History of Rijeka
Encyclopedia
Origins
Fiume is located in the northern tip of the QuarneroKvarner Gulf
The Kvarner Gulf ); sometimes also Kvarner Bay, in Italian Quarnaro or Carnaro) is a bay in the northern Adriatic Sea, located between the Istrian peninsula and the northern Croatian seacoast....
in the northern Adriatic.
The region of Quarnero
Kvarner Gulf
The Kvarner Gulf ); sometimes also Kvarner Bay, in Italian Quarnaro or Carnaro) is a bay in the northern Adriatic Sea, located between the Istrian peninsula and the northern Croatian seacoast....
(Fiume was still not mentioned) fell within the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
, with the acquisition of the titles of Margraves of Istria
Istria
Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...
and Dukes of Merania by the Andechs
Andechs
The Benedictine abbey of Andechs is a place of pilgrimage on a hill east of the Ammersee in the Landkreis of Starnberg in Germany, in the municipality Andechs. Andechs Abbey is famed for its flamboyant Baroque church and its brewery...
family. The possession was called Merania, from German meer – sea and was thus meaning littoral or Küstenland.
The counts of Duino
Duino
Duino is a town at the Adriatic coast in the municipality of Duino-Aurisina, part of the region of Friuli – Venezia Giulia in the province of Trieste, north-eastern Italy....
(Tibein), were the first feudal lords of Fiume, from early 12th century until 1337. As ministeriales of the Patriarchate of Aquileia
Patriarchate of Aquileia (State)
The Patriarchate of Aquileia was an Imperial State in the Friulian region of Northeastern Italy under the control of the Patriarchs of Aquileia.- Foundation :...
, the family proved crucial in extending German control preventing further expansion of the Republic of Venice
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
on the northernmost Adriatic. The counts of Duino included the city into a comparatively good road network, which were in operation on the routes leading towards the sea. The Fiuman Terra was their most important fief, that with its possession controlled a good road network from the river Timavo
Timavo
The River, known in Slovene as the or , is a 2-km river in the Province of Trieste. It has four sources near San Giovanni near Duino and outflows in the Gulf of Panzano between Trieste and Monfalcone , Italy....
to the Quarnero gulf. Along these roads, marked by several castles and outposts (Senožeče
Senožece
Senožeče is a settlement in the Divača municipality in the Littoral region of Slovenia.The Parish Church in the settlement is dedicated to Saint Bartholomew and belongs to the Koper Diocese....
, Gotnik (Guettenegg) and Prem
Prem
Prem is a Sanskrit word meaning love. This word is also used in other languages including Assamese, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, and Telugu, and is commonly used as a male first name...
) guarding the land communications from the Quarnero towards Carniola, the contemporary Slovenia. Traders are reported from Villach
Villach
Villach is the second largest city in the Carinthia state in the southern Austria, at the Drava River and represents an important traffic junction for Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. , the population is 58,480.-History:...
, Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
(Laibach) and Ptuj
Ptuj
Ptuj is a city and one of 11 urban municipalities in Slovenia. Traditionally the area was part of the Lower Styria region. The municipality is now included in the Podravje statistical region...
(Pettau) in Carniola, but also from the German lands of the Holy Roman Empire.
In Fiume the local toponymy
Toponymy
Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...
is predominantly Slavic 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...
, Italians came from the sea, usually as craftsmen and traders, from the central Italian Adriatic ports, such as Fermo
Fermo
Fermo is a town and comune of the Marche, Italy, in the Province of Fermo.Fermo is located on a hill, the Sabulo with a fine view, on a branch from Porto San Giorgio on the Adriatic coast railway....
, Ancona
Ancona
Ancona is a city and a seaport in the Marche region, in central Italy, with a population of 101,909 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region....
, Senigallia
Senigallia
Senigallia is a comune and port town on Italy's Adriatic coast, 25 km by rail north of Ancona, in the Marche region, province of Ancona....
, and with Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
. The trade of Fiume develops in linking the German lands with central Italian ports. Notably, the contacts with 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 ...
were very scarce given the absence of land connections of Fiume with its eastern hinterland.
In 1399, the territory fell into the hands of the German family of Walsee, the last of whom sold the territory to the Habsburgs in 1465. After the extinction of the house of the Walsee in 1465, the possessions were inherited by the Habsburg family that owned it from 1466 to 1776. The Habsburgs granted Fiume with the status of a free city, and included in the Duchy of Carniola
Duchy of Carniola
The Duchy of Carniola was an administrative unit of the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy from 1364 to 1918. Its capital was Ljubljana...
.
As a reichsfrei city, or territory (Fiume was a terra) was under the direct authority of the Holy Roman Emperor
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...
and the Imperial Diet
Imperial Diet
Imperial Diet means the highest representative assembly in an empire, notably:* the historic institution of the Imperial Diet , either the estates in the Holy Roman Empire...
, without any intermediary liege lord
Lord
Lord is a title with various meanings. It can denote a prince or a feudal superior . The title today is mostly used in connection with the peerage of the United Kingdom or its predecessor countries, although some users of the title do not themselves hold peerages, and use it 'by courtesy'...
(s). Advantages were that reichsfrei regions had the right to collect taxes and tolls themselves, and held juridical rights themselves. De facto imperial immediacy corresponded to a semi-independence with a far-reaching autonomy. In 1599 Fiume de facto becomes an independent City commune, emancipated from the Duchy of Carniola, although the Carniolan estates will continue (unsuccessfully) to claim their rights upon the city - right up to their cessation in 1809.
The late mediaeval Commune was ruled according to the Statute from 1530 but this chart formally lasted until 1850. The first codified statute of Fiume from 1530 preserves some features of the mediaeval Croatian statutes, still with a preponderance of Italian and Venetian institutions. According to the Statute, the executive power was in the hand of the “Gran Consiglio” with 50 members and the “Piccolo Consiglio” of 25 patricians. The Captain was the representative of the feudal lord (from 1466 the Habsburg archduke). The local executives (called justice rectors – giudici rettori) have to obey only the lord – from 1466 the duke (later Emperor) of the House of Habsburg. Thus, in its local corporate representation Fiume was a mixture between the local self government tradition and the Reichsfreiheit or Reichsunmittelbarkeit of the free cities of the Holy Roman Empire.
