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The Fiume Crisis: Life in the Wake of the Habsburg Empire
Recasting the birth of fascism, nationalism, and the fall of empire after World War I, Dominique Kirchner Reill recounts how the people of Fiume tried to recreate empire in the guise of the nation.
The Fiume Crisis recasts what we know about the birth of fascism, the rise of nationalism, and the fall of empire after World War I by telling the story of the three-year period when the Adriatic city of Fiume (today Rijeka, in Croatia) generated an international crisis.
In 1919 the multicultural former Habsburg city was occupied by the paramilitary forces of the flamboyant poet-soldier Gabriele D’Annunzio, who aimed to annex the territory to Italy and became an inspiration to Mussolini. Many local Italians supported the effort, nurturing a standard tale of nationalist fanaticism. However, Dominique Kirchner Reill shows that practical realities, not nationalist ideals, were in the driver’s seat. Support for annexation was largely a result of the daily frustrations of life in a “ghost state” set adrift by the fall of the empire. D’Annunzio’s ideology and proto-fascist charisma notwithstanding, what the people of Fiume wanted was prosperity, which they associated with the autonomy they had enjoyed under Habsburg sovereignty. In these twilight years between the world that was and the world that would be, many across the former empire sought to restore the familiar forms of governance that once supported them. To the extent that they turned to nation-states, it was not out of zeal for nationalist self-determination but in the hope that these states would restore the benefits of cosmopolitan empire.
Against the too-smooth narrative of postwar nationalism, The Fiume Crisis demonstrates the endurance of the imperial imagination and carves out an essential place for history from below.
The Fiume Crisis recasts what we know about the birth of fascism, the rise of nationalism, and the fall of empire after World War I by telling the story of the three-year period when the Adriatic city of Fiume (today Rijeka, in Croatia) generated an international crisis.
In 1919 the multicultural former Habsburg city was occupied by the paramilitary forces of the flamboyant poet-soldier Gabriele D’Annunzio, who aimed to annex the territory to Italy and became an inspiration to Mussolini. Many local Italians supported the effort, nurturing a standard tale of nationalist fanaticism. However, Dominique Kirchner Reill shows that practical realities, not nationalist ideals, were in the driver’s seat. Support for annexation was largely a result of the daily frustrations of life in a “ghost state” set adrift by the fall of the empire. D’Annunzio’s ideology and proto-fascist charisma notwithstanding, what the people of Fiume wanted was prosperity, which they associated with the autonomy they had enjoyed under Habsburg sovereignty. In these twilight years between the world that was and the world that would be, many across the former empire sought to restore the familiar forms of governance that once supported them. To the extent that they turned to nation-states, it was not out of zeal for nationalist self-determination but in the hope that these states would restore the benefits of cosmopolitan empire.
Against the too-smooth narrative of postwar nationalism, The Fiume Crisis demonstrates the endurance of the imperial imagination and carves out an essential place for history from below.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 11, 2025
This is a well-researched book about the city state of Fiume after the World War I. Fiume was a multi- ethnic city state within the Austro-Hungarian Empire and a major trading port. After the war Italians believed that they had been shortchanged by the other allies. France and England were given mandates and control over other territories. Italians felt the deserved to control more of the Adriatic, especially Fiume. Today Fiume is known as Rijeka and is part of Croatia.
This book documents the struggle over the city and the nationalist sentiments that drove the issues of the day. Reill describes these events as proto-fascist attacks that contributed to the rise Mussolini. Riell discusses the attempts to Italianize the city and eventually incorporate the city into the Italian Kingdom. This is discussed through politics, currency, language, citizenship and education.
The book is interesting and very detailed. The research is detailed. It is not casual reading. I would best describe it as scholarly. If you are interested in the end of WWI and or the rise of Mussolini this is a great book.
This book documents the struggle over the city and the nationalist sentiments that drove the issues of the day. Reill describes these events as proto-fascist attacks that contributed to the rise Mussolini. Riell discusses the attempts to Italianize the city and eventually incorporate the city into the Italian Kingdom. This is discussed through politics, currency, language, citizenship and education.
The book is interesting and very detailed. The research is detailed. It is not casual reading. I would best describe it as scholarly. If you are interested in the end of WWI and or the rise of Mussolini this is a great book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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August 31, 2023Before the Habsburg monarchy’s collapse, the port city of Fiume (now Rijeka in Croatia) was a corpus separatum, or semi-autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Hungary. It had its own council under a governor appointed by Budapest, rather than being subordinate to Hungary’s sub-Kingdom of Croatia. Fiume owed its separate status to Hungarians’ post 1867 determination to control their own trade conduit to the outside world, beyond the reach of Habsburg ‘Austria’. In the half-century before the First World War the city duly boomed, its population soaring from 17,000 to 55,000, as it became Hungary’s principal export-import entrepôt as well as the embarkation point for emigrants to the Americas and beyond. The city’s core remained largely Italian-speaking, while the suburbs that sprang up in the Croatian hinterland spoke Serbo-Croat. As of 1918, however, even excluding this hinterland, over half the population in the city’s eight square mile territory spoke a language other than Italian.
