ISTRIA 1809: the Slavs threw the first stone of the ethnic conflict

Slavs were the first to start the ethnic & national conflict in the eastern Adriatic.

One of the least known issues in the conflict in Istria and Dalmatia between Italians and Slavs turns out to be who or what started it. In fact, until the late eighteenth century in the Republic of Venice peoples of the lands of Istria and Dalmatia lived in harmony under the Venetian Republic. To the point that the "Schiavoni" (as were nicknamed the Slavs in Venice) were among the major supporters and defenders of the Venetian Republic when was attacked and submitted in 1797. Suffice it to recall what happened in that year in the Bay of Kotor(Bocche di Cattaro), where the banner of Venice was buried among the cries of neo-Latin and Slavic people who shared the common pain of defeat.

Istria for centuries had been divided between "Venetian Istria" (the area west and south of the peninsula) and "Austrian Istria" (the area north-east): in the Venetian Istria in the late eighteenth century the neo-Latin element was completely dominant, while in the Austrian Istria the Slavs had settled numerous (with even some Istrorumanians) making a reduced minority with a strong presence of neo-Latins.

We all know that the French Revolution brought many ideals, one of which was the concept of nation that is also based on a common language. We note then that Napoleon's troops in the eastern Adriatic shook the secular status quo of the peaceful Istrian - Dalmatian society and consequently in the nineteenth century there was the rise of Italian and Slovenian-Croatian nationalisms, which harbored - among other things - even the two bloody world wars of the twentieth century.

Today the ultranationalist Slavs defend themselves against accusations of having exterminated south of Trieste almost completely the Italians, claiming that this was done as a reaction to the attacks of the fascists in their "Fascist Era" (called "Ventennio" in Italian) and at the beginning of World War II. While the Italians accuse Austria of being the root-cause of violence by the fascists because of having favored the Slavs in Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia until the First World War, to the detriment of Italian community with numerous abuses (and deaths) since the times of the Italian independence wars.

But who or what started all this? That is, who were those who threw the "first stone" ?

The answer lies in the creation of the "Illyrian Provinces " by Napoleon. In fact, after having joined Istria and Dalmatia to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1805, Napoleon decided to create this new balkan state after a few years (with capital Ljubljana) and to annex to it these two regions that had been part of the Venetian Republic for centuries.

But for Istria there was the opposition of the people (almost all Italian at that time), supported by the Viceroy of the Kingdom of Italy Eugene de Beauharnais, who wrote directly to Napoleon to get -or better, to keep- the union of Istria (already Venetian for centuries) to his Kingdom of Italy. Unfortunately arrived from Paris only the permission to join to the Kingdom of Italy just the forests and salt marshes of Istria (which were about 20% of the territory of Istria) ..... and in this way for the first time in many centuries Istria was detached from Italy. The inhabitants of Pola, Rovigno and Capodistria protested, but there was nothing to do.

It should be noted, moreover, that Beauharnais in his letter to Napoleon wrote that "Your majesty (i.e.: Napoleon ) already had included Dalmatia between the Illyrian Provinces but Istria, always Venetian, it was excepted to remain Italian" (http://www .coordinamentoadriatico.it / fil ... ). So we have a clear-cut change in the thinking of Napoleon in his decision about Istria!

(Map of the Kingdom of Italy in 1808, when included Istria, Dalmatia and the former Republic of Ragusa until Cattaro in the Montenegro coast)

What or who changed the decision of Napoleon about Istria? Officially it was -among other things- the need to determine as the eastern border of the Kingdom of Italy the river Isonzo, but in reality this was due to the influence of the Enlightenment group of the Slovenian "Circle of Zois " who had a lot of weight in Paris (then capital of the Enlightenment).

The so-called "Circle of Zois" was the most important center of Illuminism in Ljubljana and was founded by Sigmund Zois. This Zois (whose father was a Lombard from Valtellina) was an important patron in the arts and sciences, by funding numerous publications and scientific projects. But above all he is remembered for having contributed to the codification of the Slovenian language (until then considered only a Slavic dialect) and done by Zois and members of his circle (who became even promoters of the first newspaper in Slovenian language: the "Lublanske novize" - "News of Ljubljana").

To this circle belonged among others, the linguist Jernej Kopitar, the historic and dramatic writer Anton Tomaž Linhart, the poet Valentin Vodnik and even the French Charles Nodier (related to the famous Joseph Fouche, one of the leaders of napoleonic Freemasonry). And in these Masonic connections of the Circle Zois is to be seen the "key" that explains the main sudden change of Napoleon, who - as is clear from the letter of Beauharnais - initially wanted to keep united the former Venetian Istria to the Kingdom of Italy.

In January 1810 was so secret (or "Masonic") this change, that is remembered by historians like Bernardo Benussi that " Marshal Marmont requested confirmation to Caulk (head of the Provisional Government of Istria http://arupinum.xoom.it/govprov.htm ) about the desire of Napoleon to detach from the Kingdom of Italy the region of Istria, making it a part of the Illyrian Provinces. The Caulk asks for confirmation to the government of Milan, which was blinded about the imperial will and falls from the clouds."

In short, this "sudden and unexpected" change appears to be the first demonstration of a Slavic methodology -repeated and expanded in the following decades- to seize , with stratagems and often fakes well set up, and annex all that was Italian in Istria and Dalmatia (from literature and history, to the Marco Polo nationality..... until ownership of the properties of the Italian exiles after 1945 (the reader should study this interesting article written in English by Dino Veggian about these appropriations: http://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2014/0 ... ) .

The removal of Istria from Italy was perceived as an offensive strike by the Italians in the region: it was the first time that there was a rift in the ex-venetian Istria between the majority of Istrian Italians and the slavic minority (then very small). Unfortunately, this fracture - as we know - became more and more huge in the following decades degenerating into open conflict, until the terrible conclusion in the famous "Istrian exodus" of the Italians.

From all this clearly we note, in simple words, that the Slavs were the ones that started the ethno-national conflict in the eastern Adriatic. The Slavs of the Zois Circle threw "the first stone", when they obtained to annex "suddenly" the former Venetian Istria to their Illyrian Provinces against the will of almost all stakeholders (from the viceroy Eugene de Beauharnais to the vast majority of the local population who was Italian) !

It should also be remembered that in 1806 the whole territory was divided into two districts, Capodistria and Rovigno, and in 7 cantons: Capodistria, Pirano, Buie, Parenzo, Rovigno, Labino and Vodnjan . In turn, the cantons were divided in 22 municipalities of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd class according to the number of inhabitants. Capodistria presided over the first 4 cantons for a total of 60,641 inhabitants and Rovigno, who was then the most populous city in Istria, for the last 3, for a total of 28,615 inhabitants. The total population of the former Venetian Istria in 1807, therefore, did not exceed the 90,000 inhabitants, of which about 70,000 Italians according to the "Adviser to the Kingdom of Italy " Bargnani: that shows that are clearly false the allegations -almost all made at the time of the dictator Tito- of a community where the Slavs reached in those years about 50% of the total population of the former Venetian Istria! In reality the Slavs who lived there were just 25% of the total inhabitants in those years, according to a contemporary person who was serious and honest .....

It should also be pointed out that at the time of the Napoleonic Istria, Istria was divided into the ex-Venetian Istria (from Capodistria to Pola, where the vast majority was of Italian ethnicity) and the former Austrian-Istria (the area of Pisino, with a reduced Slav and istrorumenian majority) and was plagued by the phenomenon of banditry in the countryside.

One of the few bright spots of the French occupation, in fact, was that their efficient war machine dealt a severe blow to this ancient scourge of Istria. It was particularly harsh the repression of brigandage in Ciceria (implemented in 1810 by the " Battalion Royal d'Istria ", made mainly of Italians from ex-Venetian Istria), where it was applied the principle of "collective responsibility", meaning that villages in the surroundings where operated the robbers had to respond in a severe way or through the delivery of hostages or through a ransom if the culprits had not paid the innocents.

So because the majority of these brigands were Slavs, since that moment the brigantage repression started a clash between citizens of the villages & cities (Italians and pro-French) on one side and farmers (Slavic and pro- Austrian ) on the other side: this was a typical feature of Istria at the time of nationalism during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.

CROATIA IS ERASING AND MISAPPROPRIATING WITH FALSIFICATIONS THE PAST OF DALMATIA

Croatia is erasing, distorting and misappropriating the past of Dalmatia, Quarner region and Istria (and nobody says anything).

--------------------NOW YOUR HISTORY BELONGS TO US--------------------

While visiting the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea, western journalists usually admire her ancient towns. They notice almost everywhere that the regional architecture is “heavily influenced” by a “Venetian” (or “Italianate“) “accent” or “flavor”. Years ago, a famous chef posing in front of a XVI century Dalmatian building for a documentary, claimed that its architecture was “quintessentially Croatian“. In the past, certain Western writers were almost convinced (and disgusted) that Croatians “imitated” Venetian and Italian Renaissance architecture in building Dalmatian towns. Today, Croatian and international tourist guides are presenting the rich artistic patrimony of Dalmatian coastal towns as essentially “Croatian” or “a reflection of Croatia‘s history“. They almost never mention the autochtonous Italians (about 80.000 in 1800s) who lived there since Roman times and who built those architectural jewels before disappearing in modern times. Where did they go? Almost all of them became refugees. They were the victims of the first ethnic cleansing documented in the Balkans.

The history of Dalmatia is compromised by strategic interests and political correctness. The current ignorance about the eastern Adriatic coast is appalling and widespread. It is, in short, the consequence of a “damnatio memoriae” of political nature. On one side, in the West nobody knows the real history of the region. On the other side, ”’today a phalanx of nationalistic Croatian historians, political leaders, journalists and tourist operators, profiting from this vacuum are erasing, falsifying and misappropriating the real history on an international level using books, newspapers, tourist propaganda and Internet sites”’. The ethnic cleansing of the autochtonous Italian population of today’s Croatian coastline started in the second half of the 1800’s. Then, towns like Zadar, Split, Sibenik, Trogir, Dubrovnik had Italian names (and were called Zara, Spalato, Sebenico, Trau, Ragusa), Italian communities in a dominant position and a cosmopolitan population (of Croatian, Serbian, Albanian, Greek, Jewish, etc. origin). Everybody spoke Italian and Venetian dialect, the “lingua franca” of the time. Helped by the Austrian government (then all Eastern Adriatic coastline was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), Croatians launched a political campaign against the “Italian Dalmatia” to annex the territory. Since the beginning it was an integral part of the political national aspirations of Croatians struggling to form their own state. It continued to be so during the turbulent formation of the first, monarchic, Yugoslavia, when Croatia accepted willy-nilly the Serbian domination and on the same time continued the assault - violent, almost a civil war - against all Dalmatian towns inhabited by ethnic Italians. Following a first exodus toward the end of the 1800s, in 1905 in Rome a Dalmatian Italian Association to help the refugees was founded. Then, after WWI tens of thousands of Dalmatian Italians abandoned their towns and villages in 1920-1930s and settled on Italian territory. During WW2 a third and final exodus: the winning Communist movement embraced the Croatian’s irredentist cause and included it in its war strategy and national political platform. The consequence was the violent expulsion of 350.000 Italian speaking autochtonous inhabitants from all the Eastern Adriatic coastline - from the southern Dalmatia to the Istrian peninsula - and the consequential erasing of two millennia of a very rich civilization. Ethnic cleansing had happened in many parts of Europe in both old and modern times, so the demographic and cultural extirpation of Italian presence in Dalmatia, the Quarnero region and Istria is not really a new phenomena. But this slow, brutal and in 1945 also military operation had an unexpected development, something very peculiar. After erasing almost all the Italian speaking population in Dalmatia proper, without succeeding completely in the Quarner region and Istria, Croatia adapted a new form of genocide: the stealing of the “enemy’s” history in order to obliterate his memory and aggrandize the country. Completely ignored in the West, this skullduggery is a new Pandora’s vase “Balkan style“.