Turkish wars
Fiume by the 19th century had arisen as the most important port for the eastern half of the Habsburg empire, but its beginnings are modest: at the dawn of the modern age it was still a small port city, with less than 5000 inhabitants.The Kingdom of Croatia, with whom the city bordered along the eastern shores of its river, merged with the Kingdom of Hungary, after the disaster of the Battle of Mohács
Battle of Mohács
The Battle of Mohács was fought on August 29, 1526 near Mohács, Hungary. In the battle, forces of the Kingdom of Hungary led by King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia were defeated by forces of the Ottoman Empire led by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent....
in 1526. Both kingdoms accepted the sovereignty of the Habsburgs to defend from the Turkish conquests. Following 1526, the stretch of territory south of Fiume and north of the Zrmanja river (called the Littoral) was held by the House of Austria - inheritor of the Crowns of Croatia and Hungary. Southwards, Venetian Dalmatia spread up to Cattaro. As such these lands were permanently put on a frontline, intended to bring to a halt the Ottoman advance that stopped short of the gulf of Quarnero.
Until the late 17th century, the Habsburg monarchy was essentially a landlocked territory: trade and traffic had followed the commercial routes to the North and Northwest, and Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
was the main port for Austrian products. When these routes became increasingly blocked by the growing Prussian state, the Monarchy started to turn towards its southern possessions. The trade of the City still languished since the Habsburgs retraced to Trieste all the Austrian exports, also because of the insecurity of land communications thorough Fiume.
Turkish attacks and intrusion in Croatia and the surroundings of Fiume, were particularly frequent from 1469 to 1502, helped by the near absence of any organised defence. The threat from the Ottoman Empire which kept the monarchy engaged in permanent military actions and in concluding coalitions with Christian allies and Venice was one of these. The northern Adriatic thus functioned as something as an Ottoman, Venetian, and Habsburg borderland’s littoral.
The border itself was a very fuzzy and mobile concept in the region for centuries: the Croatian Littoral and its hinterland were an integrated part of the Habsburg Military Frontier which was more than a defensive institution and marked all the stages of societal development in the area. Its principal characteristic was that the various fortresses were manned with regular and irregular troops for a permanent low intensity warfare which included raiding as its main source of revenues. Incursions of armed bands both form the Ottoman side the irregular Hajduks and Uskoks as well as the local Military Frontier troops (Grenzer) were conducted on a daily basis.
Probably no phenomenon describes the turbulent events in the area better than the rise of the Uskok’s piracy and banditry in the northern Adriatic. Uskoks
Uskoks
The Uskoks were Croatian Habsburg soldiers that inhabited the areas of the eastern Adriatic and the surrounding territories during the Ottoman wars in Europe. Etymologically, the word uskoci itself means "the ones who jumped in" in Croatian...
served as irregulars in the Habsburg border garrison of Senj
Senj
Senj , German Zengg, Hungarian Zeng and Italian Segna) is the oldest town on the upper Adriatic, and it was founded in the time before the Romans some 3000 years ago on the hill Kuk. It was the center of the Illyrian tribe Iapydes. The current settlement is situated at the foot of the slopes Mala...
for a century. The Habsburg and the Pope celebrated their role as bulwark of Christendom, while for the Venetians (laics and priests alike) they were “bandits and pirates worse than the Turks and responsible for innumerable atrocities”. Fiume’s history is very much that of the Uskoks for much of the 16th century. In fact the City survived as a port of trade principally thanks to afflux of the merchandise they robbed. It was a world of precarious life and insecurity where trade degenerated into a raiding economy. Venetia, knowing that the Uskoks had Fiume as their main “emporium”, sacked and burned the City in 1530 in a punitive expedition. Uskok piracy aroused as a serious diplomatic problem between Austria and Venetia
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
and was settled in 1612 with the Treaty of Vienna with whom the Emperor refused any support to the Uskoks.
The repeated attempts of Habsburg emperors to expand and enlarge the tiny fishing villages of the northern Adriatic into functioning ports had previously failed because of the domination of Venice that controlled the entire Adriatic and fiercely opposed the development of the Habsburg ports. Even that did not prevent a series of Venetian occupations and destruction of Fiume, from 1508 to 1512, 1530, 1599 and, finally, in 1612. The maritime traffic was reduced to cabotage, since the Serenissima
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
controlled all ships leaving the ports. Habsburg emperors unsuccessfully tried to break this domination of the sea, claiming free shipping for all and formulating it in treaties and diplomatic agreements.
Only with the pacification of the Turks, which seemed realisable for the first time at the end of the 17th century, could new attempts be undertaken. At the end of the 17th century the Ottomans are defeated and with the Treaty of Karlovitz (1699) the Empire regains control over the vast plains of Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
and Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
promptly put under the direct control of the Imperial Chamber (Kaiserliche Hofkammer) of Inner Austria
Inner Austria
Inner Austria was a term used from the late 14th to the early 17th century for the Habsburg hereditary lands south of the Semmering Pass, referring to the duchies of Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and the Windic March, the County of Gorizia , the city of Trieste and assorted smaller possessions...
with seat in Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
as the Imperial Regency, to finance the military needs against the Ottomans.
The origins of the emporium
The origins of the emporium are to be located in the late 17th century when a mercantilist program starts to find its way into the Habsburg lands. Already in year 1666, under Emperor Leopold I, in Vienna a Commerzcollegium was founded, an office with the main function of initiating some economic reforms and the control of their execution. Based upon mercantilistic principles, a homogeneous “Littoral district” was to be created along the Adriatic coast.Besides the local and, up to that time, unimportant ports of Trieste and Fiume, the plan also encompassed the integration of Croatian territories, which had been seized from the Ottoman Empire during the second half of the 17th century: the Gulf of Bakar, Senj and Karlobag
Karlobag
Karlobag is a historic and picturesque seaside municipality on the Adriatic coast in Croatia, located underneath Velebit overlooking the island of Pag, west of Gospić and south of Senj. The Gacka river also runs through the area...
where the Habsburgs met the competition of the local powerful landlords who started to develop as ports some of the coastal towns they owned. The Zrinski
Zrinski
The Zrinski family was a Croatian noble family, influential during the period in history marked by the Ottoman wars in Europe in the Kingdom of Croatia and Hungary and in the later Austro-Hungarian Empire...
