Autonomist Party
Encyclopedia
The Autonomist Party was a political party in the Dalmatia
n political scene, that existed for around 70 years of the nineteenth century and until World War I
. Its goal was to maintain the autonomy of the Kingdom of Dalmatia
within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as opposed to the unification with the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia
. From 1907 it was related to the Italian irredentism.
in the first half of the century and regarded as a meeting of the Latin world with the Slavic world, initially the party also attracted the sympathies of some of the Slavic Dalmatians, while maintaining an undisputed open to the Italian cultural world.
The Dalmatian branch of the People's Party
, which supported the reunification of Dalmatia with the remainder of Croatia
, viewed the Autonomists as supportive of an Italian annexation of Dalmatia, which was indeed the ambition of the Italian state.
The Autonomist Party received the vote of the Dalmatian Italians
and some bilingual Slavs and controlled most Dalmatian coastal cities: this party had a majority in the Parliament of Dalmatia
in the mid 19th century. However, in 1870 democratic alterations to the electoral laws allowed the majority Croatian
population of Dalmatia to influence the elections for the first time. The democratic reforms allowed for a greater part of the general population to vote (but even areas where non-Slav population was the majority were affected) and so the Autonomist Party no longer had a majority: by the outbreak of World War I, only the city of Zara (now called Zadar
) remained in Autonomist hands.
A similar but independent political development occurred in Fiume (now called Rijeka
), where Michele Maylender
, claiming greater autonomy from the centralizing Hungarian executive of Dezső Bánffy
, founded the (Fiume) Autonomist Party in 1896. Although the reference with Dalmatia was never made explicit among Fiume autonomists (who widely read Tommaseo and Bajamonti) the goals of the Party were very similar to that in Dalmatia as it opposed the inclusion of the city to Croatia.
As in Zara the party remained in power up to 1914, and both cities, although claimed by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes at the Paris Peace Conference
, were finally assigned to Italy: Zara by the Treaty of Rapallo
and Fiume with the Treaty of Rome
, which gave Fiume to Italy and the adjacent port of Sušak
to Yugoslavia.
Antonio Bajamonti
, the most prominent Autonomist in the history of the party, once remarked:
Count Francesco Borelli Dalmatian deputy, argued for the autonomy of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, claiming that it had no connection whatsoever with Croatia. Though he admitted that the majority of the population was Slavic in language, mentality and outlook, he felt that Dalmatia's "higher" culture was Italian.
At the beginning of the 20th century the Autonomist Party, having lost his majority in nearly all Dalmatia, started to be dominated by a group of Dalmatian Italians from Zara, led by Luigi Ziliotto and Giovanni Bugatto, who supported the Italian irredentism in Dalmatia: the party was suppressed in 1915 when Italy declared war on Austria during World War I
.
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
n political scene, that existed for around 70 years of the nineteenth century and until World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Its goal was to maintain the autonomy of the Kingdom of Dalmatia
Kingdom of Dalmatia
The Kingdom of Dalmatia was an administrative division of the Habsburg Monarchy from 1815 to 1918. Its capital was Zadar.-History:...
within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as opposed to the unification with the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia
Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia
The Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia or Croatia Slavonia was an autonomous kingdom within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was part of the Hungarian Kingdom within the dual Austro-Hungarian state, being within the Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen or Transleithania...
. From 1907 it was related to the Italian irredentism.
History
Traditionally linked to the idea of a Dalmatian nation advocated by Niccolò TommaseoNiccolò Tommaseo
Niccolò Tommaseo was an Italian Dalmatian linguist, journalist and essayist, the editor of a Dizionario della Lingua Italiana in eight volumes , of a dictionary of synonyms and other works...
in the first half of the century and regarded as a meeting of the Latin world with the Slavic world, initially the party also attracted the sympathies of some of the Slavic Dalmatians, while maintaining an undisputed open to the Italian cultural world.
The Dalmatian branch of the People's Party
People's Party (Kingdom of Dalmatia)
People's Party was a political party in the Kingdom of Dalmatia. It was founded in 1861 after the failure of Bach's absolutism, as branch of the People's Party in Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia...
, which supported the reunification of Dalmatia with the remainder of Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, viewed the Autonomists as supportive of an Italian annexation of Dalmatia, which was indeed the ambition of the Italian state.
