860s, soon after the establishment of independent Romania, the Romanian national movement and its extensive educational policy in Macedonia, Thessaly and Epirus began to influence Aromanian activities. Since then, Aromanian activities were automatically bound to Romania.<br/>
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The recognition of the "Ullah millet" (meaning: a "Vlach province" in the Ottoman empire) the influence of different national movements, especially those of Greece and Romania, and the influence of foreign powers in the southern Balkans (like France and Italy) , led to further division and clashes. The Greek-Romanian conflict achieved its climax in the last and most violent phases (please read <a href="https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-aromanian-national-rebirth.html">https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-aromanian-national-rebirth.html</a>) of the Macedonian Struggle (1903-1908), when most Aromanian groups fought on the pro-patriarchate side, while others took sides with the pro-Bulgarian exarchists. Confrontation between differently oriented Aromanians led to bloodshed. The increased tension between the different groups in 1906 led to the breaking-off of diplomatic relations between Romania and Greece. <br/>
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Since then, the "Ullah millet" has been called a "Romanian minority" and the Aromanians were no longer divided into pro-Greeks and pro-Romanians,
but into Greeks (Neo-Hellenes) and Romanians. <br/>
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<blockquote><i>.......A different orientation began in 1917, when Italian troops advanced via Albania into Epirus and founded, with the help of Alkiviadis Diamantis, the "Principate of Pindos" in the area of Aromanian settlement. Italy undertook attempts to convert the pro-Romanian Aromanians into pro-Italian, which succeeded to a small degree. In the summer of 1917, when the Italian troops suddenly extended their occupation from Albanian territory to Epirus , the infamous adventurer Alcibiades Diamantis, a Romanian teacher and sometimes an agent of Italian and sometimes Romanian propaganda, first appeared in the Wallachian villages. The idea he was promoting at the time in collaboration with the Italian authorities and a core of Romanian Vlachs centered on Vovousa, was to make the areas where the ethnically diverse Kutsovlachs ("Aromanians") lived autonomous in a canton under the auspices of Italy. Italy, then fishing in murky anti-Hellenic waters, helped Diamantis play his game - supplying food to the would-be liberators of Kutsovlachs, appointing consuls to many Kutsovlach villages, strengthening rumors that Italy and Romania wanted to cooperate in the Balkans with a Latin Italo-Romanian state. The result was, in the fall of 1918, a group of Vlachs from Pindos proclaimed in Kortsa the Republic of Pindos, which lived for one day! The group of Romanians even resisted armed the Greek military detachment that had gone to Vovousa to take over the village from the withdrawing Italians.Divani Lena</i> (<a href="https://vlahoi.net/istories-gegonota/to-thnisigenes-prigkipato-tis-pindou">(https://vlahoi.net/istories-gegonota/to-thnisigenes-prigkipato-tis-pindou </a>)</blockquote><br/>
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Similar attempts were undertaken during the Second World War, when the Aromanian members of the "Roman Legion" fought on the side of the Italian troops. On the other hand, a large number of Aromanian villages were destroyed by German & Axis troops in 1943-1944. Indeed in May 1941, Diamantis demanded a Vlach state with the support of the Italians and suggested putting the Romanian schools under Italian authority. During the terrible greek famine of the winter 1941-1942 the area ruled by the Roman legion was practically not affected, mainly because of huge italian help (please read<a href="https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2021/09/vlachs-during-italian-occupation-of.html">https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2021/09/vlachs-during-italian-occupation-of.html</a>).<br/>
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With the sympathy for the Italians grew the number of philocatholics among the Aromanians, but the traditional identification with the Orthodox Church kept the majority of the Aromanians closer to modern Hellenism.<br/>
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On 25 September 1941, Alcibiades Diamandi sent a memorandum to the first collaborationist Greece's Prime Minister (Georgios Tsolakoglou), as a representative of the Vlachs of Pindus and of the South Balkan Vlachs. The memorandum of Diamandi initially contained few requirements: a) The appointment of prefects, mayors and local leaders, would be done by him. b) The dismissal of permanent employees and the transfer of those who are not in favor of that movement. c) To compensate the injured individuals during the Italian-Greek war and Vlachs who had offered animals, fur and other items for the care of the soldiers. d) To punish those who during the Greek-Italian war had transfered Aromanians with anti-"greek national" behavior.<br/>
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In autumn 1941, the Prince of Pindus Diamandi moved to Larissa and -with the support of Italians who controlled that territory- founded the "Roman Legions Army". The commandant of those Vlach troops was appointed Nikolaos Matusi who was born in Samaria and lived in Larissa. <br/>
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The number of Vlachs who wore the uniform of the Roman Legion was about 2000 (please read for more information: <a href="https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2021/09/vlachs-during-italian-occupation-of.html">https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2021/09/vlachs-during-italian-occupation-of.html</a>).<br/>
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<i>Map showing the territorial requests, at the 1919 Peace Conderence of Paris, for the creation of an Aromanian state in the Pindus region of northern Greece. This territory was approximately the same of the Diamandi's "Principate of Pindus" during WW2</i>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Idea_for_autonomous_Pind_after_ww1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="584" height="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Idea_for_autonomous_Pind_after_ww1.jpg" width="590" /></a></div>
After WW2 the remaining Aromanians of Greece started to be fully "assimilated". In the 1960s and 1970s ntimidation and repression of Aromanians by local Greek politicians, teachers, priests as well as the nationalist press in the period between the civil war and the military dictatorship has led to a tabooing of minority topics in Greece.<br/>
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In Greece there is no newspaper using the Aromanian language. Contemporary Aromanian periodicals can be divided into those few (5% of the total) that deal with Aromanian topics and occasionally print texts written in Aromanian and all those local newspapers (95% of the total) that hardly write about Aromanian subjects and are only published in Greek language.<br/>
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Finally, we have to remember that in 2023 the survival of the Aromanians in Greece is in a very difficult situation, while in Albania and Macedonia (FYROM) it is improving (with official recognition of their neolatin language and other ethnic topics: please read <a href="https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2018/02/aromanians-are-official-minority-in.html">https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2018/02/aromanians-are-official-minority-in.html</a>).<br/>
<br/>Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-76286930813003345292022-12-01T09:29:00.034-08:002022-12-03T07:50:48.057-08:00JULIAN-DALMATIAN EXODUS & DIASPORA (1944-1954)The following is a translation in english of some excerpts of a research done by Michele Pigliucci, about the nearly complete disappearance of the italian community in the "Venezia Giulia" and "Dalmazia" regions of Italy during the ten years after the end of World War 2. This disappearance has been defined by some historians (like Sabbatucci) with the word "ethnocide" (mainly in Dalmatia, where the italians of Dalmatia are now reduced to only a few dozens!).<br/>
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<i>The Italians of "Piemonte d'Istria" exiled in 1954 in Trieste. Photo done in 1959</i> <br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/1959_Comunit%C3%A0_di_Piemonte_d%27Istria.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/1959_Comunit%C3%A0_di_Piemonte_d%27Istria.jpg"/></a></div><br/>
<b>"La diaspora dei giuliani e dei dalmati: una ferita ancora da sanare" (The diaspora of Julians and Dalmatians: a wound still to be healed)</b>, by Michele Pigliucci<br/>
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The Julian-Dalmatian exodus refers to the mass migratory phenomenon that occurred between 1944 and 1954 which involved a substantial percentage of the inhabitants of the Italian region Venezia Giulia, a geographical region enclosed between the Julian Alps, the Isonzo river and the sea, and including the Gorizia karst , the Trieste karst and the Istrian peninsula up to the Gulf of Quarnaro. <br/>
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The phenomenon largely occurred after the cessation of hostilities during the Second World War, at the end of which almost all of the Venezia Giulia region had passed under the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; it was a phenomenon that involved the majority of the Italian population of the region, who decided to abandon their homes to flee to Italy, often in a daring way, taking with them what was possible to close in a chest or pile up on a cart and often even the coffins containing the remains of their own deads.<br/>
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The figures referring to the extent of the phenomenon have often been manipulated for political interests, oscillating between the three hundred and fifty thousand mentioned by Father Flaminio Rocchi and the two hundred thousand reported by the Slovenian scholar Zerjavic.<br/>
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But the most reliable figure is that of the "Opera Profughi" (Opera Refugees), who took a census of 201,440 people to which the historian Raoul Pupo believes it is necessary to add the number of those who for various reasons escaped the count, thus arriving at a reliable total of just over three hundred thousand people. <br/>
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This is almost all of the Italian population in the area, an exodus of dimensions indeed impressive, unprecedented in the history of Italy.<br/>
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When Italy signed the armistice in september 1943, the Yugoslav partisans of the Popular Committee for the Liberation of Istria proclaimed from
Pisino (actual Pazin in central Istria), with a nationalistic language, the return of Istria to the Croatian motherland, and occupied the whole region left without any political and military authority; established people's courts with which they began a ferocious liquidation of Italians (but also of some fascist Slovenians and Croatians) accused of being enemies of the people.<br/>
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Several hundred people disappeared in those few months when drowned in the sea or shot on the edge of a foiba, often thrown alive and after being tortured; the victims were both military and civilians with positions during the regime, but also people completely unrelated to fascism such as Norma Cossetto, a university student who was arrested and raped by several men before being thrown alive into a foiba.<br/>
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The region (after a few weeks of partizan occupation) remained under German administration up to spring of 1945, when the last Allied advance got the better of the exhausted Nazi-fascist troops: the 4th Yugoslav Army also took part in the offensive -which was ordered by Marshal Tito- to give the absolute precedence to the full occupation of Trieste. The city was reached on May 1 even earlier than Lubliana, just one day earlier than upon the arrival of New Zealand soldiers. It was the so-called «race for Trieste», which Tito knew was strategic for the purposes of the future structure
geopolitics of the area. <br/>
<br/>
With the withdrawal of the German troops and the definitive disbandment of the departments of the Italian Social Republic, all of Venezia Giulia was also occupied by the Yugoslavs who resumed arrests, summary trials and eliminations of those who for various reasons were denounced as enemies of the people by the many informants in the area. After forty-two days of occupation the Yugoslavs left Trieste, Gorizia and Pola while the rest of the istrian territory became de jure Yugoslav territory (with the exception of the north-western coastal area up to the Mirna river which will constitute the "Free Territory of Trieste" until 1954).<br/>
<br/>
It was then when began the "exodus" of the Italian population, whose origin can be traced back to three reasons: one linked to security, one political and one national.<br/>
<br/>
The flight of the Italians was above all a reaction to the liquidations and the violence implemented by the Yugoslav regime and in particular by the secret police, the OZNA. The large number of people disappeared and killed in sinkholes (called "foibe" in italian) throughout the territory greatly frightened the Italian population, so much so that historian Sabbatucci does not hesitate to speak of "ethnic cleansing" towards the Italians, convinced that there was precisely behind these liquidations the will of modify the ethnic structure of the territory by eliminating the Italians especially before the Peace Conference defined sovereignty over the area. <br/>
<br/>
The political motivation, consisting in the desire not to submit to a communist regime, then played a fundamental role both in the Italians of the exodus and in the "remained" italian community (confident in the nascent regime) and both for the Italian workers who decided to cross the border in the opposite direction in order to do adherence to the ideal of socialism. Many of those workers, however, will be persecuted as "cominformists" after the break between Tito and Stalin.<br/>
<br/>
Finally, it affected the choice to flee also the national identity, on which the exile memoir insists a lot, which often tells of a voluntary exile, motivated by the desire to continue living in an Italian land. The strong national sense of these populations, on which they had Irredentism and Fascism, and the millenary rivalry with the Slavs, found fertile ground and certainly contributed to this choice. In the first post-war years, together wjth the violence, the regime titino undertook a work of Slavicisation of the region similar to that of Italianization conceived by fascism: the Italian shop signs, the use of the Italian language was substantially prohibited, many Italian schools were closed and it was banned enrollment in the same to all children whose surname ended in «-ch», automatically considered Italianized Slavs.<br/>
<br/>
<i>The five exodus waves</i><br/>
<br/>
The exodus materialized in five main waves corresponding to as many historical events:<br/>
<br/>
1) A first wave followed the fierce Anglo-American bombing of Zara, whose inhabitants had already sought refuge in Italy in 1944: the abandoned city would later be occupied by Tito's partisans and the Italians would never return.<br/>
2) The second wave followed the definitive annexation of the vast majority of the Istrian region, Fiume and the Dalmatian lands in June 1945.<br/>
3) A third wave took place in the winter of 1947, when also Pola passed under Yugoslav control following the signing of the Peace Treaty: in the city there were tens of thousands of inhabitants (nearly all the "Polani") who decided to embark to reach Italy.<br/>
4) In 1948 a new wave affected the communists who had wanted to stay or who had moved to Tito Yugoslavia and who, after the Tito's expulsion from the Cominform in 1948, had ended up as enemies of the yugoslav regime because loyals to the Partito Comunista Italiano.<br/>
5) The last big wave finally occurred in October 1954, no less than nine years after the end of the war, when the London Memorandum established the passage of Trieste to Italy but handed over to Yugoslavia the coastal area from Capodistria (now called Koper) up to the river Quieto (now called Mirna).<br/>.
