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The Julian March (Italian: Venezia Giulia; Croatian and Slovenian: Julijska Krajina; German: Julisch Venetien; Friulian: Vignesie Julie; Latin language: Carsia Julia) is a geographical, political and cultural region of Southeastern Europe, nestled on what is now the border between Italy, Slovenia and Croatia.The name "Venezia Giulia" (Venetia Iulia) was invented only in 1863 by the glossologist Graziadio Ascoli, who based it off the Roman region of Regio X: Venetia et Histria 2
History
What is today grossly enclosed within the undetermined borders of Venezia Giulia was once included in the Küstenland of the Austrian Empire. Graziadio Ascoli considered the ancient territory of the Regio X (Venetia et Histria, capital Aquileia) of the Augustus' age Roman Empire, dividing it into three parts:
- Venezia Giulia, today divided among Italy (more or less the current provinces of Gorizia and Trieste), Slovenia (Goriška and Slovenian Littoral) and Croatia (Istria county and Rijeka);
- Venezia Tridentina (Trentino and South Tyrol);
- Venezia Euganea (the current Veneto region of Italy and the provinces of Udine and Pordenone).
The Venezia Giulia was given its name from the Julian Alps, now divided between the province of Udine and Slovenia.
In 1866, part of this artificial territory was annexed to Italy. This included the Venezia Euganea and part of the Venezia Giulia, without the ancient counties of Gorizia and Gradisca. From this moment on, the use of term Venezia Giulia was restricted to the "irrendent" part of the Ascoli's Venezia Giulia that had remained under Habsburg rule. This region was therefore limited by the Isonzo river, the Julian Alps, the Gulf of Trieste and the Kvarner Gulf, including the Karst highland and Istria. The use of the term extended sometimes also the to the totality of Italian-speaking Dalmatia, that had remained a part of the Austrian Empire.
With the defeat of the latter in World War I, the Treaty of Saint-Germain of 1919 gave the Julian March to the Kingdom of Italy, when this name was used officially for the first time. The new provinces of Gorizia (which formed the new province of Friuli together with Udine), Trieste, Pola (Pula) and, later (1924), Fiume, were created. At that moment the two populations of Romance and Slavic language were in the new region roughly of the same size. Italians lived mostly in the main cities and along the coast, while Slavs inhabited the hinterland. The Fascist persecution caused the emigration of nearly hundred thousand Slovenes and Croats from the Julian March, mostly in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (around 70,000), but also in Argentina (some 30,000). On the other hand, several thousand Dalmatian Italians moved from Yugoslavia to Italy after 1918, some of then also to Istria and Trieste. A much larger phenomenon took place after World War II, when most of the Julian March became part of the Communist Yugoslavia, and around 250,000 ethnic Italians were displaced from the region during the Istrian exodus.
In 1946 U.S. President Harry S. Truman ordered the augmentation of US troops along the zonal occupation line and the reinforcement of air forces in northern Italy after Yugoslav forces shot down an unarmed US Army transport plane flying over the Julian March.
Currently the Italian Venezia Giulia, a quite different region than the original one, has no official borders with Friuli, but it is generally meant to include the eastern part of the province of Gorizia, on the left bank of Isonzo and south to the Carso, and the province of Trieste. Total surface amount to some 679 km², comprised in the current region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The population speak mainly Venetian dialects, with presence of Slovenian dialects in the Italian part of the Carso and in the city of Trieste. Friulian dialects are spoken in several small centres along the Isonzo.