Editing Friuli (section)

== History ==

===Origins and the Roman era===
[[File:Udine aquileia2.jpg|thumb|Roman forum ruins in Aquileia, which played an important role in Roman times and the early Middle Ages when it became seat of the [[Patriarchate of Aquileia]]]]

In the prehistoric era, Friuli was home to the [[Castellieri culture]] and the [[Raeti]]. These peoples were the dominant culture in the area from about the 15th century BC until the early historical period. During the course of the 4th century BC Friuli was also settled by the '''[[Carni]]''' (in [[ancient Greek]] ''Καρνίοι''), a tribe of unknown ethnicity which may have spoken a [[Celtic languages|Celtic]], a [[Venetic language|Venetic]] or a [[Rhaetic|Rhaetic language]], and which introduced advanced techniques of working iron and silver. According to [[Strabo]] [4.6] the [[Carni]] inhabited "the country about the Adriatic Gulf and Aquileia" and both [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] [3.22(18)] and [[Ptolemy]] [3.1] ascribe [[Aquileia]], [[Concordia Sagittaria|Concordia]] and [[Cividale del Friuli|Forum Julii]] to belong to the "towns of the Carni" in the "country of the Carni". The [[Carni]] worshiped the deity [[Belenus]] which is attested by the most numerous votive inscriptions found in and around [[Aquileia]].<ref name=KDE>{{cite book|title=Die Kelten |first=Bernhard |last=Maier |date=2000 |place=Ulm |page=119}}</ref> A northern mountainous area of Friuli still retains the ancient name [[Carnia]].

Beginning from the 2nd century BC, Friuli was colonized by the [[ancient Rome|Romans]]: [[Aquileia]] was the fourth largest city of Italy during Roman imperial times, capital of ''Regio X'' of the [[Italia (Roman province)|Italia]] province (the Augustan region ''Venetia et Histria''). The city was the most important river port on the [[Natisone|Natissa]] river, dominating trade between the [[Adriatic Sea]] and northern Europe (carried over the [[Via Iulia Augusta]] road). Aquileia owed its importance to the strategic position it has on the Adriatic sea and its proximity to the Alps. This location allowing Rome to intercept barbarian invasions from the East. [[Julius Caesar]] quartered his legions in Aquileia during winter. The development of other centers, such as ''Forum Iulii'' ([[Cividale del Friuli]]) and ''Iulium Carnicum'' ([[Zuglio]]), contributed to the increase in economic and cultural wealth of Friuli until the first barbarian incursions, at the beginning of the 5th century. In the final decades of the 3rd century, Aquileia became the center of one of the most prestigious bishoprics of the empire, competing in Italy with [[Milan]] and, subsequently, [[Ravenna]], for second place to Rome. A [[Hun]] invasion marked the start of Friuli's decline: Aquileia, protected by meager forces, was forced to surrender and was razed to the ground by [[Attila]] in 452. After the retreat of the Huns, the survivors, who had found shelter in the lagoon of [[Grado, Italy|Grado]], returned to the city, but found it completely destroyed. The reconstruction of Aquileia was never completed and it never regained the old splendour of the capital of ''X Regio''. The city remained important even after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, due to the creation of the [[Patriarchate of Aquileia (Episcopal)|Patriarchate of Aquileia]]. It ranked among the highest ecclesiastic authorities in Italy from the mid-6th century onward. The lack of security in the Friulian plain, crossroads of all the great barbarian invasions, drove many people to seek shelter on the islands of the lagoons or in fortified hill-villages, causing a generalized depopulation of the more fertile part of the region and its consequent colonization by barbarian ''gentes''.

===Middle Ages===
[[File:Mappa Italia bizantina e longobarda-it.jpg|thumb|Duchy of Friuli in Italian context (750)]]
After the collapse of the [[Western Roman Empire]], Friuli belonged to the kingdom of [[Odoacer]] and subsequently to that of [[Theodoric the Great]]. The [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] reconquest under [[Justinian I]] was brief in the region, in 568 it was one of the first provinces conquered by the [[Lombards]], who invaded from [[Pannonia]], and with that, ended the [[Byzantine Greeks|Greek-Byzantine]] era of the region. The Lombard king [[Alboin]] established the [[Duchy of Friuli]], the first Lombard duchy, and granted it to his relative [[Gisulf I of Friuli|Gisulf I]]. The capital of the duchy was established at ''Forum Iulii'' ([[Cividale del Friuli]]), which became the most important city of the area and for where it derived its name.

The duchy of Friuli was from the start one of the most important Lombard duchies. It served as a barrier against the threat of invasion by the [[Avars (Carpathians)|Avars]] and [[Slavs]] from [[Pannonia]]. Among the duchies of the North, which were closely aligned with the crown (unlike [[Duchy of Spoleto|Spoleto]] and [[Duchy of Benevento|Benevento]] to the South), it was the most powerful, probably due to its [[Marches|marcher]] status. Among later dukes, [[Ratchis]] became king in 744 and his ducal successor, [[Aistulf]], succeeded him as king in 749. The historian [[Paul the Deacon]] was born in Friuli (730/5), he went on to write the ''Historia Langobardorum'' and taught Latin grammar at [[Charlemagne]]'s court.  Another teacher and a trusted advisor Charlemagne's court, [[Paulinus II of Aquileia|Paulinus]], was born at Cividale and eventually became patriarch of Aquileia.

