page_title: 1918–20 unrest in Split
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: 1918–20 unrest in Split / Background
caption_attribution_description: A map showing the location of the Adriatic Sea. Created by NormanEinstein, May 20, 2005.
context_page_description: In 1918–1920, a series of violent fights took place in the city of Split between Croats and Italians, culminating in a struggle on 11 July 1920 that resulted in the deaths of Captain Tommaso Gulli of the Italian protected cruiser Puglia, Croat civilian Matej Miš, and Italian sailor Aldo Rossi. The incidents were the cause of the destruction in Trieste of the Hotel Balkan by Italian Fascists.
context_section_description: The confrontations were the product of a centuries-long struggle for the control of the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea between South Slavs and Italians. 
  During the second half of the 19th century Split saw antagonism between the pro-Italian Autonomist Party and the pro-Yugoslav People's Party.
  Hostilities between the two ethnicities increased after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when Italian irredentists called for the annexation of several formerly Austro-Hungarian cities on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, which were home to both South Slavs and Italians, into Italy, and occupied several of them by force.
caption: Location of the Adriatic Sea.
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