Sack and disinform

Croatia, a country of about 5 million inhabitants, has “nationalized” the history of her Adriatic coastline, a territory that had never been part of the Slavic hinterland, either historically, politically or culturally. In order to totally “Croatianize“ the coastal territories, the country is manipulating their history and striving to “show” the world that Dalmatia, the Quarner region and Istria have “always” been Croatian. There is no actual political contingency to justify this operation: the old Italian irredentism ended up definitely in the dustbin of the history, and no other countries - except for Slovenia - have pressing territorial ambitions toward Croatia. Never methodically investigated, nobody knows how and when these history misappropriations started. In 1858-60 Ivan Kukuljevic Sakcinski, who belonged to Croatian nobility, published his “Slovnik umjetnikah jugoslavenskih”, an encyclopedic dictionary of Yugoslav artists (then, Croatia was under Hungarian domination and Yugoslavia was still a dream). In this book among Slavic artists you can find the painter Vittore Carpaccio - born in Venice, 1460/65 ca. - 1525/26 ca. - only because Carpaccio used to create religious paintings commissioned by churches in Istrian peninsula and Dalmatia. Kukuljevic Sakcinski, a hot headed nationalist, “opined” that the artist’s last name derived from a Croatian root: “Krpaci, Skrpaci or Krpatici”. Take for example the history of the Republic of Ragusa, officially known as Dubrovnik only from 1919 on. Ragusa has been an independent republic governed since the Middle Ages by a Latin/Illirian oligarchy. When it was abolished in 1808 by the Napoleonic army, the small but influential and immensely rich maritime republic left a gigantic archive in which all government documents were written, first in Latin, then in Italian “volgare” and finally in modern Italian (the Republic had an office in charge of translations from Slavic vernacular). In the daily business of the government and in diplomacy - Ragusa had over 80 consulates in every major European and Middle Eastern city -, the official language of the small republic was Italian. Furthermore, The Republic of Ragusa is remembered as ”The fifth Maritime Republic of Italy” (with Venice, Pisa, Amalfi and Genoa). For centuries, the well-to-do Ragusan families sent their children to study in the Italian universities. Across the Adriatic sea, Ragusans had daily contacts with Italy. The celebrated libraries of Ragusa were full of Italian editions of every kind, but no books printed in Serbo-Croatian language.

Today in some Croatian history books the real history of Ragusa disappears almost completely. The historians maintain that Dubrovnik “is an important page of the history of Croatia”, although Ragusa had only commercial liaisons with a Croatian territory that has not been a state for nine centuries. They repeat obsessively that the maritime republic was Croatian “almost since the beginning of her history”, that her merchant fleet was completely Croatian. Every family of the town’s aristocracy - Basilio, Cerva, Ghetaldi, Luccari, Menze, etc. - is given arbitrarily “the equivalent Croatian name“. All Ragusan state institutions are receiving Croatian denominations, all monasteries in town are presented as “Croatian”, although the clergy was Italian. You find all these misappropriations in Wikipedia “the free encyclopedia” site, where the authors (clearly Croats) are demonstrating how grotesque are their pretensions when, at a certain point, they report the list of Ragusan senators who attended the last session of their Greater Council, the one in which it was announced that the glorious republic was dissolved (Aug. 29, 1814): of a little over forty incontestable Italian names of the senators, only one is of Croatian origin: Marino Domenico, count of Zlatarich.

In 2006, with his book “Dubrovnik - A history” published in England and sold in every English speaking country, the British author did an unwanted favor to the extremely voracious Croatian nationalistic historiography. Using only Croatian sources and materials, he wrote an essentially extremely nationalistic Croatian book in English language. Explaining his readers the mystery of place, institutions and personal Italian names translated into Croatian, he wrote: “I have used the Slavic form throughout, simply because that is the one most commonly found in the historiography” (obviously Croatian). “No other significance - he pointed out - is implied”. And with this elegant explanation, the deontology of the historian took a vacation.

A “patriotic mission"

Some Croatian historians and researchers are a legion of agit-props engaged in the “patriotic mission” of promoting the grandeur of their homeland. Their patriotism obey to a categorical imperative: the country comes first, at any cost, even lying. They “Croatianize“ everybody and everything. Literally hundreds of public figures, artists, scientists, academics - Italian Dalmatia had in XIX century 32 newspapers and periodicals, a rich history, an incredible artistic, academic and literary life, and glorious maritime traditions - today are mentioned as “Croatian“. In 1998, writing for “The Atlantic” magazine Robert D. Kaplan (author of influential “Balkan Ghosts”) seemed to be the first American essayist to reveal the truth about the suppression of the Italian past of Ragusa by Croatia (and by extension of Dalmatia). “A nasty, tribal principality - he wrote - who was attempting to transform, in the old Republic, its character subtly from that of a sensuous, cosmopolitan mélange into a sterile, nationalistic uniformity”. Of the original Italian speaking population of the town only about 40 individuals survived the ethnic cleansing.

Unnoticed by academic authorities in the West, an implacable (first Panslavistic, then Pancroat) “nationalization” of non-Croatian history continued for decades in a dramatic crescendo. In the last half century it reached epidemic proportions: Andrea Antico, born in Montona (today Motovun) in Istria, a composer and music publisher of the 1500s (he is studied in every music school of this globe), was rebaptised Andrija Staric (or Starcevic); the Renaissance painter Lorenzo De Boninis, born in Ragusa/Dubrovnik, is presented in Croatian history books and tourist guides as “Lovro Dobricevic”; Nicola Fiorentino, an Italian born XVI century architect active for decades in Dalmatia, becomes the fake Croat “Nikola Firentinac“. Giovan Francesco Biondi, a writer born in 1572 on the Dalmatian island of Lesina (Hvar) is introduced to the Western cybernauts as an improbable “Ivan Franc Biundovic”, although he was a diplomat (and maybe a spy) in the service of the Venetian Republic and with his three books is considered the first modern Italian novel writer. (The “superpatriotic” Croatians historians completely ignore the “Italian” aspects of his biography, reducing his creations to “an excellent history of the British civil wars while living in England” to be added to Croatian merits).

The case of Francesco Patrizi, a XVI century philosopher and scientist who was a teacher of “La Sapienza” university in Rome, is almost incredible. He became “Franjo Petric” (or “Petricevic”), that means a “Croat”, only because he was born on the island of Cherso (Croatian “Cres“) in the Quarner gulf. Croatian academic and political circles are so proud of “Franjo Petric” that almost every year they are holding in Zagreb, the capital of the country, and on “Cres“, an academic symposium dedicated to this magnificent intellectual mind. Many years ago they published one of his books printed in Italy in 1500s. They took the original, ornate volume, translated it into modern Croatian language and published it presenting the book as an anastatic edition of the original, in order to demonstrate the high level of their national civilization in the 1500s (when Croatian capital Zagreb was still a village and Croatians in toto were still an agricultural/pastoral population). But they made a mistake: they used the Croatian diacritic signs (“accents” on certain consonants) invented only in the middle of the 1800s.

Another example is that of Pier Paolo Vergerio, a catholic bishop and an historical figure in the turbulent times of the Reformation. He lived in Capodistria, a small town on the Istrian peninsula. In a Croatian history book, written by a Croatian academic and published in the USA, the bishop is presented as “Petar Pavao Vergerije”, without pointing out that he was Italian, that the town of Capodistria never had anything to do with Croatia, never had a noticeable Slavic minority among her population and today is part of… Slovenia. There is a Ragusan writer who, from 1909 up to today, underwent involuntarily to a name-change quiet a few times: Benko or Beno Kotruljevic, Kotruljic, Kotrulic or Kotrulj. Croatian historiographers do not care much in this regard. To them is important that this was “one of the first Croatian writers on scientific subjects”. “Croatian”, they repeated a hundred times in their essays on this historical figure. But that gentleman’s real name was Benedetto Cotrugli (or de Cotruglis). This is the way he signed his correspondence and also his famous book, “Della mercantura et del mercante perfetto”, one of the first manuals on merchandising, book-keeping and “the good merchant”, published in Venice in 1573. This book is known in every university and a college with an Economy department. Cotrugli went to school and lived for all his adult life in Italy, serving as a diplomat the Kingdom of Naples and as director of the Mint in L‘Aquila. He never wrote anything in Croatian language. By the way, his book was published in Croatia only in 1963, five centuries after it was written. But he is considered “Croatian”.

This kind of uncontrolled appetite is also directed toward classic antiquity. A reliable Croatian archeologist, Josip Vlahovic, studied a bas-relief in the Split (Spalato) Baptistery, portraying a Middle Ages king on the throne, with a crown on his head and holding a cross. At his side there is a figure, maybe a court official, and in front of him another figure prostrated on the floor. Examining the clothing, hairstyle and other details, Vlahovic concluded, honestly, that the bas-relief was ”most probably” created by a band of Longobards, who settled in Dalmatian interior in the VI century before moving out of the territory, in an uncertain period, and disappearing. According to Daria Garbin, an archeologist living in Spalato (Split), who wrote extensively about that barbarian band, that Medioeval king “could be” the Longobard Alaric. Finally, the elegant and rich book “Croatia in the Early Middle Ages - A cultural survey”, published by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, printed in London in 1999, and distributed in all English speaking countries, is embellished by a magnificent, full-page picture of the same bas-relief. Beside the picture, there is the explanation: “Marble carving of a Croatian king (maybe Zvonimir)”. Here the Longobards do not receive any attention.

