Adriatic question

In the aftermath of the First World War, the Adriatic question or Adriatic problem concerned the fate of the territories along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea that formerly belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The roots of the dispute lay in the secret Treaty of London, signed during the war, and in growing nationalism, especially Italian irredentism and Yugoslavism, which led ultimately to the creation of Yugoslavia. The question was a major barrier to agreement at the Paris Peace Conference, but was partially resolved by the Treaty of Rapallo between Italy and Yugoslavia on 12 November 1920.

Background

Austria-Hungary exited the war on 3 November 1918, when it ordered its troops to cease fighting. The Armistice of Villa Giusti, signed with Italy that day, took effect on 4 November, and on 13 November the Armistice of Belgrade was signed with Italy's allies on the Balkan front. Italy began immediately to occupy territories ceded to it by the treaty of 1915, while simultaneously the South Slavs formed local governments in opposition to both Italian expansion and Austro-Hungarian authority. A National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was set up in Zagreb on 5–6 October, and the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was proclaimed there on 29 October and that same day the Sabor, the legitimate parliament of Croatia-Slavonia, declared independence from Austria-Hungary. On 1 December the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formed in Belgrade by union of this new state with Serbia and Montenegro.

Arguments

Populations

The main argument presented by Yugoslavia was that the territories under consideration contained about seven million Slavs, almost the entire population.

Place	Yugoslav population	Percentage	Italian population	Percentage
Dalmatia	610,669	96%	18,028	2.8%
Fiume	15,687 26,602 incl. Sušak	–	24,212 25,781 incl. Sušak	–
Gorizia and Gradisca	154,564	61%	90,009	36%
Istria	223,318 Western zone: 58,373 Eastern zone: 135,290	57%	147,417 Western zone: 129,903 Eastern zone: 6,686	38%
Trieste	56,916	29.8%	118,959	62.3%

Of the Dalmatian islands, only Lošinj had an Italian majority. When the hinterland of Fiume was included along with its suburbs the Yugoslav majority increased further. The Italian claim on Gorizia and Gradisca was generally recognised, as was its claim on the Slavic settlements around Friuli.
At the Congress of Oppressed Nationalities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Rome, Italy lent official support to the Declaration of Corfu, a Yugoslavist document supported by Britain and France that expressed the need to unite the South Slavs politically.

Geography

The Italians argued that the natural geographic boundary of Italy included the Julian and Dinaric Alps, and that therefore the Austro-Hungarian littoral lay within geographic Italy. The strategic importance of the geography of the eastern coast of the Adriatic has been generally accepted. The Chief of the Division of Boundary Geography with the American delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, Douglas Wilson Johnson, wrote at the time, "Any naval power on the eastern coast must find itself possessing immense advantages over Italy." Johnson went on to note that the offer of Pula, Vlorë and a central Dalmatian island group to the Italians effectively settled the strategic problem and balanced the two Adriatic powers.

Allied occupation

Joint occupation of Fiume

On 29 October 1918 the Austro-Hungarians evacuated Fiume, and the new Croatian mayor, Rikard Lenac, proclaimed the town's adherence to the National Council of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. On 30 October the Italian community set up a "national council" headed by Antonio Grossich and proclaimed Fiume's union with Italy. The next day the local governor handed over power to the Italians, as did the governor of Trieste. On 4 November an Italian naval detachment under Admiral Guglielmo Rainer aboard the battleship arrived in the harbour of Fiume. Rainer declared the local government dissolved and, on 14 November Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando, acting on the advice of Chief of Staff Armando Diaz, ordered Rainer to land a troop of marines. The next day Diaz requested that Allied troops take part in the occupation of Fiume. The commander of British forces on the Italian Front, the Earl of Cavan, was ordered to send a company "to show that the occupation is allied, and to keep order". That same day 2,000 Serbian soldiers arrived on the outskirts of Fiume.
France and the United States also sent naval contingents to Fiume, and on 17 November some American, British and French naval officers met with Mayor Lenac and Ivan Lorković, a delegate from the Slovene–Croat–Serb state, in the abandoned governor's palace. It was agreed that the Serb troops should evacuate the area that afternoon and that the Italian marines should not be landed for another three days, pending orders from the Supreme Council of the Paris Peace Conference. Although Rainer agreed, he was countermanded by his superior, on the grounds that he had acted without instruction, and an Italian troops force eighty strong entered the city that afternoon. They ordered Lenac's government out of the palace and removed all Serbian flags on public display. On 18 November the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs officially protested to the allied commanders. The arrival of an American battalion on 19 November prevented any outbreak of violence, but the Italians eventually posted 12,000 troops in the city—"an Italian military occupation in overwhelming force, for political reasons" wrote Admiral Edward Kiddle, and Commodore Howard Kelly, commanding the British Adriatic Force, could remark on 22 November that "the Italian occupation has all the appearance of an annexation to the Italian Crown."