In 1918, following four years of Allied economic blockade, both Fiume’s prosperity and its unique status were under threat. The city council hastily proclaimed Fiume an independent city state, but trumpeted its inhabitants’ desire to be annexed to victorious Italy. This demand was agreeable to Italy but disputed by the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Indeed, the Yugoslav case was supported by President Woodrow Wilson on the ground of ‘national self determination’ and the matter was reserved for adjudication by the Allied powers at the Paris Peace Conference, while an inter-Allied occupation force took over the city. The Fiume issue nearly led to the conference foundering when Wilson, confronted with Italian obduracy, appealed to the Italian people over their government’s head, leading to a temporary walkout by the Italian delegation and nationalist uproar in Italy. In September 1919 the Italian poet and ultra nationalist Gabriele D’Annunzio led a paramilitary legion of veterans and other proto-Fascists in a takeover of the city, defying the great powers; but at the end of 1920 the Italian army, acting on behalf of the great powers, ejected D’Annunzio in the so-called ‘Christmas of Blood’. By the terms of the Italo-Yugoslav peace settlement, Fiume was recognised as an independent city state under the aegis of the League of Nations. It was only in 1924 that Mussolini’s Fascist regime dared to reverse this situation and annex Fiume outright.
Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.
Ian D. Armour is Honorary Fellow of History at the University of Exeter.
In 1918, following four years of Allied economic blockade, both Fiume’s prosperity and its unique status were under threat. The city council hastily proclaimed Fiume an independent city state, but trumpeted its inhabitants’ desire to be annexed to victorious Italy. This demand was agreeable to Italy but disputed by the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Indeed, the Yugoslav case was supported by President Woodrow Wilson on the ground of ‘national self determination’ and the matter was reserved for adjudication by the Allied powers at the Paris Peace Conference, while an inter-Allied occupation force took over the city. The Fiume issue nearly led to the conference foundering when Wilson, confronted with Italian obduracy, appealed to the Italian people over their government’s head, leading to a temporary walkout by the Italian delegation and nationalist uproar in Italy. In September 1919 the Italian poet and ultra nationalist Gabriele D’Annunzio led a paramilitary legion of veterans and other proto-Fascists in a takeover of the city, defying the great powers; but at the end of 1920 the Italian army, acting on behalf of the great powers, ejected D’Annunzio in the so-called ‘Christmas of Blood’. By the terms of the Italo-Yugoslav peace settlement, Fiume was recognised as an independent city state under the aegis of the League of Nations. It was only in 1924 that Mussolini’s Fascist regime dared to reverse this situation and annex Fiume outright.
Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.
Ian D. Armour is Honorary Fellow of History at the University of Exeter.
December 6, 2024
It's mainly a social history of how the inhabitants of this city (today its called Rijelka and is in Croatia) on the border between (after WWI) of Italy and Yugoslavia lived. It is mainly focused on how they coped with new, multiple competing factors like currencies (it sounds boring but the situation of having a legal official Italian currency for dealings with the government and illegal currency for day to day living was presented very well) , laws, languages, variations of citizenship in their daily lives. There's lots of individual stories that are good for showing the wider analysis.
The main theme through it is how despite there being a Italian nationalist takeover who wanted the city to be annexed to Italy, on the ground there was a lot more tolerance in topics like language diveristy and (ethnic) names. Compared to post-WWI eastern Europe it was very bloodless despite a far right figure like D'Annunzio taking over (he's not really mentioned that much). Another argument just because there's widespread use of a symbol and language (in this case the Italian flag and slogans) it doesn't really represent support for that thing. A lot of the time it's just to make day to day life easier - more respectabilty, better rations, better access to services like education etc. And that's why in the end D'Annunzio's Fiume just sort of fizzled out in the end after a rather small battle.
Overall I would recomend it if interested in life just after WWI in an area that used to be controlled by Austria-Hungary. A bit academic in tone and a rather narrow focus (one city) so maybe best if you already know a bit about the time period. Because it is so focused on the lives of the city's inhabitants the buildup to Italian Fascism and Mussolini gaining power isn't mentioned that much so I wouldn't read this if you're looking for that.
4/5
The main theme through it is how despite there being a Italian nationalist takeover who wanted the city to be annexed to Italy, on the ground there was a lot more tolerance in topics like language diveristy and (ethnic) names. Compared to post-WWI eastern Europe it was very bloodless despite a far right figure like D'Annunzio taking over (he's not really mentioned that much). Another argument just because there's widespread use of a symbol and language (in this case the Italian flag and slogans) it doesn't really represent support for that thing. A lot of the time it's just to make day to day life easier - more respectabilty, better rations, better access to services like education etc. And that's why in the end D'Annunzio's Fiume just sort of fizzled out in the end after a rather small battle.
Overall I would recomend it if interested in life just after WWI in an area that used to be controlled by Austria-Hungary. A bit academic in tone and a rather narrow focus (one city) so maybe best if you already know a bit about the time period. Because it is so focused on the lives of the city's inhabitants the buildup to Italian Fascism and Mussolini gaining power isn't mentioned that much so I wouldn't read this if you're looking for that.