<br/>
The arrival of the exiles on the national territory in 1945 and 1946 was the cause of harsh political disputes: the docks of the ports of Venice and Ancona they hosted, upon the arrival of the steamers, protest demonstrations from the side of dock workers who accused the Giuliani of fascism as fugitives from a communist regime. Disembarked on land, the exiles were then sorted onto the various trains that would take them to the 120 refugee camps scattered throughout Italy to host them as best they could: during the passage of one of these trains to the Bologna station, the workers even threatened to strike if the authorities had allowed the convoy to stop to receive the comfort of the Red Cross.<br/>
<br/>
The Communist Party helped to spread hostility towards the exiles even in the final destinations of the journey, favoring the identification of the Giulians with war criminals forced to flee from Venezia Giulia to escape the reaction of their victims. This distrust spread significantly in Italy, also fueled by the precarious living conditions in which the exiles found themselves in the refugee camps.<br/>
<br/>
In accordance with this attitude of mistrust the historiography official has ignored for decades the extent and sometimes the very existence of this tragedy. Still in the 90s of the twentieth century the manuals only marginally reported this page of history, which survived relegated to neo-fascist political propaganda and the memoirs of exiles. The bad reception given to refugees on the docks of the ports and in the stations was the prodrome of a more general removal not only of the story of the exodus, but also of much of the history of the Italian presence in Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia.<br/>
<br/>
But among the causes that had led to the collective removal of this story of Italy it is impossible to deny how contributed the "shame" (promoted mainly by the Italian communists) due to the presence of the Italian element in Venezia Giulia & Dalmatia, considered alien and of colonial origin by the Yugoslavia of Tito. This belief results completely unfounded as the Latin element in Istria and in Dalmatia is autochthonous, historically documented without solution continuity from the Roman imperial age up to national Italian unification (called "Risorgimento") to which provided an important blood contribution.<br/>
<br/>
Historical evidence does not permit misunderstandings: Italy, defeated in the Second World War, had to give away as a "repair" an entire region of its metropolitan territory (Venetia Giulia, Istria and areas of coastal Dalmatia), as large as Tuscany, whose population for the most part chose the path of exile both to escape the terror of the new communist regime Yugoslavian and to preserve its national identity.<br/>
Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-40262772761074970312022-11-02T08:52:00.036-07:002022-11-17T06:58:49.193-08:00ROMANS IN EQUATORIAL COAST OF WEST AFRICA<b>Romans in the Gulf of Guinea</b><br/>
<br/>
We know that Romans went to the north areas of subsaharan Africa from the Mediterranean coast of northern Africa, but some academics think that they probably reached also the Gulf of Guinea by sea and/or by crossing the Sahara. I am going to research this possibility.<br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Trans-Saharan_roman_expeditions-explorations.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Trans-Saharan_roman_expeditions-explorations.png"/></a></div>
<b><i>HISTORY</b></i><br/>
<br/>
When Romans conquered Carthage in the second century BC, they also obtained their huge commerce in the Atlantic coast of west Africa.<br/>
<br/>
Indeed a sea-borne merchant people like the parent Phoenicians, the Carthaginians ranged far beyond the Straits of Gibraltar to trade with the Britons and with the Berbers of western Morocco. Sometime before 400 BC Hanno, a Carthaginian admiral, embarked with a fleet of sixty vessels on a famous voyage of exploration down the Atlantic coast of Africa. <br/>
<br/>
He certainly reached the Gulf of Guinea and, from his report of gorillas, probably he arrived to the shores of modern Gabon, but he did not circumnavigate the continent as some have claimed. Furthermore the discovery, two centuries ago, of a cache of Carthaginian coins of the fourth century BC in the Azores—a third of the way across the Atlantic from Portugal—raises the question whether some stray Punic navigator may not even have discovered the New World.<br/>
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It is noteworthy to pinpoint that the earliest recorded contact with the island of Mogador (near the coast of actual Western Sahara in southern Morocco) was by the Carthaginian navigator Hanno, who visited and established a trading post in the area in the fifth century BC. In the first century BC roman merchants settled in the island and established a small fortified settlement, which may have been the starting point for Roman merchants sailing to the Cape Verde islands and the Gulf of Guinea. <br/><br/>
However Romans later conquered Carthago and maintained all trade done across the Sahara after the second century BC and until the fifth century AD. Indeed one roman named Iulius Maternus travelled the most south from the Mediterranean shores inside central Africa.<br/>
<br/>
According to Marinus of Tyre (Ptol. 1,8,5), the roman Iulius Maternus together with the king of the Garamantes set off from Garama (near the Tibesti mountains in the south of actual Libya) to the south and, after four months and 14 days (Ptol. 1,11,5), reached the Ethiopian land of Agysimba, where they saw a great number of rhinoceros (cf. also Ptol. 1,7,2; 8,2; 6 f.; 9,8; 10,1; 11,4; 12,2; 4,8,5; 7,5,2). Maternus seems to have travelled as a trader between AD 83 and 92 AD. To our knowledge, he penetrated further than any other Roman into the African interior and probably reached the gulf of Guinea.<br/>
<br/>
The landscape Agisymba embraced a vast area south of the Sahara from Lake Chad to the west to the Niger bend (and perhaps the delta) and belonged politically to the reign of the king of the Garamantes.This king had his headquarters in the city of Garama in today's Fezzan (western Libya). Agisymba is first time mentioned in the geographical work of the Alexandrian scholar Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century A. D.). An accurate localization of the landscape of Agisymba is still expected, but it is also believed in modern research to be an antecedent kingdom of Kanem. In the second half of the 1st century A D, Iulius Maternus who was probably a native of Roman North Africa, traveled from Leptis Magna to Garama.<br/>
<br/>
There he joined the entourage of the king of the Garamantes and traveled further four months a southerly direction until the landscape Agisymba. There are various considerations, what role Iulius Maternus had played during this expedition: he was seen as a Roman general, as a businessman or as a diplomat. Raffael Joorde -a german historian- wrote that Maternus was a diplomat who received the unique opportunity to make the extensive territory south of the Sahara accessible for the geographers in the Roman world probably reaching the Atlantic ocean in actual Nigeria. The cause of this long journey is assumed by many researchers to be a military campaign of the king of the Garamantes against rebellious subjects.<br/>
<br/>
However some historians (like Susan Raven) believe that there was even another Roman expedition to sub-saharan central Africa: the one of Valerius Festus, that could have reached the equatorial Africa thanks to the Niger river.<br/>
<br/>
Indeed Pliny wrote that in 70 AD a legatus of the Legio III Augusta named Festus repeated the Balbus expedition toward the Niger river. He went to the eastern Hoggar Mountains and the entered the Air Mountains as far as the Gadoufaoua plain. Gadoufaoua (Touareg for “the place where camels fear to go”) is a site in the Tenere desert of Niger known for its extensive fossil graveyard, where remains of Sarcosuchus imperator, popularly known as SuperCroc, have been found). Festus finally arrived in the area in which Timbuktu is now located. <br/>
<br/>
Some academics, such as Fage, think that he only reached the Ghat region in southern Libya, near the border with southern Algeria and Niger. However, it is possible that a few of his legionaries reached as far as the Niger river and went down to the equatorial forests navigating the river to the delta estuary in what is now southern Nigeria. Something similar may have occurred in the exploration of the Nile done under Emperor Nero in Uganda.<br/>
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After the third/fourth century the roman contacts with sub-saharan Africa started to disappear, because of the final crisis in the roman empire<br/>
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<b><i>Maritime travels</b></i><br/>
<br/>
Even maritime contacts happened in the western coast of Africa: there are some academic discussions about the possibility of further Roman travels toward Guinea and Nigeria and even the equatorial areas of the Gulf of Guinea.<br/>
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<i>XIX century map showing the Fernando Po island in the Gulf of Guinea. This island was known to the Romans as one of the "Hesperides": they knew that it was located at 40 days of navigation from the Cape Verde islands (called in roman times "Gorgades")<br/>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Lange_diercke_sachsen_afrika_ehemalige_schutzgebiete_kamerun.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="620" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Lange_diercke_sachsen_afrika_ehemalige_schutzgebiete_kamerun.jpg"/></a></div></i><br/>
Indeed according to Pliny the Elder and his citation by Gaius Julius Solinus, the sea voyaging time crossing from the Gorgades (Cape Verde islands) to the islands of the Ladies of the West ("Hesperides") now known as São Tomé and Príncipe and Fernando Po was around 40 days (meaning that Romans knew the exact time needed to reach these equatorial islands -located in front of Camerun/Niger delta- and only with their direct exploration/navigation they could have know this precise time).<br/>
<br/>
Furthermore, a Roman coin -in a good condition- of the emperor Trajan has been found in Congo (<a href="http://www.strangehistory.net/2015/02/10/roman-coin-congo/">http://www.strangehistory.net/2015/02/10/roman-coin-congo/</a>).<br/>
<br/>
Roman coins have been also found in Nigeria and Niger; and in Guinea, Togo and Ghana too. However, it is much more likely that all these coins were introduced at a much later date than that when there was direct Roman intercourse so far down the western coast. But it is possible -even if with a possibility of a very minimal percentage of only 5%, according to researchers- that Roman merchants left there those coins doing their trade when reached the gulf of Guinea.<br/>
<br/>
Finally it is important to remember that Augustus, based on the discovery of a sunken roman merchant ship from southern Hispania in the Djibouti area (in the horn of eastern Africa), wanted to organize around Africa a roman maritime expedition (to be done initially by his adoptive son Gaius Caesar when he sailed from Egypt's Berenice toward Aden).<br/>
<br/>
It was going to be done -around 2 AD- from southern Egypt to Mogador and Sala (in actual Morocco). But it seems that it never took place.<br/>
<br/
Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-63555558138383802482022-10-01T08:02:00.053-07:002022-10-16T07:33:14.834-07:00MONTENEGRO BETRAYED AFTER WW1 (& UNITED TO YUGOSLAVIA)
Only a few books have been written about how the independent kingdom of Montenegro was united to Yugoslavia after WW1 against the wish of many Montenegrins (who made the famous "Christmass Uprising" in 1919). One very well written is the one by Alberto Becherelli with the title "Montenegro Betrayed: The Yugoslav Unification and the Controversial Inter-Allied Occupation".<br/>
<br/>
It is noteworthy to pinpoint that the Italian government (initially also with France) tried to stop this unification, but with no results: France at the Peace Coneference of Paris accepted the unification in 1919, while Italy choose to get an agreement with the Treaty of Rapallo in november 1920 (when Yugoslavia accepted the borders in Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia in exchange of Italy's no more intervention against the Montenegro unification) <br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Chicago_Tribune%2C_September_4%2C_1919.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="700" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="609" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Chicago_Tribune%2C_September_4%2C_1919.PNG"/></a></div>
Later in the twentieth century, the "Christmas Uprising" was subject to ideological emphasis in Montenegrin nationalism. In World War II, one of the earliest leaders of the Greens, Sekula Drljević, invited the Italian occupation of Montenegro and collaborated with Italy in order to break away from Yugoslavia with the "Italian Governorate of Montenegro"(1941-1943). With him there was also Krsto Popović, the leader of the "Christmas uprising", who organized his collaboration militia called the "Lovćen Brigade". This militia was under the control or influence of the fascist Italian occupation force (if interested, please read: <a href="https://www.academia.edu/42722637/L_occupazione_italiana_in_Montenegro_Forme_di_guerriglia_e_dinamiche_politiche_del_collaborazionismo_%C4%8Detnico_1941_1943_Qualestoria_anno_XLIII_n_2_dicembre_2015_pp_65_80?email_work_card=view-paper">https://www.academia.edu/42722637/L_occupazione_italiana_in_Montenegro_Forme_di_guerriglia_e_dinamiche_politiche_del_collaborazionismo_%C4%8Detnico_1941_1943_Qualestoria_anno_XLIII_n_2_dicembre_2015_pp_65_80?email_work_card=view-paper</a>).<br/>
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The following are some excerpts from this very interesting book:<br/>
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<b>Montenegro Betrayed: The Yugoslav Unification</b><br/>
<br/>
<i>A Tradition of Independence</i><br/>
<br/>
During WWI, the Kingdom of Montenegro experienced its last troubled period of independence at the end of a process that in the 19
th century had brought the country almost continuously in a stateof war against the Ottomans with important political and military successes, despite the fact that Sultan Selim III, already in 1799, had formally recognized that Montenegrins “had never been subjects of the High Porte.”<br/>
<br/>
Under the Ottoman domination, the mountains of Montenegro preserved a de facto autonomy from the authority of the sultan due to a peculiar tribal structure and on the basis of the payment of a tribute, which frequently had been unpaid. A particulartheocracy headed by the prince bishop of Cetinje – vladika elected by a local assembly– had existed from the beginning of the 16th cen-tury until 1851, when Montenegro, after the death of Petar II Petrović-Njegoš (author of a literary work that became a symbol of the Montenegrin and more generally of the South Slavic nation-building process: Gorski Vijenac [The Mountain Wreath]) also became a secular principality with a definitive separation between temporal and spiritual power.<br/>
<br/>
Over the centuries, the Ottoman army repeatedly attempted to subjugate without success the Montenegrin tribes from the mountains, while the Montenegrin cities on the coast remained for a long time linked to the "Serenissima" Venazia: if Bar (Antivari) and Ulcinj were conquered by the Ottomans in 1571, Kotor and the territory of oka (since 1420), and Budva (since 1442) remained Venetian until 1797 (and after the Napoleonic period under Austria until 1918).<br/>
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From this historical legacy, the widespread belief among the 18th century Montenegrin vladikas was that Montenegro, whose independence was recognized at the Congress of Berlin of 1878, had never been fully conquered by the Turks.<br/>
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Still at the beginning of the 20th century Montenegro, also due to the constantly increasing influence of Russia on the country in the previous two centuries, was at the forefront in the fight against “the oppressors of the Slavic peoples,” and the first among the Balkan allies to proclaim war on Turkey in October 1912. If in 1911, before the Balkan Wars, the territory of the kingdom had less than 10,000km with a population of 284,000 inhabitants, in 1914 the country’s surface reached 15,000 km and the population rose to 470,000 inhabitants.<br/>
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Since 1860, King Nikola was the seventh sovereign from the Petrović-Njegoš dynasty (founded in 1697 by Vladika Danilo IPetrović) and during his fiftieth year (1910) of reign –with half a century of territorial expansion, modernization and socio-economic progress– the principality of Montenegro was elevated to a kingdom andBar declared a free port. Moreover, since December 1905 King Nikola had introduced in the country a constitution based on the Serbian one from 1869.Relations between Montenegrins and Serbs, in the years beforeand during WWI, were controversial.<br/>
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On the one hand, the Yugo-slav idea had gradually unified the two peoples and, after the parti-tion of the Sandžak of Novi Pazar, proposals for a political, customsand military union of the two countries were advanced – despite the persistent divergences between the Petrović-Njegoš and Karađor-đević dynasties, both eager to make their own kingdoms the central pillar of the Yugoslav unification. On the other hand, the tradition ofindependence of Montenegro was still strong and solidified by therecent wars, which had contributed to strengthen the brotherhood between the Yugoslav peoples, but had not helped in improving therelations between the governments of Cetinje and Belgrade. <br/>
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In this sense, the Montenegrins continued to reproach the Serbian attitudetowards their aspirations over Shkodër: both the Serbian abandon-ment of the siege during the Balkan Wars and the Serbian attemptduring the retreat at the end of 1915 to assume the control of the cityeven though it had been previously occupied by the Montenegrins.<br/>
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The Shkodër area was one of the main territorial objectives for the expansion of Montenegro, together with Herzegovina, the south-eastern part of Bosnia, and the Adriatic coast from the spring of the Neretva River to the Bay of Kotor (former Cattaro), including Dubrovnik (former Ragusa).
