(Re)organizing the District: How Volosko-Opatija became Part of Italy
The aim of this paper is to present the change of sovereignty and subsequent administrative rearranging in the District of Volosca-Abbazia (Volosko-Opatija), before 1918 part of the Margraviate of Istria, from the end of the Great War until the Treaty of Rome (1924). I will show how a predominantly Croatian and Slovene area experienced the downfall of the Habsburg Empire and the following Italian military occupation through addressing actors and institutions of the transition period. Emphasis will be given to figures of and actions undertaken by the shortly existed district and local National Councils of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs as well as to display the unusually significant role of the Italian military in the rearrangement of the local and district administration. Issues such as the continuity of imperial phenomena in opposition to a nation-state model in the cases of institutions, legal framework, political elites, and personnel will be discussed. Finally, I will present how a district almost without Italian population was managed by the Italian authorities and how it started to be integrated by the Italian state.