The Italians

The Italians had always been an important cultural and economic force in the Habsburg multi-ethnic state. After the loss of Lombardy and Venetia, however, the Austrian Italians were numerically speaking only a very small element in the patchwork of peoples under Habsburg rule. This being the case, the calls for unification with the young nation-state of Italy understandably came as a severe challenge to their traditional loyalty to the House of Habsburg. In addition they felt particularly threatened by the demands of the southern Slav nationalists in the eastern Adriatic, which made the great maritime city of Trieste into one of the most sensitive and volatile spots in the highly problematic context of the Monarchy’s nationalities.