(Zriny) were the most powerful landowners in Croatia and most of the land that surrounded Fiume (as well as the city of Bakar
Bakar
Bakar ) is a town in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in western Croatia. The population of the town is 1,566 , while the population of the municipality is 7,773. 90% declare themselves Croats . The old part of Bakar is situated on a hill overlooking the Bay of Bakar...
(Buccari) was in their hands. They developed the port of Buccari, the best natural harbour in the area, comparatively well connected with the hinterland. Alliance with Venice and much lower taxes explain the success of Buccari, where soon the rise in traffic vastly outnumbered that of the Habsburg port of Fiume. Buccari had a lazaretto, founded by a Venetian company. The other family were the Frankopan
Frankopan
The Frankopans are a Croatian noble family. Also called Frankapan, Frangepán in Hungarian, and Frangipani in Italian.The Frankopan family is the leading princely Croatian aristocratic family which dates back to the 12th Century and even earlier to Roman times...
(Frangipane) who owned and developed the port of Kraljevica
Kraljevica
Kraljevica is a town in the Kvarner region of the country of Croatia, located between Rijeka and Crikvenica, approximately thirty kilometers from Opatija and near the entrance to the bridge to the island of Krk...
(Portorè). These developments came to an abrupt end with the Zrinski-Frankopan conspiracy. After the end of the rebellion in 1673, that resulted in their defeat all these possessions were confiscated and put under the control of the Hungarian Aulic Chamber, soon transferred to the Imperial Chamber of Inner Austria
Inner Austria
Inner Austria was a term used from the late 14th to the early 17th century for the Habsburg hereditary lands south of the Semmering Pass, referring to the duchies of Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and the Windic March, the County of Gorizia , the city of Trieste and assorted smaller possessions...
. The destruction of the most powerful feudal families and their economic might ensured that no similar event would take place during the feudal era. Between Vienna and the Adriatic ports there were no feudal lords capable of competing or disturbing the plans of economic development. One of the big obstacles for the implementation of these policies was the Venetian monopoly on the Adriatic which effectively prevented ships form other countries to fare freely on this closed sea a the time known also as the “Gulf of Venice”. Success was achieved under Charles VI. In 1717 after another victorious campaign against the Ottomans (but this time with Venice
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
as its ally) the Adriatic see was promptly declared free for trade, with Venice no longer opposing it; in 1718 peace was concluded with the Ottoman Empire and a commercial treaty brought important commercial liberties to the Ottoman and Habsburg subjects; in 1719 Trieste and Fiume were declared Free Ports of the Empire of the Habsburgs.
In 1723 the “Gran Consiglio” of the Fiuman commune was put under the Circle of Inner Austria
Inner Austria
Inner Austria was a term used from the late 14th to the early 17th century for the Habsburg hereditary lands south of the Semmering Pass, referring to the duchies of Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and the Windic March, the County of Gorizia , the city of Trieste and assorted smaller possessions...
with the seat in Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
. The Captain as a representative of the Emperor still holds the executive power for the governmental economic policy. Progressively, Fiume will be included in broader institutional frameworks, aimed at economic development of the whole empire, but growingly of its Hungarian part. That Hungarian influence was on the rise is reflected also in fact that Fiume, as a Free City, accepted the Pragmatic Sanction
Pragmatic sanction
A pragmatic sanction is a sovereign's solemn decree on a matter of primary importance and has the force of fundamental law. In the late history of the Holy Roman Empire it referred more specifically to an edict issued by the Emperor....
, in 1723 - the same year as the Hungarian Diet, while the “sister city” of Trieste did it ten year earlier in 1713 - as the other Habsburg lands. Under the reign of Maria Theresa (1740–1780), in 1741 in Vienna is formed the Comercien Ober Directorium upon which all the commercial affairs of the empire is centred. In 1745 she united the administrations of all the ports within an Oberste Commerz-Intendenza (High Commercial Intendancy), which was originally established by her father in 1731.
Fiume, instead of a Kreisamt, subordinated to the Gubernium, has a Direzione Superiore Commerciale (Kommerzassesorium) subordinated to the Cesarea Regia Intendenza Commerciale per il Litorale, seated in Trieste. The Intendenza was the first provincial imperial institution that ruled the City from 1748 until 1776. In 1749 Maria Theresa issued the Haupt Resolution by which the civil and military Capitan of Trieste is put under the control of the Comercien Ober Directorium seated in Vienna. All the region of the Littoral in fact becomes a territorial dependency of this new institution, specifically oriented to the development of commerce and thus very different from the other (still feudal) provinces. From 1753 the Intendenza Capitanale di Fiume Tersatto e Buccari, executes the orders from the head office in Trieste. The Fiuman “Luogotenente” of the Cesarea Regia Luogotenenza Governale del Capitanato di Fiume, Tersatto e Buccari, had also the role of the previous captain, and his jurisdiction is extended and goes form Moschienizze to Carlopago. The Intendenza transmits the orders to the Justice Rectors in Fiume. Thereby the autonomy of the local institutions (the Justice Rectors previously were at the top of the communal administration) was gradually reduced.
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VI was the penultimate Habsburg sovereign of the Habsburg Empire. He succeeded his elder brother, Joseph I, as Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia , Hungary and Croatia , Archduke of Austria, etc., in 1711...
also founded a “privileged company” in Fiume. The purpose of these measures was to attract foreign investments, but the first companies were controlled from the chamber in Vienna and went bankrupt. The turn came in 1750, with the foundation of the Urban Arnold & comp. company, with the seat in Antwerp. Initially it dealt with the refinement of sugar, and the production of potash and tallow candles. It also possessed its own port basin and the number of its sugar refining plants grew from one to five. Soon, already in 1754, the Company supplies the while monarchy with sugar that becomes its main traded article. The company was bigger that anything Fiume had previously seen. It employed more than 1000 workers and employees in a time when the city had little more than 5000 inhabitants. Apart from sugar the company produced salted meat. The company bring new life to Fiuman economy and started many spin-offs (candle and rope factories, etc.). Industrial production in the city rose rapidly: in 1771 it was valued at 802,582 gulden
Austro-Hungarian gulden
The Gulden or forint was the currency of the Austrian Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire between 1754 and 1892 when it was replaced by the Krone/korona as part of the introduction of the gold standard. In Austria, the Gulden was initially divided into 60 Kreuzer, and in Hungary, the...
s, in 1780 2,278,000. the value of imports in 1771 was 1,187,000 guldens, in 1780 2,781,000 guldens. Exports value in 1771 was 496,000 guldens, in 1780 1,340,000 guldens, but probably they were even higher: according to the Ragusan diplomat Luka Sorkočević
Luka Sorkocevic
Count Luka Sorkočević, was a composer from the Republic of Ragusa.Luka Sorkočević was born in Dubrovnik and received an extensive education. His music teacher was the Italian composer Giuseppe Valentini, who was maestro di cappella of Dubrovnik Cathedral in the 1750s...
who in 1782 stayed in Fiume in his private diary estimated the added value of the fiuman economy (based on the value of its exported goods) at 2,5 million guldens.
