Editing Unification of Italy (section)

==Risorgimento and Italian irredentism==
{{Main|Italian irredentism}}

===Origins of Italian irredentism===
[[File:SetteGiugno2009.jpg|thumb|The [[Sette Giugno]] monument, symbol of the pro-[[Italian Maltese]]]]
It can be argued that Italian unification was never truly completed in the 19th century. Even after the [[Capture of Rome]] (1871), the final event of the unification of Italy, many ethnic [[Italian language|Italian speakers]] ([[Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol|Trentino-Alto Adigan]] Italians, [[Savoyard Italians]], [[Corfiot Italians]], [[Niçard Italians]], [[Swiss Italians]], [[Corsican Italians]], [[Maltese Italians]], [[Istrian Italians]] and [[Dalmatian Italians]]) remained outside the borders of the [[Kingdom of Italy]] and this situation created the [[Italian irredentism]].

The Corsican revolutionary [[Pasquale Paoli]] was called "the precursor of Italian irredentism" by [[Niccolò Tommaseo]] because he was the first to promote the Italian language and socio-culture (the main characteristics of Italian irredentism) in his island; Paoli wanted the [[Italian language]] to be the official language of the newly founded [[Corsican Republic]].<ref>N. Tommaseo. "Lettere di Pasquale de Paoli" (in Archivio storico italiano, 1st series, vol. XI).</ref>

The term ''Risorgimento'' refers to the domestic reorganization of the stratified Italian identity into a unified, national front. The word literally means 'rising again' and was an ideological movement which strove to spark national pride, leading to political oppositionalism to foreign rule and influence. There is contention on its actual impact in Italy, some Scholars arguing it was a liberalizing time for 19th century Italian culture, while others speculate that although it was a patriotic revolution, it only tangibly aided the upper-class and [[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]] publics without actively benefitting the lower classes.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Risorgimento {{!}} Italian history|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Risorgimento|access-date=7 July 2021|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref>

''[[Italia irredenta]]'' was an Italian [[Nationalism|nationalist]] opinion movement that emerged after Italian unification. It advocated irredentism among the Italian people as well as other nationalities who were willing to become Italian and as a movement; it is also known as "Italian irredentism". Not a formal organization, it was just an opinion movement that claimed that Italy had to reach its "natural borders", meaning that the country would need to incorporate all areas predominantly consisting of ethnic Italians within the near vicinity outside its borders. Similar patriotic and nationalistic ideas were common in Europe in the 19th century.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=alison-chapman-on-il-risorgimento|title=Alison Chapman, "On Il Risorgimento"|author=Felluga|publisher=Branchcollective.org|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref>
[[File:Fiume cheering D'Annunzio.jpg|thumb|Residents of [[Fiume]] cheering [[Impresa di Fiume|Gabriele D'Annunzio and his ''Legionari'']] in September 1919, when Fiume had 22,488 (62% of the population) Italians in a total population of 35,839 inhabitants.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Fiume-question|title=Fiume question|publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|access-date=8 May 2025}}</ref>]]

At the beginning, Italian irredentism promoted the annexation to Italy of territories where Italians formed the absolute majority of the population, but retained by the [[Austrian Empire]] after the [[Third Italian War of Independence]] in 1866. During [[World War One]] the main "irredent lands" (''terre irredente'') were considered to be the provinces of [[Trento]] and [[Trieste]] and, in a narrow sense, irredentists referred to the Italian patriots living in these two areas.

The term was later expanded to also include multilingual and multiethnic areas, where Italians were a relative majority or a substantial minority, within the northern Italian region encompassed by the Alps, with [[Germans|German]], [[Italians|Italian]], [[Slovenes|Slovene]], [[Croats|Croatian]], [[Ladin people|Ladin]] and [[Istro-Romanians|Istro-Romanian]] population, such as [[South Tyrol]], [[Istria]], [[Gorizia and Gradisca]] and part of [[Dalmatia]]. The claims were further extended also to the city of [[Rijeka|Fiume]] (see ''[[Impresa di Fiume]]''), [[Corsica]], the island of [[Malta]], the [[County of Nice]] and [[Italian Switzerland]].