4/5
February 25, 2022
I enjoyed Dr. Reill's discussion of the Fiume crisis after World War I. Most textbook decisions about the "self-determination of nations" after World War I, focused on German territory that Adolph Hitler subsequently sought to reclaim. The history of this small city-state that was annexed to Italy by Mussolini's Fascists in 1922, depicts how a multi-cultural city that had been dependent on the Austro-Hungarian Empire for trade and subsidies, campaigned for Italian annexation in 1918 - 1921.
Interestingly, lack of willingness of the "Big Three" in Paris--especially the unwillingness of President Wilson--to cede this land to Italy, lessened Italy's post-war status among its people and weakened the republic.
Dr. Reill studies history from the bottom up as well as the top down. The stories and anecdotes from her very thorough research illustrate how the average citizen sought to adapt to changing conditions. How did they avoid conviction for authenticating counterfeit money? How did teachers adapt the curriculum? How did people obtain food, etc. How did people change their names to make them sound more Italian to participate in a campaign for annexation to Italy? How did they create an abundance of Italian flags when there wasn't enough cloth to make clothes?
The book is under 215 pages, and I strongly recommend that you read it!
Interestingly, lack of willingness of the "Big Three" in Paris--especially the unwillingness of President Wilson--to cede this land to Italy, lessened Italy's post-war status among its people and weakened the republic.
Dr. Reill studies history from the bottom up as well as the top down. The stories and anecdotes from her very thorough research illustrate how the average citizen sought to adapt to changing conditions. How did they avoid conviction for authenticating counterfeit money? How did teachers adapt the curriculum? How did people obtain food, etc. How did people change their names to make them sound more Italian to participate in a campaign for annexation to Italy? How did they create an abundance of Italian flags when there wasn't enough cloth to make clothes?
The book is under 215 pages, and I strongly recommend that you read it!
December 28, 2020
The story of the Fiume Crisis is fascinating and one that deserves to be retold and re-examined.
I first came across Fiume a few years ago when I read The Pike which focussed on D’Annunzio’s theatrics and proto-fascism. Since then I have leant about how Fiume emerged as a Hungarian city-state during the C19th, a cosmopolitan city that was home to a mixture of Italians, South Slavs and others.
The end of the First World War and collapse of the Habsburg Empire gave birth to a number of successor states of which Fiume was the smallest. In the Post war peace self determination was supposed to lead to borders drawn along nationalist lines, neatly dividing nationalities but the reality was that Europe was a patchwork quilt of nationalities, nowhere more so than Fiume. Well, actually maybe that wasn’t true - Fiume was predominantly Italian but surrounded by Croatian south Slavs and governed by Hungarians. A complicated mix made more so by Great Power politics in Paris and Italian nationalism.
This book does a fabulous job of balancing the well trodden tales of Italian nationalism, fascism, modernist politics etc with evidence that in reality the Fiumians were far more pragmatic in their nationalism.
I first came across Fiume a few years ago when I read The Pike which focussed on D’Annunzio’s theatrics and proto-fascism. Since then I have leant about how Fiume emerged as a Hungarian city-state during the C19th, a cosmopolitan city that was home to a mixture of Italians, South Slavs and others.
The end of the First World War and collapse of the Habsburg Empire gave birth to a number of successor states of which Fiume was the smallest. In the Post war peace self determination was supposed to lead to borders drawn along nationalist lines, neatly dividing nationalities but the reality was that Europe was a patchwork quilt of nationalities, nowhere more so than Fiume. Well, actually maybe that wasn’t true - Fiume was predominantly Italian but surrounded by Croatian south Slavs and governed by Hungarians. A complicated mix made more so by Great Power politics in Paris and Italian nationalism.
This book does a fabulous job of balancing the well trodden tales of Italian nationalism, fascism, modernist politics etc with evidence that in reality the Fiumians were far more pragmatic in their nationalism.
March 16, 2022
This is a lauded book and for good reason. Taking its name from one of the many territorial questions that the treaties settling World War I did not really solve, Reill takes on a well established mythology that links the crisis to the rise of Fascism in Italy to show a more complex picture that highlights how one modest-sized city albeit with a special status in Austria-Hungary struggled to deal with the legacy of an Empire that disappeared. As she shows support for annexation by Italy was not driven by deep nationalist fervor, thought that could be found. Rather Italy appeared to the people of Fiume, particularly the most influential, to offer the best means to maintain something similar to Fiume's pre-1914 situation. She does this by analyzing how people in Fiume dealt with managing a new currency, finding ways to maintain legal structures, and educational systems.
December 28, 2024
Libro muy interesante, con un contexto historico muy poco documentado y conocido hoy en día: la historia de Fiume (Rijeka hoy en día) durante los 8 años luego de la primera guerra mundial.
A pesar de la interesante temática histórica del libro, éste pierde su encanto en ocasiones. A mi parecer, llega a ser excesivamente descriptivo en determinadas partes lo que aburre al lector.
A pesar de la interesante temática histórica del libro, éste pierde su encanto en ocasiones. A mi parecer, llega a ser excesivamente descriptivo en determinadas partes lo que aburre al lector.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews