The Fiume Question

On April 26, 1915, Italy signed the London Pact: a secret agreement between Italy and the Triple Entente (Great Britain, France and Russia). According to the pact, Italy was to declare war on the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in return for territorial gains at the end of the war. These would include Trieste, Trento, Gorizia, Istria, a Protectorate over Albania, Valona, Dodecanese, Zadar, part of Dalmatia, the Soca Valley, and part of the German Asian and African colonial empire. Fiume, an independent city with a major Hungarian-controlled port in the Adriatic Sea, was not included in this group of territories, but was deeded to Croatia.

The sudden collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the end of World War I, did not bring with it the expected territorial gains for Italy. The pact was voided by the Treaty of Versailles as Woodrow Wilson, supporting Slavic claims, rejected Italian requests on Dalmatian territories. This led to the emergence of rival Italian and Croatian administrations in Fiume, as both Italy and the founders of the new Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) claimed sovereignty over it. After a short-lived Italian occupation, a multinational force of French, British and United States forces occupied the city (November 1918) while its future was discussed at the Paris Peace Conference (1919).

Italy based her claim for sovereignty over Fiume on the fact that Italians made up the largest single nationality in the city. Croats comprised most of the remainder, and were also the majority in the surrounding area, including the neighboring town of Sušak. As sovereignty issues were being discussed, talks were rudely interrupted by the city’s seizure, on September 12, 1919, by a force of Italian nationalist irregulars led by the “poet soldier,” Gabriele D’Annunzio. Upon seizing the city D’Annunzio proclaimed the founding of a new state, the “Italian Regency of Carnaro.”