Free Territory of Trieste Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Free Territory of Trieste ( Italian Territorio Libero di Trieste, Slovenian Svobodno tržaško ozemlje, Serbo-Croatian Slobodna teritorija Trsta, ) was a neutral state of 738 kmq with 333.556 inhabithants ( 266.311 Italians, 48.714 Slovenes and Croates, 18.531 oth. ) consisting of the city of Trieste, and a narrow strip of coastal land connecting it to Italy, Slovenia, and Istria. Established after World War II in 1947 as a part of the Treaty of Peace With Italy and formally dissolved and divided between Italy and Yugoslavia in 1954.In 1921 Italy formally annexed parts of Austria-Hungary it captured in World War I, including the cities of Trieste, Fiume, Istria and what is now southwestern Slovenia. The rural area was populated by Slovenians in the north and by Croats in the southeast, while a large numbers of Italians were living in Trieste and Fiume and in the the towns of Istria. As an immediate answer to Yugoslavian ill-treatments against Italian minorities in Dalmatia, during the 1920s and 1930s, the Slavic minorities complained of a severe Fascist Italianization under Rome's regime.
Italy fought with the Axis powers in World War 2. When the Fascist regime collapsed in 1943 and Italy capitulated, Slovenia and Croatia (as parts of Yugoslavia) tried to annexe the territory, but German forces occupied it. Yugoslav 4th Army together with Slovene 9th Corpus NOV captured Trieste on May 1 1945. Also New Zealand and British Allied forces arrived the same day.
On February 10, 1947, a peace treaty was signed which established the Free Territory of Trieste.
It was, however, divided into two zones: Zone A, which was 222,5 km2 and had 262,406 inhabitants (211,660 Italians, 32,427 Slovenes and 18,319 others) including Trieste, which was administered by British/American forces, and Zone B, which was 515,5 km2 with 71,000 inhabitants (54,651 Italians, 16,287 Croates and Slovenes) including northwestern Istria, and which was administered by 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.
In 1954 the Treaty of Osimo was signed and the territory was formally divided along the zone border.
During late 1940s and in the years following the division of the territory, up to 40,000 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, while they call themselves esuli (forced emigrants), or the exiles. About 14,000 Italians chose to remain in the Yugoslav zone which is presently part of Slovenia and Croatia.
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