Politics
After the First World War and the demise of Austria-Hungary, the question of the status of Fiume became a major international problem. At the height of the dispute between the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and the Kingdom of Italy, the Great Powers advocated the establishment of an independent buffer state. President Woodrow Wilson of the US became the arbiter in the Yugoslav-Italian dispute over the city. He suggested that Fiume be set up as an independent state, and indeed as the potential home for the League of Nations organisation.
The dispute led to lawlessness, and the city changed hands between a South-Slav National Committee and an Italian National Council, leading finally to the landing of British and French troops who took over the city. The National Council over-stamped Austro-Hungarian notes - the Fiume Krone - were used as official currency. This confusing situation was exploited by the Italian poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, who entered the city on 12 September 1919 and began a 15-month period of occupation. A year later after failure of negotiations with the Italian government, D'Annunzio proclaimed the Italian Regency of Carnaro.
On 12 November 1920, the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes signed the Treaty of Rapallo by which both parties agreed to acknowledge "the complete freedom and independence of the State of Fiume and oblige to respect it for eternity". With this act the "Free State of Fiume" was created, which, it turned out, would exist as an independent state for about one year de facto, and four years de jure. The newly created state was immediately recognized by the United States, France and the United Kingdom. D'Annunzio refused to acknowledge the Agreement and was expelled from the city by the regular forces of the Italian Army, in the "Bloody Christmas" from the 24th to the 30th of December 1920.
In April 1921, the electorate approved the plan for a Free State and for a consortium to run the port. The first parliamentary elections were held, but were contested by the autonomists and the pro-Italian National Bloc. The Autonomist Party, which was supported by votes from the majority of the Croats, gained 6,558 votes, while the National Bloc, composed of Fascist, Liberal and Democratic parties, received 3,443 votes. The leader of the Autonomist Party, Riccardo Zanella, became the President.
Control over the Free State was in an almost constant state of flux. Following the departure of D'Annunzio's troops in December 1920, the Italian National Council of Fiume re-assumed control and appointed a provisional government. A pact with the local Italian commander handed control to the military on January 18, 1921, but this lasted just three days before a nationalist rebellion. They appointed an extraordinary government, which fell two days later. In June 1921 an Italian Royal Commissioner was appointed, whose control lasted two weeks.
A group of D'Annunzio loyalists seized part of the town, until they were in turn pushed out in September. In October the autonomist Riccardo Zanella was appointed provisional president; his rule lasted until 3 March 1922, when Italian Fascists carried out a coup d'état and the legal government escaped to Kraljevica. On 6 March, the Italian government was asked to restore order and Italian troops entered the city on 17 March. They returned control to the minority of the constituent assembly, who were loyal to the Italian annexationists.
After the proclamation of the Rapallo Treaty, the Communist Party of Fiume (Partito Comunista di Fiume - Sezione della III.a Internazionale) was instituted on November 1921. The Communist Party of Fiume was the smallest Communist Party in the world. It was founded following the principles of the Third International, according to which each sovereign state had to have its own Communist Party organization.
In January 1924, the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes signed the Treaty of Rome (27 January 1924), agreeing to the annexation of Fiume by Italy and the absorption of Sušak by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes; this took effect on 16 March. The government-in-exile of the Free State considered this act invalid and non-binding under international law and continued its activities.
Read more about this topic: Free State Of Fiume
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“In politics if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.”
—Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925)
“It is not so much that women have a different point of view in politics as that they give a different emphasis. And this is vastly important, for politics is so largely a matter of emphasis.”
—Crystal Eastman (1881–1928)
“The rage for road building is beneficent for America, where vast distance is so main a consideration in our domestic politics and trade, inasmuch as the great political promise of the invention is to hold the Union staunch, whose days already seem numbered by the mere inconvenience of transporting representatives, judges and officers across such tedious distances of land and water.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)