Editing Dalmatia (section)

==Culture and ethnicity==
[[File:Brodet.JPG|thumb|[[Brudet]]]]
[[File:Jerolim Kavanjin.JPG|thumb|[[Girolamo Cavagnini]], a Dalmatian poet who supported [[Dalmatianism]]]]
The inhabitants of Dalmatia are culturally subdivided into two groups. The urban families of the coastal cities, commonly known as ''Fetivi'',<ref name="Bousfield">{{cite book|first=Jonathan|last=Bousfield|title=The Rough Guide to Croatia|publisher=Rough Guides|year=2003|page=293|isbn=1843530848}}</ref> are culturally akin to the inhabitants of the [[List of islands of Croatia|Dalmatian islands]] (known [[Pejorative|derogatorily]] as ''Boduli''). The two are together distinct, in the [[Mediterranean culture|Mediterranean aspects]] of their culture, from the more numerous inhabitants of the [[Dalmatian Hinterland|Hinterland]]. Referred to (sometimes derogatorily) as the ''Vlaji'', their name originated from the [[Vlachs]] with whom they have no ethnic connection.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.enciklopedija.hr/clanak/vlasi|title=Vlasi}}</ref><ref name="Guerrino">Perselli, Guerrino. ''I censimenti della popolazione dell'Istria, con Fiume e Trieste, e di alcune città della Dalmazia tra il 1850 ed il 1936''</ref>

The former two groups (inhabitants of the islands and the cities) historically included many [[Venetian language|Venetian]] and [[Italian language|Italian]] speakers, who are identificated as [[Dalmatian Italians]]. Their presence, relative to those identifying as [[Croats]], decreased dramatically over the course of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. Dalmatia, especially its maritime cities, once had a substantial local Italian-speaking population ([[Dalmatian Italians]]). In Dalmatia there was a constant decline in the Italian population, in a context of repression that also took on violent connotations.<ref>{{cite book |author=Raimondo Deranez|url=http://xoomer.alice.it/histria/storiaecultura/testiedocumenti/bombardieritesti/particolari_dalmazia.htm|title=Particolari del martirio della Dalmazia|publisher=Stabilimento Tipografico dell'Ordine|location=Ancona|year=1919|language=it}}</ref> During this period, Austrians carried out an aggressive [[Anti-Italianism|anti-Italian]] policy through a forced Slavization of Dalmatia.<ref>{{cite book|title= La campagna del 1866 nei documenti militari austriaci: operazioni terrestri|publisher= [[University of Padova]] |author= Angelo Filipuzzi|page=396|year=1966|language=it}}{{No ISBN}}</ref> According to Austrian censuses, the Italian speakers in Dalmatia formed 12.5% of the population in 1865,<ref name=":9" /> but this was reduced to 2.8% in 1910.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.omm1910.hu/?/de/datenbank|title=Spezialortsrepertorium der österreichischen Länder I-XII, Wien, 1915–1919|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529164005/http://www.omm1910.hu/?%2Fde%2Fdatenbank|archive-date=2013-05-29|language=de}}</ref>

The Italian population in Dalmatia was concentrated in the major cities. In the city of [[Split, Croatia|Split]] in 1890 there were {{formatnum:1969}} Italians (12.5% of the population), in [[Zadar]] {{formatnum:7423}} (64.6%), in [[Šibenik]] {{formatnum:1018}} (14.5%) and in [[Dubrovnik]] {{formatnum:331}} (4.6%).<ref>Guerrino Perselli, ''I censimenti della popolazione dell'Istria, con Fiume e Trieste e di alcune città della Dalmazia tra il 1850 e il 1936'', Centro di Ricerche Storiche - Rovigno, Unione Italiana - Fiume, Università Popolare di Trieste, Trieste-Rovigno, 1993</ref> In other Dalmatian localities, according to Austrian censuses, Italians experienced a sudden decrease: in the twenty years 1890-1910, in [[Rab (island)|Rab]] they went from 225 to 151, in [[Vis (island)|Vis]] from 352 to 92, in [[Pag (island)|Pag]] from 787 to 23, completely disappearing in almost all the inland locations.