One of the most frequent tricks in this “propagandistic history” is to find a couple of Croatian personalities and squeeze between them the Slavicized name of an Italian local personality in order to “demonstrate” that a Dalmatian town was, yes inhabited by “some” Italians, but was predominantly Croatian. Take for example Trogir, known for a millennia as the Italian Dalmatian town of Traù, incredibly rich in arts and architecture, and since 1997 protected by the UNESCO. On a Croatian Internet site you can notice that a humanist and writer from Trogir, Koriolan Cipiko, active in 1500s is sandwiched between two Croatian historical figures that had nothing to do with him nor Trogir. Here the intention is to “neutralized” completely that gentleman, whose real name was Coriolano Cippico, a member of an illustrious centuries old Dalmatian dynasty (of bishops, writers, philosophers, army and navy leaders, you name it) of Roman origin. Another Croatian site says that “during this period Italian citizens, until 1918 the ruling class and almost half part of the population, were forced to leave for Italy”. Forced by whom? The authors of the site cautiously don’t say it. In another Croatian site we find that in the same period Trogir had 16.000 inhabitants, that means that 8.000 were Italians. Today the Italians living in Trogir are only a handful.

There are literally hundred of episodes and cases like these, in numerous Croatian history books and tourist guides published in English language and distributed in the West, and now also on Internet. Outright falsehoods, half truths, tendentious presentations, patriotic rhetoric and grotesque nationalistic grandiosity are very common in them. This part of the Croatian academic world knows no limits in the national appetite for glory, veneration of patriotic heritage, and stealing of other people’s cultural icons to show off. Nowadays in Croatia (and through Internet in the United States also) they maintain that Marco Polo was born on Croatian island of Korcula (historically Curzola; up to 1920s the main town of the island was populated by an Italian majority) and that he was a Croat, not a Venetian, without any document to prove it. They also appropriate Giovanni da Verrazzano, the Tuscan explorer who is considered to be the first European to have discovered the bay of New York, in 1524 (decades before Henry Hudson). For this primacy his name was given to the spectacular modern bridge that connects Brooklyn with Staten Island. But now Verrazzano is proclaimed “Croat”. Why? Because while exploring the Eastern Atlantic coast going North, he used to give some Dalmatian names to certain territories and islands he discovered during his voyage. So Verrazzano becames “Vranjanin or Vrancic”. The same destiny is reserved to an Austrian composer, Franz Joseph Haydn, only because he was born (in 1723) in an Austrian region inhabited by a community of Croatian origins who settled there in V or VI century A.D. during barbarian invasions of Europe.

Certain Croatian nationalistic historiographers are busy creating for their country the desolating fake image of a civilized and highly spiritual nation, using the heritage of a civilization the country eradicated in the first historically documented, but still unknown, Balkan ethnic cleansing. Today nobody is noticing and condemning this threatening phenomena. These charlatans with a master degree are doing a tremendous disservice first of all to their own country. They are also dangerous. In a region in the past tremendously violent and today with so many unsolved problems, this kind of piracy is very ominous and should be stopped. (di.ve.)

NEOLATIN PRESENCE IN SERBIA AND MACEDONIA

One of the books more famous about the neolatin presence in Serbia and Macedonia was written at the end of the nineteenth century by Sir Arthur Evans: "Antiquariam researches in Illyricum" (Sir Arthur Evans' complete book)

Map in hungarian language showing in red the neolatin areas (like "Romanija Planina" and "Stari Vlah") in the Dinaric Alps of Serbia and Bosnia in the eleventh century & later (click on it to enlarge):

In this book -written by a british scholar known as impartial and not linked to latin or slav nationalism- it is clearly declared that in the Middle Ages (and until some centuries after ther year 1000 AD) there was a huge population of neolatins who survived the massacres of the barbarian invasions in the balkan lands of the Dinaric Alps, from actual Croatia & Bosnia to Serbia & Macedonia.

Indeed it is stated at pag.31 of the book that:

"Politically the country outside the limits of the still Roman coast-towns was by Constantine (Porphyrogenitus)'s time in the hands of Slavonic Zupans, but side by side with the dominant race the older inhabitants of the land continued to inhabit the Dinaric glens and Alpine pastures. The relics of the Roman provincials who survived the Slavonic conquest of Illyricum were divided, in Dalmatia at all events, into two distinct classes, the citizens of the coast-towns, who retained their municipal and ecclesiastical institutions and something of Roman civilization under the aegis of Byzantium, and the Alpine population of the interior, the descendants for the most part of Romanized Illyrian clansmen recruited by the expropriated coloni of the municipia, or at least that part of them who had been forced to give up fixed agricultural pursuits for a semi-nomad pastoral life. Both classes spoke the Latin language, approaching, in various stages of degradation, the Romance variety still spoken by the Rouman population of parts of Macedonia and the Danubian provinces; and both were indiscriminately spoken of by their Slavonic neighbours as Vlachs, or Mavrovlachs: Romans, or Black Romans (Morlachs)."
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In short, Evans says there is evidence - of archaeological type and of other kind -showing that in the territories that were the Roman province of Dalmatia a substantial proportion of the population (probably the majority before the year 1000 AD) was of Romance language until the beginning of the Renaissance. And this language was similar to the one spoken in the nineteenth century in the still Vlach-Romanian region "Timok" (Vlachs of Serbia)

of Serbia, located in the hills bordering the "Iron Gates" of the Danube river. This statement contrasts with what was stated by academic historians of the era of the Yugoslav ommunist dictator Tito, who denied (or rather, tried to delete) this strong presence of neo-Latin populations. Moreover there is still a region of eastern Bosnia called "Romanija" (read my article on italian wikipedia: (Romanija)

, with a precise map ) and a region of western Serbia with the name "Stari Vlah" (ie "Historical Wallachia " in Serbian): from local cemeteries ( and the registers of the churches) we deduce that at the time of the first Turkish invasions the population of these two regions was mostly neo-Latin, even if reduced to an advanced state of Slavicization.

It should be remembered, moreover, that the Roman presence in the present territory of Serbia was notable because of the number of Roman cities that survived until the times of the Byzantine Heraclius in the eighth century. Next the names of these cities, in that century inhabited by neo-Latin people (with the actual Slavic name in brackets): Acumincum (Stari Slankamen); Rasa (Stari Ras); Bassianae (Donji Petrovci); Bononia (Banoštor); Budalia (Martinci); Burgunae (Novi Banovci); Cornacum (Susek); Cusum (Petrovaradin ), Felix Romuliana (Gamzigrad ); Horreum Margi (Knjaževac ); Justiniana First (Caricin Grad); Margum (Dubravica - Požarevac); Naissus (Niš) ; Neoplanta (Novi Sad); Remesiana (Bela Palanka); Rittium (Surduk); Semendria (Smederevo), Singidunum (Belgrade); Sirmium (Semska Mitrovica); Taurunum (Zemun); Timacum majus (Ćuprija); Ulpiana (Lipljan) and Viminacium (Kostolac).

Only in the ninth century is finally used only the Slavic name of these cities: which is probably a reason to deduce that almost around the year 1000 AD there had to be in many of these cities a residual community of neo-Latin inhabitants, according to the eminent German historian Theodore Mommsen.

In other words, in the century after CharleMagne the Vlastimirovic dinasty of Serbia created a process of "serbianization" in the areas of these cities that assimilated most of the neolatin population by the year 1000. But some areas away from the main valleys remained unaffected, like in the Stari Vlah and the Timoc region, probably because full of not easily accessible mountains.

Obviously, what was written by Evans is linked a little to what I wrote last September about the "City-states of Dalmatia" (Neolatin city-states in Dalmatia)

and in recent years in italian language on the "Neo-Latins of the Dinaric Alps" ((Neolatini dinarici)

and on the "Romance language and people ​​of Bosnia and Herzegovina" (Neolatini in Bosnia-Erzegovina)

Evans 's book is centered on Serbia and Macedonia (although there are numerous references to Croatian and Bosnian territories), including the Montenegro with the Bay of Kotor-Cattaro in the territory of Serbia. In my opinion one of the most interesting sections is the third. In fact, parts III and IV of the book concern especially the Roman "Dardania", which is the current northern Macedonia, and contain numerous and detailed references to the presence of neo-Latin populations during the Middle Ages from Montenegro (and from "Raska" - "Stari Vlah" ) until the ancient Scupi (currently called Skopije, the capital of Macedonia). For example, on p.107 Evans states that "There is definite evidence that in the Middle Ages there was a Rouman population in the neighbourhood of Skopia".

In addition, Evans says -like the historian Mommsen- that the Romanization of Roman Dalmatia was complete after five centuries of Roman Empire in Illyria, in contrast to the claims of the Slavic nationalist of communist Tito (who continually write that inside Illyria there had been little penetration of Latin culture, and that the local language was still the one of the native population when arrived the Slavs). Indeed 17 Roman emperors were born in the territories that now belong to Serbia and Macedonia, and imperial cities like "Felix Romuliana" -in the area of ​​the river Timok- attest to this roman presence that is currently awarded by the Unesco with the title of "World Heritage".

It should also be noted that the scholar Noel Malcolm believes that the area of origin of the Aromanian language is located in southern Serbia and northern Macedonia, and that from here these "Vlachs" were moved by the Turks to Bosnia to repopulate areas devastated by wars and epidemics.(Malcolm: Bosnian Serbs related to Vlachs)

And now -according to him- they would be the origin of the local Orthodox Serb population. This fact would explain -always according to Malcolm- the disappearance of the Romance populations from Dardania (and Kosovo), which of course would have been assimilated locally because reduced to only a few families after the transfer.

In addition, Malcolm says that the difference between the Bulgarian and the Croatian-Serbian language is due precisely to this neo-Latin presence (in the area of Naissus/Nis, Ulpiana/Pristina and Scuti/Skopje), which joined Romania with the Albanian Kosovo and blocked contacts & linguistic exchanges among the Bulgarian & Serbian Slavs at least up to the time immediately following the conquests of Charlemagne (and may be up to the year 1000 AD for two centuries more).