Corpus Separatum
During the 1740s most of the trade from the Pannonian plain was starting to pass over Fiume and not DubrovnikDubrovnik
Dubrovnik 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...
(Ragusa), which after the retreat of the Ottoman empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, never regained the lost ground. After a series of formal acts of protest of the Hungarian and Croat Landed Estates, Joseph II
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
during his journey through Croatia, the Littoral and Venice in 1775, which was carried out one year later, in 1776, decided the abolition of the ‘Litorale Austriaco’. In the same year the “Provincia Mercantile” was suspended. In 1776, the City of Fiume and the Croatian seaboard, which had previously been under the same administration as the rest of the Austrian littoral, is annexed to the Kingdom of Croatia, with a Maria Theresa Handschrift. The Empress donated these lands and possessions to Croatia – Hungary as a compensation since many of their lands were put under the direct imperial administration as the osterreichische Militargrenze (Military Frontier) against the Turks, exclusively for defensive purposes.
Maria Theresa, with her sovereign decision from October the 2nd 1776, gave up the possession of Fiume, that so far belonged to the Habsburgs, and give it to the Hungarian kingdom, with a view of fostering its trade. Since Hungary proper was distant some 500 km, according to the act, understandably, the city was annexed to Croatia whose territory began right beyond the city walls.
Although Croatia, as a kingdom, was united with Hungary and together they formed the “Lands of the Holy Crown of St Stephen”, the Fiumani protested, and with support of the Hungarian Vice Regency Council, two and a half years later, Maria Theresa (as Queen of Hungary) enacted the royal rescript on April, the 23rd 1779, with whom Fiume was annexed to Hungary directly as a corpus separatum adnexum sacra hungaricae coronae.
From that moment on the two kingdoms never ceased to batter on the issue whose was Fiume. The Fiumani, as a third part, gave their reading that Fiume (or better: the corpus separatum) was autonomous from both. Given the institutional instability that characterized the whole period from 1779 up to 1848, this was more or less true.
Fiume retained the autonomous status from the surrounding territory it enjoyed with the Habsburgs, since the function of the Governor was preserved, and who was now always drawn from the ranks of the Hungarian aristocracy. Fiume was the only city in Hungary (Croatia included) that had such an institution. The development of the port needed huge investments that only Hungary could offer and the leaning of all the local forces towards Hungary appears inevitable.
The Gubernium of Fiume
The territory was to form the new comitatus of Severin that included also all the confiscated possessions of the Frangipane and ZrinskiZrinski
The Zrinski family was a Croatian noble family, influential during the period in history marked by the Ottoman wars in Europe in the Kingdom of Croatia and Hungary and in the later Austro-Hungarian Empire...
families that surrounded Fiume in the interior. Trieste now became the only harbour of the German hereditary lands. Fiume became fully independent from Trieste in all-commercial, fiscal and administrative matters as the main port of Hungary, which meant excluding the city from the Holy Roman Empire, and here a Gubernium was installed too, while the other ports were annexed to Croatia.
The inclusion of Fiume into Croatia arouse a series of protests from the fiuman notables, promptly supported by the Hungarian estates. In fact already in 1776, when it was decreed to include Fiume to Hungary through Croatia, it was the count József Majláth, acting as Hungarian royal commissar, who took over the town from baron Pasquale Ricci
Giuseppe Pasquale Ricci
Giuseppe Pasquale Ricci was a leading figure in late-18th-century Trieste, at the time a free port within the Habsburg Empire.Ricci came from a merchant family from Livorno, and probably came to Trieste initially as a merchant, in the early 1750s. He married Marianna Grossel, daughter of a...
, the representative of the Intendancy from Trieste.
Shortly after that, (with the rescript of the queen dated 23 April 1779) the City is officially directly annexed to Hungary as a corpus separatum
Corpus separatum (Fiume)
The Corpus separatum of Fiume was the name of the legal and political status of the city of Fiume , instituted by Empress Maria Theresa in 1776, determining the semi-autonomous status of Fiume within the Habsburg Empire until the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 - the longest-lasting...
) (i.e.: not as a part of Croatia, that was in a personal union with Hungary). Since Fiume had to serve a similar “emporial” function for Hungary as Trieste did for the Habsburg lands, the Hungarian estates (and most probably the Queen) wanted to grant the City a similar degree of institutional autonomy as that enjoyed by Trieste.
According to the rescript from 1779, Fiume was considered to be a corpus separatum - that is a political body with a greater autonomy than a royal free City, or a comitatus, but a territory comparable to the other partes adnexae constituting the Crown of the St. Stephen. Its position was thus comparable to those of the regna, as Trieste was considered to be a crown land of the imperial hereditary lands (Erblande) so Fiume was considered to be a partes adnexa to the crown.
After the royal rescript from the 23rd April 1779, the stage for all the political confrontations that will happen in Fiume was set for more than a century and a half. In a sense it can be said that all history that followed was a long footnote on how to interpret this two acts from 1776 and 1779. The act presented a precedent for the Hungarian constitutional praxis, since it was the first time that a part of the Holy Roman Empire (and a hereditary fief of the Habsburgs) was given to the Hungarian-Croatian kingdom. Therefore, since the Croatian and Hungarian estates had widely diverging interests with respect to Fiume, they produced very different interpretations of the rescript.