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<br/>
In addition to this, during WWI, the Montenegrin Army was subject to the Serbian Army General Staff; for this reason the Montenegrins accused the Serbian officers in command for being responsible for the defeat. In October 1915, indeed, the resistance of the Montenegrin army against the offensive of the Austro-Hungarians was ineffective. As aconsequence, in January 1916, the latter had conquered Mount Lovćen and then had invaded the entire country. King Nikola fled to France and Montenegro fell under the Austro-Hungarian domination until the defeat and collapse of the Dual Monarchy in 1918.<br/>
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Photo of Krsto Popovic, the leader of the Christmas Uprising:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Krsto_Zrnov_Popovic.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="535" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Krsto_Zrnov_Popovic.jpg"/></a></div>
<i>The Controversial Union with Serbia</i><br/>
<br/>
Far from becoming an independent state again, Montenegro at the end of the war was occupied by the Serbian troops. With the Corfu Declaration of July 20, 1917, the head of the Serbian government Nikola Pašić and the leader of the Yugoslav Committee Ante Trumbić had already laid the basis of the Yugoslav union. The unification of the South Slavic territories with the Kingdom of Serbia was agreed by Pašić, some members of the Skupština, the representatives of the National Council of Zagreb and those of the Yugoslav Committee with the Geneva Convention of November 9, 1918.<br/>
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With the occupation of Montenegro by the Allied troops –French, British, American and Italian– in the autumn of 1918 most of the country went under the control of the Serbian troops of Colonel Dragutin Milutinović, that presented themselves as the redeemers of the “oppressed brothers” and were actively engaged in propagating the union between Montenegro and Serbia. The unification was supported by relevant Montenegrin personalities such as Andrija Radović, head of the government in exile until January 1917. The split between Radović and King Nikola had lasted since August 1916, when the prime minister of Montenegro started supporting the union of Serbia and Montenegro through the unification of the Petrović-Njegoš and Karađorđević dynasties, firstly with the abdication of the former in favor of Alexander of Serbia, and then with a following rotation tothe throne between the two families.<br/>
<br/>
Since February 1917, Radović was leading the Montenegrin Committee for the National Unifica-tion, founded in Geneva and in close contact with the Serbian governmental circles that worked to de-legitimize the sovereignty of King Nikola over Montenegro.At this point, the Montenegrin sovereign, mainly due to the marriage of his daughter Elena with the King of Italy Vittorio Emanuele III, hoped that the Italian occupation of Kotor and Bar could counterbalance the Serbian one and in some way be useful for the preservation of his dynasty on the throne of Montenegro. The Italian
ambitions on the other side of the Adriatic Sea, a mix of political, strategic and economic aspirations, at least were the best guarantee for the maintenance of Montenegrin independence. At a political level, however, the Serbian Prime Minister Pašić worked to legalize the Serbian hegemony over the territory of Montenegro, preventing the return of King Nikola to the country, dissuaded also by the Italian and French governments.<br/>
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At the same time, the committee led byRadović began the campaign for the election of the deputies to theGreat National Assembly in Podgorica, which would decide on the future status of Montenegro. On November 19, 1918, the Montenegrin elections held under the military pressure of the Serbian troops were done by acclamation rather than secret vote. Cetinje was the center of political propaganda: here the supporters of the unconditioned union with Serbia presented a list of candidates on a white colored paper, while their opponents, more cautious and with the aim to preserve the political integrity of Montenegro, presented a green colored list. <br/>
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The two colors became the terms used to identify the two factions: the “whites”(bjelaši) were favorable to the union with Serbia, and the “greens”(zelenaši) were the supporters of independence. If the latter were pri-marily an expression of the rural society, the former had among theirranks more urban exponents: merchants, artisans, and intellectuals.<br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Borbe_kod_Podgorice_izme%C4%91u_crnogorskih_pobunjenika_i_srpske_vojske_1918..jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="579" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Borbe_kod_Podgorice_izme%C4%91u_crnogorskih_pobunjenika_i_srpske_vojske_1918..jpg"/></a></div>
<i>The Inter-Allied Occupation and the "Christmas Uprising"</i><br/>
<br/>
According to the Italian military authorities in Montenegro, from the end of December 1918 there were rumors that in order to provide for the shortage of armament the Italian garrisons of Virpazar and Bar could be attacked both by pro-Serbian armed movements and Montenegrin independence supporters. This was the premise of the anti-Serb uprising that began in the surroundings of Cetinje on January 3, 1919. Jovan Simonov Plamenac and the other “green” leaders sent emissaries to the Inter-Allied command of Cattaro, led by the French General Venel, to demand the occupation of Cetinje and Montenegro by the Inter-Allied troops with the exclusion of the Serbian-Yugoslav ones.<br/>
<br/>
Even in Bar the goal of the insurgents was to throwout the pro-Serbian local authorities. For Venel, however, any kind of Inter-Allied intervention against the Serbian-Yugoslav troops wasout of discussion. As in the previous days, the French general in charge did not even consult the commanders of the other Alliedcontingents. The French seemed deliberately favoring the Serbian occupation, openly supporting Radović and the “white” faction inthe area between Virpazar and Shkodër and facilitating the arrival rom Dubrovnik of a pro-Serbian Montenegrin legion trained and supported by the French.<br/>
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The Italian military command in Montenegro openly denounced the pro-Serbian attitude of the French, an accusation that was considered reliable also by the American Ambassador in Rome Nelson Page, who on January 9 reported to the Commission to Negotiate Peace in Paris the text of a telegram from Kotor which stated:<br/>
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........"January 6: French General is making a French-Serbian penetration into Montenegro admitting no other than Serbian authority. The intervention of his troops has a counterrevolutionary character. There are about 3,000 of which 500 were landed at Ragusa, 400 of the latter having already arrived at Cattaro [Kotor] have gone into Montenegro in French uniforms and with Serbo-French officers. Immediate help and energetic diplomatic steps indispensable since the enemy is energetically stirring up sedition.".......<br/>
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Even the Montenegrin government in exile condemned how the French authorities facilitated the arrival in Montenegro of the followers of Radović, at the same time hindering the arrival of King Nikola’s supporters to whom had been denied the permission to enter the country with trivial excuses.<br/>
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The Italians suspected that even the health precautions taken by the French in Kotor against typhoid cases in late December –communication between the city and the rest of Montenegro was limited with a release of a safe-conduct forleaving the country– were a pretext in order to allow to the Serbian commands to isolate the Montenegrin population. Pero Šoć denounced this attempt by the Serbian authorities to the American
chargè d’affaires in France Bliss. According to Šoć only Serbian conspirators and agents had open access to Montenegro, while Montenegrin statesmen and politicians had to appeal to the Allies in order to have the permission to leave the country and reach Rome or Paris.<br/>
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For this reason, the Italian general accused the French command of complicity in the subjugation of the Montenegrin population perpetrated by the Serbian authorities. Even without the support of the Inter-Allied authorities, Montenegrin insurgents under the command of Krsto Popovic (around 15,000-20,000 persons in the whole country) marched on Cetinje and other cities (Nikšić, Virpazar, Podgorica) facing Serbian-Yugoslav troops (January 6), which had a smaller number of men but were better equipped. Lacking food and ammunition, military preparation, skills and resolute leaders, around 3,500 “greens,” of which only a third were armed, were soon forced to desist from taking Cetinje, the only city where for a few days the insurgents could engage into a real battle against the Serbian-Yugoslav soldiers (400 men) and the “white” militias (300 men) under the command of the Serbian general Martinović.<br/>
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Although they had the support of the population who were opposed to the violence of the “whites” and to the unconditional union of Montenegro with Serbia carried out in terms of a simple annexation, the “greens” did not prove to be as organized and cohesive as their opponents and the Serbian-Yugoslav soldiers were. The goal of the “green” armed insurrection was mainly to provoke an Allied intervention, and in particular an Italian one also if they had never explicitly affirmed it; it was not a real movement of resistance. The neutral position of the Italian troops, from which the insurgents expected a more or less direct support, diminished the hope of the “greens” for a success. <br/>
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After the failed rebellion, despite the assurances given by Venel, the Serbs launched retaliation. Only in Podgorica they arrested 164 persons, including three cousins of King Nikola, eighty officers and numerous dignitaries of the court, confiscating properties.<br/>
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The conflict between the “greens” and “whites,” however, did not end with the uprising of January 1919 and continued in the following years. The Italian military authorities, in the areas under their occupation, recorded incidents and violence between the “whites” and the Serbian-Yugoslav troops on the one side and Montenegrin nationalist gangs on the other. In early June, for example, the Italian High Command and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs received reports about clashes in the mountainous region of the Shkodër frontier (Skadarska Krajina, Krajë for the Albanians) between the Serbian-Yugoslav troops and the Montenegrin "Komiti" headed by the well-known Savo Raspopović, on whose head the Serbian authorities placed a bounty of 20,000 dinars. Only in the evening of May 27, the assault of the bands of Raspopović caused to the Serbian-Yugoslavs several causalities. During the month, Raspopović continued his attacks in the area around Bar, a fact that brought the Serbian-Yugo-slav troops to accuse the Italians of having reached an agreement with the Montenegrin leader. <br/>
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At the same time, Italian soldiers had to face frequent clashes with the Serbian-Yugoslav units and militias, which often ended in gun-fight for not entirely clear reasons.<br/>
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The head of the Italian Army General Staff also insinuated that the French command in Albania and Montenegro could be responsible for many of the increasingly frequent anti-Italian demonstrations in the country. The Italian Foreign Minister Tommaso Tittoni promised to bring to the attention ofthe Allied governments the attitude of the Serbian-Yugoslavs, who claimed at all costs that Italian troops should abandon Montenegro.<br/>
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The garrisons in the country, including the Italian detachments, were abandoned by the Allied troops at the end of April 1919. The Allied occupation was reduced to the coastal area (Bar, Kotor, Ulcinj and Virpazar) withthe aim of securing the supplies for Shkodër, while the inner part of the country was garrisoned exclusively by the Serbian-Yugoslav troops. The English also left Virpazar and Bar between April 27 and 30. The Italians remained in Bar (at the railways and the port), Ko\tor and Virpazar and were categorically ordered not to be meddle inthe clashes between Serbian and Montenegrin “dissident” bands.<br/>
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From the summer of 1919 indeed the “greens” again took up the arms, this time with the Italian support. In April, in fact, the government in Rome with the Montenegrin government in exile signed a military convention for the formation of a Montenegrin legion in Italy. The Italian ships landed in Montenegro with new forces ready to incite the population against the Serbian authorities without reaching the desired results. The regions of Bar and Virpazar became theaters of new conflicts between Serbian-Yugoslavs, Montenegrin rebels and Italian troops.<br/>
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The Yugoslav delegation at the Paris Peace Conference, indeed, once again explicitly asked for the evacuation of the Italian troops from Montenegro to definitely complete the unification of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In the summer of 1919, Radović (July 26-29) and then Pašić (August 14, 29 and 31) sent notes to the french Clemenceau calling for the withdrawal of the Italian troops that were accused of intentionally encouraging “the elements of disorder” in Montenegro.<br/>
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Flags of the Green montenegrins while in exile in Gaeta (Italy): <br/>
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<i>Conclusions</i><br/>