Indeed Malcolm writes in his "Kosovo:a short history" that "...the Slav presence in Kosovo and the southernmost part of the Morava valley may have been quite weak in the first two or three centuries of Slav settlement. If Slavs had been evenly spread across this part of the Balkans, it would be hard to explain why such a clear linguistic division emerged between the Serbo-Croat language and the Bulgarian-Macedonian one. The scholar who first developed this argument also noted that, in the area dividing the early Serbs from the Bulgarians, many Latin place-names survived long enough to be adapted eventually into Slav ones, from Naissus (Nish), down through the Kosovo town of Lypenion (Lipljan) to Scupi (Skopje): this contrasts strongly with most of northern Serbia, Bosnia and the Dalmatian hinterland, where the old town names were completely swept aside. His conclusion was that the Latin-speaking population, far from withering away immediately, may actually have been strengthened here (and in a western strip of modern Bulgaria around Vidin), its numbers swelled, no doubt, by refugees from further north. These Latin-speakers would have thus formed 'a wide border-zone between the Bulgarians and the Serbs'.Kosovo's protective ring of mountains would have been useful to them; and the Roman mountain-road from Kosovo to the Albanian coast - along which several Latin place-names also survive, such as Puka, from 'via publica' - might also have connected them with other parts of the Latin-speaking world. (The hill-top town of Koman, mentioned earlier, is only a few miles from Puka, and may well have had a Latin-speaking population too.) If this argument is correct, we might expect many of the ancestors of the Vlachs to have been present in the Kosovo region and the mountains of western Bulgaria".

As a corollary to what Malcolm says, we must remember that the so-called "Culture of Koman" (that existed in northern Albania during the seventh and eighth century and is mentioned by him) is classified by scholars (like Popovic and Bowden) as likely to be post-Roman: so it would be connected (and perhaps integrated) to the romance people who lived in the neo-Latin Nis-Skopjie area of southern Serbia and northern Macedonia (Koman culture, p.57)

As I wrote before, it must be inferred from the studies made ​​in this respect by Evans and others that the neo-latins who survived the invasions of the sixth and seventh centuries were scattered around the ninth century in the Dinaric Alps, especially between Banja Luka (which probably takes its name from "Bagni di San Luca") - Sarajevo (the current Romanija ) - Drina/Morava (the ancient Stari Vlah), and reached the mountains Velebit of the Dalmatian coast (where survived the dalmatian cities and islands of the autoctonous Dalmatians).

To the southeast these neo-Latin Dinaric populations were connected with the partially Romanized populations of the Albanians, while were continued to the northeast by the Romanians of the Timok region.(Map of Neolatin/Morlachs areas)

With the creation of Croatia by king Tomislav and of Serbia by the Vlastimirovic dinasty began their assimilation - often forced - by the Slavs. Assimilation practically completed at the time of the Turkish invasions in the Renaissance (except of course for the Venetian hinterland of Dalmatia where survived the "Dalmatian Italians" and the partially slavicized "Morlachs").

I think it is impossible to quantify their numerical amount in the Dinaric Alps region: I believe the most we could do is a rough calculation of the percentage of their presence. So, from 100% of the total population in the Dinaric Alps before 580 AD, the neolatin population could be expected to have declined to 66% at the time of Tomislav (concentrated in the highlands and mountains) and to 50% after the year 1000 AD, then to have decreased to 10% in the fourteenth century (when the Turks arrived) and finally to have disappeared in the sixteenth/seventeenth century. In other words, the existence of these Romance populations in the area of the Dinaric Alps would last a millennium. But then again, we are always in the field of approximate assumptions.

Finally, we must remember that until the last century the Vlach area was bigger than what is today in the southern Balkans, according to maps like this done by Koryakov: Detailed map of Vlachs in southern Balkans

Summing up the current neo-latin presence in Serbia and Macedonia:
SERBIA. Romance populations now exist in Serbia only in the region of the river Timok (Map of neolatin areas in Timok)

near the Iron Gates of the Danube, but there are some groups of Romanians in Vojvodina (just north, bordering the area of ​​Timisoara in Romania (Map of neolatin areas in Vojvodina)

). This area until the nineteenth century reached the river Morava and before the Renaissance probably extended up to the hill regions of "Stari Vlah" and "Romanija" ( populated mostly by neo-Latins until the thirteenth century ) of western Serbia and eastern Bosnia.
MACEDONIA.In Macedonia ( MACEDONIA: ITS RACES AND THEIR FUTURE; chapter VI of Brailsford about the Vlachs)

remain very small areas populated by "Vlachs" especially around Bitola (Vlachs in Macedonia)

near the border with Greece.There are even a few "Megleno-Vlachs" next to the Florina & Aridena provinces of northern Greece ( (Vlachs in the border Greece-Macedonia)

. But up to the year 1000 AD what was once the Roman Dardania had residual but significant communities of Romance people even near Skopije. The last members of these neolatin communities in Dardania (and Kosovo) were transferred to Bosnia by the Turks, according to the historian Malcolm.

L'IMPERO COLONIALE ITALIANO NEL 1940

L'IMPERO COLONIALE ITALIANO NEL 1940 (Italian colonial empire in 1940: creation & development)

Casa Savoia e Cavour, ancora nel periodo di formazione del Regno d'Italia, avevano sempre considerato con ansiosa attenzione il problema dell'espansione coloniale. Il Re e il Ministro, sebbene in quel tempo fossero presi dalla preparazione della seconda Guerra d'Indipendenza, avrebbero certamente condotto l'Italia in Africa. Ma la morte repentina del Cavour (6 giugno 1861) procrastinò l'evento. L'Impresa comunque fu portata a compimento nei decenni successivi all'Unificazione italiana. Infatti l'espansione coloniale, iniziata in Eritrea e Somalia, porto' successivamente alla conquista della Libia e nel 1936 a quella dell'Etiopia colla proclamazione dell'Impero. Del resto nel 1940 l'Impero coloniale italiano era praticamente africano, in quanto l'unica colonia in Asia era la piccola concessione di Tientsin in Cina mentre il Dodecaneso italiano in Grecia non era considerato possedimento coloniale.

Casterosso (Dodecaneso) riconquistasta nel 1941

Questo impero era costituito da quattro colonie italiane in Africa: Eritrea, Somalia, Etiopia e Libia. Le prime tre formavano la cosiddetta "Africa Orientale Italiana" nel corno d'Africa (vedere cartina sottostante)

L ' ERITREA

Il 5 febbraio 1885 il colonnello Tancredi Saletta sbarcò a Massàua sostituendo la bandiera italiana a quella egizìana. Nel dicembre il generale Genè occupava Saati a 25 km. da Massàua. A Dogali il 26 gennaio 1887, cinquecento nostri soldati, comandati dal colonnello Tommaso De Cristoforis, da Casale Monferrato, si trovavano di fronte a 5000 armati abissini: dopo una lotta disperata, la morte gloriosa sul posto concluse la loro eroica giornata. L'Italia allestì una spedìzíone per vendicare i Caduti. Il Negus Giovanni IV morì in combattimento contro i Dervisci, popolo proveniente dal Sudàn egiziano (1889). Il genero Menelik riuscì a farsi nominare Negus Neghestí, che vuol dire "Re dei Re". Nello stesso anno l'Italia e l'Etiòpia firmarono il Trattato di Uccialli (villaggio presso Màgdala). Nel Trattato era contemplata anche la occupazione di Chèren e dell'Asmara (2 maggio 1889). Francesco Crispi il 1° gennaio 1890, con decreto reale, dava il nome di "Colonia Erìtrea" a tutti i territori occupati dall'Italia fra il Mar Rosso e il Sudàn. L'Eritrea fu detta anche "Colonia primigenia" per essere stata la prima colonia dell'Italia. Menelik non volle più riconoscere il patto che ammetteva il protettorato dell'Italia sull'Abissìnia, e dopo un po' di tempo incominciarono le ostilità. I nostri sconfiggono ripetutamente i Dervisci. Viene occupata Adigràt e successivamente Adua, Macallè, Amba Alagi e tutto il Tigrai. Menelik si mise alla testa di 120 mila armati. Superava la nostra resistenza ad Amba Alagi, affidata al maggiore Pietro Toselli, assediava il forte di Macallè, presidiato dal maggiore Giuseppe Galliano, e scendeva nella conca di Adua. Il generale Baratieri decideva di dare battaglia al nemico, e con 18 mila uomini, il 1° marzo, nella zona di Amba Garima affrontava un esercito dieci volte superiore e forte di quarantadue cannoni. Il valore e l'eroismo dei nostri a nulla valsero. Avemmo 6000 morti; da parte abissina quasi 12 mila. Vi trovarono morte gloriosa 268 ufficiali. Parecchi Italiani vennero fatti prigionieri ed orrendamente mutilati (tutti gli ascari eritrei prigionieri furono mutilati) Come diretta conseguenza, Francesco Crispi dovette abbandonare il Governo. Al posto del generale Baratieri venne mandato il generale Antonio Baldissera, ma purtroppo con l’incarico di metter semplicemente ordine, non di vendicare i nostri Caduti. La terra eritrea produceva in buona quantità dura e sorgo, orzo, frumento e granoturco. Il frumento dava più di 100 mila quintali all'anno negli anni trenta. Discreto era il raccolto di legumi, lino, semi oleosi, agrumi, banane, papàie, dàtteri, caffè, tabacco. Si coltivavano in misura sempre più larga il tabacco, il caffè e il cotone. La cera e il miele si traevano dall'allevamento abbondante delle api locali. Il sottosuolo non ra ancora stato sufficientemente sondatonel 1940. Recentemente sono state messe in efficienza miniere d'oro che davano circa kg. 500 di metallo fino all'anno. Si trovavano anche minerali di ferro, rame, potàssio, mica e pietre varie da costruzione. Importante era la produzione del sale. Da Massàua e da Assab se ne esportavano circa 300 000 quintali verso mercati asiatici. Fra le industrie, allo stato nascente, erano da ricordare: i mulini, le distillerie, le fabbriche di bottoni di avorio vegetale e le botteghe dell'artigianato indigeno per lavori di pelli, di stuoie e dei metalli. All'incremento dèl commercio contrìbuiva sempre più la sistemazíone della rete stradale. Nel 1940 esisteva la linea ferroviaria Massaua-Asmara-Cherèn-Bìscia (km. 334) a scartamento ridotto, la teleférica Massàua-Decamerè e la camionabile Assab-Dessiè. Comode strade automobilistiche collegavano i principali centri. Assab stava avviandosi a diventare un centro importante dopo l'apertura della strada camionabile per Dessiè, condotta a compimento in pochi mesi. Nel suo porto il movimento delle merci in partenza aveva superato quello di Massàua nel 1940. Infine va ricordato che la capitale Asmara aveva una popolazione di 98.000 abitanti nel 1940, dei quali 53.000 erano Italiani, secondo il censimento del 1939. Questo fatto rese Asmara la principale "città italiana" nell'Africa Orientale Italiana. In tutta l'Eritrea vi erano 75.000 Italiani in quell'ultimo anno di pace prima della seconda guerra mondiale. Va ricordato che nell'estate 1940 fu tolta al Sudan britannico ed annessa per alcuni mesi all'Eritrea italiana la citta' di Kassala, che ebbe per sindaco l'ascaro Awate (lo stesso che negli anni sessanta inizio' la guerra d'indipendenza eritrea dall'Etiopia)