Many [[Istrian Italians]] and [[Dalmatian Italians]] looked with sympathy towards the Risorgimento movement that fought for the unification of Italy.<ref name="corsadelricordo">{{cite web|url=http://www.corsadelricordo.it/la-storia|title=Trieste, Istria, Fiume e Dalmazia: una terra contesa|access-date=2 June 2021|language=it|archive-date=5 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605202838/http://corsadelricordo.it/la-storia|url-status=dead}}</ref> However, after the [[Third Italian War of Independence]] (1866), when the [[Veneto]] and [[Friuli]] regions were ceded by the [[Austrian Empire|Austrians]] to the newly formed [[Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)|Kingdom Italy]], Istria and Dalmatia remained part of the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]], together with other Italian-speaking areas on the eastern Adriatic. This triggered the gradual rise of [[Italian irredentism]] among many Italians in Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia, who demanded the unification of the [[Julian March]], [[Kvarner Gulf|Kvarner]] and [[Dalmatia]] with Italy. The Italians in Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia supported the Italian Risorgimento: as a consequence, the Austrians saw the Italians as enemies and favored the Slav communities of Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia.<ref name="ReferenceB">''Die Protokolle des Österreichischen Ministerrates 1848/1867. V Abteilung: Die Ministerien Rainer und Mensdorff. VI Abteilung: Das Ministerium Belcredi'', Wien, Österreichischer Bundesverlag für Unterricht, Wissenschaft und Kunst 1971</ref> During the meeting of the Council of Ministers of 12 November 1866, Emperor [[Franz Joseph I of Austria]] outlined a wide-ranging project aimed at the [[Germanization]] or [[Slavization]] of the areas of the empire with an Italian presence:<ref>''Die Protokolle des Österreichischen Ministerrates 1848/1867. V Abteilung: Die Ministerien Rainer und Mensdorff. VI Abteilung: Das Ministerium Belcredi'', Wien, Österreichischer Bundesverlag für Unterricht, Wissenschaft und Kunst 1971, vol. 2, p. 297. Citazione completa della fonte e traduzione in Luciano Monzali, ''Italiani di Dalmazia. Dal Risorgimento alla Grande Guerra'', Le Lettere, Firenze 2004, p. 69.)</ref>
[[File:VenetianDalmatia1797.jpg|thumb|400px|Austrian linguistic map from 1896. In green the areas where [[Slavs]] were the majority of the population, in orange the areas where [[Istrian Italians]] and [[Dalmatian Italians]] were the majority of the population. The boundaries of [[Venetian Dalmatia]] in 1797 are delimited with blue dots.]]

{{blockquote|text=His Majesty expressed the precise order that action be taken decisively against the influence of the Italian elements still present in some regions of the Crown and, appropriately occupying the posts of public, judicial, masters employees as well as with the influence of the press, work in [[Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol|South Tyrol]], [[Dalmatia]] and [[Austrian Littoral|Littoral]] for the Germanization and Slavization of these territories according to the circumstances, with energy and without any regard. His Majesty calls the central offices to the strong duty to proceed in this way to what has been established.|author=|source=Franz Joseph I of Austria, Council of the Crown of 12 November 1866<ref name="ReferenceB">''Die Protokolle des Österreichischen Ministerrates 1848/1867. V Abteilung: Die Ministerien Rainer und Mensdorff. VI Abteilung: Das Ministerium Belcredi'', Wien, Österreichischer Bundesverlag für Unterricht, Wissenschaft und Kunst 1971</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Jürgen Baurmann, Hartmut Gunther and Ulrich Knoop| title=Homo scribens : Perspektiven der Schriftlichkeitsforschung | year= 1993 |isbn= 3484311347|page=279| publisher=Walter de Gruyter |language=de|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l3tCTXoeAysC&pg=279}}</ref>}}

