The Autonomist Party ( it, Partito Autonomista; hr, Autonomaška stranka) was an
Italian-Dalmatianist political party in the
Dalmatian political scene, that existed for around 70 years of the 19th century and until
World War I. Its goal was to maintain the autonomy of the
Kingdom of Dalmatia within the
Austro-Hungarian Empire
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise o ...
, as opposed to the unification with the
Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. The Autonomist Party has been accused of secretly having been a pro-Italian movement due to their defense of the rights of ethnic Italians in Dalmatia.
[Maura Hametz. ''In the Name of Italy: Nation, Family, and Patriotism in a Fascist Court: Nation, Family, and Patriotism in a Fascist Court.'' Fordham University Press, 2012.] The Autonomist Party did not claim to be an Italian movement, and indicated that it sympathized with a sense of heterogeneity amongst Dalmatians in opposition to
ethnic nationalism.
In the 1861 elections, the Autonomists won twenty-seven seats in Dalmatia, while Dalmatia's
Croatian nationalist movement, the National Party, won only fourteen seats. This number rapidly decreased: already in
1870
Events
January–March
* January 1
** The first edition of ''The Northern Echo'' newspaper is published in Priestgate, Darlington, England.
** Plans for the Brooklyn Bridge are completed.
* January 3 – Construction of the Br ...
autonomists lost their majority in the
Diet
Diet may refer to:
Food
* Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group
* Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake
** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...
, while in
1908
Events
January
* January 1 – The British ''Nimrod'' Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the '' Nimrod'' for Antarctica.
* January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean, and is the 4 ...
they won just 6 out of 43 seats.
History
Traditionally linked to the idea of a Dalmatian nation advocated by
Niccolò Tommaseo
Niccolò Tommaseo (; 9 October 1802 – 1 May 1874) was a Dalmatian linguist, journalist and essayist, the editor of a ''Dizionario della Lingua Italiana'' in eight volumes (1861–74), of a dictionary of synonyms (1830) and other works. He is ...
in the first half of the 19th 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 ( hr, Narodna stranka, it, Partito del Popolo), 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
The Diet of Dalmatia ( hr, Dalmatinski sabor, it, Dieta della Dalmazia) was the regional assembly of the Kingdom of Dalmatia within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was founded in Zadar in 1861 and last convened in 1912, before being formally diss ...
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
Zadar ( , ; historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian: ); see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited Croatian city. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar se ...
) remained in Autonomist hands.
A similar but independent political development occurred in
Fiume
Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Prim ...
, 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 Zadar 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 Following World War I there were two Treaties of Rapallo, both named after Rapallo, a resort on the Ligurian coast of Italy:
* Treaty of Rapallo, 1920, an agreement between Italy and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (the later Yugosla ...
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 claimed 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
Italian irredentism in Dalmatia
Italian irredentism in Dalmatia was the political movement supporting the unification to Italy, during the 19th and 20th centuries, of Adriatic Dalmatia.
History
19th century
The Republic of Venice, between the 9th century and 1797, extended i ...
: the party was suppressed in 1915 when Italy declared war on Austria during
World War I.
[Monzali, Luciano. ''Italians of Dalmatia'' p.323]
Diet of Dalmatia elections
*1861: 12/41
*1864: 32/41
*1867: 26/41
*1870: 16/41
*1876: 11/41
*1883: 7/41
*1889: 6/41
*1895: 6/41
*1901: 6/41
References
Sources
*
Renzo de' Vidovich, 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.
{{Authority control
Political parties in Austria-Hungary
Kingdom of Dalmatia
Defunct political parties in Croatia
Italian irredentism
Separatism in Croatia
1865 establishments in the Austrian Empire
Italian organizations in Austria-Hungary