The Croatians refused to accept the Hungarian reading of the document - they denied that the City could have been excluded from the surrounding territory, that was already framed into a comitatus
Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary)
A county is the name of a type of administrative units in the Kingdom of Hungary and in Hungary from the 10th century until the present day....
. Since the Croatian estates never accepted this interpretation, the constitutional position of the City was always somehow imprecise. On the other hand, the change happened when the Croatian diet voted for the suspension of the short-lived Croatian Vice-regency Council in Vienna whose prerogatives were now entirely devolved to the Hungarian Vice-regency Council, now the supreme administrative authority for Croatia as well.
Fiume becomes the administrative centre for two very different - and overlapping - administrative units: The Gubernium of Fiume and the Comitatus of Severin (Severinska Županija), that is an integral part of Croatia. Arguably the simultaneous existence of the two competing offices reflects the still unsettled dispute between the Hungarian and the Croat estates. The predictable outcome of this clash came in 1787, when Joseph II dissolved the County of Severin confirming its transitory nature and introduces a new province (instead of a constituted comitatus of nobles): The “Hungarian Littoral” which now extends from Fiume to Senj. And in Fiume the “Cesareo Regio Governatorato per il Litorale in Fiume” governs the whole new province of the “Hungarian Littoral” (Litorale ungarico), thereby eliminating the Croatian competencies in this stretch of land.
For the first time in 1790, unofficially, the representatives of Fiume took part at the gathering of the Hungarian parliament. They claimed the annexation to Hungary, but it was postponed three times by the Habsburg monarchs in 1790, 1802, and 1805. Finally, in 1807, Fiume became legally a part of Hungary. The Fiuman governor had a right to vote in the Chamber of Magnates of the Royal Hungarian Diet (Orszaggyules), while “the deputies of Fiume” (probably two, since their number was still not specified by the law) had the right to vote as members of the Stände und Orden. Fiume become part of the Hungarian Orszag, but de facto the law was never applied.
Judicial system - Fiume (1790s)
The Gubernium of Fiume is now under the direct Hungarian administration in terms of commercial and economic policies, but still the comitatus of Zagreb retains competencies in judiciary and public education matters. But these capacities were insignificant since in Fiume higher education, initially set by the Jesuits in the 17th century, was replaced by Hungarians after the suppression of the order. On the other hand, in Fiume the judiciary competencies were retained by the local patricians, and de facto, the comitatus of Zagreb and the Croatian estates in Fiume were powerless, since the Gubernium acted as a Court of Appeal (Capitanale Consiglio e Sede Criminale) both for the commercial and civil courts in Fiume.Illyrian Provinces (1809–1813)
The stability that should have followed the law from 1807 wasn’t about to last long: the decade after the French revolution witnessed a series of wars with which the Habsburgs will always be involved. After two brief occupations in 1797 and 1805, a French government was introduced in 1809, with Fiume included in the “Illyrian provinces” with the seat in Ljubljana. The City constitutes a special “District of Fiume” within Civil Croatia with 3 districts Karlovac, Fiume, Senj with the seat in Karlovac.The French were to make of the Illyrian provinces a bridge to the oriental traffic so there was a considerable rise of the land-based traffic with the Levant. The British Navy imposed a blockade of the Adriatic Sea, effective since the Treaty of Tilsit (July 1807), which brought merchant shipping to a standstill, a measure most seriously affecting the economy of the Dalmatian port cities. The English with their base on the island of Lissa, soon become masters of the Adriatic. An attempt by joint French and Italian forces to seize the British-held Dalmatian island of Vis failed on October 22, 1810. Napoleon's exclusively land-based customs enforcers could not stop British smugglers, especially as these operated with the connivance of Napoleon's chosen rulers of Spain, Westphalia and other German states, who faced severe shortages of goods from the French colonies. The embargo encouraged British merchants to aggressively seek out new markets and to engage in smuggling with continental Europe. In Fiume Andrea Lodovico de Adamich
Andrija Ljudevit Adamic
Andrija Ljudevit Adamić was a Croatian trader from Rijeka, builder, supporter of economical and cultural development....
emerged to become the wealthiest and most powerful merchant in Fiume.
In August 1813, Austria declared war on France. Austrian troops led by General Franz Tomassich invaded the Illyrian provinces. Croat troops enrolled in the French army switched sides. The English General Nugent, serving the Austrian Empire, liberated the town from the reign of the “Illyrian passing glory” on 26 August 1813.
Restoration (1814–1848)
Vienna was reluctant to reincorporate "Transsavan Croatia" (or "Illyrian Croatia") probably because of Metternich's policy towards the region. In the Restoration 1814-1822 Fiume was put under the ephemeral “Kingdom of IllyriaKingdom of Illyria
The Kingdom of Illyria was an administrative unit of the Austrian Empire from 1816 to 1849. Its administrative centre was Ljubljana and it included the western and central part of present-day Slovenia, the present Austrian state of Carinthia, as well as some territories in north-western Croatia ...
”. By the end of the Austrian reign (1823), including the first Hungarian period too (1776–1809), Fiume hardly developed; only minor constructions were done. The number of the inhabitants shows slow increase: in 1777 the number of population was 5312, in 1819 it was 8345.
Francis I, with the order of 1 June 1822, gave back Fiume to Hungary to form the centre of the Hungarial Littoral (Littorale Hungaricum) with the by-ports of Buccari, Portoré and Novi. The new Hungarian governor, Joseph Majlàth (son of the first Hungarian governor in Fiume) took over the duty on 15 October 1822. Emperor Francis, with a rescript in 1822, made autonomous the Kreis
Kreis
Kreis is the German word for circle, and also refers to a type of country subdivision.*In Germany, a Kreis is a district or county*In Prussia, a Kreis was a district or county...
e of Carlstadt and Fiume, and thereby, in November 1822, restored the Comitatus of Severin.
Hungarian port 1870-1918
In 1870, following the Compromise of 1867 which created Austria–Hungary, Rijeka was attached to Hungary for the third and last time . Although Croatia had constitutional autonomy within Hungary, the City was independent, governed (as a corpus separatumCorpus separatum (Fiume)
The Corpus separatum of Fiume was the name of the legal and political status of the city of Fiume , instituted by Empress Maria Theresa in 1776, determining the semi-autonomous status of Fiume within the Habsburg Empire until the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 - the longest-lasting...