Establishment of a naval commission

When Italy first began occupying land east of the Tagliamento, the former boundary between Italy and Austria-Hungary, it employed troops of the 332nd Infantry Regiment of the United States, with the goal of appearing to be an international occupation force. Although this misuse of American troops led the United States War Department to order them withdrawn, President Woodrow Wilson countermanded the order to prevent a breakdown in negotiations over the Adriatic question in Paris. Thereafter, as a result, the international control for the Adriatic was a naval responsibility.
On 16 November 1918 representatives of the Allied navies—American, British, French and Italian—met in Venice to establish the Naval Commission for the Adriatic. At several sessions held in Rome from 26 November, the commission decided the fate of the Austro-Hungarian fleet and of its coastline. The fleet was divided in control between the Americans, French and Italians pending a final political decision regarding its fate, while the coast was divided into three zones of control, an Italian in the north, an American in the middle and a French in the south. This arrangement eventually received political ratification in Paris. Josephus Daniels, United States Secretary of the Navy, wrote to his Chief of Naval Operations, William S. Benson, also American naval advisor to the Paris Peace Commission, that "due to possible Adriatic developments and desire to show sympathy with Slavonic government being formed in the late Austro-Hungarian Empire, consider it desirable to send flag officer... immediately into the Adriatic." Benson later wrote to Admiral William H. G. Bullard, commanding American naval forces in their zone, that "the general principles laid down by the President", i.e. the Fourteen Points, which stressed national self-determination, should be furthered, implying active American support for Yugoslav nationhood.

Split incident

The Naval Commission began its work in Fiume in early December, but in January the Italian representative, Admiral Vittorio Mola, resigned in protest. At the demands of the American, British and French admirals, Italy appointed Rear Admiral Ugo Rombo to replace him on 1 February 1919. At a meeting in Venice on 8 February Rombo told Admiral Albert Parker Niblack that the Americans did not understand the Adriatic problem, leading to a breakdown in negotiations between the Italians and the rest. In the end the Commission's report was not publicised.
When the Commission moved to Split, the admirals tasked the Yugoslavs with maintaining order, but on 24 February some Yugoslav citizens attacked some Italian officers meeting with local Italianophiles. Rombo demanded the Allies patrol the city, but Niblack and Benson vetoed it.

American occupation zone

In Dalmatia, the American occupation zone, the citizens had elected a provisional assembly and a governor, and both supported the nascent State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. Order was kept by the local militia, which was often unreliable, and by Serbian troops which had begun to garrison the area in small numbers. This arrangement was supported by the Americans, but "y early 1919, disturbed local conditions forced the Committee for the Adriatic to circulate four armed inter-allied patrols night and day throughout the area under the command of the American admiral." After a few months of this the Admiral Bullard supplanted the inter-allied patrol with a patrol composed entirely of Americans to assist the local police in maintaining order for a few hours each day.
Several times Italian troops crossed the frontier into the American zone of occupation, but in each case they were turned back, either by a warning or, in one case, by the arrival of American warships and landing of American forces. In several towns the Americans posted notice that they would protect the lives and property of Dalmatians against any Italian injustice. This latter sort of propaganda was the most effective means of keeping the peace, since the American admiral had to rely on Serbian troops for garrisoning the interior. His own garrison was minuscule, and reinforcements were only landed in emergencies. One Yugoslav mayor from the Italian zone sent a letter of thanks to the American admiral for protecting his people from the Italians.
The first effort to bring American naval forces in the Adriatic home took place in December 1919. In February 1920 the Italians requested four Austro-Hungarian ships allocated to Italy by the Allied Military Committee of Versailles and which were being guarded at Split by American forces. The Italian ambition to receive these vessels led to the decision to retain American ships in the Adriatic longer. The American occupation ended only after the Italian forces had evacuated their zone and the International Committee for the Destruction of Enemy Warships had allocated all the formerly Austro-Hungarian vessels under its command to the Italian Navy. The last American troops left aboard the on 29 September 1921, after the Treaty of Rapallo had been signed.