After the [[Kingdom of Italy (medieval)|Kingdom of Italy]] fell to the [[Franks]], the duchy of Friuli was reorganized into counties according to the Frankish model. The region was again reorganized into the [[March of Friuli]] in 846. The march was granted to the [[Unruochings|Unruoching dynasty]]. Friuli became the base of power of [[Berengar I of Italy|Berengar I]] during his struggles for the throne of Italy between 888 and 924.

The march was transformed under his rule, its territory extended to [[Lake Garda]], the capital moved to [[Verona]], and a new [[March of Verona and Aquileia]] established in its place. The territory was now subjected to the [[Duchy of Bavaria]], then to the [[Duchy of Carinthia]], for more than a century.

On 3 April 1077, the [[Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Henry IV]] granted the county of Friuli, with ducal status, to [[Sigehard (patriarch of Aquileia)|Sigaerd]], [[Patriarch of Aquileia]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Coluzzii|first=Paolo|title=Minority Language Planning and Micronationalism in Italy: An Analysis of the Situation of Friulian, Cimbrian and Western Lombard With Reference to Spanish Minority Languages|location=Oxford, UK|publisher=Peter Lang|date=2007|isbn=9783039110414|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yTQnOahQ4T4C|page=171}}</ref> In the succeeding centuries, the patriarchate expanded its control over neighboring [[Trieste]], [[Istria]], [[Duchy of Carinthia|Carinthia]], [[Styria]], and [[Cadore]]. The patriarchal state of Friuli was one of the best organized polities of the Italian Middle Ages. From the 12th century it possessed a [[parliament]] representing the [[Comune|communes]] as well as the nobility and the clergy. This institution only survived six centuries, remaining alive yet weak even during [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] domination. It convened for the last time in 1805, when it was abolished by [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]. The Patriarch [[Marquard of Randeck]] (1365–1381) had gathered together and codified all the laws of Friuli and promulgated them as the ''[[Constitutiones Patriae Foriiulii]]'' ("Constitutions of the Country of Friuli"). Cividale del Friuli was seat of the Patriarchate until 1238, when the patriarch moved his seat to [[Udine]], where he had a magnificent episcopal edifice constructed. Udine was so important that it in time became the institutional capital of Friuli.

===Venetian domination to Bourbon restoration===
[[File:Udine-PiazzaLiberta.jpg|thumb|The Venetian-style [[Piazza Libertà]] in Udine. The city became ''de facto'' capital of Friuli.]]
The Patriarchate ended in 1420: surrounded by the powerful states of the [[Austrian Empire]], the [[Kingdom of Hungary]] and the [[Republic of Venice]], it was the theatre of a war between [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungary]] and [[Republic of Venice|Venice]], and was conquered by the latter. Friuli maintained some form of autonomy, by keeping its own Parliament ruling on the old territory of the Patriarchate, an autonomy not granted to the other cities and provinces submitted to Venice (even Venetian ones); on the other side, it maintained also its feudal nobility, which was able to keep their feudal rights over the land and its inhabitants for some time.

Friuli was the eastern border of the ''[[Stato da Tera]]'', and suffered both from [[Ottoman raids in Friuli|Ottoman raids]] and from the border wars with Austria. These wars led to poverty and instability of the rural population, with the inability to cultivate the land crossed by fighting armies and with the forced surrender of all livestock to feed traveling troops. The harvesting of timber needed to build Venetian ships caused complete deforestation of the [[Bassa Friulana]] and central Friuli. Venice took possession of collective farms belonging to rural Friulian communities, seriously impoverishing them.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}} These properties in turn would be sold by Venice during the 17th century to raise cash to alleviate its poor financial condition.

Beginning in the 1630s, the Venetian Republic entered a relative decline, due to the enlarging horizon of European markets (reaching now from Asia to Africa to the Americas). Venice's richest families often directed financial resources into unproductive investments (specifically real estate), while there was a loss of competitiveness in industries and services. Friuli was subject to increasing fiscal pressure, and its industries and commercial activities were affected.

[[File:FRIULI 1650 Ioannis Blaeu.png|275px|right|thumb|''Patria del Friuli'', 1650 map]]
According to some historians, the political populism practiced by Venice looked for ways to limit the most oppressive and anachronistic effects of [[feudalism]]. Other researchers assert that the Venetian aristocratic government maintained a most oppressive feudal condition in Friuli.{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}} These policies were practiced by the Venetian government to ensure the support of the urban and rural population as a counterbalance to the independent tendencies and power of local oligarchies and aristocrats.