[[Dalmatian identity]], or sometimes also Dalmatianism, Dalmatianness or Dalmatian nationalism', refers to the historical [[nationalism]] or [[patriotism]] of Dalmatians and Dalmatian culture. There were significant Dalmatian nationalists in the 19th century, but Dalmatian regional nationalism faded in significance over time in favour of [[ethnic nationalism]].<ref>Egbert Jahn. Nationalism in Late and Post-Communist Europe: The Failed Nationalism of the Multinational and Partial National States , Volume 1. Nomos, 2008. P. 330. ''In the course of this development, regional nationalism (for example Bohemian, Transylvanian, Montenegrin, and Dalmatian nationalism) declined in importance almost everywhere and had to give way to ethnic nationalism.''</ref>

The 17th-century Dalmatian poet [[Jerolim Kavanjin]] (''Girolamo Cavagnini'') exhibited Dalmatianism, identifying himself as "Dalmatian" and calling Dalmatia his homeland, which John Fine interprets not to have been a nationalist notion.<ref>When Ethnicity Did Not Matter in the Balkans: A Study of Identity in Pre-Nationalist Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia in the Medieval and Early-Modern Periods. University of Michigan Press, 2006. P. 287. ''Besides this pan-Slavism, which produced in him the identity that came closest to being ethnic, Kavanjin exhibited the noted "Dalmatianism". This local "Dalmatian" identity was the only competitor "Slavic" had. And, after all, as he said, Dalmatia was his homeland. And two such identities could easily co-exist and both could have "ethnic" ingredients.''</ref>

During Dalmatia's incorporation in [[Austrian Empire]], with the [[Autonomist Party (Dalmatia)|Autonomist Party]] in Dalmatia refusing and opposed plans to incorporate Dalmatia into Croatia; instead it supported an autonomous Dalmatia based on a multicultural association of Dalmatia's ethnic communities: [[Croats]], [[Serbs]], and [[Italians]], united as Dalmatians.<ref name="Hametz-2012">Maura Hametz. ''In the Name of Italy: Nation, Family, and Patriotism in a Fascist Court: Nation, Family, and Patriotism in a Fascist Court.'' Fordham University Press, 2012.</ref> The Autonomist Party has been accused of secretly having been a pro-Italian movement due to their defense of the rights of ethnic Italians in Dalmatia.<ref name="Hametz-2012"/> Support for the autonomy of Dalmatia had deep historic roots in identifying Dalmatian culture as linking Western culture via Venetian and Italian influence and Eastern culture via South Slavic influence; such a view was supported by Dalmatian autonomist Stipan Ivičević.<ref>Dominique Reill. ''Nationalists Who Feared the Nation: Adriatic Multi-Nationalism in Habsburg Dalmatia, Trieste, and Venice''. Stanford, California, USA: Stanford University Press, 2012. P. 216.</ref> The Autonomist Party did not claim to be an Italian movement, and indicated that it sympathised with a sense of heterogeneity amongst Dalmatians in opposition to [[ethnic nationalism]].<ref name="Hametz-2012"/> In the 1861 elections, the Autonomists won twenty-seven seats in Dalmatia, while Dalmatia's [[Croatian nationalism|Croatian nationalist]] movement, the [[People's Party (Dalmatia)|People's Party]], won only fourteen seats.<ref>Ivo Goldstein. ''Croatia: A History. 2nd edition''. C. Hurst & Co, 1999, 2001. P. 80.</ref>

The issue of autonomy of Dalmatia was debated after the creation of [[Yugoslavia]] in 1918, due to divisions within Dalmatia over proposals of merging the region with the territories composing the former [[Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia]].<ref>Ivo Banac. The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics. Ithaca, New York, US: Cornell University Press, 1984. P. 351.</ref> Proposals for the autonomy of Dalmatia within [[Yugoslavia]] were made by Dalmatians within the [[Yugoslav Partisans]] during [[World War II]]; however, these proposals were strongly opposed by Croatian Communists and the proposals were soon abandoned.<ref>Aleksa Đilas. ''Contested Country: Yugoslav Unity and Communist Revolution, 1919-1953''. Harvard University Press, 1991. Pp. 172.</ref>