[1][4] He participated in conferences of the Italian society of archaeology in Istria (Società istriana di archeologia e storia patria).

With his works L’antica diocesi di Ossero e la liturgia slava: pagine di storia patria (1897) and Nuovi studi sulla liturgia slava (1897), he joined the debate against the exploitation of the paleoslavic liturgy[clarification needed] carried out by Slavic (Croatian) priests to promote the use of Croatian in the Catholic churches of Istria and the Kvarner.

[clarification needed] Salata joined the Società politica istriana (SPI), believing in the civic and cultural superiority of the Italian element, which, because of this, was entitled to govern the res publica.

[1] According to Salata, this "preeminence" conformed to the "Austrian law of political representation of classes and interests," and it derived from the important number of Italians in modern-day Croatian lands and their "civic value and contributive force.

[1] He came into contact with the Commissione centrale di patronato dei fuoriusciti trentini e adriatici, and started to prepare material to support Italy's claim on the Adriatic lands.

In May 1915 he published anonymously Il diritto d'Italia su Trieste e l'Istria: documenti, in which he claimed that Italy had the "right and duty to the integration of its national unity and Adriatic dominion."

"[1] The documents provided by Salata started with the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio and terminated with the 1882 Triple Alliance, although there were also indirect references to Rome and Venice.

In the first month after Italy's entry into the war, Salata entered the Secretary General for the "Civic Affairs at the Supreme Command of the Army in the War Zone" (Segretariato generale per gli affari civili presso il Comando supremo dell'esercito in zona di guerra), and was increasingly given more responsibilities.

[1] After the war, Salata took part in the Paris Convention of 1919, to produce material supporting Italy's claim, and contest those of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs.

However, he was able to establish regional advisory panels, which were open to the prominent local political personalities of the different areas, including from the minorities, which were given the duty of studying and approve the process of annexation of the new territories to Italy.

[1] The latter event paved the way for the definitive annexation of the terre irredente, without regard to the local population, its language, culture and administrative practices.

[1][4] After publishing his book on Oberdan and other treaties such as L'Italia e la Triplice: secondo i nuovi documenti austro-germanici (1923), Salata was employed by Mussolini and the Italian regime as an expert in archives and historian "of patriotic inspiration".

[1] In 1934 he was invited to Vienna (where, in spite of his irredentist ideas, he was still held in high esteem[10]), to work on the creation of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, of which he became the director in 1935.

[1] In order to support Italy's aggressive policies, he published Il nodo di Gibuti: storia diplomatica su documenti inediti (1939), Nizza fra Garibaldi e Cavour: un discorso non pronunciato e altri documenti inediti (in Storia e politica internazionale, rassegna trimestrale) in 1940.