Governorate of Dalmatia

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Governorate of Dalmatia Governatorato di Dalmazia (Italian)
1941–1943
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: FERT (Motto for the House of Savoy)
Anthem: Marcia Reale d'Ordinanza[a] ("Royal March of Ordinance")
The Governorate of Dalmatia in 1941
Status	Province of Italy
Capital	Zara
Common languages	Italian Croatian
Religion	Roman Catholic
King
• 1941–1943	Victor Emmanuel III
Governor
• 1941	Athos Bartolucci
• 1941–1943	Giuseppe Bastianini
• 1943	Francesco Giunta
Historical era	World War II
• Established	17 April 1941
• Annexed by NDH	10 September 1943
Area
• Total	5,242[2] km2 (2,024 sq mi)
Population
• 1941	380,100
• Density	61.6[2]/km2 (159.5/sq mi)
Currency	Italian lira
Preceded by Succeeded by Kingdom of Yugoslavia Province of Zara Independent State of Croatia Italian Social Republic
^ Unofficial anthem was Giovinezza ("Youth").[1]

The Governorate of Dalmatia (Italian: Governatorato di Dalmazia) was an administrative division of the Kingdom of Italy, established in 1941, following the military conquest of Yugoslavian Dalmatia by General Vittorio Ambrosio, during World War II. It had the provisional purpose of progressively importing Italian national legislation in Dalmatia in place of the previous one, thus fully integrating it into the Kingdom of Italy.

It was a territory divided into three provinces of Italy during the Fascist Italy and Italian Empire epoch. It was created later as an entity in April 1941 at the start of World War II in Yugoslavia, by uniting the existing province of Zara with occupied Yugoslav territory annexed by Italy after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers and the signing of the Rome Treaties.^[3]

The governorate was the revival of the eponymous and ephemeral institute established by the Kingdom of Italy in Dalmatia following the defeat of Austria-Hungary in World War I in 1918, given the London Pact (1915), which also promised Italy part of Dalmatia (for the presence of Dalmatian Italians). However, both the peace settlement negotiations of 1919 to 1920 and the Fourteen Points of Woodrow Wilson, who advocated self-determination, took precedence, with Italy being permitted to annex only Zadar from Dalmatia, with the rest of Dalmatia being part of Yugoslavia. Enraged Italian nationalists considered the decision to be a betrayal of the promises of the London Pact, so this outcome was denounced as a "mutilated victory".