LA SOMALIA

La Terra dei Sòmali si stendeva nell'estremo lembo orientale dell'Africa orientale e precisamente dallo Stretto di Bab el Màndeb ad oltre le foci del Giuba. La grande regione si considerava divisa tra la Frància, la Gran Bretagna e l'Italia. La zona costiera, cosparsa di poveri villaggi e di piccoli porti, era ritenuta una terra inospitale per il clima secco e caldissimo, tormentato da vènti impetuosi detti monsoni, per la mancanza di vegetazione, e soprattutto per la popolazione mantenutasi selvaggia e sanguinaria. Era conosciuta dai Romani per il commercio dei profumi. Le prime occupazioni italiane risalivano al 1885: poche settimane dopo l'occupazione di Massàua il comandante della R. Nave “Il Barbarigo” ebbe l'ordine di esplorare le foci del Giuba e di avviare accordi commerciali col Sultano del luogo. Nel 1891 il nostro Console a Zanzibàr, Vincenzo Filonardi, occupava il villaggio di Ataleh (che subito dopo prese il nome di Itala) e nel 1892 otteneva in affitto per 25 anni altre località del Benàdir. Il capitano Antonio Cecchi, Console d'Italia a Zanzibar, pensando di congiungere l'Eritrea con questi possessi sòmali, organizzò un piano di penetrazione pacifica e si recò per accordi dal Sultano dì Gheledi. Ma aggredito nella boscaglia fu ucciso con ufficiali e marinai italiani della R. Nave "Volturno" il 2 novembre 1896. Questi fatti incitarono i vari Governi italiani ad affrontare organicamente il problema dell'Italia in Africa. Cominciò la sistemazione della Colonia Italiana del Benadir. Subito l’Italia provvide alla soppressione della schiavitù, diffusissima fra i Sòmali. Ciò destò grande malumore e irritò un Santone islamita, detto il Mullah, il quale iniziò combattimenti contro la Gran Bretagna e contro l'Italia. La lotta, a lunghi intervalli, continuò per parecchi anni, dal 1900 al 1920. Le nostre truppe furono impegnate anche contro gli Abissini i quali, incitati dal Negus Menelik, scendevano in Somàlia. Intanto, noi estendevamo anche i nostri domini nella Somàlia ad Oriente fino al medio Giuba. L'opera di colonizzazione e di bonifica s'intensificò. La denominazione di Benàdir fu assorbita da quella più generica di Somalia Italiana. Con la Convenzione del 15 luglio 1924 la zona dell'Oltregiuba ci veniva, più che ceduta, restituita dalla Gran Bretagna, come parzialissimo compenso coloniale per gli enormi aumenti di territori e di popolazioni conseguiti dalla Gran Bretagna stessa dopo la Guerra del 1914-18. Una energica azione condotta dal Governo italiano dal 1925 al 1927, per mezzo del governatore Cesare Maria De Vecchi, Quadrumviro della Marcia su Roma, ampliò e consolidò i nostri possessi permettendoci di procedere con maggior rapidità allo sviluppo delle comunicazioni e delle opere di bonifica. La Somalia era un Paese tropicale ed equatoriale fuori della zona delle grandi piogge. La popolazione indigena si dedicava alla pastorizia. L'agricoltura intensiva era possibile nel bassopiano. Le boscaglie settentrionali offrivano gomma e incenso. Vennero estese ottime coltivazioni di cotone, canna da zucchero, banani, sèsamo, aràchidi, ricino, tabacco, ecc. Non mancavano agrumi e ortaggi. Nei nuovi territori esistevano buoni pascoli, folte boscaglie e piantagioni di caffè. In pochi anni si bonificò e si fece fruttare un esteso territorio presso lo Uebi Scebeli con strade, canali, case e villaggì; uno di essi, che divenne una vera cittadina, fu chiamato "Villabruzzi" (o "Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi"). A Villabruzzi esistevano nel 1940: uno zuccherificio, un oleificio, una distilleria di alcole. A Mogadìscio vi erano fabbriche di sapone, di acque gassate, di ghiaccio e una importante centrale termoelettrica. A Brava si conciavano pelli. A Chisimàìo vi erano anche officine meccaniche e falegnamerie. Le piccole industrie domestiche riguardavano la preparazione del burro, l'essiccazione delle pelli, la fabbricazione delle stuoie. Il più importante scalo marittimo era quello di Mogadìscio. Le comunicazioni terrestri comprendevano la linea ferroviaria Mogadiscio-Villabruzzi (km. 113). Le poche strade rotabili che conducevano dai porti all'interno, sono state migliorate negli anni trenta: grazie al lavoro italiano nel 1940 si andava con automezzi su strada asfaltata da Mogadiscio in Somalia fino a Massàua in Eritrea.Mogadiscio aveva quasi 20000 italiani residenti nel 1940, su un totale di oltre 60000 abitanti.Tutta la Somalia in quell'anno aveva oltre 25000 italiani residenti come coloni. Va ricordato infine che colla conquista della Somalia britannica nell'estate 1940, fu ampliata la Somalia italiana fino a comprendere praticamente tutti i Somali all'infuori dei pochissimi nella piccola Somalia francese: si realizzava in questo modo la "Grande Somalia" anelata dai somali.

LA LIBIA

A poche miglia dalla Sicìlia c'era un territorio mezzo abbandonato e poco popolato: la Tripolitània e la Cirenàica. Tale territorio, poco pericoloso in mano alla vecchia Turchia, poteva divenire pericolosissimo nelle mani di una Potenza europea avversa all'Italia. Un tempo i Greci, a levante, e più tardi i Romani, a ponente, lo avevano colonizzato; in seguito Genovesi, Pisani, Siciliani avevano esercitato un certo dominio su quelle terre. Al principio dell'Ottocento alcuni Italiani volevano ritornarvi, ma i tempi non erano maturi. Intanto la Frància, già padrona dell'Algeria, si era presa nel 1881 la Tunisia subito dopo che i nostri coloni l'avevano valorizzata con il lavoro. Dal 1882 la Gran Bretagna comandava in Egitto. Se non avessimo occupato la Lìbia ci saremmo un giorno rinchiusi nel Mediterràneo, secondo i Savoia. Bisognava decidersi, e il Governo, che allora faceva capo a Giovanni Giolitti, preparò la conquista della "Quarta sponda". Il Sultano di Turcha si oppose: allora il 29 settembre 1911 l’Italia dichiarò guerra alla Turchia. La nostra Marina con due squadre, al comando degli ammiragli Aubry e Faravelli, bombardò la costa lìbica e fece occupare Trìpoli, Bengasi, Derna, Tòbruk dal nostri marinai. Lo sbarco a Trìpoli fu effettuato dal capitano di vascello Umberto Cagni con i «Garibaldini del mare». Dopo qualche giorno sbarcava l'esercito comandato dal generale Carlo Caneva, nato nel 1845 a Tarcento, nel Fríùlì. Egli affrontò le truppe turche ed arabe in accaniti e sanguinosi combattimenti. A capo dell'esercito nemico si trovava un valente ufficiale turco, Enver-Bey, che riceveva armi ed aiuti da paesi vicini e lontani fra cui la Gran Bretagna e la Francia. L'Italia desiderava finir presto la guerra. Occorreva quindi colpire la Turchia in casa propria. Il 4 maggio 1912, il generale Giovanni Ameglio sbarcava sulla spiaggia di Calitea, nell'isola di Rodì, accerchiava le truppe turche e s'impossessava dell'isola. Pochi giorni dopo occupava anche l'arcipelago del Dodecàneso, dove castelli e porti ricordavano il dominio glorioso di Venèzia. Nella notte dal 18 al 19 luglio il capitano di vascello Enrico Millo, al comando di cinque torpediniere, si avanzava, con incredibile audacìa, nel fortificatissimo stretto turco dei Dardanelli. Dopo un buon percorso le navi s'impigliarono nelle funi d’acciaio poste dai Turchi sott'acquá. Scoperte dai riflettori nemici, furono fatte segno ad un violentissimo bombardamento. Il Millo, con grande sangue freddo, riusciva a far liberare le navi incagliate e a ricondurle sane e sálve alla base. In tutta la Guerra del 1914-18, nè la Marina britannica né la francese seppero compiere un'impresa di simile ardimento. La nostra superiorità sì fece sentire dappertutto. La Turchia si indusse a trattare la pace che fu firmata a Ouchy presso Losanna (Svìzzera) il 18 ottobre 1912. Nel 1916, mentre eravamo impegnati nella Grande Guerra, si ridestò nella popolazione libica, aiutata da nostri nemici, un certo movimento avverso. Dopo, il movimento fu aiutato anche dagli Alleati. Giunto Mussolini al potere, intuì il pericolo e con energia provvide a riconquistare quasi tutto il territorìo. Nel 1925 si definirono i confini con l'Egitto e si riuscí a comprendere l'oasi di Giarabùb, ma non la baia di Sollum. In seguito tutto il territorio, con il Fezzàn e Cufra, fu effettivamente occupato e sottomesso. Seguì la pacificazione della Cirenàica per opera del generale Rodolfo Graziani, ottenuta con notevoli difficolta'. S'istituirono scuole di ogni grado e scuole professionali appositamente per gli Arabi. Si provvide alla difesa della salute pubblica rinnovando quartieri vecchi e insalubri. Si sviluppò la viabilità. Furono ampliati i porti di Trìpoli, di Bengasi e di Derna. Cure particolari si ebbero per i restauri degli antichì edifici costruiti dai Romani. La zona coltivata e coltivabile era solamente nella fascia costiera. L'attività degl'indigeni, fino a poco tempo fa, si limitava a pochi campi detti giardini, ma ora essi seguivano i sistemi introdotti dalla colonizzazione dei coloni italiani. Le colture che in passato si limitavano alla palma del dáttero, all’orzo, all'olivo ed a pochi alberi da frutto, ora andavano estendendosi per l’aumento progressivo delle superficie irrigue. Notevole e in costante aumento erano i prodotti dei cereali (orzo e grano di ottima qualità) dell'olivo, della vite, degli agrumi, dei mandorli, di altre frutta, di ortaggi, ecc. Sul Gebèl occidentale andava diffondendosi la coltivazione di tabacchi. Discreto posto aveva il rícino per l'estrazione dell'olío e promettenti erano gli esperimenti per piantagioni di gelso. Il trasferimento di tante famiglie rurali metropolitane in queste terre fu un avvenimento unico nella storia coloniale. Per esse furono fabbricate case coloniche moderne, costituenti villaggi che comprendevano la chiesa, la scuola, l'ambulatorio, l'ufficio postale e botteghe varie. Il nome dei nuovi centri di colonizzazione era il seguente. Nella Lìbia occidentale: Ivo Oliveti, Michele Bianchi, Tùllio Giordani, Breviglieri, Littoriano, Francesco Crispi, Màrio Gioda, Pietro Micca, Enrico Corradini, Don Enrico Tazzoli. Nella Lìbia orientale: Giovanni Berta, Beda Littòrio, Umberto Maddalena, Francesco Baracca, Gabriele d'Annùnzio, Guglielmo Oberdan, Césare Battisti, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Guglielmo Marconi, Goffredo Mameli, Fàbio Filzi, Luigi Razza, Nazàrio Sàuro, Luigi di Savòia. In altri terreni, conquistati alla steppa, sono sorti villaggi per gl'indigeni (nella Lìbia occidentale: Fiorente e Deliziosa; nella orientale: Alba, Fiorita, Nuova, Risorta, Verde, Vittoriosa). L'impulso dato all'agricoltura ha accresciuto le attività industriali, ora rappresentate nel 1940 da opifici che riguardavano specialmente le industrie alimentari (mulini, oleifici, pastifici, birrifici, ecc.), le chimiche (distillerie, saponifici, concerie, ecc.), le tessili, ed altre ancora. Vi erano poi fabbriche di latterizi e manifatture di tabacchi. Notevole l'artigianato per la fábbricazione di tappeti e stuoie, per il ricamo, la lavorazione delle pelli e dei metalli, anche preziosi. Gli artigiani erano preparati dall'apposita Scuola Professionale di Tripòli ed organizzatì da un provvido Sindacato. Lo sviluppo delle linee ferroviarie era di oltre quattrocento chilometri nel 1940. La rete stradale raggiungeva quasi i quattromila chilometri, in gran parte bitumati per agevolare il transito degli automezzi. Tra il 12 ed il 21 marzo 1937 fu inaugurata la Via Bàlbia, che andava dal confine egiziano a quello tunisino con uno sviluppo di 1932 km. Con essa, per la prima volta nella storia, si era ottenuto di saldare l'Africa minore (Marocco, Algeria, Tunisia) all'Egitto, attraverso la Lìbia.Fra Trìpoli e Tagiura si snodava l'autòdromo della Mellaha, ove ogni anno si svolgeva la "Corsa dei milioni". Molte linee aeree integravano, con quelle marittime, le comunicazioni libiche con l'Italia e gli altri centri del Mediterràneo. Aveva particolare importanza, per tutti i Paesi dell'Africa mediterranea, la Fiera di Trìpoli, che si teneva ogni anno in primavera: vera rassegna di lavorì e di prodotti che attirava espositori e visitatori non del solo Bacino mediterraneo.La Libia aveva notevoli risorse minerarie: nel 1940 si studiava la possibilita' di sfruttamento di giacimenti petroliferi.Infine va ricordato che dopo la nomina di Italo Balbo a governatore nel 1934 il numero dei coloni italiani in Libia si incrementò continuamente fino ad essere quasi 120.000 nel 1940. Ossia erano circa il 13% della popolazione della Libia, concentrati nella fascia costiera e nelle principali citta': erano il 37% degli abitanti di Tripoli ed il 31% di quelli di Bengazi nel 1940.