An important [[jacquerie]], known as ''Joibe Grasse 1511'' ([[Friulan Revolt of 1511|Fat Thursday 1511]]), was started in Udine on February 27 by starving ''Udinesi'' citizens. They were subsequently joined by the farmers and the revolt spread to the whole territory of Friûl, against the feudal rule of some noble families; some other noble family, like the pro-Venetian Savorgnan, initially supported the revolters. This insurrection was one of the largest in Renaissance Italy and it lasted from 27 February until 1 March, when it ended as Venice dispatched around one hundred cavalry to put down the rebellion. The chiefs of the revolt were executed, but the feudal powers of the Friulian noblemen were reduced.

With the 1516 [[War of the League of Cambrai|Noyon pacts]] the boundary between the Venetian Republic and the [[County of Gorizia and Gradisca]], now in the hands of the [[House of Habsburg]],  were redefined. Venice lost the upper Isonzo valley (that is the Gastaldia of Tolmino with Plezzo and Idria), but it kept [[Monfalcone]], [[Marano Lagunare|Marano]] and a series of shed feudal islands in the Western Friuli stayed with the Archduke of Austria (until 1543). Between 1615 and 1617 Venice and Austria again fought for the possession of the fort of [[Gradisca d'Isonzo]]. The so-called War of Gradisca ended with a return to the ''status quo''.

Beginning in 1516 the [[House of Habsburg|Habsburg Empire]] controlled eastern Friuli, while western and central Friuli was Venetian. In 1797, the year of the [[Treaty of Campo Formio]], this part of the Friuli was surrendered to Austria. For a brief period from 1805 until the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Bourbon Restoration]], Friuli belonged to the Italic Kingdom.

===From the Restoration to the Great War===
[[File:Ethnographic map of austrian monarchy czoernig 1855.jpg|thumb|205px|Ethnographic map of the Austrian Empire (1855) by Karl Freiherrn von Czoernig]]
[[File:Autonomist mural Friuli.jpg|thumb|right|205px|Graffiti of ''Friûl libar'' ("Free Friuli") in Aiello del Friuli]]
In 1815, the [[Congress of Vienna]] confirmed the union of Veneto, which Central-West Friuli was part of, with Lombardy (previously divided between Austrian Empire and Venetian Republic), to constitute the [[Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia]]. Eastern Friuli was not included in the puppet state. In 1838, the District of Portogruaro was removed from the Province of the Friuli due to the Austrians' wishes{{citation needed|reason=Austrian wishes is not an historical reason|date=June 2013}} and assigned to the Province of Venice. Portogruaro was for long time part of Friuli, even under Venetian Republic, and Friulian language was spoken in the area. In 1866, central Friuli (today's [[province of Udine]]) and western Friuli (today's [[province of Pordenone]]) were annexed by Italy together with Veneto after the [[Third Italian War of Independence]], while eastern Friuli ([[County of Gorizia and Gradisca]]) remained under Austria until the end of World War I.

The Ethnographic map of Karl von Czoernig-Czernhausen, issued by the [[Imperial and Royal|k.&nbsp;u.&nbsp;k.]] Administration of Statistics in 1855, recorded a total of 401,357 Friulians living in the [[Austrian Empire]]. The majority of Friulians (351,805) lived in that part of Friuli that belonged to the [[Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia]], the others (49.552) in the Friulian parts of the [[Austrian Littoral|Austrian Küstenland]]. Friulians were registered as their own category separate from Italians.

During World War I, Friuli was a theater of battle that had serious consequences for the civilian population, specifically the [[Battle of Caporetto]].

===Autonomist movements===
After World War II, the pro-devolution movement gained momentum in 1945. Friuli got entangled in the maze of opposing forces acting in the territory. Yugoslavian Titoists pursued an annexation of Friuli to the rising communist Yugoslavia. By contrast, in 1945, the traditionalist association Patrie tal Friul was founded by Tiziano Tessitori with a view to establishing an autonomous Friuli within Italy.<ref>{{cite book |last=Siciliano|first=Enzo|date=2014|title=Pasolini; Una vida tormentosa|publisher=Torres de Papel|page=111|isbn=978-84-943726-4-3}}</ref> The draft autonomic project was launched with the support of the [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democratic Party]].

In January 1947, the poet and filmmaker [[Pier Paolo Pasolini]] went on to found the party Movimiento Popolari Friulano, with the same purpose of devolution. Pasolini opposed a possible Yugoslavian annexation, but at the same time lashed out at those who aimed at using regionalism for their immobilist, "backwards Conservatism".<ref>Siciliano, Enzo. 2014, p. 112</ref> Pasolini dropped membership in his party after the Christian Democrats came to pull its strings. The Communist Party of Italy opposed devolution, sticking to an Italian centralist agenda.<ref>Pasolini held this move to be tactic, just a way of opposing the Christian Democratic stance.</ref>

Around 350,000 people claim Friulan as their native language, though it is sparsely used in public life.<ref>Data sourced from the website of Italian publisher "Treccani": http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/identita-regionali-e-varieta-linguistiche-friuli-venezia-giulia-e-sardegna_%28L%27Italia-e-le-sue-Regioni%29/</ref> There are some movements and political parties that advocate a more autonomous, or even an independent Friuli in line with historical borders, such as the [[Friuli Movement]], [[Front Furlan]], Patrie Furlane and [[Republiche dal Friûl – Parlament furlan]].