“Scramble for Adria”: Discourses of Appropriation of the Adriatic Space Before and After World War I

¹ The word “scramble” was used for the first time in relation to a territory by the London daily The Times in September 1884 at the time of the Berlin Conference. Wesseling, H. L., Imperialism and Colonialism: Essays on the History of European Expansion (Westport, CN, London, 1997), 87–99.

² Ferguson, Niall, Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World (London, 2004), 233.

³ Ballinger, Pamela, “La frantumazione dello spazio adriatico, [The Shattering of the Adriatic Space]” in Immaginare l'Adriatico, ed. Cocco, Emilio and Minardi, Everardo (Milan, 2007), 27–44.

⁴ Rumpler, Helmut, “Economia e potere politico. Il ruolo di Trieste nella politica di sviluppo economico di Vienna, [Economy and Political Power: The Role of Trieste in the Politics of Viennese Economic Development]” in Storia economica e sociale di Trieste, vol. 2, ed. Finzi, Roberto et al. , 55–124 (Trieste, 2003); see also in the same volume Giovanni Panjek, “Una ‘commercial officina’ fra vie di mare e di terra, [A “Commercial Laboratory” Between Sea and Land Routes]” 235–348.

⁵ Čechura, Jaroslav, Hlavačka, Milan, “Handel und Kommunikationen in den böhmischen Ländern vom Mittelalter bis zur industriellen Revolution,” in Das Binnenhandel und die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung, ed. Gyimesi, S., 200–240 (Budapest, 1989), 220.

⁶ Berend, Ivan T., Decades of Crisis (Los Angeles, London, 1998), 20.

⁷ For recent work on the national issue in the Adriatic space, see Cattaruzza, Marina, ed., Nazionalismi di frontiera. Identità contrapposte sull'Adriatico nord-orientale 1850–1950 [Border Nationalisms: Opposing Identities in the Northeastern Adriatic 1850–1950] (Soveria Mannelli, 2003). A deeper insight into the French stance on the Adriatic space before World War I is revealed in Riosa, Alceo, Adriatico irredento. Italiani e Slavi sotto la lente francese (1793–1918)[Adriatico Irredento: Italians and Slavs Under the French Lens (1793–1918)] (Naples, 2009).

⁸ On the Adriatic Sea as the internal sea of the Triple Alliance, see Wörsdörfer, Rolf, “Visioni germaniche dell'area adriatica. Dalla costruzione della Südbahn alla fine della seconda guerra mondiale [German Visions of the Adriatic Area: From the Laying of the Südbahn to the End of World War II]” in Adriatico contemporaneo, ed. Trinchese, Stefano and Caccamo, Francesco, 189–214 (Milan, 2008).

⁹ On naval policy and the role of the Adriatic Sea in the context of Austrian-Italian-German relations, see Sondhaus, Lawrence, The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1867–1918 (West Lafayette, IN, 1994).

¹⁰ Braudel, Fernand, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, vol. 1, (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1995), 131.

¹¹ Fortis, Alberto, Viaggio in Dalmazia [Journey to Dalmatia] (Venice, 1987). The conceptualization of this phenomenon and the presentation of Fortis' and the enlightenment perspectives of the eastern Adriatic can be found in Wolff, Larry, Venezia e gli Slavi [Venice and the Slavs] (Rome, 2006). For concepts of cooperation between the Italian and Slavic worlds, see Pirjevec, Jože, Niccolò Tommaseo tra Italia e Slavia [Niccoló Tommaseo: Between Italy and Slavdom] (Venice, 1977); also Pirjevec, “Mazzini in južni Slovani, [Mazzini and the South Slavs]” Zgodovinski časopis [Historical Review], 27, 329–42. For the role of historians in the history of the northern Adriatic region, see Marta Verginella, “Zgodovinjenje slovensko-italijanske meje in obmejnega prostora, [Historization of the Slovene-Italian Border and of the Border Area]” Acta Histriae 18, nos. 1–2 (2010): 207–16. For multinationalism and regional identity in the eastern Adriatic space, see also Reill, Dominique, “A Mission of Mediation: Dalmatia's Multi-national Regionalism from the 1830s–60s,” in Different Paths to the Nation, ed. Cole, Laurence, 16–36 (Houndsmills, 2007).

