Italianization

Italianization is a term used to describe a cultural change in which something non-Italian is made to become Italian.

In the context of twentieth century history, Italianization is the process by which 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 the suppress native Slovenian and Croatian populations of Istria, Dalmatia and other parts of the former Austrian Littoral region, German-speakers living in South Tyrol, Trento and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and Francoprovençal-speaking peoples living in the Aosta Valley. Under this program, these ethnic groups were forced 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 few Slovenians and Croatians willingly accepted Italianization as a compromise required in order to gain full status as Italian citizens. Most, however, found little reason to change their cultural identity to accommodate the new government in Rome, which they saw as a recent interloper in the affairs of the eastern Adriatic.

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 virtually no 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 island, replaced by a moderate (but relatively small) 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.

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