[[Istrian Italians]] made up about a third of the population in 1900.<ref name="EB1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Istria | volume= 14 | pages = 886&ndash;887 |short= 1}}</ref> Dalmatia, especially its maritime cities, once had a substantial local ethnic Italian population ([[Dalmatian Italians]]). According to Austrian census, the Dalmatian Italians formed 12.5% of the population in 1865.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peričić |first1=Šime |title=O broju Talijana/talijanaša u Dalmaciji XIX. stoljeća |trans-title=On the number of Italians in Dalmatia in the 19th century |journal=Radovi Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Zadru |date=19 September 2003 |issue=45 |pages=327–355 |url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/12136 |language=hr }}</ref> In the 1910 Austro-Hungarian census, Istria had a population of 57.8% Slavic-speakers (Croat and Slovene), and 38.1% Italian speakers.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.omm1910.hu/?%2Fde%2Fdatenbank |title=Spezialortsrepertorium der österreichischen Länder I-XII, Wien, 1915–1919 |access-date=10 May 2021 |archive-date=29 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529164005/http://www.omm1910.hu/?%2Fde%2Fdatenbank |url-status=dead }}</ref> For the Austrian [[Kingdom of Dalmatia]], (i.e. [[Dalmatia]]), the 1910 numbers were 96.2% Slavic speakers and 2.8% Italian speakers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.omm1910.hu/?/de/datenbank|title=Spezialortsrepertorium der österreichischen Länder I-XII, Wien, 1915–1919|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529164005/http://www.omm1910.hu/?%2Fde%2Fdatenbank|archive-date=29 May 2013}}</ref>

The Italian population in Dalmatia was concentrated in the major coastal cities. In the city of [[Split, Croatia|Split]] in 1890 there were {{formatnum:1969}} Dalmatian Italians (12.5% of the population), in [[Zadar]] {{formatnum:7423}} (64.6%), in [[Šibenik]] {{formatnum:1018}} (14.5%), in [[Kotor]] {{formatnum:623}} (18.7%) and in [[Dubrovnik]] {{formatnum:331}} (4.6%).<ref>Guerrino Perselli, ''I censimenti della popolazione dell'Istria, con Fiume e Trieste e di alcune città della Dalmazia tra il 1850 e il 1936'', Centro di Ricerche Storiche - Rovigno, Unione Italiana - Fiume, Università Popolare di Trieste, Trieste-Rovigno, 1993</ref> In other Dalmatian localities, according to Austrian censuses, Dalmatian Italians experienced a sudden decrease: in the twenty years 1890-1910, in [[Rab (island)|Rab]] they went from 225 to 151, in [[Vis (island)|Vis]] from 352 to 92, in [[Pag (island)|Pag]] from 787 to 23, completely disappearing in almost all the inland locations. In 1909 the [[Italian language]] lost its [[Status (law)|status]] as the official language of Dalmatia in favor of Croatian only (previously both languages were recognized): thus Italian could no longer be used in the public and administrative sphere.<ref>{{Citation|year=1970|title=Dalmazia|encyclopedia=Dizionario enciclopedico italiano|volume=III|page=730|publisher=[[Treccani]]|language=it}}</ref>

