170 years ago, what historians called “the Spring of the Peoples” occurred: the ideals of the French Revolution resurfaced, which thirty years of Restoration had failed to repress and which had already shown a certain vitality in the XNUMXs, leading to the independence of Greece. The triad of liberty, equality and brotherhood was condensed in the concept of “nation”, capable of jeopardizing the stability of multinational empires, together with the request for liberal reforms by the bourgeois classes who were protagonists of the industrial revolution.

In Italy, which the Congress of Vienna had divided into States and statelets, but in fact inserted into the sphere of influence of the Austrian Empire, while in Vienna the liberal demonstrations of March 1848 were putting the imperial order into crisis, in the Lombard-Venetian Kingdom Milan and Venice were equally demanding reforms, but also waving the Tricolour that from 7 January 1797 belonged to the Cispadane Republic born following the upheaval caused by the victorious Italian campaign led by Napoleon Bonaparte. The revolutionary ideas that had arrived in Italy in the wake of Napoleon's army had also contributed to putting an end to the existence of the Republic of the Doges, ceded to Austria, to the great disappointment of patriots such as Ugo Foscolo and with the emotional participation of the Dalmatians of Perasto, who buried the gonfalon of the navy of the Serenissima of which they were jealous custodians. But it was precisely from the coasts of the eastern Adriatic that a significant influx of volunteers would have taken place in defense of the revived Republic of St. Mark, which had its head in Daniele Manin, just released from prison together with other political prisoners including the Dalmatian Niccolò Tommaseo, an illustrious man of letters born in Sebenico and about to be entrusted with prestigious government roles in this revolutionary experience that had chosen the Lion of St. Mark alongside the green-white-red Tricolour as its flag. The desire to insert the memory of the Republic of St. Mark into a broader patriotic context is clear in a speech given by Manin in Piazza San Marco: "It is not enough to have overthrown the old government; we must also replace it with a new one, and the most suitable seems to us to be that of the republic that recalls past glories, improved by present liberties. With this we do not intend to separate ourselves from our Italian brothers, on the contrary, we will form one of the centers that will serve the gradual, successive fusion of our dear Italy into a single whole. Long live the Republic! Long live freedom! Long live San Marco!

The initial reaction from the Venetian hinterland was not enthusiastic, probably as a legacy of the ancient lordships and municipal autonomies that had been absorbed by Venetian expansionism, whereas in Istria and Dalmatia "there was no lack of significant episodes – stated Lucio Toth in the pamphlet "Ninety years after the completion of the Unification of Italy. The participation of Istrians, Fiume and Dalmatians in the Risorgimento process", ANVGD, Rome 2008 – such as the request of the Municipality of Split to join the reborn Venetian Republic and the planned rebellion of Zara and its garrison under the command of Colonel Sirtori, later postponed by order of Tommaseo, co-director of the Venetian revolutionary government". On the other hand, all the revolutionary fervor that was recorded in Italy in 1848-49 also fully involved the eastern shore of the Adriatic, demonstrating how it was intimately connected with the Italian peninsula and how it followed its events and developments with trepidation. The late senator from Zara and point of reference for the associations of exiles continued by recalling «the adhesion of hundreds of volunteers in defense of the Republic of Venice and the Roman Republic and in the ranks of the Piedmontese army. In Venice, in addition to Niccolò Tomamseo, with Daniele Manin at the head of the Republic, many members of the government were Dalmatians and Istrians: the Minister of the Navy and War Antonio Paulucci, Matteo Ballovich, Superintendent of the Navy, Leone Graziani, Vincenzo Solitro, Matteo Petronio. An entire Dalmatian-Istrian Legion was formed. In Rome, the liberal from Ragusa Federico Seismit-Doda (author of “La Romana”, the hymn of the defenders of Rome) collaborated with the Triumvirs, and later became a minister in the Crispi Government. And numerous Dalmatian and Istrian volunteers distinguished themselves in the defense of the city».

Even in other uprisings that shook the Habsburg structure, the adhesion of Italian-speaking Adriatic fighters was found: «In Hungary, the Fiume conscripts in the Hungarian army formed a “Fiumana Legion”, composed of Italians, who fought alongside the Hungarian insurgents».

Even though the defeats of the insurgents "were followed by a harsh repression of the administrative and military leaders who had taken part, at home or abroad, in the revolutionary events: sentences to prison and exile, assignment of private soldiers to disciplinary companies, removal from public office of officials and magistrates", the Italian Risorgimento process was underway and fully included the patriots who wanted to see the Tricolour waving on both shores of the Adriatic Sea.

Lorenzo Salimbeni – 26/03/2018

Source: The Giornale d'Italia