L' ETIOPIA

Il nome Etiòpia, di origine greca, deve preferirsi ad Abissìnia, nome usato dagli antichi Arabi per indicare una loro tribù che si recò a colonizzare l'Etiòpia. Lontani dal mare e dalle vie di comunicazione, gli abitanti dell’Etiòpia vissero una vita primitiva, più di quella di altri Paesi dell’Africa che poterono familiarizzarsi con gli Europei. Ogni tribù, ogni gente d'Etiòpia, aveva il suo Capo o Ras. Questi Capi dipendevano da un Capo a tutti superiore, detto Negus Neghesti, o Re dei Re. Il Negus Ailè Sellassiè riuscì a fare ammettere l'Etiòpia nella Società delle Nazioni. Ma nessuna opera moderna e civilizzatrice fu svolta in quell'Impero africano che, anche dopo essere stato ammesso a Ginevra, non aveva abolito la schiavitú. Mancavano strade, servizi postali e telegrafici. La sola linea ferroviaria, Gìbuti-Addis Abeba, era insufficiente allo sviluppo del paese. Niente scuole, niente ospedali per il popolo. I Missionari soltanto gettavano qualche luce di civiltà. L’Italia non si era mai disinteressata della vita dell’Etiòpia con la quale aveva contatti estesi e confini non precisati. Più volte aveva avviato trattative per fissare questi confini. Dai tempi di Adua finalmente un patto di pace costante e di amicizia Perpetua si riuscì a concluderlo nel 1928. In esso erano contemplati importanti lavori stradali per favorire lo scambio dei prodotti. Ma proprio da allora cominciarono aggressioni ai nostri posti di confine, razzìe, offese a nostri rappresentanti consolari. Il 5 dicembre 1935, ai pozzi di Ual-Ual, lungo la frontiera, il presidio italiano, comandato dal capitano Roberto Cimmaruta, viene attaccato da 1200 armati etiopici. L'attacco fu sanguinosamente respinto. L'Italia non poteva passare sopra tante offése: dovette prepararsi. Il Negus nell'agosto del 1935 ordinava la chiamata alle armi di tutti i suoi sudditi. Dopo pochi giorni liberava dalle prigioni 50 mila delinquenti a condizione che si arruolasséro.Mezzo milione di etiopi armati furono dislocati vicino alle nostre frontiere eritree e somali. Il conflitto italo-etiòpico fu sottoposto all'esame della Società delle Nazioni, cioè del consesso politico nel quale la maggioranza assoluta dei componenti era inspirata dalla Gran Bretagna. Di quella Società faceva parte ancora l'Etiòpia, sebbene da tre anni non pagasse la quota d'associazione e non avesse mantenuto la promessa di sopprimere la schiavitù.La Società delle Nazioni inflisse all'Italia le sanzioni economiche e minacciò le sanzioni militari. Si era nell'estate del 1935. Il governo italiano affrettava la preparazione militare: cominciarono le partenze dall'Italia verso le colonie dei volontari, dei militari regolari e di materiale bellico. La Gran Bretagna rafforzava le sue guarnigioni di Gibilterra, di Malta, di Aden e mandava nel Mediterràneo la sua grande flotta. Nel gennaio 1935 era stato nominato Commissario generale per l'A.O. il generale Emilio De Bono, Quadrùmviro della Marcia su Roma. Nel febbraio era partito per la Somàlia il generale Rodolfo Graziani. Il 3 ottobre 1935 cominciava la guerra. Dopo duri combattimenti ecco liberati Adigràt, Adua (5 ottobre), Axùm (15 ottobre). Altre terre vennero conquistate in Somàlia (Ogaden). Clero, notabili, uomini e armati etiopi si presentavano agl'ltaliani e si sottomettevano. Il 7 novembre fu conquistata Macallè, mentre il generale De Bono proclamava la libertà agli schiavi. La Società delle Nazioni impose il 18 novembre 1935 le Sanzioni economiche. Alla fine dell'anno, il generale Emilio De Bono fu promosso Maresciallo d'Italia e fatto rientrare: al suo posto in Etiopia fu nominato il Maresciallo d'Italia Pietro Badoglio. Sul fronte sòmalo, nella Battaglia del Canale Dòria, l’11 gennaio 1936 venne sconfitto Ras Desta; successivamente fu occupata Neghelli. Sul fronte eritreo avvenne nel gennaio la Prima battaglia del Tembièn per la strenua eroica difesa del Passo Uarieù; poi nel febbraio la battaglia dell'Endertà con la conquista della munitissima Amba Aradám dove venne sconfitto Ras Mulughietà.Alla fine dì febbraio l'Amba Alagi fu preso. Ai primi di marzo ecco la Seconda battaglia del Tembièn con la piena rotta di Ras Cassa e Ras Seium. Segue la Battaglia dello Scirè con la piena sconfitta di Ras Immirù. Il Negus, il 31 marzo, con le sue migliori truppe, armate e preparate alla europea anche da consiglieri europei, affrontava i nostri al Lago Ascianghi. Lo sconfiggemmo in pieno: egli si dette alla fuga con pochi fedeli. Otto giorni dopo gl'Italiani entravano a Dessiè. Intanto Achille Starace, con una colonna di truppe celeri, entrava in Gòndar, sottometteva i territori attorno al Lago Tana e raggiunge Debra Tàbor, non lontano dalla capitale etiopica. In Somàlia, dopo la Battaglia diva Sassabanèh, venne occupato Dagahbùr. La marcia continuava verso Haràr.Il Negus intanto tornava di nascosto alla capitale e di là, dopo aver spedito a Gibuti oro e cose preziose in quantità, fuggiva. Il 5 maggio 1936 le truppe del Maresciallo Badoglio entravano ad Addis Abeba. La sera del 9 maggio 1936, il Gran Consiglio del Fascismo proclamava la creazione dell'Impero italiano e approvava lo schema di un decreto legge che proclamava la sovranità piena ed ìntera dell'Italia sul territorio dell'Impero di Etiòpia, attribuendo il titolo d'Imperatore al Re Vittorio Emanuele III.

Africa Orientale Italiana ( A.O.I.)

I territori dell'Etiòpia, dell'Eritrea e della Somàlia costituivano nel 1940 l'Afrìca Orientale Italiana ( A.O.I.). Essa era posta alle dipendenze di un Governatore generale, che aveva sede in Addis Abeba e dipendeva direttamente ed esclusivamente dal Ministero per l'Africa italiana. Egli rappresentava il Re Imperatore ed era il Capo dell'amministrazione.

L' A.O.I. si divideva nel 1940 in 6 Governi: Eritrea, Somalia, Amara, Scioa, Harar e Galla-Sidama.

- Governo dell'Eritrea, capoluogo L'Asmara, comprendeva le popolazioni dell'ex-Colonia Eritrea più le tigrine e dàncale fino ai limiti meridionali déll'Aussa.

- Governo della Somàlia , con capoluogo Mogadìscio, comprendeva le popolazioni della vecchia Colonia della Somàlia italiana, più quelle dell'Ogadèn e marginali dell'altipiano.

- "Impero di Etiopia" formato da:
1) Governo dell'Amara, capoluogo Gondar, che comprendeva le popolazìoni amàriche dell'altipiano, dalla regione del lago Tana allo Scioa. 2) Governo dello Scioa, capoluogo Addis Abeba, capitale dell'Impero e dell'A.O.I., che comprendeva parte del vecchio Scioa. 3) Governo di Haràr, capoluogo Haràr, che comprendeva le popolazioni omonime, e quelle degli Arussi e dei Bale. 4) Governo dei Galla e Sidama, capoluogo Gimma, che comprendeva i gruppi ètnici dei Galla e dei Sidama posti ad occidente e a sud dell'altipiano.