) directly from Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
by an appointed governor, as Hungary's only international port. There was competition between Austria's Port of Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
and Hungary's Port of Fiume.
Fiume also had a significant naval base, and in the mid-19th century it became the site of the Austro-Hungarian Naval Academy (K.u.K. Marine-Akademie), where the Austro-Hungarian Navy
Austro-Hungarian Navy
The Austro-Hungarian Navy was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Its official name in German was Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine , abbreviated as k.u.k. Kriegsmarine....
trained its officers.
Giovanni de Ciotta
Giovanni de Ciotta
Giovanni de Ciotta was the first-born son of Lorenzo de Ciotta and Adriana Maria de Adamich, daughter of the foremost Fiuman merchant and father of modernisation in Fiume Andrea Lodovico de Adamich. The family de Ciotta originated from Livorno where Giovanni served the Austrian army in quality of...
(Mayor from 1872 to 1896) proved to be the most authoritative local political leader. Under his leadership, an impressive phase of expansion of the city started, marked by major port development, fueled by the general expansion of international trade and the city's connection (1873) to the Hungarian and Austrian railway networks. Hungarian support proved to be crucial to the development of the port of Fiume and Ciotta was the key person in assuring it. From 1872 to 1896 (apart from a short interruption in 1884) he was the mayor of the city. Following the financial crisis of 1873, that culminated in 1875, the conservative liberal Deák Party had to face a crisis from which it survived only with a merger with the more numerous conservative Left Center of Kálmán Tisza
Kálmán Tisza
Kálmán Tisza de Borosjenő was the Hungarian prime minister between 1875 and 1890. He is credited for the formation of a consolidated Magyar government, the foundation of the new Liberal Party and major economic reforms that would both save and eventually lead to a government with popular...
. The “new” Liberal Party of Hungary, was to rule Hungary (and Fiume) from 1875 to 1890, marking the golden years of Ciotta, later known as the Idyll.
Under his lead an impressive phase of expansion of the city started, marked by the completion of the railway Fiume - Budapest, the construction of the modern port and the initiation of modern industrial and commercial enterprises such as the Royal Hungarian Sea Navigation Company "Adria
Adria (disambiguation)
Adria is a town in the Veneto region of Italy.Adria may also refer to:*Adriatic Sea, a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula*143 Adria, an asteroid...
", and the Whitehead Torpedo Works. In 1866, Robert Whitehead
Robert Whitehead
Robert Whitehead was an English engineer. He developed the first effective self-propelled naval torpedo. His company, located in the Austrian naval centre in Fiume, was the world leader in torpedo development and production up to the First World War.- Early life:He was born the son of a...
, manager of Stabilimento Tecnico Fiumano (an Austrian engineering company engaged in providing engines for the Austro-Hungarian Navy), experimented on the first torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
. Ciotta's contribution was crucial as he financed Robert Whitehead
Robert Whitehead
Robert Whitehead was an English engineer. He developed the first effective self-propelled naval torpedo. His company, located in the Austrian naval centre in Fiume, was the world leader in torpedo development and production up to the First World War.- Early life:He was born the son of a...
's efforts in producing a viable torpedo. Modern industrial and commercial enterprises such as the Papermill, situated in the Rječina canyon, producing worldwide known cigarette paper, became trademarks of the city.
The population grew from only 21,000 in 1880 to 50,000 in 1910. A lot of major civic buildings went up at that time, including the Governor's Palace designed by the Hungarian architect Alajos Hauszmann
Alajos Hauszmann
Hauszmann Alajos was an Austro-Hungarian architect, professor, and member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.-Life:...
. In 1885 the sumptuous new theatre was finished modelled on that of Budapest and Vienna, costing him a political crisis in 1884 for the raising building costs. While on army service he met John Leard, another fiuman of English origins. Ciotta with Leard in 1889 pushed forward the Piano regolatore the comprehensive urbanisation plan for the city. The new plan laid down the plan for a modern commercial city, destroying most of the older buildings and roads and introducing the regular planning as it was done in Budapest and other cites of the time. In 1891 the Acquedotto Ciotta was finished providing the city with modern sewage and water supply system. He was also a founder of several philanthropic initiatives and institutions.
The “system Ciotta” underwent crisis in 1896 when Hungarian Prime Minister 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:...
started a centralizing policy towards Fiume. Ciotta, being unable to assure the equilibrium between Fiume and Hungary, resigned and retired to private life, following the Governor Lajos gróf Batthyány de Nemetujvár
Lajos gróf Batthyány de Nemetujvár
Count Lajos Batthyány de Németújvár was the main county head of Győr , Governor of Fiume, and Győr parliamentary representative....
. As a response 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....
, backed by Luigi Ossoinack
Luigi Ossoinack
Luigi Ossoinack . Born in Fiume, studied in Ljubljana, Graz and Vienna, where he graduates at the commercial academy. He practised trade in Trieste, Odessa, London and “North America”....
(initiator of the Royal Hungarian Sea Navigation Company "Adria"), founded a new party, the Autonomist Association
Autonomist Association
The Autonomist Association was a political party in Fiume, that existed continuously from 1896 to 1914. Its goal was to maintain the autonomy of the corpus separatum of Fiume within the Hungarian Kingdom.- Origins :...
, ending the rule of the Liberal Party of Hungary in Fiume.
The future mayor of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Fiorello La Guardia, lived in the city at the turn of the 20th century, and reportedly even played football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
for the local sports club.
The Italo-Yugoslav dispute and the Free State
Habsburg-ruled Austria-HungaryAustria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
's disintegration in the closing weeks of 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...
in the fall of 1918 led to the establishment of rival Croatian and Italian administrations in the city; both Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and the founders of the new Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) claimed sovereignty based on their "irredentist
Irredentism
Irredentism is any position advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. Some of these movements are also called pan-nationalist movements. It is a feature of identity politics and cultural...
" ("unredeemed") ethnic populations.
An international force of Italian, French, Serbian, British and American troops occupied the city (November 1918) while its future was discussed at the Paris Peace Conference
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...
during the course of 1919.
Italy based its claim on the fact that Italians were the largest single nationality within the city, 88% of total. Croats made up most of the remainder and were also a majority in the surrounding area, including the neighbouring town 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...
