This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2012) |
Italian Regency of Carnaro | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1919–1920 | |||||||||
Motto: Si spiritus pro nobis, quis contra nos? (Latin for 'If the spirit is with us, who is against us?') | |||||||||
Status | Unrecognized state | ||||||||
Capital | Fiume | ||||||||
Common languages | Italian | ||||||||
Government | Provisional authoritarian republic | ||||||||
Comandante | |||||||||
• 1919–1920 | Gabriele D'Annunzio | ||||||||
Legislature | Arengo del Carnaro | ||||||||
Consiglio degli Ottimi | |||||||||
Consiglio dei Provvisori | |||||||||
Historical era | Interwar period | ||||||||
• Coup d'état and establishment | 12 September 1919 | ||||||||
• Modus Vivendi Plebiscite | 18 December 1919 | ||||||||
8 September 1920 | |||||||||
12 November 1920 | |||||||||
• Conquered | 29 December 1920 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Today part of | Croatia |
The Italian Regency of Carnaro (Italian : Reggenza Italiana del Carnaro) was a self-proclaimed state in the city of Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia) led by Gabriele d'Annunzio between 1919 and 1920.
During World War I (1914–1918), which the Kingdom of Italy entered on the side of the Allies in May 1915, Italy made a pact with the Allies, the Treaty of London, in which it was promised all of the Austrian Littoral, but not the city of Fiume (known in Croatian as Rijeka). Austria-Hungary disintegrated in October 1918 during the final weeks of the war, which ended in the defeat of the Central Powers in November 1918. After the war, at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, this delineation of territory was confirmed, with Fiume remaining outside of Italy's borders and amalgamated into the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (which in 1929 would be renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia).
As an Italian nationalist, the poet, playwright, orator, journalist, and aristocrat Gabriele D'Annunzio, who had served as an officer in the Italian Royal Army (Italian : Regio Esercito) during World War I, was angered by what he considered to be the surrender of an Italian city. On 12 September 1919, he led a force of about 2,600 so-called "legionaries" from Ronchi di Monfalcone in Italy to Fiume in what became known as the Impresa di Fiume ("Fiume endeavor" or "Fiume enterprise"). His legionaries mostly were former or serving members of the Royal Army's Granatieri di Sardegna Brigade, as well as Italian nationalists and irredentists, and many members of D'Annunzio's force reputedly were veterans of the Battles of the Isonzo on the Italian front during World War I.[ citation needed ] They were successful in seizing control of the city and forced the withdrawal of the Allied occupying forces, composed of troops from France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The march from Ronchi di Monfalcone to Fiume became known as the Impresa di Fiume ("Fiume endeavor" or "Fiume enterprise"), and in 1925 Ronchi di Monfalcone was renamed Ronchi dei Legionari in honor of it.
The ethnic Italian portion of the population of Fiume welcomed D'Annunzio enthusiastically, [1] and on the same day, he announced that he had annexed the territory to the Kingdom of Italy. The Italian government opposed this and attempted to pressure D'Annunzio into withdrawing by initiating a blockade of Fiume and demanding that the plotters surrender.
Fiume became a city that attracted artists and radicals from all over Europe. Guido Keller taught yoga to legionaries while Harukichi Shimoi taught karate. Vladimir Lenin sent D'Annunzio a box of caviar. [2] During his time in Fiume in September 1919, the Italian poet, editor, and art theorist, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the founder of the Futurist movement, praised the leaders of the impresa as "advance-guard deserters" (disertori in avanti).
On 8 December 1919, the Italian government proposed a modus vivendi recognizing Fiume's desire for annexation and promising they would "only consider acceptable a solution consonant with that which Fiume declared to desire." [3] On 11 and 12 December 1919, D'Annunzio met with General Pietro Badoglio to try and obtain more concessions. Badoglio refused, and D'Annunzio said he would submit the modus vivendi to the Italian National Council of Fiume. The National Council accepted the proposal on 15 December 1919. [4]
After the National Council's decision, D'Annunzio addressed a crowd of 5,000 people and incited them to reject the modus vivendi, promising to put the issue to a plebiscite. The plebiscite was held on 18 December 1919, and despite violence and irregularities the results were overwhelmingly in favour of the modus vivendi. D'Annunzio nullified the results, blaming the violence at the polls for his actions, and announced he would make the final decision himself. He ultimately rejected the modus vivendi. According to historian Michael Ledeen, D'Annunzio made this decision because he distrusted the Italian government and doubted its ability to deliver on its promises. [5]
On 8 September 1920, D'Annunzio proclaimed the city to be under the Italian Regency of Carnaro with a constitution foreshadowing some of the later Italian Fascist system, with himself as dictator, with the title of the Comandante.
