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The Free Territory of Trieste or Free State of Trieste (Italian Territorio libero di Trieste, Slovenian Svobodno tržaško ozemlje, Croatian Slobodni teritorij Trsta) was a City state situated in Central Europe between northern Italy and Yugoslavia. The Free State was established in 1947 in order to accommodate an ethnically and culturally mixed population in a neutral country. The intention was also to cool down territorial claims, due to its strategic importance for trade with Central Europe. It was divided into two zones comprised the port city of Trieste with a narrow coastal strip to the north west (zone A) and a small portion of the Istrian peninsula (zone B). The Free State was eventually taken over by its two neighbors in 1954 and officially dissolved in 1977.
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Geography
The Free Territory of Trieste comprised an area of 738 km² around the bay of Trieste from Duino/Devin in the north to Novigrad/Cittanova in the south and had approximately 330,000 inhabitants. It bordered Italy to the north and Yugoslavia to the south and east. The rivers of the territory included the Risano/Rižana, the Dragogna/Dragonja, the Timavo/Reka, the Rosandra/Glinščica and the Quieto/Mirna. The Territory's highest point was at Monte Castellaro/Veliko Gradišče (724m). Its most extreme points were near Medeazza/Medjevas at 45° 48’ in the north, at Porto Quieto/Tarski at 45° 18’ in the south, Punta Salvore/Rt Savudrija at 13° 29’ in the west and Grozzana di Pese/Gročana at 13° 55’ in the east.
History
For centuries, Trieste and Istria had been a part of the Austrian Empire, and later Austria-Hungary. The rural area was populated by Slovenes in the north and by Croats in the southeast, while Italians constituted the majority of inhabitants in Trieste, Rijeka and the towns of Istria.
In 1921 (after World War I) Italy formally annexed Trieste, Istria and part of what today is western Slovenia. In 1924 Italy further annexed the Free State of Fiume, now the city of Rijeka in Croatia. During the 1920s and 1930s the Slavic population was subjected to Italianization and discrimination under the Italian Fascist regime. They were also exposed to violence, including the burning of the Slovene National Club (Narodni dom) in Trieste on July 13, 1920. Many Slovenes and Croats emigrated to Yugoslavia, while some joined the TIGR resistance organization, whose methods included more than 100 terrorist actions in Trieste and surroundings during the 1920s and 1930s.
World War II
Italy fought with the Axis powers in World War II. When the Fascist regime collapsed in 1943 and Italy capitulated, Slovenia and Croatia (that were to become parts of the Yugoslavia) formally annexed the territory, but German forces occupied it. The Yugoslav 4th Army together with the Slovenian 9th Corps captured Trieste on May 1 1945. The 2nd Division (New Zealand) of the British 8th Army arrived on the next day. The German Army surrendered to the New Zealand forces. The Yugoslav soldiers left on June 12, 1945, thus keeping to an agremeent between Yugoslavia and the Western Allies reached on May 12.
Establishment of the state
On February 10, 1947, a peace treaty was signed with Italy, establishing the Free Territory of Trieste. The territory was, however, divided into two zones: Zone A, which was 222.5 km² and had 262,406 residents including Trieste, which was administered by British and American forces, and Zone B, which was 515.5 km² with 71,000 residents including north-western Istria, and which was administered by the Yugoslav National Army. The Territory thus never functioned as a real independent state. Even so, its formal status was respected and it issued its own currency and stamps. The Allied Military Government in Zone A was protected by two separate contingents of Allied servicemen, 5,000 Americans in TRUST (TRieste United States Troops) and 5,000 British in BETFOR (British Element Trieste FORce), each comprising several infantry battalions complete with separate American and British command support units (Signals, Engineers, Military Police, etc).[1] According to the estimates published by the Allied Military Government, as of 1949 in the A zone there were about 310,000 inhabitants, including 239,200 Italians and 63,000 Slovenes . According to the Yugoslav census of 1945, in the part of Istria which was to become Zone B there were 67,461 inhabitants, including 30,789 Slavs, 29,672 Italians and 7,000 people of unidentified nationality. According to contemporary Italian sources, in zone B there were 36,000-55,000 Italians and 12,000-17,000 Slavs.
Dissolution
In 1954 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in London. It gave a provisional civil administration of Zone A (with Trieste) to Italy and Zone B to Yugoslavia. In 1975 the Treaty of Osimo was signed in Osimo, definitively dividing the former Free Territory of Trieste between Italy and Yugoslavia. Zone A corresponds to the current Italian Province of Trieste, and Zone B is now divided between the Slovenian Littoral and Croatian Istria.
Demographics
During the late 1940s and in the years following the division of the territory, up to 40,000 people (mostly Italians) chose to leave the Yugoslav B zone and move to the A zone or Italy for various reasons - some were intimidated into leaving and some simply preferred not to live in Yugoslavia. In Yugoslavia, the people who left were called optanti which translates as choosing, while they call themselves esuli or exiles. About 14,000 Italians chose to remain in the Yugoslav zone, now part of Slovenia and Croatia.
See also
- Communist Party of the Free Territory of Trieste
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 16
- Julian March
- Istrian exodus
- Slovene Littoral
