Province of Spalato

Map of the "Spalato province" and the Governorate of Dalmatia.
Italian warship in the Spalato Harbour after the annexation into Italy in 1941.

Spalato (province) was a province of the Italian Governorate of Dalmatia, during World War II.

History

In April 1941 the Italians conquered coastal Dalmatia from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. They created some provinces in that region, that lasted until September 1943. One was the province of Spalato. The administrative capital was the city of Spalato (now: Split).[1]

The province had an area of 1075 Km2 and a population of 128000 inhabitants. Most of the province's inhabitants were Croats, but there were even 3000 Dalmatian Italians, concentrated in Spalaro and Traù (now: Trogir).

The Italians improved the regionby building hospitals and infrastructures, but even started a process of Italianization. Because of this, in summer 1942 there was a small insurrection against the Italian conquest, but without huge consequences until summer 1943.

In September 1943 the German army took control of the region from the Italians, who has surrendered to the Allies, and soon started a terrible guerrilla war between the Nazi occupiers and Joseph Broz Tito's partisans. The province was cancelled in the same September and later annexed to Ante Pavelic's Croatia.

Administrative subdivision

Map of the Province of Cattaro.

The 15 "Comuni" were (in Italian the official name and in Croatian the actual):

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Davide Rodogno. Fascism European Empire

Bibliography