The Kingdom of Dalmatia (Croatian: Kraljevina Dalmacija; Italian: Regno di Dalmazia; German: Königreich Dalmatien) was a crown land of the Austrian Empire (1815–1867) and the Cisleithanian half of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918).

The newly acquired Habsburg crown land stretched from the Rab Island and Karlobag in the north down the Adriatic coast to Budva in the south, while the Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) retained its independence until 1808.

In June 1797, they formed a delegation which planned to travel to Vienna and ask the Emperor to approve unification but they were pre-empted by the Treaty of Campo Formio, so they decided to contact the Croatian Ban instead.

Members of the government and the governor were appointed by the Emperor and were subordinated to the Imperial and Royal Court Committee for Istria, Dalmatia, and Albania in Venice (Croatian: Carsko i kraljevsko dvorsko povjerenstvo za Istru, Dalmaciju i Albaniju; Italian: Ces.

commissione aulica per l'Istria, Dalmazia ed Albania), and since 1802 to the Viennese Royal Chamber's Section for Dalmatia and the Bay of Kotor (Croatian: Sekcija za Dalmaciju i Boku kotorsku Dvorske kancelarije).

Seats of the districts were in Cres, Krk, Rab, Pag, Zadar, Nin, Novigrad, Skradin, Šibenik, Knin, Sinj, Trogir, Split, Klis, Omiš, Brač, Hvar, Korčula, Imotski, Makarska, Poljica and Metković.

[10] Since the entry of the French army into Dubrovnik, war operations in the Ottoman Empire, led by the joint Russian military and Montenegrin paramilitary forces, who were assisted by Serb population from the hinterland, began.

The original intention was to introduce French laws (Napoleonic Code et al.), but it soon became apparent that this would have been unfeasible due to the popular perceptions and customs, especially in property, inheritance and marital affairs.

[13] The first feature of the cultural revival of Dalmatia under the French administration was the launch of the bilingual weekly Il Regio Dalmata – Kraglski Dalmatin, whose first issue came out on July 12, 1806.

With the same intent, Pope Leo XII issued papal bull Locum Beati Petri by which he founded unified Zadar metropolis which was superior to all Dalmatian dioceses, including historical Archdioceses of Split and Dubrovnik.

[21] 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 and Dalmatia remained part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, together with other Italian-speaking areas on the eastern Adriatic.

[23] During the meeting of the Council of Ministers on 12 November 1866, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria outlined a wide-ranging project aimed at the Germanization or Slavization of the areas of the empire with an Italian presence:[24] His Majesty expressed the precise order that action be taken decisively against the influence of the Italian elements still present in some regions of the Crown and, appropriately occupying the posts of public, judicial, masters employees as well as with the influence of the press, work in South Tyrol, Dalmatia and Littoral for the Germanization and Slavization of these territories according to the circumstances, with energy and without any regard.

[26][27] Bartoli's evaluation was followed by other claims that Auguste de Marmont, the French Governor General of the Napoleonic Illyrian Provinces commissioned a census in 1809 which found that Dalmatian Italians comprised 29% of the total population of Dalmatia.

They pointed out that according to a report by Imperial court councillor Joseph Fölch in 1827, the Italian language was spoken by noblemen and some citizens of middle and lower classes exclusively in the coastal cities of Zadar, Šibenik and Split.

[32][33] In 1889, the foundation of the Dante Alighieri Society, with the aim of protecting and promoting the Italian language, made it possible to give support to the initiatives for the preservation of the Italian-speaking linguistic element.

[34] The same year the irredentist Luigi Ziliotto becomes mayor of Zara, a position he would hold until the outbreak of World War I, was accused of treason and declared forfeited by the Austrian authorities.

[36] During the meeting of the Council of Ministers of 12 November 1866, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria outlined a wide-ranging project aimed at the Germanization or Slavization of the areas of the empire with an Italian presence:[37] His Majesty expressed the precise order that action be taken decisively against the influence of the Italian elements still present in some regions of the Crown and, appropriately occupying the posts of public, judicial, masters employees as well as with the influence of the press, work in South Tyrol, Dalmatia and Littoral for the Germanization and Slavization of these territories according to the circumstances, with energy and without any regard.

On the occasion of the convocation of the Ban's Conference in Zagreb in 1860, representatives from Dalmatia were invited to discuss unification, but the Autonomist Party, supported by Ante Mamula, obstructed initiative.

Autonomist Party held the majority of seats due to the unfair electoral system by which large landowners, clerks, and representatives of wealthy citizens, although accounting for only around 20% of the Dalmatian population, had a significant advantage.

[55] In the meantime, the People's Party started getting better organized and slowly winning rural municipalities in the Dalmatian Hinterland and on the islands, which culminated in the 1870 election, when it won the majority of seats in the Diet.

[56] After Croatia's enthusiasm with the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which involved numerous Croatian soldiers from Dalmatia, many of whom had died, and the request for the unification of Bosnia-Herzegovina with Croatia-Slavonia, the conflict was inevitable.

In November 1881, Serbs and Montenegrins that lived in the hinterland of the Bay of Kotor, on the territory of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, rebelled against the mandatory conscription, which was the obligation of all citizens of the Monarchy.

Immediately upon the outbreak of the First World War, all organizations that the government considered close to Serbia or to the idea of the creation of a single state for all South Slavic peoples were forbidden.

In 1917, representatives of Dalmatia in Imperial Council headed by Vjekoslav Spinčić, Josip Smodlaka and Ivo Prodan, wrote the May Declaration, in which they presented a program of unification of all South Slavs within the Austria-Hungary that had to be divided into three equal parts: Austria, Hungary, and Croatia.

[66] On 4 November 1918, the Italian Royal Navy occupied the islands of Vis, Lastovo, Molat, and Korčula, where the Yugoslav national committees offered no armed resistance.

[66] The former officials of Austria-Hungary, although they were contacted by the Italian administration, did not want to hold political and civil roles for fear of reprisal in the event that Dalmatia was annexed to Yugoslavia.

[66] Enrico Millo tried to gain the political consensus of the Slavic Dalmatians by improving living conditions, creating health services, distributing food, and stimulating the agricultural economy by decreeing a ban on the import of oil and wine from Italy.

[66] In Zadar, Šibenik, Hvar and Krk, popular demonstrations against the Italian occupation and in favor of the union of Dalmatia with Yugoslavia were frequent, which were organized by the aforementioned Catholic and Orthodox clergy.

Historians regard "mutilated victory" as a "political myth", used by fascists to fuel Italian imperialism and obscure the successes of liberal Italy in the aftermath of World War I.

A few years previously the Slavonic archbishop Rajcevic of Zara, in discussing the "Glagolitic controversy", had denounced the movement as "an innovation introduced by Panslavism to make it easy for the Catholic clergy, after any great revolution in the Balkan States, to break with Latin Rome."