Italianization
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Italianization is a term used to describe a cultural change in which something non-Italian becomes (or is made to become) Italian.
In the context of twentieth century history, Italianization is the process by which, after 1922, the government of Benito Mussolini forced Slavic populations, Germans, francophone populations and Greeks living within the borders of Italy to assume Italian culture.
This program of Italianization, aimed to suppress native Slovenian and Croatian populations of Istria, Dalmatia and other parts of the former Austrian Littoral region, German-speakers living in South Tyrol and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and Francoprovençal-speaking peoples living in the Aosta Valley. Under this program, these ethnic groups were pressured to adopt Italian names, attend Italian language schools and churches and speak only the Italian language in public. Slovenian and Croatian institutions, such as the Narodni dom (Slovene National Club) in Trieste, were vandalized and German traditional institutions as well. Slav, German and French toponyms were systematically translated and immigration of Italians from other regions of Italy was also encouraged. A Slovenian choirmaster Lojze Bratuž, who led several Slovenian language church choirs and thus resisted persecution of Slovenians in the area around Gorizia, was arrested on December 27, 1936, tortured and forced to drink gasoline and motor oil.
With regard to Istria and Dalmatia, some Slovenians and Croatians willingly accepted Italianization as a compromise required in order to gain full status as Italian citizens, and favour upward social mobility; most, however, resisted, as far as possible, these policies, sometimes with the support of local Catholic clergy.
The policy affected also the inhabitants of Dodecanese, conquered by Italy in 1912. Although the islands were overwhelmingly Greek-speaking, punctuated only by a relatively small Turkish-speaking minority and even smaller Ladino-speaking Jewish minority (with few Italian speakers), schools were required to teach in Italian, and the Greek Orthodox religion of most of the inhabitants was strongly discouraged. These measures caused a good deal of Greek emigration from the islands, replaced by a moderate amount of Italian immigration.
In 1939 Hitler and Mussolini reached an agreement on the status of Germans living in South Tyrol: they could emigrate to Germany (or its new territories) or stay in Italy and accept their complete Italianization. As a consequence of this "Option in South Tyrol," South Tyrolen society was deeply riven. Those who wanted to stay ("Dableiber"), were condemned as traitors, those who left ("Optanten") were defamed as Nazis. Because of the outbreak of the World War II, this agreement was never fully accomplished.