. Andrea Ossoinack
Andrea Ossoinack
Andrea Ossoinack was a businessman and politician who became notable in the process of creating the Free State of Fiume.Andrea was the son of Luigi Ossoinack, who was one of the foremost businessmen in Fiume...
, who had been the last delegate from Fiume to the Hungarian Parliament, was admitted to the conference as a representative of Fiume, and essentially supported the Italian claims.
On 10 September 1919, the Treaty of Saint-Germain
Treaty of Saint-Germain
The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, was signed on 10 September 1919 by the victorious Allies of World War I on the one hand and by the new Republic of Austria on the other...
was signed declaring the Austro-Hungarian monarchy dissolved. Negotiations over the future of the city were interrupted two days later when a force of Italian nationalist irregulars led by the poet Gabriele d'Annunzio
Gabriele D'Annunzio
Gabriele D'Annunzio or d'Annunzio was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist, and dramatist...
seized control of the city by force; d'Annunzio eventually established a state, the Italian Regency of Carnaro
Italian Regency of Carnaro
The Italian Regency of Carnaro was a self-proclaimed state in the city of Fiume led by Gabriele d'Annunzio between 1919 and 1920.-Impresa di Fiume:...
.
The resumption of Italy's premiership by the liberal Giovanni Giolitti
Giovanni Giolitti
Giovanni Giolitti was an Italian statesman. He was the 19th, 25th, 29th, 32nd and 37th Prime Minister of Italy between 1892 and 1921. A left-wing liberal, Giolitti's periods in office were notable for the passage of a wide range of progressive social reforms which improved the living standards of...
in June 1920 signalled a hardening of official attitudes to d'Annunzio's coup. On 12 November, Italy and Yugoslavia concluded 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...
, under which Rijeka was to be an independent state, the Free State of Rijeka/Fiume
Free State of Fiume
The Free State of Fiume was an independent free state which existed between 1920 and 1924. Its territory of comprised the city of Fiume and rural areas to its north, with a corridor to its west connecting it to Italy.-History:Fiume gained autonomy for the first time in 1719 when it was proclaimed...
, under a regime acceptable to both. D'Annunzio's response was characteristically flamboyant and of doubtful judgment: his declaration of war against Italy invited the bombardment by Italian royal forces which led to his surrender of the city at the end of the year, after a five days resistance. Italian troops took over in January 1921. The election of an autonomist-led constituent assembly
Constituent assembly
A constituent assembly is a body composed for the purpose of drafting or adopting a constitution...
for the territory did not put an end to strife: a brief Italian nationalist seizure of power was ended by the intervention of an Italian royal commissioner, and a short-lived local Fascist takeover in March 1922 ended in a third Italian military occupation. Seven months later Italy herself fell under Fascist rule.
Fiume under Fascist rule
A period of diplomatic acrimony closed with the Treaty of RomeTreaty 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...
(27 January 1924), which assigned Rijeka to Italy and Sušak to Yugoslavia, with joint port administration. Formal Italian annexation (16 March 1924) inaugurated twenty years of Italian government, followed by twenty months of German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
military occupation in World War II. In 1938 Temistocle Testa
Temistocle Testa
Temistocle Testa was an Italian Fascist politician.Testa was one of the toughest exponents of Fascism in Modena.On October the 16th 1932 he become prefect of Udine,...
prefect from Udine
Udine
Udine is a city and comune in northeastern Italy, in the middle of Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic sea and the Alps , less than 40 km from the Slovenian border. Its population was 99,439 in 2009, and that of its urban area was 175,000.- History :Udine is the historical...
become prefect of the Carnaro province.
Rijeka in World War II
After the surrender of Italy to the Allies in September 1943, Rijeka and the sorrounding territories were occupied by GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, becoming part of the Adriatic Littoral Zone. Because of its industries (oil refinery, torpedo factory, shipyards) and its port facilities, the city was a target of frequent Anglo-American air attacks. Some of the worst attacks happened on January 12, 1944 (attack on the refinery, part of the Oil Campaign
Oil Campaign of World War II
The Allied Oil Campaign of World War II was directed at facilities supplying Nazi Germany with petroleum, oil, and lubrication products...
) http://www.b17pbemgame.com/317th_bomb_squadron_roster.htm, on November 3–6, 1944, when a series of attacks resulted in at least 125 deaths and between february 15 and 25, 1945 (200 dead, 300 wounded). The harbour area was destroyed by retreating German troops at the very end of the war. Yugoslav troops entered the city on May 3, 1945, after heavy fighting.
Post World War II expulsion of Italians
The aftermath of the war saw the city's fate again resolved by a combination of force and diplomacy. This time, Yugoslav troops advanced (early May 1945) as far west as TriesteTrieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
in their campaign against the German occupiers of both countries. The city of Rijeka thus became Croatian (i.e., Yugoslav), a situation formalized by the Paris peace treaty
Paris Peace Treaties, 1947
The Paris Peace Conference resulted in the Paris Peace Treaties signed on February 10, 1947. The victorious wartime Allied powers negotiated the details of treaties with Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland .The...
between Italy and the wartime Allies on 10 February 1947. Once the change in sovereignty was formalized, 58,000 of the 66,000 Italian-speakers left in advance of the Yugoslav army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
, choosing exile (known in Italian as esuli or the exiled ones). The discrimination and persecution many of them experienced at the hands of the Yugoslav populace and officials in the last days of World War II and the first weeks of peace remain painful memories. Summary executions of alleged fascists, Italian public servants, military officials and even normal civilians, forced most ethnic Italians to abandon Rijeka in order to avoid this class end ethnic cleansing.
In Yugoslavia
Because of its importance for the country's shipbuilding industry was from 1947 under the responsibility of the Ministry of National Defence until 1954. In 1948 the main shipyard, renamed Maj 3, which was to serve as a base for the restored shipbuilding industry. In 1949, it launched the first post-war Yugoslav ship, the MB Zagreb of 4000 DWT. Along with the shipbuilding industry would develop one for marine equipment. After being rebuilt, the Torpedo Factory started to produce diesel engines. The former foundry Skull now Svjetlost was devoted to the production of electrical navigation equipment, while the Rikard Bencic manufactured watercraft and other auxiliary equipment.The oil refinery was back in 1948 pre-war production with 110,000 tonnes in the early fifties she was able to process 200,000 tonnes of oil. At the time, it was 37.6% across the country.