¹² Pirjevec, Jože, “Trst je naš!” Boj Slovencev za morje (1848–1954) [Trieste/Trst is Ours! The Struggle of Slovenes for the Sea (1848–1954)] (Ljubljana, 2008), 31–32; cf. Valussi, Pacifico, L'Adriatico in relazione agli interessi nazionali dell'Italia [The Adriatic in the National Interests of Italy] (1871).

¹³ Among numerous publications on this issue, a recent one is Ferraioli, Giano Paolo, “La visione politica dell'Adriatico dalla fine dell'Ottocento agli esordi del fascismo, [The Political Vision of the Adriatic from the End of the 19th Century to the Beginning of the Fascist Era]” in Adriatico contemporaneo, ed. Trinchese, Stefano and Caccamo, Francesco, 189–214 (Milan, 2008); in the same volume, see also Olga Tamburini, “‘Oltre la foschia.’ Orientalizzazione dell'Italia e percezione dell'Adriatico nel primo ventennio del Novecento, [‘Over the Haze’: Orientalization of Italy and the Perception of the Adriatic in the Frist Twenty Years of the 20th Century]” 41–64, and Piero di Girolamo, “Mare comune o terra di conquista? La percezione dell'Adriatico attraverso le riviste del fascismo. Il caso de ‘L'Adriatico,’[Common Sea or Land to conquer? The Perception of the Adriatic Through the Fascist Journals, The Case of the l'Adriatico]” 215–32. See also the special issue “La monarchia austro-ungarica tra irredentismi e nazionalismi. L'azione della Lega Nazionale ai confini italici, [The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy Between Irredentisms and Nationalisms: The Action of the Lega Nazionale at the Italic Border]” Quaderni giuliani di storia XV, 1 (1994).

¹⁴ The continuity of nationalist rhetoric before and after World War I is reflected in Giulio Italico (Giuseppe Cobol), Guida descrittiva di Trieste (la fedele di Roma) e l'Istria (nobilissima) [Descriptive Guide of Trieste (The Loyal City of Rome) and Istria (The Noble)], (Trieste, 1923).

¹⁵ East, Gordon, Mediterranean Problems (London, 1940), 102.

¹⁶ Frascani, Paolo, Il mare [The Sea] (Bologna, 2008), 125–66. Among the most recent publications on Mussolini's Mediterranean Empire, see Rodogno, Davide, Il nuovo ordine Mediterraneo. Le politiche di occupazione dell'Italia fascista in Europa, 1940–1943 [The New Mediterranean Order: The Politics of Occupation of Fascist Italy in Europe, 1940–1943] (Torino, 2003); Burgwyn, James H., Empire on the Adriatic (New York, 2005); Ben-Ghiat, Ruth and Fuller, Mia, eds., Italian Colonialism (New York, 2005); and the classic work by Smith, Denis Mack, Mussolini's Roman Empire (New York, 1976).

¹⁷ Braudel, Mediterranean, 132.

¹⁸ Jenko, Simon, Pesmi [Poems] (Ljubljana, 2002), 68.

¹⁹ Braudel, too, speaks of the assimilation of the Slavic population into the common Italian milieu and of “invented Italian genealogies.” Braudel, Mediterranean, 132.

²⁰ On the use of historical myths that can also be applied to the Adriatic space, see Kolstø, Pål, “Procjena uloge historijskih mitova u modernim društvoma, [Estimate of the Role of Historical Myths in Modern Societies]” Historijski mitovi na Balkanu [Historical Myths in the Balkans] (Sarajevo, 2002), 11–38.

