Identitetski “lomovi” dalmatinskih Talijana
Identity “Conflict” of Dalmatian Italians

Summary/Abstract: The article investigates the historical discourse of the pivotal political and ideological “turning points” defining the national identity of Dalmatian Italians. Each period is represented by some political figures from the ranks of Dalmatian Italians such as Bajamonti, Duplancich and others. Some were (since 1848) nationally aware Italians opposed to the Austrian rule, e.g. Duplancich, Bajamonti or Nani. Others, also nationally aware Italians were fond of Austria more than of Italy e.g. Lapenna or Trigari, and were undecisive in their unequivocal adoption of the Italian identity. And finally, the third group, mostly of Slavic extraction e.g. Tommaseo, Marassovich and a plethora of Slavo-Dalmatians, “took on” the Italian national identity by gradually adopting Italian culture, usually through education. The prevalence of the Italian culture and the language, the domination of Italianists in municipal assemblies but also the systematic efforts and the gradual affirmation of the populist i.e. Croatian component, made for the dynamic political configuration of the then Dalmatia in which about 20,000 Italians were electorally privileged in relation to more than 400,000 Croats, and consequently were able to control the regional Sabor (parliament) and the municipal councils. The Dalmatian identity was largely identified as a superior urban civilization as opposed to the despised countryside beyond the city walls. Unlike the populist autonomism of Split, imbued with a powerful sense of campanilism, the Zadar autonomism was imposed from above with the purpose of unifying the elites of ethnic Italians, Germans and Croats. Since Zadar prevailed, its ideology of Dalmatianism led to Italianization, irredentism and eventually to the exodus of those whose Italian identity option was considered dominant and “the only right one”.

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