Province of Zara
The Province of Zara was a province of the Kingdom of Italy, officially from 1918 to 1947. In 1941 it was enlarged and made part of the Italian Governorate of Dalmatia, during World War II, until 1943.
Historical background
Since the Middle Ages, the city of Zara was populated by Romance-speaking people. Until the Treaty of Campo Formio it was the administrative capital of Venetian Dalmatia. Between 1805 and 1810 the city was part of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. It would later become been the center of Italian irredentism in Dalmatia. In the Austro-Hungarian census of 1910, the city of Zara had an Italian population of 9,318 out of 13,438 inhabitants. In 1921, the population grew to 17,075 inhabitants, of which 12,075 Italians. In 1940 Zara had a population of nearly 25000, of which more than 23000 were Italians, according to Davide Rodogno and Olinto Mileta.In 1915 Italy entered World War I under the provisions set in the Treaty of London. In exchange for its participation with the Triple Entente and in the event of victory, Italy was to obtain Austro-Hungarian territory in northern Dalmatia, including Zara, Sebenico and most of the Dalmatian islands. At the end of the war, Italian military forces invaded Dalmatia and seized control of Zara, with Admiral Enrico Millo being proclaimed the "Governor of Dalmatia". Famous Italian nationalist Gabriele d'Annunzio supported the seizure of Dalmatia, and proceeded to Zara in an Italian warship in December 1918.
During 1918, political life in Zara intensified. The dissolution of Austria-Hungary led to the renewal of national conflicts in the city. With the arrival of the Royal Italian Army in the city within the framework of the occupation of the eastern Adriatic on 4 November 1918, the Italian faction gradually assumed control, a process which was completed on 5 December when it took over the governorship. With the Treaty of Versailles Italian claims on Dalmatia contained in the Treaty of London were nullified, but later on the agreements between Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes set in the Treaty of Rapallo gave Zara with other small local territories to Italy.
The Zara enclave, a total of, included the city of Zara, the municipalities of Boccagnazzo/Bokanjac, Borgo Erizzo/Arbanasi, Cerno, part of Dicolo/Diklo and the islands of Lagosta and Pelagosa. The territory was organized into a small Italian province.
World War II
Fascist Italy, and other Axis powers, invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941. Zara held a force of 9,000 Italian army soldiers and was one of the starting points of the invasion. The force under the command of General Vittorio Ambrosio defeated easily the Royal Yugoslav Army in crisis and reached in a few days Sebenico and Spalato on April 15. Civilians were previously evacuated to Ancona and Pola. Occupying Mostar and Dubrovnik, on April 17 they met Italian troops that had started out from Italian Albania.Within a few weeks, Benito Mussolini required the newly formed puppet-state, the so-called Independent State of Croatia to hand over almost all of Dalmatia to Fascist Italy under the Rome Treaties. The city became the center of a new Italian administrative territorial entity, called Governorate of Dalmatia, that included the enlarged province of Zara, the new Province of Spalato, and the new Province of Cattaro. Under Italian fascist rule, at the end of 1941 the Slavic population was subjected to a policy of forced Italianization, although its administrator was prevented from entering the city by the Italian authorities of the city. Zara remained under the local administration of the Italian Social Republic. Zara was bombed by the Allies, with serious civilian casualties. Many died in the carpet bombings, and many landmarks and centuries old works of art were destroyed. A significant number of civilians fled the city.
In late October 1944 the German Army and most of the Italian civilian administration abandoned the city. On October 31, 1944, the Partisans seized the city, until then an official part of Mussolini's Italian Social Republic. At the start of World War II, Zadar had a population of 24,000 but, by the end of 1944, this had decreased to 6,000. Formally, the city remained under Italian sovereignty until the September 15, 1947.
After World War II's end, the "Libero comune di Zara in esilio" was created by the exiled Italians of Zara, as a follow-up of the province of Zara.
The Italian exodus from the city continued and in a few years was almost total. The last stroke to the Italian presence was made by the local administration in October 1953, when the last Italian schools were closed and the students forced to move, in one day, into Yugoslavian schools, putting an end to the Romance identity of the city. Today the Italian community counts only a few hundred people, gathered into a local community.
Municipalities
Before World War II there only a few localities in the province of Zara, like Boccagnazzo/Bokanjac and Borgo Erizzo/Arbanasi. But with the enlargement in 1941 the number grew to 20 :- Bencovazzo / Benkovac: 2,000 inhabitants.
- Bosavia or Bosava / Božava: 1,520 inhabitants
- Chistagne / Kistanje: 2,000 inhabitants
- Eso Grande / Iž Veliki : 1,300 inhabitants
- Nona / Nin: 4,650 inhabitants
- Novegradi / Novigrad: 5,217 inhabitants
- Obbrovazzo / Obrovac: 1,400 inhabitants
- Oltre / Preko: 7,560 inhabitants
- Sale / Sali: 2,090 inhabitants
- Scardona / Skradin: 2,000 inhabitants
- Sebenico / Šibenik: 37,854 inhabitants
- Selve / Silba: 4,229 inhabitants
- Stancovazzo / Stankovići: 1,000 inhabitants
- Stretto / Tijesno: 7,190 inhabitants
- Timeto di Zara / Smilčić: 1,000 inhabitants
- Vodizze / Vodice: 7,500 inhabitants
- Zara / Zadar: 25,000 inhabitants
- Zaravecchia / Biograd: 2,520 inhabitants
- Zemonico / Zemunik Donji: 1,000 inhabitants
- Zlarino / Zlarin: 3,550 inhabitants