The imperial city of Trieste and its territory

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Imperial City of Trieste (and its territory)
(Città Imperiale di Trieste e Dintorni)
(1910)
Coat of arms of the imperial city of Trieste
Administrative headquarters : Trieste
Area : 95 km²
Population : 229.995
Population density : 2414.8 inhabitants / km²
Map of the city of Trieste and the surrounding area around 1911

The imperial city of Trieste and its territory (also dominion of Trieste ) ( Italian Città Imperiale di Trieste e Dintorni ) was a partially sovereign city-state and consisted of the territory of the littoral city ​​of Trieste and its suburbs from 1382 to 1809 and from 1849 to 1918 .

The city had been in the possession of the Habsburgs since the 14th century and was raised to the status of an imperial city again by an imperial decree by Franz Joseph I of October 2, 1849. In 1867 the area became a partially autonomous member state ( crown land ) of Cisleithania in Austria-Hungary as a corpus separatum . When the Habsburg Empire collapsed at the end of the First World War , the territory became part of the Kingdom of Italy .

history

background

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, Trieste became a Byzantine military outpost. In 567 the city was destroyed by the invading Lombards and in 788 it became part of the Franconian Empire .

From 1081 onwards Trieste remained largely independent. After two centuries of wars against the nearby great power , the Republic of Venice , which occupied Trieste from 1369 to 1372, the most important representatives of the city asked the Austrian Duke Leopold III. von Habsburg about the annexation of Trieste to the Habsburg monarchy . The written agreement for this was signed in Ljubljana in October 1382 .

Trieste in the Habsburg Monarchy until 1815

The Trieste Stock Exchange, built in 1755, 2004

In the course of the Italian wars between the major European powers, Trieste changed hands several times. In 1508 Trieste was occupied by Venice again. The Habsburgs followed again a year later. The Austro-Venetian rivalry over the Adriatic severely destroyed Trieste several times and weakened the efforts of both states to counter the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans .

Trieste had extensive internal autonomy under the rule of the Habsburgs and had numerous state institutions of its own even before the February patent in 1861.

Parallel to the decline of Venice in the 17th century, the city was developed into an important port and trading center. In June 1717 Trieste was under Emperor Charles VI. a free port within the Habsburg Empire and remained this until July 1, 1891.

In June 1734, Charles VI. commissioned the construction of a naval base in the city. His rule and that of his daughter and successor Maria Theresa marked the beginning of a prosperous era for the city. It began with the demolition of the city walls in 1749 and led to freer expansion and growth of the city.

Trieste's growth was dampened by the French Revolution and coalition wars . In 1804 the city became part of the Austrian Empire as crown land . The area was occupied three times by French troops (1797, 1805 and 1809). After Austria's defeat in the fifth coalition war , Trieste was separated from Austria with the Treaty of Schönbrunn and in 1809 it was annexed to the French Illyrian provinces .

During the French rule, Trieste lost its status as a free port and its autonomy. Community autonomy was not restored after the city returned to Austria. The unification of the areas ruled by several powers, such as Istria and Trieste, also meant the coexistence of different nationalities. While the Italians lived mainly in the Venetian part, the Slavs settled in the Austrian areas. This dual ethnicity led to a decades-long struggle between Slavs and Italians for supremacy in Istria.

In 1813 the Austrians recaptured Trieste and Istria in the sixth coalition war and incorporated them into the Austrian Empire . This was confirmed by the Congress of Vienna in 1815.

Part of Austria or Austria-Hungary (1815-1914)

Transport system in Trieste, 1912

After the Congress of Vienna, Trieste in imperial Austria became part of the newly founded Kingdom of Illyria . As the most important port city in the Crown Land, Trieste experienced another boom. The immediate imperial status granted Trieste extensive economic freedom. The city's role as the main port for trade and shipbuilding resulted in the establishment of several merchant shipping lines.

With the introduction of constitutionalism in the Austrian monarchy in 1860, the municipal autonomy of the city was restored and, after the establishment of the dual monarchy Austria-Hungary in 1867, Trieste became an autonomous crown land of the Austrian half of the empire and, since 1868, was also the seat of the imperial governor for the crown lands margraviate Istria and the county of Gorizia (see Austrian coastal region ).

At the time of Austria-Hungary, Trieste experienced rapid economic growth and became one of the most important ports in the Mediterranean . The modern Austro-Hungarian Navy used Trieste as a place to build their ships and used the city as a base. Rail and city traffic was also expanded, which led to a rapid expansion of the Trieste trade, which peaked in 1913 with the shipping of more than 6 million tons of goods. Trieste had become the center of trade in Central and Southeastern Europe .

At the beginning of the 20th century, Trieste was a pulsating cosmopolitan city with numerous artists and philosophers. The imposing Viennese architecture and coffee houses dominate the streets of Trieste to this day.

Zone Ends

Anti-Italian demonstration at the port of Trieste , 1915

Like Trento in the Fürstete Grafschaft Tirol , Trieste was a focal point of the Italian irredentism movement , which aimed at the annexation of all areas populated by Italians to Italy. Even so, the majority of the city's Italian residents refused to join Italy.

Trieste was largely spared from the First World War . Although the area was near the Italian front after Italy entered the war in 1915 , there was no fighting in its area. As in large parts of Austria, the residents of the city suffered from food shortages.