The Autonomist Party received the vote of the Dalmatian Italians
Dalmatian Italians
Dalmatian Italians are a mostly historical Italian national minority in the region of Dalmatia, part of the Republics of Croatia and Montenegro.-Characteristics:...
and some bilingual Slavs and controlled most Dalmatian coastal cities: this party had a majority in the Parliament of Dalmatia
Parliament of Dalmatia
The Diet of Dalmatia was the regional assembly of the Kingdom of Dalmatia within the Austro-Hungarian Empire...
in the mid 19th century. However, in 1870 democratic alterations to the electoral laws allowed the majority Croatian
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
population of Dalmatia to influence the elections for the first time. The democratic reforms allowed for a greater part of the general population to vote (but even areas where non-Slav population was the majority were affected) and so the Autonomist Party no longer had a majority: by the outbreak of World War I, only the city of Zara (now called Zadar
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
) remained in Autonomist hands.
A similar but independent political development occurred in Fiume (now called Rijeka
Rijeka
Rijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...
), where Michele Maylender
Michele Maylender
Michele Maylender was a Hungarian politician who was the founder of the Autonomist Association, known also as Autonomist Party in Fiume....
, claiming greater autonomy from the centralizing Hungarian executive of Dezső Bánffy
Dezso Bánffy
Dezső Baron Bánffy de Losoncz was a Hungarian politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1895 to 1899.-Biography:...
, founded the (Fiume) Autonomist Party in 1896. Although the reference with Dalmatia was never made explicit among Fiume autonomists (who widely read Tommaseo and Bajamonti) the goals of the Party were very similar to that in Dalmatia as it opposed the inclusion of the city to Croatia.
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
, were finally assigned to Italy: Zara by the Treaty of Rapallo
Treaty of Rapallo, 1920
The Treaty of Rapallo was a treaty between the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , signed to solve the dispute over some territories in the upper Adriatic, in Dalmatia and in the region which became known as the Julian March.The treaty was signed on 12 November 1920 in...
and Fiume with the Treaty of Rome
Treaty of Rome, 1924
The Treaty of Rome of January 27, 1924 was an agreement by which Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes revoked the parts of the Treaty of Rapallo from 1920, which had created the independent Free State of Fiume...
, which gave Fiume to Italy and the adjacent port of Sušak
Sušak
Sušak is a part of the city of Rijeka in Croatia, where it composes the eastern part of the city.In 1924, Rijeka belonged to the independent Free State of Fiume, which had been created four years earlier under the Treaty of Rapallo, but in the Treaty of Rome the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and...
to Yugoslavia.
Antonio Bajamonti
Antonio Bajamonti
Antonio Bajamonti was a Dalmatian politician. Bajamonti's parents were Giuseppe Bajamonti and Helena Candido of Šibenik. He was one of the most successful mayors of Split...
, the most prominent Autonomist in the history of the party, once remarked:
Count Francesco Borelli Dalmatian deputy, argued for the autonomy of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, claiming that it had no connection whatsoever with Croatia. Though he admitted that the majority of the population was Slavic in language, mentality and outlook, he felt that Dalmatia's "higher" culture was Italian.
At the beginning of the 20th century the Autonomist Party, having lost his majority in nearly all Dalmatia, started to be dominated by a group of Dalmatian Italians from Zara, led by Luigi Ziliotto and Giovanni Bugatto, who supported the Italian irredentism in Dalmatia: the party was suppressed in 1915 when Italy declared war on Austria during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Important members
- ZadarZadarZadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
(then called Zara) - Cosimo Begna Possedaria, Lorenzo Benevenia, Viktor Bioni, Antonio Cippico, Raimondo Desanti, Vincenzo Duplanich, Natal Filippi, Giacomo Ghiglianovich and his son Roberto Giglianovich, Stevan Knežević (Orthodox), Spiridon Petrović (ethnic Serb), Giovanni Salghetti-Drioli, Antonio (Ante) Smirić, Nicolò Trigari,Luigi Ziliotto, Francesco Borelli, Giuseppe Bugatto. - SplitSplit (city)Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...
(then called Spalato)- Jerolim Alesani, Antonio BajamontiAntonio BajamontiAntonio Bajamonti was a Dalmatian politician. Bajamonti's parents were Giuseppe Bajamonti and Helena Candido of Šibenik. He was one of the most successful mayors of Split...
, Vincenzo Degli Alberti, Ivan Dević, Leonardo Dudan, Giorgio Giovannizio, Simone Michieli Vitturi, Leonardo Pezzoli, Giuseppe Piperata, Antonio Radman, Ercolano Salvi, Antonio Tacconi. - DubrovnikDubrovnikDubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
(then called Ragusa) - Giovanni Avoscani, Marino Bonda and his son Orsato Bonda, Francesco Ghetaldi-Gondola (mayor), Luigi Serragli (1816+ 1880) (businessman and bureaucrat) - ŠibenikŠibenikŠibenik is a historic town in Croatia, with population of 51,553 . It is located in central Dalmatia where the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea...
