Italiian American Herald - November 2021

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The Porec Istrian Peninsula, one of Istria's most renowned tourist destinations, balances small-town charm with modern amenities.
By Jeanne Outlaw-Cannavo
Italy is a country whose borders changed frequently through the centuries as various European rulers claimed or lost regions through war or shifting allegiances. Trieste and the Istrian peninsula are the most recent area whose borders Italy has disputed with the transfer of Istria through the Treaty of Osimo in November 1975.
Since 1382, Trieste had been part of the Habsburg Monarchy, while the Habsburg Monarchy and the Republic of Venice had for centuries ruled Istria. Trieste thrived under the Austrian rule which not only protected the port city from the powerful Venetian navy (which often raided and sacked the city) but also enjoyed wealth and status under the Hapsburg Empire.
The population of the territory was
diverse and mixed, with a majority of Italian speakers in the urban and coastal areas. Minority populations which consisted of Slovenian, Serbians, and Croatians were more prevalent in the surrounding territory and they represented about a third of the population by the end of World War I.
The territory of Trieste became a part of Italy after World War I with the Italian speaking town surrounded by a Slovenian speaking countryside. After 1918, as the fascists began to rise to power, there was a marked rise of discrimination against the Slovenia population; language schools and organizations were closed, and numerous Slovenian names were Italianized.
After the Sept. 8 armistice of World War II, when Italy began to fight along with the allied powers, the Germans seized northern Italy and created a puppet state known as La
Repubblica Sociale Italiana and placed Benito Mussolini in control. This did not include Trieste which became part of the Reich.
In 1945 allied forces and Yugoslavian partisans fought to take back Trieste (which included the Istrian peninsula) with both Italy and Yugoslavia staking claim to the territory. An international protectorate was set up and Trieste became a free territory (Territorio Libero di Trieste) from 1945
to 1954 when the two countries finally reached an agreement. In 1947, Trieste was declared an independent city state under the protection of the United Nations as the Free Territory of Trieste. The treaty split the four territories into two zones, A and B, along the Morgan Line established in 1945. It was later formalized as the Treaty of Osimo and signed into law on November 10, 1975. Trieste became part of Italy while Istria (which had
a similar ethnic composition) was given to former Yugoslavia which is now Slovenia and Croatia.
The Italian government was criticized
for signing the treaty in secretive maneuvers that bypassed diplomatic channels. Italian nationalists rejected the idea of ceding Istria since the area had been an ancient "Italian" region together with the region of Venice. Furthermore, Istria had belonged to Italy for the 25 years between the two world wars, and the west coast of Istria had long had a sizeable Italian minority population. The treaty did not guarantee protections of this Italian minority in the Yugoslav zone nor for the Slovenian minority in the Italian zone. Protection of minorities was later addressed by government officials in separate protocols.
continued on page 7
A history of disorder at the border
Trieste and Istria: A tale of Italian territory divided by war
Vol. 8 / No. 11