In the course of the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy on October 31, 1918, some of its border areas, including Trieste and Istria, were occupied and annexed by Italy. With the renunciation of Emperor and King Charles I , the last ruler of Trieste, the crown land was dissolved on November 11, 1918. In 1919 Austria confirmed the Italian annexation of Trieste in the Treaty of Saint-Germain and in 1920 the newly formed Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the border treaty of Rapallo , although the southern Slavs themselves had ambitions for the city.

The still liberal Kingdom of Italy still granted Trieste some of its old autonomy. This changed when the fascists came to power under Mussolini in 1922. Trieste lost its last autonomy and was Italianized . Many Croatians and Slovenes were expelled or forced to assimilate.

Political system

Trieste was the only city-state in Austria-Hungary to enjoy a special status. The Landtag of the Crown Land functioned at the same time as a local council or city ​​council and the chairman of the provincial parliament was at the same time, as governor, the representative of the Austro-Hungarian monarch. 54 members were represented in parliament. Most belonged to the Italian or Slovenian population group.

The city's state regulations ( constitution ) were enacted on February 26, 1861 and formally remained in force until 1920. It provided for Trieste's own state institutions and made the crown land a constitutional monarchy , whose rulers, the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary and Bohemia , bore the title of Lord of Trieste .

The crown land was the seat of the Lieutenancy of the coastal country , a police directorate, the city magistrate, the maritime authority of the Austrian merchant navy , a port and maritime medical officer, the higher regional and regional court , the commercial and maritime court, the finance, post and telegraph directorate State railway directorate, a bishop, a brigade and a maritime district command as well as numerous consulates of foreign states (including a German one).

Initially, Trieste was able to send two members to the Reichsrat in Vienna . Later it was five.

The area was divided into six districts and, in terms of area, was the smallest crown land in Austria.

economy

Trieste had the most important industrial production on the coast and was the economic center of the entire region.

The industry included the extensive arsenal of Österreichischer Lloyd , the shipbuilding company of the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino (also for warships), a blast furnace (Servola), several machine and metal goods factories, two rice husk factories, a chemical products factory, a mineral oil refinery, several factories vegetable oils, a coffee peeling factory, a playing card, a cigarette paper, a linoleum, a jute, a cork, a rope factory, 2 beer breweries, several factories for paints, ceresine, soaps and candles, alcohol, canned fish, pasta, candies and chocolate, paper goods, artificial ice, briquettes, asphalt, cement and stone goods, an electricity company and a gas company. The area around Trieste produced excellent wine, fruit, grain, oil and stones. However, Trieste owed its real importance to trade. But the main occupations of the residents were trade and shipping.

In 1906, 9462 ships of 3,082,879 tons (including 7240 steamers of 2,982,049 tons) and 9 426 ships of 3,051,251 tons (of which 7211 steamers of 2,949,561 tons) left Trieste. In addition to the Austro-Hungarian ships, British and Italian ships were also mainly represented.

population

Language map of Trieste, 1880

In 1900 there were 178,599 people living in and around Trieste. Most of the residents spoke or could at least speak German , which was also the language of the Austrian bureaucracy and the official language. Most of the Slovene speakers lived in the surrounding villages. Italian speakers made up the majority of the population in the city center, at 60.1%, 38.1% in the suburbs and 6.0% in the surrounding area.

Several other smaller ethnic communities lived in the territory: Czechs , Istrian Romanians , Serbs and Greeks .

1880 1890 1900 1910
Italian 88,887 (61.37%) 100,039 (63.53%) 116,825 (65.41%) 119,023 (54.65%)
Slovenes 26,263 (18.13%) 27,725 (17.61%) 24,679 (13.82%) 56,908 (26.13%)
German 5,141 (3.55%) 7.107 (4.51%) 8,880 (4.97%) 11,850 (5.44%)
total 144,844 157.466 178,599 217.790

NB: In the censuses, only the colloquial languages ​​of the responsible Austrian citizens were recorded. In 1900 the number of so-called foreigners was 27,589, in 1910 38,554 (this also included citizens of the Hungarian half of the empire).

Most of the residents were of the Catholic faith . The religious distribution in 1900 was:

Education, culture and infrastructure

Literacy rate in Austria-Hungary (1880 census)

Trieste developed into a large city under the Habsburgs and was one of the most important cities of the dual monarchy alongside Vienna, Prague and Budapest .

The city was rich in museums and art exhibitions

Around 1900, 53 mostly Italian newspapers appeared in Trieste. Trieste had five theaters, several seaside establishments and one of the most modern electric trams ( Tram Triest ) worldwide (16.2 km in length).

An educational institutions the city has a commercial and nautical academy and had business school , two upper secondary schools and two upper secondary schools (one German state and a municipal Italian Institute), a State Trade School , a school for midwives, an urban girl Lyceum, eight civil schools and 44 public and 12 private Elementary schools .

literature

  • Ignatz de Luca: The German littoral, or Triester area. In: Geographisches Handbuch von dem Oestreichischen Staats. 2. Volume The countries in the Austrian district. Verlag Johannes Paul Krauss, Vienna 1790, pp. 317–334 ( Google eBook, full view ).

See also

Web links

Commons : Trieste  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Special places repertory of the Austrian countries. VII. Austrian-Illyrian coastal country = Special geographical report of the Austrian countries VII: Austrian-Illyrian Littoral. Publishing house of the KK Hof- und Staatsdruckerei. Vienna 1918.