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At the end of 1919, at the Paris Peace Conference, the Yugoslav delegation –as during the summer the Italian counterpart had already done– officially denounced a series of violence that the Italian command in Montenegro committed against the Yugoslav soldiers and civilians and for which a special committee was appointed by the government of Belgrade for investigation. On the other hand, the Allies communicated to the Montenegrin government in exile that they no longer would anticipate the monthly credit hitherto paid to King Nikola (the subsidies ceased at the end of October).<br/>
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In this way, King Nikola was forced to leave Paris and to reach Prince anilo, while the Montenegrin government in exile had to reduce its personnel, leaving in Neuilly sur Seine only Plamenac and other few persons. In this situation, despite the hostility of the Montenegrin population to the Serbian annexation, which, as it had already been said, did not mean an opposition to a real Yugoslav federalist union, or the Montenegrin establishment in exile it was impossible to continue to support the historical rights of Montenegro for independence. <br/>
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Among other things, Plamenac tried a series of desperate and unsuccessful initiatives, such as the agreement concluded on May 12, 1920, with Gabriele D’Annunzio, who was still in Fiume with his legionaries, hoping to keep some kind of Italian support for the Montenegrin issue. At that time, in fact, the Italian government for the resolution of the Adriatic question had already abandoned the previous political radicalism and was now ready to reach an agreement with the government of Belgrade. The agreement of Plamenac and D’Annunzio, with the latter that was keeping contacts with the representatives of the Yugoslav nationalities that opposed Belgrade centralism in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, provided for the restoration of the independence of the Montenegrin kingdom as a first step towards the liberation of the Yugoslav populations from the Serbian rule.<br/>
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The Supreme Council of the Allies briefly examined only a Mon-tenegrin note sent on November 26, 1919, with which Plamenac threatened that if the Montenegrin delegate was not immediately invited to the Peace Conference for the signing of the peace treaties with Germany, Austria and Bulgaria, the Montenegrin government in exile would conclude a separate peace with these countries.<br/>
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On December 1, 1919, the Supreme Council decided not to give any response to the threats of Plamenac, simply ignoring his letter. The Italian delegate De Martino agreed with the decision, but also asked if the Supreme Council before or later would take into consideration the Montenegrin issue, which still needed a solution. For Clemenceau the Montenegrin issue did not exist, the problem –he replied to De Martino– was more over different: For how long did the Italian government still have the intention to pursue this matter? Clemenceau, without explicitly stating it, was reaffirming that for the Allies the Montenegrin issue had been resolved long time ago with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.<br/>
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he Montenegrin issue, from the diplomatic point of view, was officially over at the end of 1920, when also the appeals of the Montenegrin government in exile to the League of Nations did not find an answer (November 1920).<br/>
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Italy, which had been the main supporter of the Montenegrin cause in order to defend its interests on the other coast of the Adriatic Sea against the Yugoslav aspirations, finally interrupted the political and military support to the Montenegrin refugees preferring an agreement with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia for the definition of the border dispute and other controversial issues. The signing of the Treaty of Rapallo, in November 1920, meant the definitive end of the Montenegrin issue and the legitimacy of the Yugoslav state for the country that had opposed the most its recognition in the international context.<br/>
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After the apparent settlement of the Adriatic issue and of the Italian-Yugoslav relations, also France took the moment to resolve itsrelations with the Montenegrin king (on December 20, 1920).<br/>
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Even for Great Britain, which still during the summer of 1920 had refused to recognize the annexation of Montenegro as a
fait accompli – Vesnić, head of the government in Belgrade, was insisting on this argument for the formal recognition of the union of Montenegro with the Kingdom SHS– the opportunity for the Montenegrin people to send “freely elected representatives to the Yugoslav Constituent Assembly” represented the best recognition of the legitimacy of the unification.<br/>
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All this facts were followed by the interruption of diplomatic relations between the Montenegrin government in exile –that in the meantime was moved to Rome– and the United States and Great Britain respectively on January 21 and March 17, 1921: it was substantially the conclusion of the vain struggle for the independence of Montenegro against the unconditional union with Serbia and the final acceptance of its incorporation into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.<br/>
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Further readings<br/>
<br/>
1-Montenegro italiano (1941-1943): <a href="https://www.academia.edu/6469238/le_nuove_province">https://www.academia.edu/6469238/le_nuove_province</a><br/>
2-Occupazione italiana dell'Adriatico dalmato nel 1918: <a href="https://www.eastjournal.net/archives/126261">https://www.eastjournal.net/archives/126261</a>
Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-72536867744405552122022-09-04T08:36:00.041-07:002022-09-18T14:29:13.325-07:00ITALIAN CATTARO (ACTUAL KOTOR IN MONTENEGRO)In the south of coastal Dalmatia there it is a city that has a history closely linked to Italy: Cattaro, the actual "Kotor" (former capital of Montenegro). Indeed Cattaro -after being under the Republic of Venice for many centuries- has been "italian" two times in the last two centuries: in the napoleonic kingdom of Italy (1805-1810) and during WW2 (1941-1943). The following is an essay I have written in 2018 and that has been published -partially- on the english, spanish & italian wikipedia:<br/>
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HISTORY OF "CATTARO" (actual Kotor, the main city of Montenegro)<br/>
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Cattaro (or Venetian Cattaro, called in Italian "Cattaro la Veneziana") was the historical city populated by autochtonous "romanised" Dalmatians since the fall of the Roman empire and that belonged to the Republic of Venice for nearly five centuries until Napoleon times (for further info, please read my <a href="https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2013/09/dalmatias-neolatin-city-states.html">https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2013/09/dalmatias-neolatin-city-states.html</a>).<br/>
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Later it was part of the Napoleonic kingdom of Italy until was added to the Austrian empire in the XIX century and started to lose the neolatin characteristics, while becoming a Montenegrin city called "Kotor" actually. However in 1941 the city was united for a few years to the Kingdom of Italy in the "Governorate of Dalmatia".<br/>
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<b><i>History</i></b><br/>
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Ascrivium, or Ascruvium, the modern Cattaro, was first historically mentioned when submitted to Rome in 168 BC.<br/>
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<i>The "Dalmatian city-states", with own neolatin dialects (the main where in Veglia and Ragusa), showing Cattaro in southern Dalmatia</i><br/>
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Roman emperor Justinian built a fortress above Ascrivium in AD 535, after expelling the Goths. The city had around 5000 inhabitants in that century.<br/>
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A second town probably grew up on the heights around it, because Constantine Porphyrogenitus -in the 10th century- alluded to a "Lower Cattaro".
The city suffered the barbarian invasions of the Avars and Slavs, but survived with the autochtonous romanised population greatly diminished to a few hundred inhabitants.<br/>
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Cattaro was one of the more influential Dalmatian city-states of romanized Illyrians throughout the Middle Ages, and until the 11th century the Dalmatian language was spoken by the inhabitants of the city. Later, with the Venetian domination the inhabitants started to speak the "Veneto da mar" instead of the old Dalmatian language (until the XIX century, when the main language started to be the Montenegrin).<br/>
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The city was plundered by the Saracens in 840 AD, and a few centuries later by the Bulgarians in 1102 AD. In the next year it was ceded to Serbia by the Bulgarian tsar Samuel, but revolted, in alliance with Ragusa, and only submitted in 1184 AD, as a protected state, preserving intact its republican institutions, and its right to conclude treaties and engage in war. It was already an "Episcopal See", and, in the 13th century, Dominican and Franciscan monasteries were established to check the spread of Bogomilism.<br/>
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In the 14th century the commerce of Cattaro rivalled that of Ragusa, and provoked the jealousy of Venice. The downfall of Serbia in 1389 left the city without a guardian, and, after being seized and abandoned by Venice and Hungary in turn, it passed under Venetian rule in 1420. Since then, for nearly five centuries the city was called "Cattaro la Veneziana" (the venetian Cattaro), because it was a city fully Italian in architecture and literature and the majority of the inhabitants spoke the "Veneto da mar" Italian dialect (very similar to the one spoken in Istria). Cattaro in those centuries enjoyed a huge development and was the main city and capital of the "Albania Veneta".<br/>
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Venetian Cattaro was a catholic city, with the territory of the Diocese that even today corresponds to that of the historical region Albania Veneta since 1571. Cattaro was the most eastern city of Catholicism in the Balkans dominated by the Ottomans: it was the symbol of western society successfully facing Muslim attacks in those centuries.<br/>
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However it was besieged by the Turks in 1538 and 1657 but saved by the venetian fleet; visited by plague in 1572 and nearly destroyed by earthquakes in 1563 and 1667.<br/>
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The Republic of Venice reconstructed Cattaro after the terrible earthquake of 1667 (<a href="https://www.total-montenegro-news.com/lifestyle/1247-italy-invests-in-its-cultural-heritage-in-boka-bay">https://www.total-montenegro-news.com/lifestyle/1247-italy-invests-in-its-cultural-heritage-in-boka-bay</a>).<br/>
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By the Treaty of Campoformio in 1797 it passed to Austria; but in 1805 -by the treaty of Pressburg- Cattaro was assigned to the kingdom of Italy (1) and later was united in 1810 with the first French Empire.<br/>
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<i>Venetian Maritime Gate in the Cattaro city-walls</i><br/>
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Napoleon included Cattaro between 1805 and 1810 in his "Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy". and made a decree establishing the use of the Italian language in schools throughout Dalmatia. <br/>
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Cattaro was nearly fully venetian speaking in those years<br/>
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In 1814 the city was restored to Austria by the Congress of Vienna, but the Italian language remained the official language (with German). After that year some slavs started to settle in the city from the surrounding territories.<br/>
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The Cattaro population in 1848 showed strong support toward Venice and the early Italian Risorgimento:<br/>
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<i>When was informed of the Austrian concession to a "free" Constitution, on March 23, 1848, the Cattaro population poured into the streets acclaiming to Italy while on the same day the municipality voted for union with Venice. The "Vladika" (ruler) of Montenegro, worried about these upheavals, spoke against the people of Cattaro ( and of the Ragusa people - even if Austrian citizens) stating that if any other exaltation for the Italian revolution had been demonstrated he would reduce "to ash" and sprinkle "blood" in the whole southern Dalmatia. At the same time he sent a battalion which, with arms, removed the possibility that the initial uprising was transformed into a real insurrection. The inhabitants of Cattaro, however, continued to follow the events of the Italian Risorgimento: among the original "Mille", who with Garibaldi sailed from Quarto to Sicily to unify southern Italy to the Kingdom of Italy , there was also Marco Cossovich, a native of Venice but from a Cattaro family </i>.<br/>
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During the XIX century, Cattaro was the chief town of an administrative district in austrian southern Dalmatia. Cattaro occupied a narrow ledge between the Montenegrin Mountains and the "Bocche di Cattaro", a winding and beautiful inlet of the Adriatic Sea. This inlet expands into five broad gulfs, united by narrower channels, and forms one of the finest natural harbours in Europe.<br/>
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Teodo, on the outermost gulf, is a small naval port. In the first years of the 20th century, Cattaro was strongly fortified, and about 3000 troops were stationed in its neighborhood.<br/>
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On the seaward side, the defensive works included Castelnuovo (actual Erceg Novi), which guarded the main entrance to the Bocche.