²¹ Trieste/Trst and the part of the coast west of the town with fisherman villages, for example, Barcola/Barkovlje, Contovello/Kontovel, S. Croce/Križ, Aurisina/Nabrežina, and Duino/Devin, then represented the “Slovene coast.” Koper/Capodistria, Piran/Pirano, Izola/Isola, and other coastal towns that today are part of the Republic of Slovenia were mostly Italian, just as the previously mentioned villages were predominantly Slovene. As a result of changed political borders after the downfall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Italian-Yugoslav conflict, and the later disintegration of Yugoslavia, today these are parts of Italy and Slovenia, respectively.

²² Jadranska zarja, 3 October 1869, 1.

²³ Negrelli, Giorgio, “Trieste nel mito [Trieste/Trst in the Myth],” Storia d'Italia. Il Friuli – Venezia Giulia. II [History of Italy: The Friuli–Venezia Giulia. II]. (Torino, 2002), 1353; Verginella, Marta, “Mit o slovenskem Trstu, [The Myth of a Slovene Trieste/Trst]” Goriški letnik [Gorica Yearbook] 30/31 (2005): 94–96.

²⁴ A more recent edition of the map is Kozler, Peter, Zemljovid slovenske dežele in pokrajin [Map of Slovene Lands and Provinces] (Ljubljana, 1995).

²⁵ Wörsdörfer, Visioni germaniche, 190–91.

²⁶ “To see the sea for the first time! How many of our fellow-countrymen, hermetically sealed into the hard frame of mountains, who sat inside that frame from their births to their deaths, have never been granted this joy? The idea of something infinitely broad and unfathomable, a conception of eternity itself, floated through our minds. The sea! The sea!” Bracewell, Wendy, Orientations. An Anthology of East European Travel Writing, ca. 1550–2000 (Budapest, 2009), 163.

²⁷ Wörsdörfer, Visioni germaniche, 192.

²⁸ Cited in Judson, Pieter M., Guardians of the Nation: Activists on the Language Frontiers of Imperial Austria (Cambridge, 2006), 105; cf. Dorsi, Pierpaolo, “La colletività di lingua tedesca. [The German-Speaking Community]” in Storia economica e sociale di Trieste, vol. 1, ed. Finzi, Roberto et al. , 547–71 (Trieste, 2001).

²⁹ Among the most illustrative examples is the Slovene-Czech memorandum published during World War I by political leaders Anton Korošec and František Staněk, in which they opposed “Germanization and German invasion of the Adriatic Sea.” Slovenski narod, 8 May 1918, 1.

³⁰ Panjek, Giovanni, “La Cassa di Risparmio e il mercato del credito a Trieste, [The Cassa di Risparmio and the Credit Market in Trieste/Trst]” in La Cassa di Risparmio di Trieste 1842–2002 [The Cassa di Risparmio in Trieste/Trst 1842–2002], ed. Apollonio, Almerigo et al. , 99–136 (Roma-Bari, 2004); see also Giudice, Giuseppe Lo, Trieste, l'Austria ed il canale di Suez [Trieste/Trst, Austria and the Suez Canal] (Catania, 1979).

³¹ Nečas, Ctibor, “Na pragu češko-slovenskih finančnih stikov, [On the Threshold of the Czech-Slovene Financial Relations]” Zgodovinski časopis [Historical Review] 43, no. 1 (1989): 49–57.