Rijeka for the period 1960-1990 is a city that aspires to the greatest achievements that loves big numbers and equips a heavy industry while dreaming of Utopian tomorrow.
After Edo Jardas, mayors would be: Sirola Franjo (1959–1964), Nikola Pavletic (1964–1968), and Dragutin Haramija (1968–1969), Neda Andric (1969–1974), Nikola Pavletic for the second time (1974–1979), Vilim Mulc (1979–1982), Josip Stefan (1982–1984), Zdravko Sarson (1985–1987) and Zeljko Luzavec (1988–1993). The majority of mayors came from small towns in the immediate surroundings of the city.
About the economic situation, it should be noted that the traffic of the port complex had increased from 420,000 tons in 1946 to more than 20,000,000 tons in 1980. The port was involved in more than 50% in traffic across the country and about 80% in terms of transit. In 1980, Rijeka assumed 20% of exports from Croatia and 10% of those of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
.
In 1980, when the merchant navy was at its peak, Rijeka shipping had a cargo capacity of 500,000 tons. The Jugolinija was the largest shipping company of the state while Jadrolinija
Jadrolinija
Jadrolinija is a Croatian sea shipping company. It is a state-owned company and its main mission is connecting Croatian islands to the mainland by operating regular passenger and cargo transport services...
dealt with 49 ships and passenger transportation service by ferry-boats.
Approximately 23,000 people were employed in industry in 1980. The specificity was because over 80% of the total industrial production were produced by the energy sector (electric power industry, oil processing and coal), as well as shipbuilding. This feature coupled with the low number of finished products explains why industry of Rijeka collapsed in the early Nineties.
In 1982 there were 92,489 employees out of a population of 193,000.
In 1980, the oil refinery with 8,000,000 tonnes treated 28% of total state and the plant had been lying on Urinj (from 1966). In the eighties began the construction of a petrochemical complex in Omisalj
Omišalj
Omišalj is a small coastal town in the north-west of the island of Krk in Croatia. The population of the town itself is 1,790 , while the Omišalj municipality also includes the nearby Njivice, bringing the total up to 2,998 people...
, which over time will become one of the biggest flops of the state.
3 Maj Shipyard covered about one third of the shipbuilding industry. The peak in production was achieved between 1971 and 1975, when 32 ships were built totaling more than 1,200,000 gross tons. These vessels were mainly for export. In the eighties they built small boats and production increased to the point with its 7,000 shipyard workers became the largest company in Rijeka. At the same time developed the shipyard Viktor Lenac to Martinscica to become the largest repair yard in the Mediterranean.
The development of the metalworking industry was linked to the needs of shipbuilding. Thus Vulkan manufactured cranes for ship Rikard Bencic pumps, Tornado diesel engines and tractors, electric generators Rade Koncar while Metalograficki kombinat was directed towards the production of metal packaging for the purposes of refinery.
Civil engineering was expanding to the point that Primorje, Jadran, Kvarner, Konstruktor employed some 10,000 workers overall in 1981. More than 6,000 of them were engaged in commercial Brodokomerc.
The need to be the biggest and best reflected in the construction of as many residential buildings in the City such as the Skurinje five buildings, all 26 floors. In general, the architecture was to be either pompous and impersonal. The unconvincing GHETALDUS house on Korso, work of Kolacio Zdenko (1949), opens the period of modern architecture. Josip Uhlik damaged the city's with his monstrous Building of Social Insurance. Igor Emili signed the new street design Uzarska (1959) and Sporevova (1968), the department store Varteks (1975), the Ri-Adria banka (then Jugobanka, 1986), all in the Old City, and also building Kras (1964), and Brodomaterijal II (1970), the Korzo. Ada-Felice Rosic built the store Korso "(1972) with a front and a successful access awkward in the Old City while Ninoslav Vjera Kucan and have built the store that is the incongruous Rijeka (1974).
A series of business buildings are the work of Vladimir Grubesic: Jadroagent (1977–1984), Delta (1983–1984), Privredna banka Zagreb (1986), Jadrosped all in the Old City and Croatia Lines (1982–1992).
One of the most accomplished achievements was the construction of the Rijecka banka, according to a draft Ostrogovic Kazimir (1966). The project of the Museum of the Revolution (now the Municipal Museum) of Segvic Neven (1976), was ambitious but clumsy while building the most successful was the office tower at HPT-Centar Kozala which was signed by N. Kucan and V. Antolovic (1975). The architect Boris Magas is the author of two major buildings but they are the best seats: the Faculty of Law (1980 with Olga Magas), and the Church of St. Nicolas (1981–1988), around which extends a device.
See also
- Corpus separatum (Fiume)Corpus separatum (Fiume)The Corpus separatum of Fiume was the name of the legal and political status of the city of Fiume , instituted by Empress Maria Theresa in 1776, determining the semi-autonomous status of Fiume within the Habsburg Empire until the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 - the longest-lasting...
- Postage stamps and postal history of FiumePostage stamps and postal history of FiumeAfter World War I, the city of Fiume was claimed by both the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and Italy. While its status was unresolved, its postal system was operated by a variety of occupation forces and local governments....
- List of governors and heads of state of Fiume
- Imperial Estate
- Free Imperial CityFree Imperial CityIn the Holy Roman Empire, a free imperial city was a city formally ruled by the emperor only — as opposed to the majority of cities in the Empire, which were governed by one of the many princes of the Empire, such as dukes or prince-bishops...
- List of states of the Holy Roman Empire
- History of CroatiaHistory of CroatiaCroatia first appeared as a duchy in the 7th century and then as a kingdom in the 10th century. From the 12th century it remained a distinct state with its ruler and parliament, but it obeyed the kings and emperors of various neighboring powers, primarily Hungary and Austria. The period from the...
- History of AustriaHistory of AustriaThe history of Austria covers the history of the current country of Austria and predecessor states, from the Iron Age, through to a sovereign state, annexation by the German Third Reich, partition after the Second World War and later developments until the present day...
- History of HungaryHistory of HungaryHungary is a country in central Europe. Its history under this name dates to the early Middle Ages, when the Pannonian Basin was colonized by the Magyars, a semi-nomadic people from what is now central-northern Russia...