===Irredentism and the World Wars===
[[File:Promised Borders of the Tready of London.png|thumb|left|Territories promised to Italy by the [[Treaty of London (1915)]], i.e. [[Trentino-Alto Adige]], the [[Julian March]] and [[Dalmatia]] (tan), and the [[Snežnik (plateau)|Snežnik Plateau]] area (green). Dalmatia, after the WWI, however, was not assigned to Italy but to [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]].]]
Italy [[Italian entry into World War I|entered into the First World War]] in 1915 with the aim of completing national unity: for this reason, the Italian intervention in the First World War is also considered the [[Fourth Italian War of Independence]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.piacenzaprimogenita150.it/index.php?it%2F176%2Fil-1861-e-le-quattro-guerre-per-lindipendenza-1848-1918|title=Il 1861 e le quattro Guerre per l'Indipendenza (1848–1918)|date=6 March 2015|language=it|access-date=12 March 2021|archive-date=19 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319075828/http://www.piacenzaprimogenita150.it/index.php?it%2F176%2Fil-1861-e-le-quattro-guerre-per-lindipendenza-1848-1918|url-status=dead}}</ref> in a historiographical perspective that identifies in the latter the conclusion of the unification of Italy, whose military actions began during the [[revolutions of 1848]] with the [[First Italian War of Independence]].<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web|url=http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Eventi/visualizza_asset.html_1239896580.html|title=La Grande Guerra nei manifesti italiani dell'epoca|language=it|access-date=12 March 2021|archive-date=23 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923183754/http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Eventi/visualizza_asset.html_1239896580.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_LntMIUOXngC&q=%22quarta+guerra+d%27indipendenza%22&pg=PA41|title=Il Manuale di Storia in Italia, di Piergiovanni Genovesi|isbn=978-8856818680|language=it|access-date=12 March 2021|last1=Genovesi|first1=Piergiovanni|date=11 June 2009|publisher=FrancoAngeli }}</ref>

During the post-unification era, some Italians were dissatisfied with the current state of the Italian Kingdom since they wanted the kingdom to include [[Triest]]e, [[Italian irredentism in Istria|Istria]], and other adjacent territories as well. This Italian irredentism succeeded in [[World War I]] with the annexation of Trieste and [[Trento]], with the respective territories of [[Julian March]] and [[Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol|Trentino-Alto Adige]].

The Kingdom of Italy had declared neutrality at the beginning of the war, officially because the [[Triple Alliance (1882)|Triple Alliance]] with Germany and Austria-Hungary was a defensive one, requiring its members to come under attack first. Many Italians were still hostile to Austria's continuing occupation of ethnically Italian areas, and Italy chose not to enter. [[Austria-Hungary]] requested Italian neutrality, while the [[Triple Entente]] (which included Great Britain, France and Russia) requested its intervention. With the [[Treaty of London (1915)|Treaty of London]], signed in April 1915, Italy agreed to declare war against the [[Central Powers]] in exchange for the ''irredent'' territories of Friuli, Trentino, and [[Italian irredentism in Dalmatia|Dalmatia]] (see ''[[Italia irredenta]]'').
[[File:GovernateOfDalmatia1941 43.png|thumb|right|400px|Map of the three Italian provinces of the [[Governorate of Dalmatia]] (1941–1943): [[province of Zara]], [[Spalato (Italian province)|province of Spalato]] and [[province of Cattaro]]]]

Italian irredentism obtained an important result after the First World War, when Italy gained [[Trieste]], [[Gorizia]], [[Istria]], and the cities of [[Zadar|Zara]] and [[Pula|Pola]] after the [[Treaty of Rapallo (1920)|Treaty of Rapallo]] in 1920. Some historians see the Risorgimento as continuing to that time, which is the view presented at the [[Central Museum of the Risorgimento]] at [[Altare della Patria]] in Rome.<ref name="Arnaldi"/><ref name="museo"/> But Italy did not receive other territories promised by the Treaty of London, such Dalmatia, so this outcome was denounced as a "[[mutilated victory]]". The rhetoric of "mutilated victory" was adopted by [[Benito Mussolini]] and led to the [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|rise of]] [[Italian Fascism]], becoming a key point in the [[propaganda of Fascist Italy]]. Historians regard "mutilated victory" as a "political myth", used by fascists to fuel [[Italian imperialism]] and obscure the successes of [[liberal Italy]] in the aftermath of World War I.<ref>G.Sabbatucci, ''La vittoria mutilata'', in AA.VV., ''Miti e storia dell'Italia unita'', Il Mulino, Bologna 1999, pp. 101–106</ref>

During the [[Second World War]], after the Axis attack on [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], Italy created the [[Governatorate of Dalmatia]] (from 1941 to September 1943), so the Kingdom of Italy annexed temporarily [[Split, Croatia|Split]] (Italian ''Spalato''), [[Kotor]] (''Cattaro''), and most of coastal Dalmatia. From 1942 to 1943, [[Italian irredentism in Corsica|Corsica]] and [[Italian irredentism in Nice|Nice]] (Italian ''Nizza'') were temporarily annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, nearly fulfilling in those years the ambitions of Italian irredentism.