³² For a general insight into banking in the Habsburg Empire before World War I, see Michel, Bernard, Banques & banquiers en Autriche au debut du 20' siecle [Banks and Bankers in Austria at the Beginning of the 20th Century] (Paris, 1976). On the growing importance of Czech banking trusts in Southern and Central Europe, see also: Nečas, Na pragu [On the Threshold]; Nečas, Podnikání českých bank v cizině 1898–1918 [The Business of Czech Banks Abroad 1898–1918] (Brno,1993); Nečas, , “Zahraniční angažmá bankovního koncernu Sporobanky, [The International Engagement of the Sporobanka]” Sborník prací Filozofické fakulty brněnské Univerzity [Proceedings of the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Brno] 40 (1993): 81–92; and Horejsek, Jaroslav, “Kapitálová expanze Živnostenské banky do jihovýchodní Evropy v letech 1907–1918 [The Captial Expansion of the Živnostenská Banka to Southeastern Europe in the Years 1907–1918],” Historica XV. Acta Universitatis Palackianae Olomoucensis (Prague, 1971).

³³ Michel, Banques & banquiers, 75.

³⁴ Kosatík, Pavel, Bankéř první republiky. Život Jaroslava Preisse [The Banker of the First Republic: The Life of Jaroslav Preiss] (Prague, 1996), 32.

³⁵ “une des positions dominantes du capital slave dans sa lutte contre la pénétration allemande.” Michel, Banques & banquiers, 75.

³⁶ Despite the growing influence of a “Slavic” economy in Trieste, it would be erroneous to consider a “Slavic” economy to be a homogeneous unit, somehow in competition with allegedly homogeneous German and Italian economic units. More detailed studies are necessary, but a distinction has to be made between the plans of the Jadranska banka, which initially could not be understood as an attempted “economic conquest” of Trieste/Trst, and the efforts of the Živnostenská banka, which were supported by a much more solid and developed financial network and that viewed Trieste/Trst as a focus for Czech advances in the southern parts of the Habsburg state; cf. Michel, Banques & banquiers, 75; Sapelli, Giulio, Trieste italiana. Mito e destino economico [Italian Trieste: Myth and Economic Destiny] (Milan, 1990), 30; Verginella, Marta, “Sloveni a Trieste tra Sette e Ottocento. Da comunità etnica a minoranza nazionale [Slovenes in Trieste/Trst in the 18th and 19th Centurues: From Ethnic Community to National Minority]” in Storia economica e sociale di Trieste, vol. I, ed. Finzi, , Panjek, , 441–81 (Trieste, 2001); Pahor, Milan, Jadranska banka v Trstu [Jadranska Bank in Trieste/Trst] (Trst, 1996), 24.

³⁷ Hlas Adrie, 1 March 1911, 1.

³⁸ Edinost, 14 December 1910, 3.

³⁹ Edinost, 14 March 1911, 3.

⁴⁰ Edinost, 14 March 1911, 3. Despite the short-lived nature of the yacht club, its establishment conveyed a powerful symbolic charge and represented a concrete, almost “physical” appropriation of the Adriatic Sea.

⁴¹ Edinost, 8 November 1911, 1.

⁴² For more about this topic, see Klabjan, Borut, Češkoslovaška na Jadranu [Czechoslovakia on the Adriatic] (Koper, 2007).

⁴³ Pleterski, Janko, Prva odločitev Slovencev za Jugoslavijo [The First Decision of Slovenes for Yugoslavia] (Ljubljana, 1971); Paulová, Milada, Tajný výbor Maffie a spolupráce s Jihoslovany v letech 1916–1918 [The Secret Committee Mafia and Their Collaboration with the Yugoslavs in the Years 1916–1918] (Prague, 1968). For a longer perspective, see also Rusinow, Dennison, Italy's Austrian Heritage, 1919–1946 (Oxford, 1969).

⁴⁴ Extracts from Masaryk cited in Galandauer, Jan, Vznik Československé republiky 1918. Programy, projekty, perspektivy [The Rise of the Czechoslovak Republic 1918: Programs, Projects, Prospectives] (Prague, 1988), 271–72.