The name Carnaro was taken from the Golfo del Carnaro (Kvarner Gulf), where the city is located. It was temporarily expanded by D'Annunzio in order to include the island of Veglia.
The Charter of Carnaro (Italian : Carta del Carnaro) was a constitution that combined Sorelian national syndicalist, corporativist, and democratic republican ideas. D'Annunzio is often seen as a precursor of the ideals and techniques of Italian fascism. However, D'Annunzio coauthored the charter with syndicalist Alceste De Ambris, who would emerge as a prominent Anti-Fascist and go into exile following Mussolini's seizure of power. De Ambris provided the legal and political framework, to which D'Annunzio added his skills as a poet. The charter designates music a "religious and social institution".
The constitution established a corporatist state, [6] with nine corporations to represent the different sectors of the economy, where membership was mandatory, plus a symbolic tenth corporation devised by D'Annunzio, to represent the "superior individuals" (e.g. poets, "heroes" and "supermen"). The other nine were as follows:
The executive power would be vested in seven ministers (rettori):
The legislative power was vested in a bicameral legislature. Joint sessions of both councils (Arengo del Carnaro) would be responsible for treaties with foreign powers, amendments to the constitution, and appointment of a dictator in times of emergency (this derived from the instutions of the ancient Roman Republic).
Judicial power was vested in the courts:
Benito Mussolini was influenced by portions of the constitution, and by D'Annunzio's style of leadership as a whole. D'Annunzio has been described as the "John the Baptist of Italian Fascism," [7] as virtually the entire ritual of Fascism was invented by D'Annunzio during his occupation of Fiume and his leadership of the Italian Regency of Carnaro. [8] These included the balcony address, the Roman salute, the cries of "Eia, eia, eia! Alala!" taken from Achilles' cry in the Iliad, the dramatic and rhetorical dialogue with the crowd, and the use of religious symbols in new secular settings. [7] It also included his method of government in Fiume: the economics of the corporate state; stage tricks; large emotive nationalistic public rituals; and blackshirted followers, the Arditi , with their disciplined, bestial responses and strongarm repression of dissent. [9] He was even said to have originated the practice of forcibly dosing opponents with large amounts of castor oil, a very effective laxative, to humiliate, disable or kill them, a practice which became a common tool of Mussolini's blackshirts. [10] [11] [12]
However, while these links to Fascism became obvious later, they were not so clear at the time itself. While the English and French workers' organizations saw Fiume's expedition as an imperialist undertaking and called on Italian workers to boycott, the UIL (Unione Italiana del Lavoro), influenced by De Ambris, declared its support for Fiume's enterprise. [13] Other left-wing leaders showed some sympathy for Fiume. Antonio Gramsci, who distrusted D'Annunzio, considered that his movement had appreciable popular elements, and Lenin advised an alliance of the Soviet Union with Carnaro's Italian Regency. [14]
The approval of the Treaty of Rapallo on 12 November 1920 turned Fiume into an independent state, the Free State of Fiume.
D'Annunzio ignored the Treaty of Rapallo and declared war on Italy itself. On 24 December 1920 the Royal Italian Army, led by General Enrico Caviglia, launched a full-scale attack against Fiume: after several hours of intense fighting, a truce was proclaimed for Christmas Day (25 December 1920); the battle subsequently resumed on 26 December. Since D'Annunzio's legionaries were refusing to surrender and were strongly resisting the attack using machine guns and grenades, the Italian dreadnoughts Andrea Doria and Duilio opened fire on Fiume and bombarded the city for three days. D'Annunzio resigned on 28 December and the Regency capitulated on 30 December 1920. Italian forces occupied it.
The Free State of Fiume lasted officially until 1924, when the Kingdom of Italy formally annexed it under the terms of the Treaty of Rome of 1924. Under the Kingdom of Italy, the administrative division previously represented by the Free State of Fiume became the Province of Fiume.
General Gabriele D'Annunzio, Prince of Montenevoso, sometimes written d'Annunzio as he used to sign himself, was an Italian poet, playwright, orator, journalist, aristocrat, and Royal Italian Army officer during World War I.