(then called Sebenico) - Simone Bujas, Emanuel Fenzi, Federico Antonio Galvani, Luigi Pini - HvarHvar (town)Hvar is a city and port on the island of Hvar, part of Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia. The municipality has a population of 4,138 while the city itself is inhabited by 3,672 people, making it the largest settlement on the island of Hvar...
(then called Lesina)- Giovanni Machiedo, Giacopo Machiedo - Stari GradStari Grad, CroatiaStari Grad is a town on the northern side of the island of Hvar in Dalmatia, Croatia. One of the oldest towns in Europe, its position at the end of a long, protected bay and next to prime agricultural land, has long made it attractive for human settlement...
(HvarHvar- Climate :The climate of Hvar is characterized by mild winters and warm summers. The yearly average air temperature is , 686 mm of precipitation fall on the town of Hvar on average every year and the town has a total of 2800 sunshine hours per year. For comparison Hvar has an average of 7.7...
) (then called Cittavecchia di Lesina)- Giovanni Botteri - KorčulaKorculaKorčula is an island in the Adriatic Sea, in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia. The island has an area of ; long and on average wide — and lies just off the Dalmatian coast. Its 16,182 inhabitants make it the second most populous Adriatic island after Krk...
(then called Curzola)- Ivan Smrčinić, Stefan Smrčinić - DrnišDrnišDrniš is a town in Croatia, located in inland Dalmatia at halfway between Šibenik and Knin. Its municipality population is 8,595 , with 3,332 in the town itself and the rest in two dozen surrounding villages...
(then called Dernis)- Melchiore Difnico - MakarskaMakarskaMakarska is a small town on the Adriatic coastline of Croatia, about southeast of Split and northwest of Dubrovnik. It has a population of 13,716 residents. Administratively Makarska has the status of a town and it is part of the Split-Dalmatia County....
(then called Macarsca- Jakov Vucović - SkradinSkradinSkradin is a small town in the Šibenik-Knin county of Croatia it has a population about 3,986 . It is located near the Krka river and at the entrance to the Krka National Park, from Šibenik and from Split...
(then called Scardona)- Natale Krekich, Giovanni Marassovich - SinjSinjSinj is a town in the continental part of Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia. The town itself has a population of 11,448, while the population of the administrative municipality which includes surrounding villages is 24,832 ....
(then called Segna)- Jerolim Italo Bokšić (Zara), Luigi Lapenna (Zara) - TrogirTrogirTrogir is a historic town and harbour on the Adriatic coast in Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia, with a population of 12,995 and a total municipality population of 13,322 . The historic city of Trogir is situated on a small island between the Croatian mainland and the island of Čiovo...
(then called Trau)- Antonio (Ante) Fanfogna, Giovanni Fanfogna, Giovanni Lubin, Luigi Nutrizio - VrlikaVrlikaVrlika is a small town and municipality in inland Dalmatia, Croatia. The closest large towns are Sinj, Knin, and Drniš. The town of Vrlika has a population of 959, while the municipality has a population of 2,705 . There are 2,670 Croatian speakers, 16 Serbian speakers and 19 speakers of other...
(then called Verlicca)- Alessandro DudanAlessandro DudanAlessandro Dudan was a Dalmatian politician and later Italian senator. As a important member of the Autonomist Party, he rejected the unification of Dalmatia with Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia....
(Split)
Autonomist Party today
Autonomist party is founded again in 2011 , but there are problems with its recognition by Croatian government.Sources
- Renzo de' VidovichRenzo de' VidovichRenzo de' Vidovich is an Italian politician,historian and journalist.- Biography:Born and growth up in Zadar , from the old noble Dalmatian family of de' Vidovich, Counts Capocesto e Ragosniza; he is a close cousin of Ottavio Missoni...
, Albo d'Oro delle Famiglie Nobili Patrizie e Illustri nel Regno di Dalmazia, Fondazione Scientifico Culturale Rustia Traine, Trieste 2004 - L.Monzali, Italiani di Dalmazia. Dal Risorgimento alla Grande Guerra, Le Lettere, Firenze 2004
- L.Monzali, Italiani di Dalmazia. 1914-1924, Le Lettere, Firenze 2007.
- Monzali, Luciano.Italiani di Dalmazia Toronto University Press. Toronto, 2009
- I. Perić, Dalmatinski sabor 1861-1912 (1918), Zadar 1978.
- Duško Kečkemet, Bajamonti i Split, Slobodna Dalmacija: Split 2007.
- Grga Novak, Prošlost Dalmacije knjiga druga, Marjan tisak: Split 2004.
- Josip Vrandečić, Dalmatinski autonomistički pokret u XIX. stoljeću, Zagreb, 2002.