Primo governatore di Addis Abeba fu lo squadrista della Marcia su Roma Giuseppe Bottai, successivamente ministro per la Educazione nazionale. Il Governatore generale, in quanto reggeva l'Impero, era anche Vicerè. Per la religione vi era completa libertà di culto. Ai mussulmani era stata concessa piena facoltà in tutto il territorio dell'A.O.I. di ripristinare i loro luoghi di culto, le loro antiche istituzioni pie e le scuole religiose (che erano state soppresse dal Negus). Le istituzioni cristiane avevano per Capo l'Abuna di Addis Abeba. La popolazione etiope era entusiasta nel 1940 dei nostri medici militari che si prodigavano per tutti. S'istituirono scuole d'ogni specie e grado nei maggiori centri.Si costruirono strade ed opere pubbliche con uno sforzo finanziario mai visto in Etiopia.Il Governo italiano aveva prestabilito un piano di organizzazione e di valorizzazione di tutta l'A.O.I. ed aveva stanziato ragguardevoli somme. Assicurato l'impiego di una notevole quantità di lavoratori italiani, venne avviato lo sviluppo economico dell'Impero d'Italia. La spesa più ragguardevole era quella rappresentata dalle strade. Del resto si era già costruita nel 1940 la grande camionabile Assab-Dessíè che finalmente risolveva il problema della circolazione in Etiòpia a vantaggio di Assab e di Massàua. Il caffè, coltivato razionalmente e più estensivamente, dava un notevole reddito. La produzione del cotone era curata in modo particolare (in Etiòpia crescevano bene la varietá egiziana (la più pregiata) e l'americana). Da certa flora etiopica si avevano prodotti chimici aromatici e medicamentosi. Le grandi boscaglie, della zona occidentale, offrivano legni pregiati. Il bestiame era abbondantissimo, ma l'allevamento era stato fatto in modo empirico. La produzione mineraria era promettente. Si trovavano miniere di oro nello Uòllega e nel territorio dei Beni Sciangúi. Fra le sabbie del torrente Birbìr si trovava platino per circa 1000 chilogrammi annui. Nel 1940 in Etiopia si avevano anche minerali di piombo, argento, ferro, rame, mercurio, zolfo, ecc. Si sono trovate anche rocce per cementi e per calce.

DALMATIA'S NEOLATIN CITY STATES

Map (in croatian language) of the 8 Dalmatian city states, painted in the medioeval political division of Dalmatia: Crespa-Ossero in actual Cherso (Chres); Vecla in actual Veglia (Krk); Arba in actual Arbe (Rab); Jadera in actual Zara (Zadar); Tragur in actual Trau (Trogir); Spalatum in actual Spalato (Split); Ragusium in actual Ragusa (Dubrovnik); and Cattaro in actual Cattaro (Kotor). If needed, click on it to enlarge the map.

Dalmatia's neolatin population

Little is known actually about the Dalmatian city states with neolatin ethnic roots, originated from the province of Roman Dalmatia. These were a group of maritime cities where the roman population of Dalmatia took refuge from the barbarian invasions, that destroyed the Western Roman Empire. Initially these survivors got refuge in 8 places: all of them were on northern dalmatian islands (like Arbe, Ossero, Veglia) or little islands just in front of the dalmatian coast (like Zara and Ragusa, and -even now- Trau), but two of them (Spalato and Cattaro) were "isolated" by special factors (Spalato by the walls of the Diocletian "palace", and Cattaro by the "fiord" mountains surrounding the Bay of Cattaro).

These cities remained with their own latin characteristics from the seventh century until were "assimilated" by the Republic of Venice in 1409 AD. Only Ragusa maintained a form of political independence (even if nominally dependent of the Ottoman empire) until Napoleon times: the "Repubblica di Ragusa" was the last of the Dalmatia's neolatin City States and lasted until 1808 AD.
The original Dalmatian romance language disappeared from official use around the thirteenth century, according to Luciano Montali, even if the last speaker (named Tuone Udaine) died in Veglia in 1898 AD.

Thomas G. Jackson wrote an interesting book ( "Dalmatia, the Quarnero and Istria with Cettigne in Montenegro and the Island of Grado. Clarendon Press. Oxford, 1887") on coastal Dalmatia in the mid nineteenth century, that I want to resume in the sections that are related to the Dalmatia's neolatin city states:

"...Of all South Slavonic countries none in the estimation of the artist and the historian can compare with Dalmatia, the narrow strip of rock and moorland between the mountains and the sea which fenced out the Turk from the Adriatic, and stayed the tide of Moslem conquest in the south. In Dalmatia arts and letters flourished and commerce sprang up with all her civilizing influences, while the Slavonic kingdoms of the interior remained in semi-barbarism, wasting their strength in inter- necine struggles, and paving the way for the west- ward progress of the Turkish hordes. This superiority of Dalmatia is due partly to her maritime position which brought her into contact with Italy and the West, but still more to the survival along her coast of certain ancient Roman municipalities, which in the midst of a flood of barbarian colonization kept alive the traditions of civil order, settled law, and an ancient culture. Throughout the middle ages they jealously maintained the civic liberties they inherited from the Roman empire; and while outside their boundaries all the world spoke Illyric, the citizens still used the language of their Roman forefathers till it passed into its modem form of Italian. To this day they cling to their "coltura Latina" (latin culture) with passionate affection ; and though the Croats, backed by the Austrian government, are fighting hard to Slavonize the cities and reduce them to the same rule as the rural districts, the issue of the struggle is still doubtful. The survival of these waifs and strays of the Roman empire is unique; it is an historical phenomenon of almost unparalleled interest; and one cannot contemplate without regret the possibility of its disappearance.

The neolatin City States

The old Latin, or Roman, population, however did not disappear, nor did it lose its identity and become merged in the ranks of the Slav conquerors.When the first shock was over in 614 AD, the Romans either returned to their old towns or founded new ones, where they managed to live in a state between independence and vassalage till they became strong enough in time to take care of themselves. "Zara" soon rose again from its ruin, the fugitives from Epidaurus settled on an isolated rock not far from their ancient home and founded the city of "Ragusa", and the unhappy Salonitans, not daring to return as yet to the ruins of their old capital, crept back to the mainland in reduced numbers, and found a refuge within the impregnable walls of the deserted villa of Diocletian, which has grown into the modern "Spalato". The fate of "Trau" on the main land and of the island towns of "Arbe", "Veglia" and "Ossero" in the Quarnero during this general catastrophe is obscure, but we find them in the tenth century still peopled by Roman citizens and living under their own roman institutions.

It is more difficult to say what became of the ancient Dalmatian and Liburnian populations of the province of Roman Dalmatia. They probably shared to some extent the fortunes of the Roman colonists, with whom they had doubtless become a good deal intermingled, and it is supposed that their de- scendants may be found in the cities of the coast and on the islands. Lucio sees in the "Morlacchi" (Morlachs), who retired from the hill country into the plains as the Turks advanced towards the sea-coast in the sixteenth century, and who now form the peasantry of the northern part of continental Dalmatia, the descendants of the old Roman provincials who fled to the mountains and took to a pastoral life when the Slavs occupied the plains.

In 752 AD such was the condition of Dalmatia when Ravenna was lost to the Lombards and the Imperial prefects of the Byzantine empire in the Adriatic removed themselves and their fleet to Dalmatia's Zara, which became the capital of the province and the seat of the dukes of Dalmatia.Side by side with their somewhat shadowy authority was the native organization of the Slavs, who were grouped into districts called zupys, each with a Zupan at its head. Over these were grand Zupans, or presidents of the federation, and now and then we read of a Ban, or personage of still more exalted authority. All these 'archons' acknowledged and condescended to accept dignities and titles from the Empire, and, in name at all events, professed obedience to the representative of the Emperor.

Side by side again with these organizations were the old Roman municipalities of the maritime towns, speaking the old Roman tongue, governed by the old Roman law, owning allegiance to none but the Roman Emperor and the Prior who represented him in each community, and looking to Constantinople for protection in their ancient municipal liberties against the Slavs, whose rule began beyond the narrow limits of the territory which each city claimed as its own. This was the beginning of that dual element (latin and slavic) in Dalmatian history which must be thoroughly appreciated before the after history of the country can be understood, which has continued with comparatively little difference to our own days, and which is at this moment the key to the proper intelligence of Dalmatian politics and the pivot on which they turn.

Neolatin language survival

Side by side through all the alterna- tions of Venetian and Hungarian rule the Latin and the Slav have remained as two distinct elements, mixing at the edges as it were, but never fusing into one another. In the old Roman cities the old Roman traditions, and no doubt the old Roman stock survived the shock of Slavonic conquest, and though the Croat was lord outside the city walls and beyond the narrow territory claimed by the citizens, within the gates the Dalmatian people retained their old Roman customs, governed themselves by the old Roman law, and spoke the old Latin tongue, which they still speak at the present day in its modern form.

Those who have not acquainted themselves with Dalmatian history are apt to think that the Latin fringe which borders the slavonic province has derived its language and customs from Venice, to which it was so long subject. Nothing can be farther from the truth ; Zara, Spalato, Trau and Ragusa were Latin cities when, as yet Venice was not existent, and they remained Latin cities throughout the middle ages, with very little help from her influence until the fifteenth century.

The Italian spoken in Dalmatia before that time was not the Venetian dialect; in some parts it had a distinct form of its own, in others it resembled the form into wliicli Latin had passed in the south of Italy or Umbria, and it was only after 1420 that it began to assimilate itself to the Italian of Lombardy and Venetia. At Ragusa it never became Venetian at all, and to this day resembles rather the Tuscan dialect than any other, while the patois of the common people is a curious medley of Italian and Illyric, with traces of rustic Latin, Vlach or Rouman.

It is to the Latins of Dalmatia that we must Dalmatian look for evidences of culture and intellectual progress, and not to the Slavs. Those Croatian towns that, like Sebenico, emerged from semi-barbarism did so by being gathered within the Dalmatian pale, and by copying the institutions and customs and adopting the language of the older cities of Latin descent.

Ragusa, the Dalmatian Athens, has sometimes been held up as an example of Slavonic culture, but this is only partially the case, for the history of Ragusa is uniformly that of a Latin rather thian a Slavonic city. The public acts were recorded either in Latin or Italian, never in Illyric, except in case of correspondence with a Slavonic power; Italian appears as the language of the records and laws as early as the fourteenth century; the pleadings in the law-courts in the fifteenth century were not in Illyric but in a Rouman or debased Latin dialect; the rules of the lay confraternities of goldsmiths carpenters and other trades are drawn up in Italian at least as far back as the year 1306, an incontestable proof that Italian was then the vernacular language of the working classes; and when, in 1435, the little republic set an example which many greater states might worthily have imitated, and instituted public schools, it was from Italy that she invited her professors.