The Treaty of Rome was agreed on 27 January 1924, when Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes agreed that Fiume would be annexed to Italy as the Province of Fiume, and the town of Sušak would be part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
Duce is an Italian title, derived from the Latin word dux 'leader', and a cognate of duke. National Fascist Party leader Benito Mussolini was identified by Fascists as Il Duce of the movement since the birth of the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento in 1919. In 1925 it became a reference to the dictatorial position of Sua Eccellenza Benito Mussolini, Capo del Governo, Duce del Fascismo e Fondatore dell'Impero. Mussolini held this title together with that of President of the Council of Ministers: this was the constitutional position which entitled him to rule Italy on behalf of the King of Italy. Founder of the Empire was added for the exclusive use by Mussolini in recognition of his founding of an official legal entity of the Italian Empire on behalf of the King in 1936 following Italy's victory in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. The position was held by Mussolini until 1943, when he was removed from office by the King and the position of "Duce" was dismantled, while Marshal Pietro Badoglio, 1st Duke of Addis Abeba was appointed Presidente del Consiglio.
Alceste De Ambris was an Italian journalist, socialist activist and syndicalist, considered one of the greatest representatives of revolutionary syndicalism in Italy.
After World War I, the city of Fiume was claimed by both the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and Italy. While its status was unresolved, its postal system was operated by a variety of occupation forces and local governments.
The Free State of Fiume was an independent free state that existed between 1920 and 1924. Its territory of 28 km2 (11 sq mi) comprised the city of Fiume and rural areas to its north, with a corridor to its west connecting it to the Kingdom of Italy.
Giovanni Giuriati was an Italian fascist politician.
Ronchi dei Legionari is a comune (municipality) in the regional decentralization entity of Gorizia in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, northeast Italy, about 14 km (9 mi) southwest of Gorizia and 30 km (19 mi) northwest of Trieste. It is the location of Trieste – Friuli Venezia Giulia Airport, the major commercial airport serving the region.
Raffaele Cantoni (1896–1971) was an anti-fascist Italian Jew who is best known for his efforts, perhaps daring, in saving Italian Jews from the Holocaust.
Giovanni Host-Venturi, also known as "Nino" Host-Venturi was an Italian fascist politician and historian.
The Italian National Council of Fiume was a political body that governed the city of Fiume between 1918 and 1924.
The Province of Fiume was a province of the Kingdom of Italy from 1924 to 1943, then under control of the Italian Social Republic and German Wehrmacht from 1943 to 1945. Its capital was the city of Fiume. It took the other name after the Gulf of Carnaro.
The Bloody Christmas of 1920 was a series of clashes in Fiume, which led to the conclusion of the Fiume campaign that was carried out by the Italian poet and adventurer Gabriele D'Annunzio in 1920.
Events from the year 1919 in Italy.
Events from the year 1920 in Italy.
The League of Fiume was one of the many political experiments that took place during the Italian Regency of Carnaro period when Gabriele d'Annunzio and the intellectuals that took part with him in the Fiume Endeavor attempted to establish a movement of non-aligned nations. In their plans, this league was meant to be in antithesis to the Wilsonian League of Nations, which was seen by many of Fiume's intellectuals as a mean to perpetuate a corrupt and imperialist status quo.
The Pact of Pacification or Pacification Pact was a peace agreement officially signed by Benito Mussolini, who would later become dictator of Italy, and other leaders of the Fasci with the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and the General Confederation of Labor (CGL) in Rome on August 2 or 3, 1921. The Pact called for “immediate action to put an end to the threats, assaults, reprisals, acts of vengeance, and personal violence of any description,” by either side for the “mutual respect” of “all economic organizations.” The Italian Futurists, Syndicalists and others favored Mussolini’s peace pact as an attempt at “reconciliation with the Socialists.” Others saw it as a means to form a “grand coalition of new mass parties” to “overthrow the liberal systems,” via parliament or civil society.
Asclepia Gandolfo was an Italian military officer, who served as a general in the Royal Italian Army.
The Commemorative Medal of the Fiume Expedition was a decoration granted by the Kingdom of Italy to personnel who took part in the Italian seizure and occupation of Fiume after World War I. It originated in 1919 as the Commemorative Medal of the Ronchi March, a decoration of the Italian Regency of Carnaro, and was adopted by the Kingdom of Italy in 1926.
Espero ("Hesperus") was an Italian Nembo-class destroyer. Commissioned into service in the Italian Regia Marina in 1905, she served in World War I, playing an active role in the Adriatic campaign. In the aftermath of the Impresa di Fiume of 1919, she played a role in the defense of the Free State of Fiume against Italy in 1920. Renamed Turbine and reclassified as a torpedo boat in 1921, she was stricken in 1923.