On the landward side, the long walls running from the town to the castle of San Giovanni, far above, formed a striking feature in the landscape; and the heights of the "Crevoscia", a group of barren mountains between Montenegro, Herzegovina, and the sea, were crowned by small forts.<br/>
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<i>Venetian symbol on Cattaro's venetian walls</i><br/>
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There were many interesting places on the shores of the Bocche. Castelnuovo was a picturesque town, with a dismantled 14th century citadel, which has, at various times, been occupied by Bosnians, Turks, Venetians, Spaniards, Russians, French, English and Austrians.<br/>
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The orthodox convent of St. Sava, standing amid beautiful gardens, was founded in the 16th century, and contained many fine specimens of 17th century silversmith work. There was a Benedictine monastery on a small island opposite to Perasto (Perast), eight miles east of Castelnuovo. Perasto itself was for a time an independent state in the 14th century. Rhizon, the modern hamlet of Risano, close by, was a thriving Illyrian city as early as 229 BC, and gave its name to the Bocche, then known as Rhizonicus Sinus (2).<br/>
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In the second half of the XIX century the slav nationalism erased nearly all the venetian-Italian presence in the city, that was called officially Kotor after WWI. However in the early 1900 census there were some hundreds of Italians still living in Austrian Cattaro: they were less than 2% of the inhabitants.<br/>
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Italian irredentism of Cattaro was supported and promoted by Fascism in the late 1930s. As a consequence when Italy (with Germany) defeated Yugoslavia in 1941, between 1941 and 1943 the Kingdom of Italy annexed the area of Yugoslavian Kotor - which became one of three provinces (with the official name: "Regia Provincia di Cattaro") of the Italian "Governorate of Dalmatia" and that had an total area of 4801 km2 with a population of 380,100 (3).<br/>
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It is noteworthy to pinpoint that the Queen of Italy in those years was Elena (daughter of the king Nicholas I of Montenegro): she supported the union of the Cattaro region to Italy and personally "protected" the city's citizens.<br/>
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Under Italy, the province of Cattaro (subdivided in 15 "Comuni") had an area of 547 Km2 and a population of 39,800 inhabitants. Most of the province's inhabitants were Serbs (mostly Orthodox and some Roman Catholics), and there were 350 Dalmatian Italians, concentrated in Cattaro and Perasto (now Perast). The only official language in Cattaro was the Italian and all the schools were in Italian language. The Italian government did many works in these few years, like the improvement of sewage, roads and hospitals.<br/>
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After September 1943 the Germans occupied the city and consequently started a continuous reduction of the Italian presence in Cattaro (that after 1945 was only called "Kotor" under Tito's communist rule)<br/>
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Actually the Italian Community of Kotor (Comunità Italiana di Cattaro), in the city of Kotor is being registered officially (with the "Unione Italiana") as the Italian Community of Montenegro (Comunità degli Italiani del Montenegro) and is enjoying a huge success (4). In connection with this registration, the "Center for Dalmatian Cultural Research" (Centro di Ricerche Culturali Dalmate) has opened in 2007 the Venetian house in Cattaro to celebrate the Venetian heritage in coastal Montenegro (5).<br/>
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<i><b>Venetian Architecture</i></b><br/>
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More than four centuries of Venetian domination have given the city of Cattaro the typical Venetian architecture, that contributed to make actual Kotor a UNESCO world heritage site (6).<br/>
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<i>Cattaro's Venetian Walls</i><br/>
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These are the most important structures & buildings in venetian style:<br/>
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1) The Republic of Venice left in Cattaro the magnificent "Venetian Walls" surrounding the historical section of the city. The Venetian fortification system, which protects the city from the sea, is actually a wall 4.5 km long, 20 m high and 15 m wide, and is preserved as one of the most important architectural masterpieces in Montenegro.<br/>
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The construction of the ramparts were built and rebuilt up to the 18th century. The oldest town gate of Cattaro, of the three existing in the town, is the “South” gate which was partially constructed in the 9th century. The “North” and the “Main” gates were built in the Renaissance style by the first half of the 16th century.<br/>
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2) The most representative monument of Roman architecture in the Adriatic Montenegro is the magnificent "Cathedral of Saint Tryphon", constructed in 1166 and built on the remains of a former Catholic temple from the 9th century. There are the remains of the frescos from the 14th century and the valuable treasury with domestic and Venetian golden works dating from the 14th to the 20th century.<br/>
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3) Besides the Cathedral, in the heart of the old town, there are magnificent examples of sacral venetian architecture originating from 12th till 20th century:<br/>
A-The Romanic church of St. Lucas was built in 1195, while the Romanic church of St. Ana dates from the end of the 12th century and has frescos dating back from the 15th century.<br/>
B-The Romanic church of St. Mary dates from 1221. The church contains the remains of a monumental fresco painting as well as an early Christian baptistry.<br/>
C-The Gothic church of St. Mihovil was built on the remains of the Benediction monastery from the 7th century with frescos dating back from the 15th century.<br/>
D-St. Clara's church dates from the 14th century with the extremely beautiful marble altar, the work of Francesco Cabianca, from the 18th century.<br/>
E-The Church of Lady of Health originates from the 15th century.<br/>
The Orthodox Church of St. Nicolas was built by the beginning of the 20th century with a valuable collection of icons.<br/>
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<i>Old Cattaro's postcard, showing typical venetian architecture buildings and the famous "Clock Tower" built in the "Cinquecento" (XVI century)</i>.<br/>
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4)There are also numerous palaces in venetian style in the actual "Kotor Stari Grad" (downtown Kotor). A few were built in the "Cinquecento" (XVI century) like the famous "Palazzo Pima", where was born the writer Bernardo Pima.<br/>
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<i>Pima Palace (XVI century)</i><br/>
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Some of the most famous of these venetian-style palaces are:<br/>
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The Drago palace with Gothic windows from the 15th century; the Bisanti palace from the 17th century; the Pima palace, with typical Venetian renaissance and baroque forms from the 16th century; the Pasquali palace from the 16th century; the Grubonia palace with the built-in emblem of the old Cattaro's pharmacy established in 1326; the Gregurina palace, from the 17th century, which today contains the Naval museum, and finally the Clock tower, from the 16th century, with the medieval pillory just beside it.<br/.<br>
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Additionally, in those centuries Italian Renaissance literature enjoyed a huge development in Cattaro: the most famous writers (often writing in Italian language) were Bernardo Pima, Nicola Chierlo, Luca Bisanti, Alberto de Gliricis, Domenico and Vincenzo Burchia, Vincenzo Ceci, Antonio Zambella and Francesco Morandi.<br/>
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There have also been notable Italian-language writers in the 15th to the 18th century who originated from Venetian Albania and lived in the region capital Cattaro, notably Giovanni Bona Boliris, Cristoforo Ivanovich and Ludovico Pasquali.<br/>
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The Cattaro area is home to numerous tourist sights in the surroundings: St George Island (Sveti Đorđe) and Our Lady of the Rocks islets off the coast of Perasto are also among the more popular destinations in the vicinity. The island of St. George contains the famous Saint George Benedictine monastery from the 12th century and an old graveyard for the old neolatin nobility from Perast and Cattaro.<br/>
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<i><b>Notes</i></b><br/>
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1) Map showing Cattaro inside the Kingdom of Italy of Napoleon: <a href="https://digilander.libero.it/arup/istriaNapo.html">https://digilander.libero.it/arup/istriaNapo.html</a><br/>
2) Rhizon submitted to Rome in 168 BC<br/>
3) Rodogno, Davide (2003). Il nuovo ordine mediterraneo. Turin: Bollati Boringhieri<br/>
4) Comunita' italiani di Cattaro/Montenegro:<a href="https://www.comunitamontenegro.org/it/aktivnosti/">https://www.comunitamontenegro.org/it/aktivnosti/</a><br/>
5) Photos of Cattaro and other cities of Venetian Albania, with article "Il Veneto nel Cattaro" (in Italian):<a href="http://www.letrevenezie.net/pubblicazioni/Veneto%20Cattaro/art-03.htm"> http://www.letrevenezie.net/pubblicazioni/Veneto%20Cattaro/art-03.htm </a><br/>
6) UNESCO's historical and cultural Region of Cattaro (actual Kotor):<a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/125">https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/125</a><br/>
Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-58799056002727632642022-08-01T08:30:00.030-07:002022-08-02T06:50:42.400-07:00NEW VILLAGES IN 1940 ITALIAN LIBYA
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<i>Maps with the location of the 26 villages (above: Tripolitania; bottom: Cirenaica; villages created in 1938 (in blue) and in 1939 (in red). In orange are the first four created in 1934 in Cirenaica)</i><br/>
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THE NEW 26 ITALIAN VILLAGES CREATED IN 1938-1940 LIBYA<br/>
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Italo Balbo as Governor of Italian Libya promoted a demographic colonization of the coastal areas of this colony by Italian families. Starting from 1938, he planned to relocate in just five years 100,000 Italians in a group of newly created farm villages: in early 1940 nearly 30,000 Italians were living in 26 agricultural villages of Tripolitania and Cirenaica. The beginnings of this colonization project were economically positive, but WW2 destroyed it all: by January 1943 the Allies had conquered all Italian Libya and the villages were mostly damaged & sometimes abandoned. A few survived with some Italian colonists until the late 1960s, but in worsening conditions (see the following video of Village Crispi in the 1950s:<iframe class="BLOG_video_class" allowfullscreen="" youtube-src-id="67ePDQa0cX8" width="400" height="322" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/67ePDQa0cX8"></iframe>).<br/>
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For a detailed & complete study with related photos, please read in Italian:<a href="https://njema.weebly.com/uploads/6/3/4/5/6345478/vittoria_capresi_-_i_centri_rurali_di_fondazione_libici_tesi_di_laurea.pdf">https://njema.weebly.com/uploads/6/3/4/5/6345478/vittoria_capresi_-_i_centri_rurali_di_fondazione_libici_tesi_di_laurea.pdf</a><br/>
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In 1938 more than 20,000 Italian farmers went to Libya and 26 agricultural villages were created for them: <b>Olivetti, Bianchi, Giordani, Micca, Tazzoli, Breviglieri, Marconi, Garabulli, Crispi, Corradini, Garibaldi, Littoriano, Castel Benito, Filzi, Baracca, Maddalena, Aro, Oberdan, D'Annunzio, Razza, Mameli, Battisti, Berta, Luigi di Savoia, Gioda</b>.<br/>
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Ten other Libyan villages, in which Berbers and natives learned from Italian farmers to make money from their land with modern agriculture, were : <b>El Fager (Alba), Nahina (Deliziosa), Azizia (Perfumed), Nahiba (Risorta), Mansura (Vittoriosa), Chadra (Green), Zahara (Fiorita), Gedina (New), Mamhura (Fiorente), El Beida (la Bianca) already named "Beda Littoria."</b> All these ten villages had their mosque, school, social center (with gymnasium and cinema) and a small hospital, representing an absolute novelty for the Arab world of North Africa.<br/>
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Indeed in this operation of Italian demographic colonization there was a unique and revolutionary novelty: the Italian government of Italo Balbo did not treat the native Libyan population as an "inferior race" (like did the French and British in their African colonies) to be exploited but, having recognized them Italian citizenship in the so called "Fourth Shore" of Italy, reserved the same treatment as the Italian nationals. So, farms to be cultivated were distributed to the Libyans (as well as to the Italians) and also for them were built some Libyan rural villages. All those ten villages were still inhabited and growing as agricultural centers in the independent Libya after WW2.<br/>
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<i>The agricultural village "Bianchi" -near Tripoli- when inaugurated in 1938 and showing the trees just planted</i>
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The following are excerpts translated from an essay written by Marco Piraino about these new villages (<a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:xPysHxJqUwkJ:https://www.revistalarazonhistorica.com/31-10/+&cd=33&hl=it&ct=clnk&gl=us">https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:xPysHxJqUwkJ:https://www.revistalarazonhistorica.com/31-10/+&cd=33&hl=it&ct=clnk&gl=us</a> ) and titled in Italian:
"<b>L’ITALIA FASCISTA E LA COLONIZZAZIONE DEMOGRAFICA DELLA LIBIA: premesse, sviluppi e conclusione di un progetto politico-sociale totalitario</b>.
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FASCIST ITALY AND THE DEMOGRAPHIC COLONIZATION OF LIBYA<br/>
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The project (of Libya's colonization by 30000 Italian farmers) was officially launched on May 17, 1938 with the Royal Decree Law No. 701, which specified, among other things, the urgent and absolute need to adopt extraordinary measures to support demographic colonization. It involved the totality of the components present in the colonial society, with the precise purpose of achieving a substantial balance between the metropolitan and the Arab population, taking into account the demographic relationship unfavorable to the Italians, in favor of whom the program provided for the reception of forty thousand new settlers in two years (in fact they went down later to thirty thousand), a prelude to a much more ambitious goal that counted on being able to install a population for the middle of the century whose total number would have been about five hundred thousand metropolitan. Balbo so ... announces the great project in May 1938 and six months later the first twenty thousand settlers land in Libya. In just six months, mobilizing 10,000 Italian workers and 23,000 Libyans, the two colonizing bodies, under the energetic leadership of Balbo, build dozens of rural villages and hundreds of farmhouses, roads and aqueducts, while they provide for the delimitation of 1800 new farms . Each farm, painted in white and with simple architecture, is equipped with: a) a farmhouse composed of a dining room, three bedrooms and a bathroom; b) a barn behind, separated from the house, and a warehouse. The barn can accommodate four working beasts and has a concimaia attached; c) a well of the first aquifer and a cistern to collect rainwater. <br/>
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Obviously, the main task of the central government, assisted by that of the colony, was to choose, transport and arrange hundreds of families on previously set-up farms, all naturally at the expense of the treasury. This policy harmonized with the fascist ideal of a beneficial totalitarian state, the bearer of order, discipline and prosperity in the lives of its most humble citizens. However, the selection of the first wave of settlers had not proved to be a simple task, occupying for three months special medical committees chosen for the occasion which examined 6,000 families who had applied for admission to the colonization program. The selection was made in three months by three itinerant Commissions, appointed by the Commissariat for migration and colonization, made up of agricultural, sanitary and administrative technicians. The average composition of the 1,800 families (1,000 are allocated in Tripolitania and 800 in Cyrenaica) is 9.01, that is three male work units, two or three female units and the rest boys from three to 15 years [...]. The colonial families are supplied by 750 municipalities and come mostly from the Veneto, from Emilia, from the Lombard provinces of Mantua, Brescia and Bergamo, from the Abruzzi, from Puglia, from Calabria and from Sicily. The Commissariat that organizes large departures has arranged for one companion for every twenty families, who will direct them from their place of origin to the houses to each of them destined for Tripolitania and Cyrenaica [...]. <br/>
