In 1918–1920, a series of violent fights took place in the city of Split between Croats and Italians, culminating in a July 11, 1920 struggle that resulted in the deaths of Captain Tommaso Gulli of the Italian military ship Puglia, Croat civilian Matej Miš, and Italian sailor Aldo Rossi.
Contents |
The confrontations were the product of a centuries-long struggle for the control of the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea between South Slavs and Italic peoples. During the second half of the 19th century Split saw antagonism between the pro-Italian Autonomist Party and the pro-Slav People's Party.
Hostilities between the two ethnicities increased after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when Italian irredentists called for the annexation into Italy of several formerly Austro-Hungarian cities on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, which were home to a majority of South Slavs and a minority of Italians, and occupied several of them by force.
According to the 1910 census the population of Split numbered 20,275, of which 18,176 (85.18%) were Croats or Serbs (Croats were undoubtedly the majority, but the census made no distinction between the two), while 2,082 (9.73%) were Italians.[1]
Split's Dalmatian Italian community was galvanised in November 1918 through the foundation of the "National Fasces" (not to be confused with Fascism) led by members of the Autonomist Party which had been dissolved by the Austrian authorities in 1915.
After the Austrian defeat, in the first half of November 1918 Italian troops unilaterally occupied territories of Austria-Hungary promised to Italy by the secret 1915 Pact of London.[2] Split was not one of those areas and was placed under Allied military occupation; the Italians sent two warships - the torpedo boats Riboty and Puglia - while the Italian minority publicly demanded the annexation of the city into Italy, supported by some Italian political circles. At the same time, Croats formed the National Guard, a local militia to guarantee public order.
On November 9, 1918 two French destroyers entered the port of Split. The Italians displayed the flag of Italy in the windows of their homes to give the impression citizens supported Italy's bid for annexation. This however incited a riot and the flags were torn down. The commander of a former Austrian ship already docked at the port ordered the removal of the flags. Other incidents and demonstrations against Italy happened in other cities, like Trogir and the Kaštela. Italian Admiral Enrico Millo, appointed temporary military commander for the parts of Dalmatia occupied by Italy, unilaterally dispatched Italian naval vessels to the city. On January 12 the destroyer Puglia arrived among large protests.[3]
On 12 September 1919, Gabriele D'Annunzio led around 2,600 rebel troops from the Italian Army - some units of the Sardinia Grenadiers - Italian nationalists and irredentists to seize the Adriatic port city of Rijeka, forcing the withdrawal of the inter-Allied (American, British, Italian and French) occupying forces, and later proceeding south to occupy the Dalmatian city of Zadar. As a consequence armed nationalist irregulars commanded by Dalmatian Italian Count Fanfogna proceeded further south to Split's neighbouring city of Trogir and organized a similar occupation, quickly nipped by the Allies.[4] In Split, located just south across the Kaštela Bay from Trogir, the citizens feared their (significantly larger) city would be next in line, and that the joint Allied military administration would once again stand aside while another Dalmatian city came under the control of armed Italian nationalist irregulars.[5]
After some anti-Italian riots of 27 January 1920, Captain Tommaso Gulli of the Puglia began threatening to shell the city. On July 11 another street conflict erupted between Italians and Croats, and a group of officers of the Puglia found refuge in a place near the docks: captain Gulli ordered a boat under the command of lieutenant Gallo to rescue them, but it was blocked by the crowd. Gallo then fired "warning shots" into the air.[6] Soon captain Gulli went ashore himself on a motorboat, but on approaching the docks found a large crowd and shots were exchanged. A hand grenade thrown at the vessel fatally wounded sailor Aldo Rossi and hurt several others.[7] A civilian in the crowd, Matej Miš, was shot and killed, and Captain Gulli was also hit by a shot, dying the next day. In Italy the reaction to what happened in Split was indignation, while in the city of Trieste (another former Austro-Hungarian city under Italian military occupation) Italian proto-fascists and nationalists destroyed the Slovene National Hall (Narodni dom), the center of the Slav activities in Trieste.
.JPG){kind=link}