⁴⁵ Lederer, Ivo, La Jugoslavia dalla conferenza della Pace al Trattato di Rapallo [Yugoslavia from the Peace Conference to the Rapallo Treaty] (Milan, 1966); Valiani, Leo, La dissoluzione dell'Austria-Ungheria [The Dissolution of Austria-Hungary] (Milan, 1966); Caccamo, Francesco, L'Italia e la “Nuova Europa” [Italy and the New Europe] (Milan, 2000).

⁴⁶ On the Adriatic issue, see Jeri, Janko, “1918 in jadransko vprašanje, [1918 and the Adriatic Question]” Sodobnost XXXVII, nos. 5, 6/7 (1989): 531–43, 664–80; idem., “1918 in jadransko vprašanje [1918 and the Adriatic Question],” Sodobnost XXXVIII, nos. 5, 6/7 (1990): 539–47, 708–18; Krizman, Bogdan, “Saveznički ultimatum u Jadranskom pitanju siječnja 1920. godine, [Allied Ultimatum in the Adriatic Question in January 1920]” Jadranski zbornik II (1957): 199–236; Monzali, Luciano, Italiani di Dalmazia. Dal Risorgimento alla Grande Guerra [Italians of Dalmatia: From Risorgimento to the Great War] (Firenze, 2004), 275–313; Toscano, Mario, Il Patto di Londra [The London Pact] (Bologna, 1934); Marjanović, Marjan, Londonski ugovor iz godine 1915 [The London Pact in 1915] (Zagreb 1960); Melchionni, Maria Grazia, “La politica estera di Carlo Sforza nel 1920–21, [The Foreign Policy of Carlo Sforza in 1920–21]” Rivista di studi politici internazionali [Journal for International Political Studies] XXXVI, no. 4 (1969): 537–70; Bracco, Barbara, Carlo Sforza e la questione adriatica [Carlo Sforza and the Adriatic Question] (Milan, 1998), 73–100.

⁴⁷ Among the earliest ones certainly was Randi, Oscar, L'Adriatico. Studio geografico, storico e politico [The Adriatic: A Geographical, Historical and Political Study] (Milan, 1914); Tamaro, Attilio, L'Adriatico golfo d'Italia [The Adriatic Gulf of Italy] (1915); Tamaro, , Italiani e Slavi nell'Adriatico (Rome, 1915); Iverardi, Giuseppe, Per l'italianità geografica del Quarnaro [For the Geographical Italianità of the Quarnaro] (Rome, 1915); Cassi, Gellio, Il mare Adriatico. Sua funzione attraverso i tempi [The Adriatic Sea: Its Function Through Time] (Milan, 1915). Cassi's book's motto is D'Annunzio's verse from the poem “La Nave:” “Dear Lord, redeem the Adriatic! Free the Adriatic to your people! Homeland to the Veneti the whole Adriatic!”

⁴⁸ See also the map in Senator, 'Italicus, La question de L'Adriatique [The Adriatic Question] (Rome, 1916).

⁴⁹ Among the earliest publications, see Manifestations Yougoslaves contre L'imperialisme Italien [Yugoslav Manifestations Against Italian Imperialism] (Paris, 1919), or the texts in the Yugoslav newspaper intended for an Italian readership L'Adriatico Jugoslavo, e.g., 29 March 1919, 1. On Slovene hopes placed in American President Wilson and their later disappointment, see Lipušček, Uroš, Ave Wilson. ZDA in prekrajanje Slovenije v Versaillesu 1919–1920 [USA and the Division of Slovenia at Versailles] (Ljubljana, 2003).

⁵⁰ Cvijić, Jovan, La péninsule balkanique: géographie humaine [The Balkan Peninsula: Human Geography] (Paris, 1918); cf. also Baskar, Bojan, Dvoumni Mediteran [Ambiguous Mediterranean] (Koper, 2002), 55–58.

⁵¹ Among numerous publications whose purpose was convincing the international public of the “Yugoslav nature” of the eastern Adriatic, see Il litorale jugoslavo dell'Adriatico [The Yugoslav Littoral of the Adriatic] (Zagreb, 1919).