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The families are thus divided into the various villages: Tripolitania (National Fascist Institute of Social Security): 100 families at Oliveti, 75 at Bianchi, 111 at Giordani, 120 at Tarhuna; (Body for the Colonization of Libya): 37 at Oliveti, 320 at Crispi, 100 at Gioda, 110 at Breviglieri and 21 at the Azizia. Cyrenaica: 176 to the Barca [Barce], 210 to the Oberdan, 60 to the D'Annunzio, 120 to the Battisti, 39 to the Zorda, 81 to the Maddalena, 25 to the Race, 40 to the Deda [Beda], 35 to the Slonta, 15 to the Faidia , 66 to the Savoia [Luigi di Savoia], 35 to the Berta [...]. Subsequently the imposing program of demographic colonization will have new developments and the work of high civilization realized by the Regime will contribute effectively to the attainment of the economic autarchy of the Nation. <br/>
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<i>Village "Oliveti" in Tripolitania, surrounded by farm houses</i><br/>
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Plans<br/>
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The plans for logistics, organization and the transfer of settlers, in both migrations planned for the two-year period 1938-1939, were carried out punctually, with departures scheduled every year on the 28th October, the anniversary of the "March on Rome" , thus bringing about thirty thousand metropolitans to the coasts of Libya, who were placed on specially cleared state lands. The farmers were welcomed in the villages and colonization areas mostly developed along the coastal road by I.N.F.P.S. and from the E.C.L. that, assisted by the technical services of the government and the colonization offices, had supervised the completion of all the infrastructures and the development of land reclamation despite having a very short period, also setting up the enlargement of arable land in agricultural areas chosen in precedence and exploitation of new areas in view of the growing number of incoming "new Libyans". The two bodies, following now the established practice in previous years, planned the regular subdivision of the land into small lots, providing as usual the assistance of the settlers in the cultivation of their farms, after the latter had naturally been placed in their new homes equipped with of the necessary reserves. The total amount of the amount that was paid by the State for this plan was calculated at 945 million lire, of which 321 were destined for major general development works carried out directly by the government, including hydraulic works consisting of 2 large aqueducts and 35 artesian wells with related annexed structures. In addition, 250 kilometers of roads would have been built with the related communication lines, as well as the first nuclei of 20 new agricultural villages. A quota of 380 million was instead allocated to the construction of rural houses and the arrangement of agricultural land transformed from steppes into arable land. The remaining sum should have covered the technical organization of the operation and the contributions provided for the reclamation law, which should have been paid by the State in the first two years of the operation. <br/>
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Overall, on the death of Balbo, which occurred on June 28, 1940, eighteen days after Italy entered the war in the Second World War, the work of corroborating the Libyan territories exceeded 200,000 hectares between private companies and official colonization. . In Cyrenaica, ten villages had sprung up, as well as various concessions and private companies, with 2755 families (over 10.000 members). Seven villages built in Tripolitania by the Tripolitania Colonization Agency at Misurata, Azizia and Tarhuna and nine others built by the National Institute of Social Welfare, without counting the private concessions and those of the Italian tobacco company at Garian which welcomed 3960 families with 23.919 members. The pertinent reclamation plan concerning the Italian demographic colonization in the years 1938-39 would have covered an area of approximately 133,000 hectares divided in turn into lands extended from 15 to 50 hectares, with relative annexed farm, all due to the availability of water that of the type of cultivation. <br/>
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As regards the measures taken in favor of the Arab population in the agricultural colonization program in the years 1939-1940, the Muslim villages of Zahra (Fiorita), el-Fager (L'Alba) and Chadra (Green ), Nahida (Risorta), Gedida (Nuova), Mansura (Vittoriosa); in Tripolitania the villages of Mahamura and Naima were inaugurated. 1,400 hectares of land were also destined to Libyan peasants, even if at the current state of research only 500 hectares are actually assigned, with plots whose size ranged from 2 to 10 hectares. Regarding the assignment of houses and land in these villages we have definite information only concerning 32 families residing in Alba and Fiorita, while in Mahamura we are aware of 100 farms occupied by as many families. However, it must be recognized that the set of the aforementioned measures could never be considered fully operational, both because of the initial mistrust of the native populations and, subsequently, of the impossibility of proceeding further in the complete realization of such plans due to the negative outcome the war had for the fascist Italy, with the invasion of 1941 and the integral integral occupation of Libya by the armies of the British commonwealth of 1943.<br/>
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Conclusions<br/>
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<i>Italian colonists -with their belongings- approaching their farm village in Cyrenaica</i><br/>
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In making a final judgment on the process of demographic colonization in Libya, the majority of historians have provided an overall negative balance of the story, minimizing the negative impact that the world war had on it and attributing the real failure of this project to the choices wrong strategic elaborated by the fascist regime well before the outbreak of hostilities with the allied powers, in this regard it is not unusual to come across statements like this: The reasoning later advanced by the apologists, for which the "demographic" colonization would be aborted only for the arrival of the war, it appears without foundation: the errors and failures were precedents, as evidenced by the frantic change of strategies in the space of a few years. A critical scholar noted that the high expenses of the regime and the poor results collected by the agrarian colonization of Libya, which moreover affected only a fraction of the Italian population residing in the colony, were "indicative only of the waste, of the investments and of the wrong choices" of fascism, rather than its efforts to enhance the Fourth side. There is no doubt that the Regime, also with regard to the colonial affair in question, in an attempt to gradually realize its own peculiar organizational political model, with Mussolini intent on acting as arbitrator in search of a substantial balance between the orientations expressed by the Fascist Party leaders, reflecting in this the internal dynamics of national politics, fluctuated, according to what we have observed, from an initial action to support the private initiative substantially of a liberal sign to a statist economic policy of the mold corporate-leadership, as can be clearly seen from the enormous effort made by the fascist state described in the previous pages and profused in the project of integrating the Libyan territories into the Italian political and economic circuit. <br/>
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However, it is equally important to specify some data, particularly of a demographic and economic nature, to be contextualised in relation to a different perspective of analysis concerning the actual primary needs of the fascist government. Data that end up characterizing the modus operandi for an unquestionable primacy attributed to the ideological objectives of the totalitarian policy of the Regime, rather than to the opportunities and the real convenience suggested by the analysis of simple economic data referring to the concrete potentialities of the Libyan territory. Well, for what concerns the quantitative presence of Italians in Libya, the remarkable and consistent numerical growth of the so-called metropolitan is undoubtedly evident, whose population was more than quadrupled in less than two decades. In fact, from the 27,163 inhabitants present in 1921, the considerable figure of 128,264 inhabitants recorded in March 1940 was recorded, on the eve of Italy's entry into the war, a figure which we know was destined to grow for some time (at the end of 1940 there were 140,000 Italian civilians present on the "fourth shore" against 30,000 Israelites and 850,000 registered Libyans). An element which must necessarily be combined with the evident growth of the indigenous Muslim population compared to previous years. All phenomena of development that manifest the most significant demographic increase starting from the start of the direct management policy by the fascist State with the demographic colonization plans, significantly concomitant with the arrival in the colony of Governor Balbo and the inauguration of the great public Works. These works, with reference to the report presented by Minister Teruzzi at the end of November 1939, were so extensively illustrated: The complex of public works of the last two years is really important, above all due to the great amount of work required by the implementation of intensive demographic colonization plans. <br/>
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To allow easy and rapid communication with the agricultural villages, numerous roadways have been and are being built across the colonization areas for a total length of about 380 km. Numerous tracks are connected to these roads. Of particular importance is the access road to the Ras Hilal landing, built with the same characteristics as the Libyan coast road and with a section running along the road tunnel that constitutes the access to the sea in most of the areas in the Cyrenaic Gebel. For the exploitation of the potassium salts of Marada and to facilitate the transport of the mineral to the coast from where it will be embarked for Italy a trunk of road is under construction [...] Recently the artificial road has been completed that crossing the Gefara [...]
joins the port of Zuara with the territory of the Gebel Nefusa grafted into the Nalut roadway near Giosc. Several other local road trunks have been built and the vast network of tracks with natural bottoms has been improved and increased. <br/>
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Among the aqueducts for the service of colonization, the importance of the Cyrenaic Gebel already in an advanced stage of construction, with a development of 198 Km, is of truly remarkable importance. of the capacity of 5000 cubic meters per day to all the colonization areas of the Gebel up to the most distant villages of Baracca and Filzi to the west of Barce. In western Libya, the aqueducts of Breviglieri and Marconi are of considerable importance. For the supply of drinking water in the main inhabited centers, considerable work has been carried out, including the development of the Benghazi water network and above all the completion of the Tripoli aqueduct, which today can have about 19,000 cubic meters of excellent second water per day groundwater. There are also numerous artesian wells and first and second aquifer wells excavated in colonization villages and private concessions. Particular care has been given to strengthening existing ports and creating new landings. In the port of Tripoli it was started in 1937 and a vast excavation program is being conducted at an accelerated pace so that it is now possible for the major transatlantic ships to enter the port and stand alongside the quay. Construction of new docks is also underway in order to increase the commercial potential of the port.<br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Bij8X48IDz0jgF7210Arxdt7fiFHiVq5uJOiOzryxXjrzTMP4cE4d1o2BMGlXrx8TraLDthuUTGpvjBym7ldseQPgQduiZHdLnZau7Xz-dFZn6D0raIuI5Uo0TG3lxnXS2pQak7LYHPxh5BKoMLup9wW6ko1afgcPAzDE6ikPEvXlTTtSOyfkDKJaA/s400/vill_oliveti.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="247" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Bij8X48IDz0jgF7210Arxdt7fiFHiVq5uJOiOzryxXjrzTMP4cE4d1o2BMGlXrx8TraLDthuUTGpvjBym7ldseQPgQduiZHdLnZau7Xz-dFZn6D0raIuI5Uo0TG3lxnXS2pQak7LYHPxh5BKoMLup9wW6ko1afgcPAzDE6ikPEvXlTTtSOyfkDKJaA/s600/vill_oliveti.jpg"/></a></div>
<i>Villaggio "Oliveti" in 1939 Tripolitania</i><br/>
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Expansion works are also underway in the port of Benghazi, a 160-meter-long reinforced concrete dock was built in Ras Hilal [...]. In addition to the schools included in the villages, another 28 school buildings sprang up in the various colonization areas, while new secondary primary schools were opened in Tripoli, Benghazi, Derna and Misurata, Italo-Arab schools in Jefren, Tauorga, Tigrinna, Zavia, Augila. The hospitals of Tripoli and Benghazi have now been completed and are now equipped with extremely modern hygiene and prophylaxis laboratories, and extension work is underway for those of Barce and Misurata. Of recent construction are the asylum for Muslims and the sanatorium of I.N.F.P.S. in Tripoli. The development of the major centers of the Fourth Shore in recent years has been truly remarkable. It will suffice to mention that in 4 years construction companies have increased by 20% with an increase in national workers employed of 300%. New important public buildings have sprung up and in relation to the ever-increasing building needs the new regulatory plans have been drawn up and approved, not only of the main urban centers, but also of many other smaller centers.
Like -for example- in the nice village Oberdan.<br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAI-uJrVnSYrF6ir1PJsCL1F8PuXqATE8dts3aZU3_0jPjJAq-Wsnt6FVAgte95Khjsh3Mh514xMMcis5CbhEYXPL1To4-4Vu2-QmvCcVViNkihXQOFC3D0QfzT2vebw3sBxGISeRxDZe2-G9oWzyL2VHBnQ-kZaN6F6hBmEkTVq-M7lJuiNT4k2GmxA/s350/Battah,_Libya.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAI-uJrVnSYrF6ir1PJsCL1F8PuXqATE8dts3aZU3_0jPjJAq-Wsnt6FVAgte95Khjsh3Mh514xMMcis5CbhEYXPL1To4-4Vu2-QmvCcVViNkihXQOFC3D0QfzT2vebw3sBxGISeRxDZe2-G9oWzyL2VHBnQ-kZaN6F6hBmEkTVq-M7lJuiNT4k2GmxA/s600/Battah,_Libya.jpg"/></a></div>
<i>An aerial photo of the village Oberdan in Cyrenaica, created in 1939</i><br/>
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The complex of these results, according to the data reported so far, allows to establish how in reality the general picture of the colony was in full evolution and with concrete prospects for growth and improvement. An economic-demographic framework that we can define as encouraging. In such a context, just at the beginning of a phase of economic development and the resumption of demographic growth, the consequences and negative effects on the life of the colony that had the entry of fascist Italy in the world war in June 1940 should certainly be reconsidered. , beginning with the alteration of the normal daily rhythms of a territory that, it is good to not forget it, for the supplies depended almost totally on the connections with the Italian peninsula.
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LINKS:<br/>
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Photos "Archivio LUCE" of Italian Senate about Italian Villages inaugurations: <a href="http://senato.archivioluce.it/senato-luce/scheda/foto/IL0010034475/12/Gruppo-di-coloni-italiani-destinato-al-villaggio-rurale-Oliveti-si-prepara-a-salire-su-un-autocarro-nello-spiazzo-antistante-un-complesso-di-Magazzini-di-ordinaria-custodia.html">http://senato.archivioluce.it/senato-luce/scheda/foto/IL0010034475/12/Gruppo-di-coloni-italiani-destinato-al-villaggio-rurale-Oliveti-si-prepara-a-salire-su-un-autocarro-nello-spiazzo-antistante-un-complesso-di-Magazzini-di-ordinaria-custodia.html</a><br/>
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Video of Italian colonists moving to live in Village Crispi: <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe class="BLOG_video_class" allowfullscreen="" youtube-src-id="i0JvflXPRZ0" width="400" height="322" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i0JvflXPRZ0"></iframe></div><br/>
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Video of arrival of the Italian colonists in Tripoli in 1938: <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe class="BLOG_video_class" allowfullscreen="" youtube-src-id="ALPnph9JHRA" width="400" height="322" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ALPnph9JHRA"></iframe></div>
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3 comments:<br/>
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Nina Baker-January 5, 2020 at 2:13 AM
Thanks for this fascinating insight into what seems to be an almost unknown aspect of 20th century fascist history. My dad was stationed at RAF Castel Benito in 1946 and lived in Garian, which he described as having more administration buildings than inhabitants and what few locals were still there were mainly nomadic arabs. Now I understand why there were all the buildings but no people.
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Unknown-July 5, 2020 at 8:52 PM
Today I live in villaggio Bianchi.