Cattaro, the remotest of Dalmatian cities, which lived till the fifteenth century under the shadow and protection of the kings of Servia, preserved her Latin traditions as jealously as the rest; it was from Italy that she invited her public teachers ever since the thirteenth century, and it was to the colleges of Rome, Padua or Bologna, and not to the court of Rascia, that an appeal was provided from her municipal tribunal. This "Latin" -it would be incorrect to call it "Italian"- element which the Venetians at their advent found already existing in Dalmatia naturally became preponderant over the Slavonic element when both parties passed under the rule of an Italian power. Under the Venetian government Italian was the official language throughout the entire province, from the sea-shore to the crests of the Vellebich mountains; Italian officials were appointed to every office in both urban and rural districts, and the Illyric language was left to boors and husbandmen
Architecture and culture of Italy in Dalmatia

In the maritime cities of the mainland, and on most of the islands the traveller may well imagine himself in Italy; for the language, architecture, manners and dress of the citizens are the same as on the other side of the Adriatic.

The architecture of Dalmatia has so much in it that is peculiar and distinctive that it is entitled to rank as a style by itself among the various national styles of mediaeval Europe. It is entirely urban, and confined to the maritime cities, for the sea has in all ages been the parent of Dalmatian civilization; the history of the country is in fact the history of the neolatin maritime towns, and it was in them alone that art and letters found a congenial soil and took root. The Slavonic conquerors came in as barbarians with everything to learn and nothing to teach; they gradually received the religion and in a rude way imitated the art of the Byzantine Empire to which they paid a nominal subjection, but they never developed an art of their own, and the silversmith's work which has been produced in purely Slavonic districts in modern times is but little removed from the Byzantine art of the eighth and ninth century.

The (neolatin) Dalmatians of the maritime cities on the contrary were brought into contact with the nations of western Europe, and above all with Italy, and though their architecture bears traces of Byzantine influence as late as the twelfth century, they developed after that period a native art of their own, and have left us a series of architectural monuments not inferior in interest to those of any country of Europe. Their style is principally based on that of Italy ....."
Fiume and Sebenico

Historian Lucio added to the "Dalmatia Pale" (somewhat similar to the "English Pale" in Ireland) of these City states even Fiume (actual Rijeka) and Sebenico (actual Sibenik), after the year 1000 AD when Venice started to take control of the region.

Indeed Fiume was the former Roman 'Tarsatica': the city of that medioeval period was a small fortified town under the italian Aquileia/Pola bishop, enclosed within the town walls which had several defense towers. The town was granted authonomy in the eleventh century by the bishop and was divided into two parts: in the upper part, there was a medieval castle and the church of St. Vitus (thus the name 'Flumen Sancti Viti'), while in the lower part - the popular- there was a commercial and trading center where around the year 1000 AD many Italian merchants settled.

Furthermore about Sebenico Thomas Jackson wrote that:

"....In 1167 Stephen III raised Sebenico to the rank of a 'free city' conferring on it a charter and privileges similar to those enjoyed by the old Dalmatian cities of Trau and Spalato, and from that time forward Sebenico must be reckoned as within the 'Dalmatian Pale', though a Croatian town by descent and tradition. Lucio says the Sebenzani were some time in learning to wear their new privileges easily; accustomed for so long to be governed despotically, they accommodated themselves with difficulty to the Dalmatian (latin) laws; they had Counts appointed for life, and not for a short term like the other cities, who were with difficulty restrained from their old habits of piracy, and they were more exposed than the other cities to the arbitrary interference of the Ban. Gradually however the Sebenzani became Latinized, and in later ages the city was described by Fortis as next to Zara the best built in Dalmatia, and inhabited by the greatest number of noble families, as far removed from the barbarous manners of ancient pirates as their houses are unlike the former cottages or sibice; and the same writer tells us that in the sixteenth century the arts and sciences flourished in this city more than in any other of Dalmatia...."
Actual situation

According to the "1911 Encycledia Britannica" in 1508 AD the hostile league of Cambrai compelled Venice to withdraw its garrisons for home service in the Veneto region, and after the overthrow of Hungary at Mohacs in 1526 AD the Turks were able easily to conquer the greater part of Dalmatia. The peace of 1540 AD left only the maritime cities to Venice, the interior forming a Turkish province, governed from the fortress of Clissa.

Christian Slavs from the neighbouring lands now thronged to the maritime city states, outnumbering the Italian population and introducing their own language, but falling under the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. Since then only in Zara the Italians remained the full majority of the population of the former city states, now under venetian control untill the fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797 AD. Indeed in the first decades of the 1800s the Italians were outnumbered by the Slavs in the territories around the cities (with the exception of the one of Zara, of course), but were still the reduced majority (of approximately 51%-71%) inside the walls of the cities of Arbe, Veglia, Cherso (that substituted Ossero, mostly abandoned because of malaria problems), Pago, Trau, Spalato, Cattaro & Perasto and in some islands like Lussino, Lissa and Zuri & Ziarin (both in front of Sebenico).

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, Castelnuovo di Cattaro, Perasto, Budua). So, without doubts this index showed that Zara, Veglia and Arbe were the only original neolatin city states where the neolatin society had totally survived centuries of "attacks" from the slav assimilation in Dalmatia. But during the XX century, with the two world wars, even these cities lost their neolatin characteristics (Arrigo Petacco: Istria & Dalmatia, a Tragedy revealed)

LAGOSTA: A PERFECT ETHNIC CLEANSING

Lagosta, a perfect ethnic cleansing

The island of Lagosta (now officially called "Lastovo" in Croatian) was almost half inhabited by Italians when it belonged to the Kingdom of Italy between the two world wars, but now does not even have a single inhabitant Italian. In simple words, Lagosta is a perfect example of how can be done a complete ethnic cleansing.

But what really shocks is that currently this "ethnic cleansing" -to use a term dear to the infamous "Tito supporter" named Vase Cubrilovic ( http://brunodam.blog.kataweb.it/2008/06/20/vaso-cubrilovic-la-mente-creatrice-della-pulizia-etnica-iugoslava/ )- does not raise officially by the government Italian any complaint and it is not remembered by virtually anybody (except the small organizations of the exiles from Istria-Fiume-Dalmatia and those few of the Dalmatian Italians). And this also applies to Lissa (now called "Vis"), another Dalmatian island where -during the years it belonged to the napoleonic Kingdom of Italy- almost all the inhabitants spoke in the Italian dialect called "Veneto da mar", but in our days no one -and I repeat no one- speaks it.

I will not go into detail on how this ethnic cleansing has taken place across the central-southern Dalmatian island, since the awake and development of the Slav nationalism in the nineteenth century. But I want to synthesize and center my analysis on Lagosta, since it is the only dalmatian island that officially belonged to Italy south of Zara (a formerly Italian city now called Zadar).

LAGOSTA (and Cazza)

Lagosta is part of the Southern Dalmatian islands archipelago, lined -together with the islands of Cazza, Cazziol and the Lagostini rocks- to the south of the island of Curzola (called now Korcula in croatian), from which it is separated by the Channel of Lagosta. The island, with its small surrounding islands, has about 56 km2 and a population of only 792 inhabitants according to the 2011 Croatian census. The most important settlement is the town of Lagosta on the northern coast of the island, with its Gothic-Renaissance church of SS. Cosma and Damiano. Other settlements include the villages of San Pietro, Lucizza, Porto Chiave, Pasadur and the village of Porto Rosso on the southern coast.

The history of Lagosta was closely related since the Middle Ages with the history of the Republic of Venice and that of Ragusa. The population was originally composed only of Dalmatian Italians, but before the year 900 AD some Croats began to arrive, and they became the majority at the time of the Turkish invasions.

The destruction, around 1000 AD, by the Venetian Doge Pietro Orseolo II of the oldest settlement on the island that was in the harbor of St. Peter (now called Uble) and the imposition, according to tradition, to the "Lagostani" to rebuild it in an area of ​​the island where they could not see the sea (especially because so they could not be attacked by the Slav pirates called "Narentani") is the cause of the location of the town of Lagosta in a valley far from the sea.

At the beginning of the fifteenth century, when the Ottoman Turks started to invade the northwestern Balkans, began to move into the island groups of "Vlasi", or neolatin Wallachians who were Slavicized and were also called "Morlachs" originating from Herzegovina according to the historian Ciro Truhelka ( https://doc-0c-94-docsviewer.googleuserc…(1941)-10+dio.pdf&user=AGZ5hq8BgbJY1gwaOYx83cPOdNw6 ). These Vlasi -according to historians like Mirko Vego -eventually became the majority of the Slavic population in Lastovo in the seventeenth century, while in turn the neo-Latin population of the island was reduced to a small minority especially because of the birth rate lower than the Slavs' one.

But the fact that the Vlasi were so many made ​​the Slavic dialect of the island full of words of Latin origin. And it has led some, such as Tomasin, to consider that the current Croatian population of Lagosta is of mainly neo-Latin origins, because of these Morlachs/Vlasi with Mediterranean looking hair and dark eyes.

Together with the island of Meleda (now Mljet) and Sabbioncello peninsula, Lagosta belonged to the Republic of Ragusa until 1807, by which depended even after all Dalmatia passed to Austria (1815). Lagosta was part of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy between 1807 and 1810, having the Italian as the official language and the language at school.

Unlike all the other islands and locations of southern Dalmatia, with the Treaty of Rapallo at the end of the First World War, Lagosta was aggregated to Italy (inside the "Province of Zara"), together with the island of Pelagosa, that was classified as a hamlet of the town of Lastovo. The allocation of Lagosta (and Cazza) to Italy was due to strategic reasons rather that ethnic, since it was the island of the archipelago with largest slavic population (unlike nearby Lissa, that instead went to Yugoslavia despite having a strong Italian community); indeed the centrality of Lagosta and Cazza in the Adriatic gave Italy a good strategic position to control it.

The 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.

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.

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 ( http://mortidimenticati.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_archive.html )- 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 (http://ftp.casnigo.it/doc/il-paese/ lost ...). 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.

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.

Here it is a resumen of the ethnic cleaning in Lagosta:
1) August 1943: there were nearly 1500 Italians in the island of Lagosta. They were half the population of the island
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.
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.
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).
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.
6) August 1947: There were no more Italians in Lagosta.

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!

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 http://www.adriatica.net/destinations/hr ...). 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

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?

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.

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 (now has less than eight hundred inhabitants, all Croats, and is considered one of the most poor and underdeveloped of the southern Dalmatian islands).