⁵² On D'Annuzio's adventure within the framework of the Adriatic issue, see a slightly out-of-date but still clear Alatri, Paolo, Nitti, D'Annunzio e la questione adriatica (1919–1920) [D'Annunzio and the Adriatic Question (1919–1920)] (Milan, 1959).

⁵³ Novak, Grga, Naše more [Our Sea] (Zagreb, 1932), 282.

⁵⁴ The Position of the Yugoslav Minority in Italy (Ljubljana, 1927), 5.

⁵⁵ Slanc, Karl, Avstrijski Jugoslovani in morje [Austrian Yugoslavs and the Sea] (Gorica, 1912).

⁵⁶ Among others, see Hametz, Maura, “The Carabinieri Stood by: The Italian state and the “Slavic Threat” in Trieste, 1919–1922,” Nationalities Papers 29, no. 4 (2001): 559–74.

⁵⁷ Rodoljubka, K obletnici 13. julija, (Jadranka, I., 7, mali srpan 1921), 6–7.

⁵⁸ Debevec, Jože, “Jadransko morje in italijanski pesniki [Adriatic Sea and Italian Poets] Dom in svet 32, nos. 3–6 (1919): 175–76.

⁵⁹ Tone Seliškar, Morje plaka [The Sea Cries] (Ljubljana, 1920). For the politicization of the commemorative practices and rituals of the Slovene and Croat emigrés in Yugoslavia in the interwar period, see Pelikan, Egon, “Komemorativne prakse slovenskih emigrantov iz Julijske krajine v Dravski banovini, [Commemorative Practices of Slovene Emigrees from the Julian March in the Drava Banate]” Acta Histriae 18, no. 3 (2010): 453–70. For an analysis of commemorations in the Littoral region in the first years after World War I, see my “Nation and Commemoration in the Adriatic. The Commemoration of the Italian Unknown Soldier in a Multinational Area: The Case of the Former Austrian Littoral,” Acta Histriae 18, no. 3 (2010): 399–424.

⁶⁰ Schulze, Hagen, States, Nations and Nationalism (Oxford, 1998), 232. On the “exodus” of Croats from the area acquired by Italy after the war, see Talijanska uprava i egzodus Hrvata 1918–1943 [Italian Administration and the Exodus of the Croats, 1918–1943] (Zagreb, 2001).

⁶¹ The booklet was published for propaganda purposes in the Czech language, given that it was intended for the Czech readership. Jihoslovansko-italská otázka [Yugoslav-Italian Question] (Prague, 1919), 10.

⁶² Stuhlpfarrer, Karl, “Trieste e Austria. Il primo lustro del secondo dopoguerra, [Trieste/Trst and Austria: The First Five Years After World War II]” Acta Histriae VI (1998): 254–55.

⁶³ Archiv Národního muzea Prague, Fond Odon Pára, box 6, folder Konec Rakouska v Terstu 1918 [End of Austria in Trieste 1918].

⁶⁴ Memorandum record of the Czech-Slovak Maritime Board in Trieste on the “needs of Czech-Slovak nations for access to sea navigation, and all other needs.” Archiv ministerstva zahraničních věcí Prague, Fond ZÚ Taliansko, GK Terst 1918–1939, box 7, file no. 25, 20. 10. 1918, “Pamětní spis o potřebách národa československého pro přístup k moři, pro plavbu námořní a ve věcech osadních” [Memorandum of the Needs of the Czechoslovak Nation for the Access to the Sea, for Maritime Navigation and for Settlers' Questions].

⁶⁵ Dejmek, Jindřich and Kolář, František, Československo na paříšké mírové konferenci 1918–1920. Dokumenty československé zahraniční politiky [Czechoslovakia at the Paris Peace Conference, 1918–1920: Documents of Czechoslovak Foreign Policy], Vol. I. (Prague, 2001), 157; cf. Chervin, Arthur, Da Prague a L'Adriatique [From Prague to the Adriatic] (Paris, 1919).

