A report on Adriatic Sea, Veneto, Dalmatia and Italy

Istria (Croatian and Slovene: Istra; Istriot: Eîstria; Istro-Romanian, Italian and Venetian: Istria; formerly Histria in Latin and Ἴστρια in Ancient Greek) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea.

It is shared by three countries: Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy.

However, after the Third Italian War of Independence (1866), when the Veneto and Friuli regions were ceded by the Austrians to the newly formed Kingdom Italy, Istria remained part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, together with other Italian-speaking areas on the eastern Adriatic.

To get Italy to join the war, the secret 1915 Treaty of London the Entente promised Italy Istria and parts of Dalmatia, South Tyrol, the Greek Dodecanese Islands, parts of Albania and Turkey, plus more territory for Italy's North Africa colonies.

The Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861—when King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy—until 1946, when civil discontent led an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and form the modern Italian Republic.

Italy declared war on Austria in alliance with Prussia in 1866 and received the region of Veneto following their victory.

The Triple Entente promised to grant to Italy – if the state joined the Allies in World War I – several territories including former Austrian Littoral, western parts of former Duchy of Carniola, Northern Dalmatia and notably Zara, Šibenik and most of the Dalmatian islands (except Krk and Rab), according to the secret London Pact of 1915.

However, these developments did not benefit all of Italy in this period, as southern Italy's agriculture suffered from hot summers and aridity damaged crops while the presence of malaria prevented cultivation of low-lying areas along Italy's Adriatic Sea coast.

Italy was unified by the Roman Republic in the latter part of the third century BC. For 700 years, it was a de facto territorial extension of the capital of the Roman Republic and Empire, and for a long time experienced a privileged status but was not converted into a province.

The fall of Gaeta brought the unification movement to the brink of fruition—only Rome and Venetia remained to be added.

With the motto "Free from the Alps to the Adriatic", the unification movement set its gaze on Rome and Venice.

Under the Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947, Istria, Kvarner, most of the Julian March as well as the Dalmatian city of Zara was annexed by Yugoslavia causing the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus, which led to the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 of local ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians), the others being ethnic Slovenians, ethnic Croatians, and ethnic Istro-Romanians, choosing to maintain Italian citizenship.

The Republic of Venice (Repubblica di Venezia; Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic (Repubblica Veneta; Repùblega Vèneta), traditionally known as La Serenissima (Most Serene Republic of Venice; Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia; Serenìsima Res-piovega de Venèsia), was a sovereign state and maritime republic in parts of present-day Italy (mainly northeastern Italy) which existed for 1100 years from 697 AD until 1797 AD. Centered on the lagoon communities of the prosperous city of Venice, it incorporated numerous overseas possessions in modern Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Greece, Albania and Cyprus.

Venice achieved territorial conquests along the Adriatic Sea.

Gaining independence, Venice also began to expand on the coasts of the Adriatic Sea and so starting from 1109, following the conquest of Dalmatia and the Croatian coast, the doge formally received the title of Venetiae Dalmatiae atque Chroatiae Dux (English: Doge of Venice, Dalmatia and Croatia), a name that continued to be used until the eighteenth century.

The pope wanted Romagna; Emperor Maximilian I: Friuli and Veneto; Spain: the Apulian ports; the king of France: Cremona; the king of Hungary: Dalmatia, and each one some of another's part.