Governorate of Dalmatia - Characteristics

Characteristics

The Governorate of Dalmatia was made up of parts of coastal Yugoslavia that were occupied and annexed by Italy from April 1941 to September 1943, together with the pre-war Italian Province of Zara on the Dalmatian coast, including the island of Lagosta (Lastovo) and totalling about 200 square kilometers, which Italy had possessed since 1919. The town of Zara (Zadar), which had included most of the Italian population of Dalmatia since the beginning of the 20th century and was largely Italian-speaking, was designated as its capital.

The creation of the Governorate of Dalmatia fulfilled the demands of Italian irredentism, but not all of Dalmatia was annexed by Italy, as the German puppet state known as the Independent State of Croatia took some parts of it. Nevertheless, the Italian army maintained de facto control over the whole of Dalmatia.

The Kingdom of Italy divided the Governorate in three Italian provinces: Zara (Zadar), Spalato (Split) and Cattaro (Kotor), but never created officially an Italian region with the name "Dalmatia". While the Governorate was not called a region of Italy, the northern Dalmatian islands of Veglia (Krk) and Arbe (Rab) were administratively united to the Italian province of Fiume (now Rijeka) and became areas of Italy.

In September 1941, Italy's fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, ordered the military occupation of the entire Dalmatian coast, including the city of Dubrovnik ("Ragusa"), and islands such as Vis (Lissa) and Pag (Pago) which had been given to the puppet Independent State of Croatia of Ante Pavelić: Mussolini tried to annex those areas to the Governorship of Dalmatia, but was temporarily stopped by the strong opposition of Pavelić, who retained nominal control of them.

The northern Dalmatian islands of Veglia and Arbe were not added to the Governorship of Dalmatia, but instead to the Italian "Province of Fiume". This province was enlarged with areas of northern coastal Dalmatia to the east of present-day city of Rijeka, then called Fiume.

Fascist Italy even occupied Marindol and other villages that had previously belonged to the Banovina of Croatia, Milić-Selo, Paunović-Selo, Žunić-Selo, Vukobrati, Vidnjevići and Vrhovci. In 1942 these villages were annexed to Cernomegli (now Črnomelj, in Slovenia), which was then part of the Italian Province of Lubiana, even though their population was not Slovene but Croatian.

The governorship was held until January 1943 by Giuseppe Bastianini, when he was recalled to Italy to join the cabinet, his place as governor being taken by Francesco Giunta.