Italian Regency of Carnaro
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Italian Regency of Carnaro Reggenza Italiana del Carnaro (Italian) | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1919–1920 | |||||||||
Motto: Si spiritus pro nobis, quis contra nos? ( authoritarian republic | |||||||||
Comandante | |||||||||
• 1919–1920 | Gabriele D'Annunzio | ||||||||
Legislature | Treaty of Rapallo | 12 November 1920 | |||||||
• Conquered | 29 December 1920 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Today part of | Croatia |
The Italian Regency of Carnaro (
Impresa di Fiume
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
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.
Modus vivendi
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]
Regency
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
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.
Constitution
The Charter of Carnaro (
Corporations
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:
- Industrial and Agricultural Workers
- Seafarers
- Employers
- Industrial and Agricultural Technicians
- Private Bureaucrats and Administrators
- Teachers and Students
- Lawyers and Doctors
- Civil Servants
- Co-operative Workers
Executive
The executive power would be vested in seven ministers (rettori):
- Foreign Affairs
- Treasury
- Education
- Police and Justice
- Defence
- Public Economy
- Labor
Legislature
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).
- Council of the Best (Consiglio degli Ottimi): Elected by universal suffrage for a 3-year term, with 1 councilor per 1000 population, this council was responsible for legislation concerning civil and criminal justice, police, armed forces, education, intellectual life and relations between the central government and communes.
- Council of Corporations (Consiglio dei Provvisori): Consisting of 60 members chosen by nine corporations for a 2-year term, this council was responsible for laws regulating business and commerce, labor relations, public services, transportation and merchant shipping, tariffs and trade, public works, medical and legal professions.
Judiciary
Judicial power was vested in the courts:
- Supreme Court (Corte della Ragione, literally "Court of Reason")
- Communal Courts (Buoni Uomini, literally "Good Men")
- Labour Court (Giudici del Lavoro, "Labour-law Judges")
- Civil Court (Giudici Togati, "Robe-wearing Judges")
- Criminal Court (Giudici del Maleficio, where maleficio is a literary form for 'wrongdoing', but it can also mean 'curse')
Impact
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
Demise
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
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.
See also
- Doctrine of Fascism
- Gabriele d'Annunzio
- List of governors and heads of state of Fiume
- Postage stamps and postal history of Fiume
- Free State of Fiume
- Italian irredentism
- Italian nationalism
- Pietro Micheletti
- Rijeka
- Unification of Italy
References
- ^ Images of Fiume welcoming d'Annunzio Archived 2011-03-16 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Hughes-Hallett, L. (2014). Gabriele d’annunzio: Poet, seducer and preacher of war. Anchor Books.
- ^ Ledeen, Michael A. (2002). D'Annunzio: The First Duce. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. p. 134.
- ^ Ledeen, Michael A. (2002). D'Annunzio: The First Duce. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. pp. 135–136.
- ^ Ledeen, Michael A. (2002). D'Annunzio: The First Duce. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. pp. 136–137.
- ^ Parlato, Giuseppe (2000). La sinistra fascista (in Italian). Bologna: Il Mulino. p. 88.
- ^ ISBN 9780765807427.
- ISBN 9781400040940.
- ^ The United States and Italy, H. Stuart Hughes, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1953, pp. 76 and 81–82.
- ^ Cecil Adams, Did Mussolini use castor oil as an instrument of torture? Archived 2008-05-09 at the Wayback Machine, The Straight Dope, 22 April 1994. Accessed 6 November 2006.
- ^ Richard Doody, "Stati Libero di Fiume – Free State of Fiume". Archived from the original on 8 March 2009. Retrieved 24 August 2002., The World at War.
- ^ Cali Ruchala, ""Superman, Supermidget": the Life of Gabriele D'Annunzio, Chapter Seven: The Opera". Archived from the original on 10 February 2005. Retrieved 6 November 2006., Degenerate magazine, Diacritica (2002).
- ISBN 9788526806931.
- ^ Toledo 2004, p. 239.
Further reading
- Reill, Dominique Kirchner. The Fiume Crisis: Life in the Wake of the Habsburg Empire (2020) online review[dead link]
External links
- (in English)The Charter of Carnaro
- Introduction reakt.org
- Charter of Carnaro reakt.org
- Richard Doody. "Stati Libero di Fiume – Free State of Fiume". Archived from the original on 22 December 2007.
- Rijeka - Fiume Historical Flags (Croatia) crwflags.com
- "Fiume". worldatwar.net.
- Constitution of Fiume karr.net