For its avowed purpose, the movement had the "emancipation" of all Italian lands still subject to foreign rule after Italian unification. The Irredentists took language as the test of the alleged Italian nationality of the countries they proposed to emancipate, which were [[Trentino]], Trieste, Dalmatia, Istria, Gorizia, [[Ticino]], Nice (Nizza), Corsica, and [[Italian irredentism in Malta|Malta]]. Austria-Hungary promoted [[Croats|Croatian]] interests in Dalmatia and Istria to weaken Italian claims in the western [[Balkans]] before the First World War.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/irredentismo_(Enciclopedia-Italiana) |title=Irredentismo in "Enciclopedia Italiana" – Treccani |publisher=Treccani.it |access-date=31 May 2015}}</ref>

===End of Italian irredentism===
[[File:Italians leave Pola.jpg|thumb|[[Istrian Italians]] leave [[Pula|Pola]] in 1947 during the [[Istrian-Dalmatian exodus]].]]
Under the [[Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947]], [[Istria]], [[Kvarner Gulf|Kvarner]], most of the [[Julian March]] as well as the [[Dalmatia]]n city of [[Zadar|Zara]] was annexed by [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] causing the [[Istrian-Dalmatian exodus]], which led to the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 of local ethnic [[Italians]] ([[Istrian Italians]] and [[Dalmatian Italians]]), the others being ethnic Slovenians, ethnic Croatians, and ethnic [[Istro-Romanians]], choosing to maintain Italian citizenship.<ref>{{cite web |first=Benedetta |last=Tobagi |url=http://www.treccani.it/scuola/lezioni/storia/la_repubblica_italiana.html |title=La Repubblica italiana &#124; Treccani, il portale del sapere |publisher=Treccani.it |access-date=28 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305001726/http://www.treccani.it/scuola/lezioni/storia/la_repubblica_italiana.html |archive-date=5 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The Istrian-Dalmatian exodus started in 1943 and ended completely only in 1960. According to the census organized in [[Croatia]] in 2001 and that organized in [[Slovenia]] in 2002, the Italians who remained in the former [[Yugoslavia]] amounted to 21,894 people (2,258 in Slovenia and 19,636 in Croatia).<ref name="dzs">{{Croatian Census 2001 |url=http://web.dzs.hr/Eng/censuses/Census2001/Popis/E01_02_02/E01_02_02.html |title=12. Population by ethnicity, by towns/municipalities }}</ref><ref name="stat">{{cite web|url=http://www.stat.si/Popis2002/en/rezultati/rezultati_red.asp?ter=SLO&st=7|title=Popis 2002|access-date=10 June 2017|archive-date=6 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806084849/http://www.stat.si/popis2002/en/rezultati/rezultati_red.asp?ter=SLO&st=7|url-status=dead}}</ref>

After World War II, [[Italian irredentism]] disappeared along with the defeated Fascists and the Monarchy of the [[House of Savoy]]. After the Treaty of Paris (1947) and the [[Treaty of Osimo]] (1975), all territorial claims were abandoned by the [[Italian Republic]] (see [[Foreign relations of Italy]]).<ref>{{cite web |title=L'Italia per De Gaulle: "Non un paese povero, ma un povero paese" |date=8 June 2012 |url=https://www.linkiesta.it/2012/06/litalia-per-de-gaulle-non-un-paese-povero-ma-un-povero-paese/ |access-date=9 September 2023 |language=it}}</ref> The Italian irredentist movement thus vanished from Italian politics. The 1947 [[Constitution of Italy]] established five autonomous regions ([[Sardinia]], [[Friuli-Venezia Giulia]], [[Sicily]], [[Aosta Valley]], and [[Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol]]), in recognition of their cultural and linguistic distinctiveness.