Trieste

Trieste is situated in the north-eastern corner of the Adriatic sea. Until 1918, when its population was nearly two-thirds Italian, it was the Austro-Hungarian empire's principal port. At the end of the First World War it was ceded to Italy; at the end of the Second it was the scene of the first clash of the Cold War, for the region of Venezia Giulia, of which Trieste is a part, was claimed by both Italy and Yugoslavia, and in March 1945Tito and the Partisans launched an offensive into the area. After occupying most of it Tito then abrogated an agreement he had made that the western Allies could establish a military government there, and on 2 May demanded that all Allied forces withdraw behind the River Isonzo. On 12 May Churchill, concerned about Soviet intentions, cabled Truman that an ‘Iron Curtain is drawn down upon their front. We do not know what was going on behind. There seems little doubt that the whole of the regions east of the line Lübeck–Trieste–Corfu will soon be completely in their hands . . .’

During the negotiations which followed Tito's forces entered Austria, but on 9 June an agreement was signed in Belgrade and the Partisans withdrew from Austria, and from Trieste and its environs. The peace treaty with Italy signed in Paris in 1947 created the Free Territory of Trieste, but this failed to work and eventually the area was partitioned between the two countries with the port remaining in Italian hands.