⁶⁶ Borut Klabjan, Češkoslovaška, 223–53.

⁶⁷ Zucconi, Guido, Una città cosmopolita. Fiume e il suo fronte-mare nell'età dualistica (1870–1914) [A Cosmopolitan City: Rijeka/Fiume and its Waterfront in the Dualistic Time (1870–1914)] (Rome, 2008), 24.

⁶⁸ Gianluca Volpi, “Fiumani, ungheresi, italiani, [Fiumani, Hungarians, Italians]” in Nazionalismi, ed. Cattaruzza, 47–72; Fried, Ilona, Fiume città della memoria 1868–1945 [Rijeka/Fiume City of Memory 1868–1945] (Udine, 2005), 27.

⁶⁹ Zucconi, Una città, 10.

⁷⁰ Sondhaus, Naval Policy, 188.

⁷¹ For a discussion of the concept of “cosmopolitanism” in Mediterranean port-cities, see Driessen, Henk, “Mediterranean Port Cities: Cosmopolitanism Reconsidered,” History and Anthropology 16, no. 1 (March 2005): 129–41.

⁷² For a comparative dimension of the development of Adriatic port-cities, see Lawton, Richard and Lee, Robert eds., Population and Society in Western European Port-Cities c. 1650–1939 (Liverpool, 2002).

⁷³ Trattato di pace con l'Austria ed atti connessi [Peace Treaty with Austria and Connected Acts] (Rome, 1919).

⁷⁴ Trieste und Fiume im Weltverkehre (Vienna-Prague-Budapest, 1930), 33.

⁷⁵ Wladimir, Kwiatkowski, Trieste e la sua importanza per il commercio con la Polonia [Trieste/Trst and its Importance for the Trade with Poland] (Trieste, Tip, 1924), 16–21. For an attempt at comparative analysis of the Littoral and Galicia, see Franzinetti, Guido, “The Austrian Littoral in a Cisleithanian perspective,” Acta Histriae 14, no. 1 (2006): 1–13.

⁷⁶ Baud, Michiel, Van Schendel, Willem, “Toward a Comparative History of Borderlands,” Journal of World History 8, no. 2 (Fall, 1997): 222.

⁷⁷ On the fluidity and compactness of the Adriatic, see Emilio Cocco, “I territori liquidi. Forme e confini di un immaginario adriatico, [The Liquid Territories: Forms and Borders of an Adriatic Imagery]” in Immaginare l'Adriatico, ed. Cocco and Minardi, 11–24.

⁷⁸ For an attempt at conceptualizing a-nationality, see Zahra, Tara, “Imagined Non-Communities: National Indifference as a Category of Analysis,” Slavic Review 69 (Spring 2010): 93–119.

⁷⁹ Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness (London, 1995 [1902]); D'Alessio, Vanni, Il cuore conteso [The Contested Heart] (Naples, 2003). On the history of Istra/Istria, see Darovec, Darko, Kratka zgodovina Istre [A Brief History of Istria] (Koper, 2009).

⁸⁰ Sahlins, Peter, Boundaries. The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkeley, 1989), 271; cf. Darovec, Vida Rožac, “Narod, država in identitete v obmejnih prostorih, [Nation, State, and Identities in Border Spaces]” Acta Histriae 18, nos. 1–2 (2010): 217–28.

⁸¹ Vivante, Angelo, Irredentismo adriatico. Contributo alla discussione sui rapporti austro-italiani [Adriatic Irredentism: Contributions to the Discussion on the Austro-Italian Relations] (Firenze, 1912).

⁸² Iordachi, Constantin, “‘Entangled Histories:’ Re-writing the History of Central and Southeastern Europe from a Relational Perspective,” European Studies/Etudes Européennes/Europaïchen Studien 4, (April 2004): 1–24.