My name is Muhannad
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Unknown-July 5, 2020 at 8:55 PM
+218910735172
Who has more information about Bianchi Village sends on Whatsapp
Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-73132773995480730912022-07-05T13:17:00.003-07:002022-07-06T09:36:28.287-07:00ROMANS IN POLAND (2)As written in my last month issue the Romans reached what is now southern & central Poland as merchants using the "Amber route", but also as legionaries. <br/>
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Indeed archeologists have recently done discoveries that confirm the military presence of the Romans in the area north of the Oder river (see <a href="https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/romans-roamed-the-kujawy-region-of-poland-new-discoveries#:~:text=An%20unprecedented%20discovery%20has%20for,than%20had%20previously%20been%20assumed.">https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/romans-roamed-the-kujawy-region-of-poland-new-discoveries#:~:text=An%20unprecedented%20discovery%20has%20for,than%20had%20previously%20been%20assumed.</a>) and also near the village of Malawa near the border with Ucraine (see <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1380625/ancient-coin-archaeology-roman-emperor-hadrian-denarius-poland-evg">https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1380625/ancient-coin-archaeology-roman-emperor-hadrian-denarius-poland-evg</a>).<br/>
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<i>The "amber route" in Poland. The city of Kujamy is near Biskupin</i>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Amber_Road.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="700" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Amber_Road.jpg"/></a></div>
Additionally it is noteworthy to pinpoint that also in the area od what is now southern-central Poland there are evidences of Roman military presence: numerous Roman military artifacts dating as far back as the 1st century A.D. have been unearthed in Kujawy, central Poland.<br/>
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This is a region in the Vistula basin far outside the boundary of imperial Rome even at its greatest extent under Trajan in the early 2nd century.<br/>
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According to historian Cassius Dio, Roman cavalry may have made in appearance in what is now Kujawy in the late 1st century, and it was the "Lugii" themselves who called this cavalry.<br/>
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Around 91 AD, the german tribe of the "Lugii" (related also with the "Vandals") made an alliance with Rome and asked the emperor Domitian to send troops to aid in their fight against the "Suebi" tribe. Domitian agreed in a desultory fashion and sent a measly 100 horsemen. Dio does not mention them any further, so there’s no way to know if they arrived, fought, returned or anything else. The territory of the Lugii, as far it can be determined, seems to have extended further to the south of modern-day Kujawy, so even if the horsemen went to their aid as promised, they could well have been a long way away from the find site. If they did make it, they would be the first Roman soldiers recorded in what is today Poland.<br/>
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Furthermore, Pliny mentions Nero sending a trading expedition to the Baltic, but nothing about a military escort. Still, a highly valued trade route, like the "Amber route" winding through the territories of many and varied tribes with little political stability and a tendency to engage in hostilities, could certainly have used some securing. The Kujawy might be evidence that Rome sent legions to keep the amber coming.<br/>
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In 2018 Polish archaeologists found traces of Roman presence in Kujawy to treasure hunters, who donated some of their findings. The majority of discovered artefacts comes from the area between the villages of Gąski and Wierzbiczany (Kuyavian-Pomeranian province of Poland).<br/>
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"<b><i>This is the first strong evidence of the actual presence of Roman soldiers in the territory of today`s Poland</i></b>" - believes Dr. Bartosz Kontny of the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw.<br/>
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Among the unique monuments are metal pendants that decorated the straps of the Roman horse gear. They were in the shape of phalluses or vulvas (female womb). "These amulets were believed to ensure happiness and protect against evil forces, they had apotropaic meaning" - said Dr. Kontny.
As a truly unique object among the analysed artefacts, the archaeologist mentions a gold-plated copper application for a hip belt. It depicts a spear of a beneficiarius, a high-ranking officer of the Roman army. "It was an attribute of his power" - says the archaeologist.<br/>
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Such a large accumulation of similar Roman objects in other places in the barbarian Europe -like in central Germany (where, for example, the local population was recruited to the legions)- is clearly associated with physical Roman presence.<br/>
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Finally, two Roman coins were discovered in 2016 – one in Lelów and one in Borowa – during archaeological research on the "Przeworsk culture" settlements in these villages. Both villages are located in the region of Częstochowa, Silesian Voivodeship near Krakow: Lelów, in the Upper Pilica Basin, and Borowa, in the Liswarta Basin. Other stray groups of Roman coins, obtained via activity by treasure hunters, have been registered in this region. Roman coin finds from this area are like in other parts of Lesser Poland ( <a href="https://www.archaeology.org/news/8577-200407-poland-roman-coins">https://www.archaeology.org/news/8577-200407-poland-roman-coins</a> and all this shows a possible (or certain, according to some scholars) presence of roman merchants -and may be soldiers- in the area.<br/>
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<b>Possible legionary presence in southern Poland</b><br/>
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In 172 AD roman emperor Marcus Aurelius conquered western Slovakia, attacking & subjugating the local Marcomanni and the Quadi. But in 177 AD, the Quadi rebelled, followed soon by their neighbours, the Marcomanni and Marcus Aurelius once again headed north, to begin his second Germanic campaign (secunda expeditio germanica). He arrived at Carnuntum in August 178 AD, and set out to quell the rebellion in a repeat of his first campaign, moving first against the Marcomanni, and in 179-180 AD against the Quadi.<br/>
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<i>A Roman inscription in Laugaricio, ordered by Marcus Valerius Maximianus, near the border Slovakia-Poland (178–179 AD). The inscription marks the -certain- northernmost roman presence in this area of central Europe.</i>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Trencin-Roman2.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Trencin-Roman2.JPG"/></a></div><br/>
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Under the command of Marcus Valerius Maximianus, the Romans fought and prevailed against the Quadi in a decisive battle at Laugaricio (modern Trenčín, Slovakia, near the border with Poland). The Quadi were chased westwards, deeper into Greater Germania and probably the "Auxiliary of Legion II" reached the Oder river in what is now Poland, where the praetorian prefect Tarutenius Paternus later achieved another decisive victory against them. But on 17 March 180, the emperor died at Vindobona (modern Vienna) -because of plague- and the Romans went back south of the Danube river.<br/>
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The place of this victory of Tarutenius Paternus has not been identified, but it seems to have happened around the city of Katowice. Some roman vestiges of military material has been discovered in 2022 in the area. However there are researches going on, made mainly by slovakian archaelogists.<br/>
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<i>Map of the roman empire under Augustus, showing the "client states" of the Marcomanni/Quadi and the Semnones (a german tribe who probably occupied the territories around the southern Oder river, now in southwestern Poland)</i>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Impero_romano_sotto_Ottaviano_Augusto_30aC_-_6dC.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Impero_romano_sotto_Ottaviano_Augusto_30aC_-_6dC.jpg"/></a></div>
Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-66971151913500899782022-06-02T06:56:00.039-07:002022-06-30T16:27:15.535-07:00ROMANS IN SLOVAKIA & SOUTHERN POLAND (1)<b>Romans in Slovakia & southern Poland</b><br/>
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In the last years I have researched the presence of Romans in the extreme areas of their empire (like in northern Europe) and I have also studied their commerce & explorations outside their ruled territories (like in India). From Rafta in south-eastern Africa to Finland, at the end of this essay the readers can find the links to all the essays I have done on this matter. So, after having researched the Romans in Slovakia (published also in en.wikipedia), now I want to research -further north- about the Romans in northern Slovakia and southern Poland.<br/>
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We have to remember that Roman merchants went to what is now Poland when they did the "amber way" to the Baltic sea. But there are a few books about their military presence in southern Poland, south of ther Oder river.<br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Marcomannia_e_Sarmatia_178-179_dC.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Marcomannia_e_Sarmatia_178-179_dC.jpg"/></a></div>
<i>In light pink the area temporarily occupied by the Romans in 178-179 AD, that was supposed to be the new Roman Province of "Marcomannia"</i><br/>
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Nearly all we know is about the tentative of emperor Marcus Aurelius to create the provinces of "Marcomannia" and "Sarmatia" in what is now Slovakia: the area of possible conquest in Marcomannia reached southern Poland, south of the Oder river (in what is now Slesia).<br/>
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The Romans and their armies initially occupied (during Augustus) only a thin strip of the right bank of the Danube and a very small part of south-western Slovakia (Celemantia, Gerulata, Devín Castle). Tiberius wanted to conquer all Germania up to the Elbe river and in 6 AD did a military expedition from the fort of Carnuntum to Musov and beyond, but was forced to stop the conquest because of a revolt in Pannonia.<br/>
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Only in 174 AD did the emperor Marcus Aurelius penetrate deeper into the river valleys of Váh, Nitra and Hron, where there are some Roman marching camps like "Laugaricio". On the banks of the Hron he wrote his philosophical work "Meditations" The little Roman forts of Zavod and Suchohrad in the Morava river showed a tentative of penetration toward northern Bohemia-Moravia and the Oder river (and perhaps southern Poland).<br/>
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The latest archaeological discoveries which have located new Roman enclosures in the surroundings of Brno led to the conclusion that the advance of Roman troops from Carnumtum could have run further to the north-east, into the bordering region between Slovakia and Poland. Indeed recent archaeological excavations and aerial surveying have shown further locations in northeast Moravia: three temporary Roman camps (possibly connected to the Laugaricio fort) situated in the foreland of the so called Moravian Gate (Olomouc-Neředín, Hulín-Pravčice, Osek) have been partly corroborated, the former two clearly by digging.<br/>
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Marcus Aurelius wanted to create a new Roman Province called "Marcomannia: on those conquered territories, but his death stopped the project. His sucessors abandoned those territories, but -with the exception of Valentinian I- maintained a relative friendly relationship with the barbarians living there (who enjoyed a small "cultural Romanization", that can be seen in some buildings around actual Bratislava in Stupava).<br/>
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Indeed, the romanisation of the barbarian population continued in the late Roman period (181-380 AD). Many Roman buildings (with plenty of trade evidences of roman civilization) appeared on the territory of south-western Slovakia (Bratislava - Dúbravka, Cífer - Pác, Veľký Kýr) in the relatively peaceful period of the 3rd and 4th centuries. These were probably residences of the pro-Roman Quadi (and may be Marcomanni) <br/>
<br/>aristocracy.
Romans in the late fourth century were able to bring christianity into the area: the germanic population of the Marcomanni converted when Fritigil, their queen, met a Christian traveller from the Roman Empire shortly before 397 AD. He talked to her of Ambrose, the formidable bishop of Milan (Italy). Impressed by what she heard, the queen converted to Christianity.[11][12] In the Roman ruins of Devín Castle, the first Christian church located north of the Danube has been identified, probably built in the early fifth century.
A few years later Attila devastated the area and started the mass migrations that destroyed the Western Roman Empire. Meanwhile the area was beginning to be occupied by slav tribes.<br/>
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Indeed the first written source suggesting that Slavic tribes established themselves in what is now Slovakia is connected to the migration of the Germanic Heruli from the Middle Danube region towards Scandinavia in 512 AD. This year, according to Procopius, they first passed "through the land of the Slavs", most probably along the river Morava. A cluster of archaeological sites in the valleys of the rivers Morava, Váh and Hron also suggests that at the latest the earliest Slavic settlements appeared in the territory around 500 AD. They are characterized by vessels similar to those of the "Mogiła" group of southern Poland and having analogies in the "Korchak" pottery of Ukraine.<br/>
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In those same years disappeared the Roman presence from the Danube limes area, but there it is the remote possibility that Romans and those early slav tribes (who were the first "Slovakians") interacted commercially.<br/>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Trencin-Roman2.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Trencin-Roman2.JPG"/></a></div>
<i>A Roman inscription in "Laugaricio", ordered by Marcus Valerius Maximianus, at the castle hill of Trenčín (178–179 AD) located a few dozen kms from the border with Poland. From Laugaricius the praetorian prefect Publius Tarrutenius Paternus moved to fight the Quadi near the Oder river in southern Poland.</i><br/>
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It is noteworthy to pinpoint that near the northernmost line of the Roman hinterlands, the "Limes Romanus", there existed the winter camp of Laugaricio (modern-day Trenčín in actual Slovakia), where the Auxiliary of Legion II fought and prevailed in a decisive battle over the Germanic Quadi tribe in 179 AD during the Marcomannic Wars. Laugaricio (not far from the actual Poland-Slovakia border) is the most northern evidence of the presence of Roman soldiers in central Europe.<br/>
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<i><b>Romans in Slovakia (brief detailed History)</b></i><br/>
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Emperor Augustus reached the Elba river with his legions, but after his terrible defeat at the Teutoburg Forest battle he went back to the Rhine river. However he had a client state between the Elba and the Oder river that probably reached actual Slesia in western Poland. We don't know anything about this first contact betrween Romans and the barbarians of this Poland region.<br/>
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Under the emperor Marcus Aurelius a peace treaty was signed with the Quadi and the Iazyges (german tribes who lived in former "Cecoslovakia"), while the tribes of the Hasdingi, the Vandals and the Lacringi became Roman allies.<br/>
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In 172 AD, the Romans crossed the Danube into Marcomannic territory. Although few details are known, the Romans achieved success, subjugating the Marcomanni and their allies, the Varistae or Naristi and the Cotini. This fact is evident from the adoption of the title "Germanicus" by Marcus Aurelius, and the minting of coins with the inscription "Germania capta" ("subjugated Germania"). During this campaign, the chief of the Naristi was killed by the Roman General Marcus Valerius Maximianus.<br/>
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In 173 AD, the Romans campaigned against the Quadi, who had broken their treaty and assisted their kin, and defeated and subdued them.<br/>
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By late 174 AD, the subjugation of the Quadi was complete. In typical Roman fashion, they were forced to surrender hostages and provide auxiliary contingents for the Roman army, while garrisons were installed throughout their territory.<br/>
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After this, the Romans focused their attention on the Iazyges living in the plain of the river Tisza (expeditio sarmatica). After a few victories, in 175 AD, a treaty was signed. According to its terms, the Iazyges King Zanticus delivered 100,000 Roman prisoners and, in addition, provided 8,000 auxiliary cavalrymen, most of whom (5,500) were sent to Britain. Upon this, Marcus assumed the victory title "Sarmaticus".<br/>
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Marcus Aurelius may have intended to campaign against the remaining tribes, and together with his recent conquests establish two new Roman provinces, Marcomannia and Sarmatia, but whatever his plans, they were cut short by the rebellion of Avidius Cassius in the East.<br/>
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In 177 AD, the Quadi rebelled, followed soon by their neighbours, the Marcomanni, and Marcus Aurelius once again headed north, to begin his second Germanic campaign ("secunda expeditio germanica"). He arrived at Carnuntum in August 178 AD, and set out to quell the rebellion in a repeat of his first campaign, moving first against the Marcomanni, and in 179–180 AD against the Quadi. Under the command of Marcus Valerius Maximianus, the Romans fought and prevailed against the Quadi in a decisive battle at "Laugaricio" (near modern Trenčín, Slovakia). The Quadi were chased westwards, deeper into Greater Germania (reaching the Oder river), where the praetorian prefect Publius Tarrutenius Paternus later achieved another decisive victory against them, but on 17 March 180 AD, the emperor died at Vindobona (modern Vienna).<br/>
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His successor Commodus had little interest in pursuing the war. Against the advice of his senior generals, after negotiating a peace treaty with the Marcomanni and the Quadi, he left for Rome in early autumn 180 AD, where he celebrated a triumph on October 22.<br/>
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In the next centuries Romans never crossed again the Danube in order to conquer areas of today's Slovakia. The only exception was in 358 AD and mainly in 372-375 AD, when emperor Valentinian I devastated the area of actual southwest Slovakia and ordered the construction of castra (still not discovered) around the Celemantia roman fort at actual Iža. He did this even in order to defend the territory from the incoming Hun invasions.<br/>
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<b><i>Romans in southern Poland</b></i><br/>
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Romans reached what is now southern Poland mainly as merchants using the "Amber way" toward the Baltic, but it seems that also legionaries were present in actual Slesia during Marcus Aurelius campaigns in central Europe (read my next month article for further information).
Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-20984590987376519742022-05-02T17:44:00.034-07:002022-05-07T07:40:32.775-07:00LAST ITALIAN SPEAKERS IN THE HORN OF AFRICAThe kingdom of Italy conquered Ethiopia in 1936 and established the "Impero italiano" in the horn of Africa with the addition (to Ethiopia) of the former italian colonies of Eritrea and Somalia. Many italian colonists moved to live in this empire, where the italian language was the official. Additionally the colonial population started to create an italian pidgin, that in some cases existed until the XXI century (like in Eritrea and Somalia).<br/>
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<i>1940 Map of the Italian empire in the horn of Africa, where Italian was the official language</i>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Italian_East_Africa_map_1936.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="590" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Italian_East_Africa_map_1936.jpg"/></a></div><br/>
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It should be noted that the number of Italian citizens permanently resident in the Horn of Africa is now very small: according to the official data of the Italian "Ministero dell' Interno" -written in the "Statistical Yearbook 2018"- there are 352 italian families in Eritrea, 852 in Ethiopia and just 4 in Somalia.<br/>
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Above all in relation to the very serious events that -starting from colonial experience- these three African countries suffered in the last century, the current presence of Italians in the Horn appears to be very little, constantly decreasing and almost entirely concentrated in the main urban centers. <br/>
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But there it is a group of Italian speakers in Africa who do not appear in the censuses of Italians abroad: that of the so-called
mixed-breed "mulatti" (nearly all born during colonial times) and their sons and descendants (born after WW2). They were in the late 1950s -aproximately, because there are not precise statistics- more than 5000 in Eritrea, nearly 10000 in Somalia and perhaps 1000 in Ethiopia.<br/>
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Indeed the number of births (in the newly created italian empire) from mixed couples in italian colonial times is difficult to quantify: a census dated 1938 counted 2,518 but according to some sources it is a very underestimated hypothesis: some researchers think that the amount can be more than seven times bigger.<br/>
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The following are the mulatto data for the 3 italian colonies of the empire in the horn of Africa:<br/>
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<b>ERITREA</b>. It is estimated that in Eritrea alone there were more than 5,000 mulatto children abandoned by Italian fathers: some of these were not recognized by choice, others because of the racial laws that starting from 1937 (Royal Decree 19 April 1937, n. 880 converted with modification of the Law of 30 December 1937, n. 2590), prohibited the relationships "of a marital nature" between the Italian citizens and the subjects of the colonies and in 1940 they were further burdened by the Rules relating to mulattos (Law no. 822 of 13 May 1940) which prohibited the Italian father from recognizing a half-white child (often called "Italo-eritrean").<br/>
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At the present time it is believed that the Italian-Eritreans without Italian citizenship, in some cases for decades waiting to obtain it, are about 300: often the poor economic conditions do not allow them to face the legal costs necessary to complete the complex application to get italian passport.<br/>
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<b>SOMALIA</b>.During the 1920s & 1930s nearly 10,000 children were born from Italians (mainly soldiers) and Somalian native girls during the more than half a century of colonial presence in Italian Somalia. Most of them lived in the Mogadishu area & hinterland. Indeed in Mogadiscio in the 1920s and early 1930s there were 4 Italian men for every Italian woman and as a consequence was common the "Madamato" (relationship between Italian soldiers and native.<br/>
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Nearly 7,000 children were born from the "Madamato" in the Mogadiscio area: they were mulattos who received Italian citizenship when baptized as catholic. But after 1939 the Italian Fascism -since 1938 linked to the German Nazism- imposed harsh racial rules against this Madamato. However, all the 7000 "mulattos" were given italian passports after WW2, while most of them spoke the italian language and/or the pidgin italian of Somalia.<br/>
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<b>ETHIOPIA</b>.In 1940 Addis Ababa (capital of Ethiopia) the number of new-born Italian babies was continually growing after the italian conquest of Ethiopia, rising from 50 in 1937 to 570 in 1939 and the number of weddings being celebrated shot up too, despite the dramatic housing shortage (<a href="https://dadfeatured.blogspot.com/2018/12/italian-addis-abeba.html">https://dadfeatured.blogspot.com/2018/12/italian-addis-abeba.html</a>). Italians lived in all possible ways: many continued to live in temporary shelters (tents, huts and prefabricated houses), whilst a lot of families used indigenous homes that had been expropriated or rented. A consequence was that many "mulattos" (from italian soldiers and native ethiopian girls) were born in those years: some researchers -like Dertia and D'Ambrosio- think than more than a thousand italo-ethiopian were born in the nearly six years of italian occupation of Ethiopia (1936-1941).<br/>
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Mussolini found this situation intolerable, and he constantly urged the Italian East Africa’s government to ensure a more vigorous policy of racial separation (on his orders the African market had been forbidden to Europeans, but the measure was later withdrawn, because indigenous trade was indispensable for the provision of food by whites).<br/>
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Those mulattos in some cases were given italian passports after the end of WW2, but only a few of them (probably less than 100) spoke italian or the pidgin italian of Ethiopia.
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Finally we have to remember that in the Italian Empire (made of Italian Eritrea, Italian Somalia and the conquered Ethiopia) in june 1940 there were 170000 italian colonists, a huge increase from the 6000 (4188 in Eritrea, 1668 in Somalia and just 100 in Etiopia) in spring 1935. But only 35000 remained after the end of WW2, even because of the return to Italy of 28000 women & children with four ships in 1942/1943 (read: <a href="https://www.ammiragliovincenzomartines.it/storia_della_medicina_militare_1942_rimpatrio_civili_africa_orientale_italiana.html">https://www.ammiragliovincenzomartines.it/storia_della_medicina_militare_1942_rimpatrio_civili_africa_orientale_italiana.html</a>). All this made a huge decrease in the use of Italian language in the Horn of Africa. <br/>
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Additionaly, it is noteworthy to pinpoint that in the 2020s there are only a few hundreds of italian speakers in the countries that were in the former "Italian empire". But many thousands natives are able to understand (and also speak) the italian language.....and someone also remembers the local pidgin italian (please read my <a href="https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2022/03/italian-language-in-italys-colonies.html">https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2022/03/italian-language-in-italys-colonies.html</a>).<br/>
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Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638072811514761497.post-40035588456999251622022-04-02T14:25:00.031-07:002022-04-19T18:11:45.680-07:00THE PIDGIN ITALIAN OF SOMALIAThere was the existence of a "pidgin" Italian in the Mogadishu area during the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, according to academic Mauro Tosco. But actually it has disappeared since the 1990s civil war in former Italian Somalia.<br/>
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As we all know a "pidgin" of a language is a "kind of dialect" spoken by people in a country (often a colony) that has a mother language different from the one of the rulers and that uses "mixed" loanwords from this rulers' language while creating a new language. Practically all the neolatin languages -to give an example- were initially pidgins of latin and successively developed in modern French, Spanish, Portuguese, etc...<br/>
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<i>The Somalia president Siad Barre talking to the italian engineer Luciano Travaglia in the 1970s. Barre was able to speak perfectly in Italian language (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiAIswl9AvQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiAIswl9AvQ</a>) and also in "Pidgin italian of Somalia"</i><br/<
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Luciano_Ravaglia_e_Syad_Barre.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="578" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Luciano_Ravaglia_e_Syad_Barre.jpg"/></a></div>
<b>A pidginized Italian of Somalia?</b><br/>
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Banti is probably the only existing analysis of Italian as spoken in Somalia based upon a corpus of actual sentences. Banti's corpus was written in 1990 and was very small and drawn from two speakers only, namely, two Somali women employed as house workers by Italian expatriates in the eighties.
A simplified and unstable form of Italian -according to Banfi- very probably continued to be in use among uneducated Somali when entering in contact with the Italian community. It is also possible that its use was actually boosted in the seventies and eighties: formal education in Italian was no longer available, while the number of educated Somali of the older generations (often speaking “good” Italian) and of Italian residents (many of them with a certain command of Somali) was slowly decreasing. <br/>
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At the same time, there was a burgeoning number of Italian expatriates working in technical cooperation and education, many of them spending relatively short periods of time in the country.......Certainly the points in common between this "simplified Italian of Somalia" and the "Restructured Italian Pidgin of Eritrea" are striking: is there a common origin? This seems to be the answer adumbrated by Banti, who hints at a "common tradition” rather than to "parallel developments”, without further elaboration. One can hypothesize that the Eritrean troops deployed to Somalia by the Italian authorities during the colonial times may have acted as middlemen in the acquisition of a modicum of Italian on the part of Somalis, especially in Mogadishu.<br/>
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Actually there are many loanwords from the italian language in the somalian language: for example all the months of the year are from the italian. But the greatest influence of the italian language is in the use of the latin alphabet: the somalian language is written with the vocals and consonants of the latin language.<br/>
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As I wrote last month in my "Italian language in Italy's colonies", The pidgin spoken in Italian Somalia was important in the capital Mogadiscio and in some minor cities (like in the Merca/Villabruzzi). For further information about "Mogadiscio italiana" read <a href="https://dadfeatured.blogspot.com/2018/05/italian-mogadishu.html">https://dadfeatured.blogspot.com/2018/05/italian-mogadishu.html</a>.<br/>
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The italian language was undertood by nearly all the native inhabitants of Mogadishu in 1941, while half of them was able to speak in Italian using the Somali Pidgin Italian.<br/>
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<i>The following are possible percentages of the 1940 use of pidgin by the native population (together with their own language) in the italian colonies of Africa. The percentages have a five percent increase or reduction value, according to historian E. Aiello:</i><br/>
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Colony............percentage of natives speaking Pidgin.............................only in the capital area<br/>
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Eritrea................................64%................................................................95% (Asmara)<br/>
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Libya..................................51%................................................................91% (Tripoli)<br/>
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Somalia..............................42%................................................................84% (Mogadiscio)<br/>
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Ethiopia..............................10%...............................................................26% (Addis Abeba)<br/>
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As can be read above, in 1940 Mogadicio the 84% of the native somalian population spoke the Somalian Pidgin Italian (together with their Somalian language), while in all Somalia the 42% was able to use this pidgin.<br/>
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However we must remember that the Aiello's percentages are not confirmed by precise & detailed research and can be wrong (but -in my opinion- they give an aproximate idea, more or less real & correct).<br/>
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The pidgin italian of Somalia is similar to the pidgin italian of Eritrea, because many eritrean colonial troops were in Italian Somalia in the 1930s and these soldiers interacted with the civilian native population of Somalia speaking with "italianised" words that could be understood by everybody.....and so these words and sentences were accepted by the Somalians in their pidgin. <br/>
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Indeed in the Italian pidgin of Somalia it is common the use of Italian participles as past or perfective markers. It seems reasonable to assume that these similarities have been transmitted through Italian "foreigner talk" stereotypes.<br/>
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Two examples of full similarity between the Italian Pidgin of Eritrea and the one of Somalia:<br/>
1) <i>luy andato lospεdale</i>; in Italian: È andato all’ospedale</i> (in English: he has gone to the hospital)<br/>
2) <i> o bεrduto soldi ki tu dato bεr me</i>; in Italian: ho perso i soldi che mi hai dato (in English: I have lost the money you gave me)<br/>
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Given the prolonged Italian presence in Somalia, that lasted nearly one century and that began with Italian colonisation, continued with the Italian Trust Administration first and then with university collaborations at the time of the independence regime, the Italian lexicon - especially in the technical-scientific field - is present in the somalia language with many recent loanwords, often created at the desk during the compilation of technical-scientific manuals, as part of the “Somalisation” campaigns of the specialized lexicon. And this lexicon -of course- was present also in the pidgin of Somalia.<br/>
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Finally, even if this pidgin has disappeared (but a few very old Somalians -in their eighties or nineties- still remember it in the 2020s), according to the linguist Mauro Tosco "an italian, and therefore romance, layer will certainly remain in the Somalian language". For further information, please read Tosco's "A case of weak romancisation in East Africa": <a href="https://www.academia.edu/3152863/A_case_of_weak_Romancisation_Italian_in_East_Africa?email_work_card=reading-history">https://www.academia.edu/3152863/A_case_of_weak_Romancisation_Italian_in_East_Africa?email_work_card=reading-history</a>.Bjrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11075483257783124027noreply@blogger.com1