Free State of Fiume

The Free State of Fiume was a small independent state created in 1920 to settle the dispute between Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes over the Adriatic port of Fiume, today Rijeka in Croatia. Its territory covered only 28 square kilometres: the city, a rural belt to its north and a corridor linking it to Italy. Fiume had enjoyed special status for centuries, first as a free port of the Holy Roman Empire and later as a corpus separatum of the Kingdom of Hungary. After the First World War the Great Powers proposed it as a buffer state, and the Treaty of Rapallo established the free state in November 1920. The poet Gabriele D'Annunzio had briefly seized the city in 1919, and his legacy complicated its politics. The new state adopted a constitution and currency but remained unstable. In 1924 the Treaty of Rome divided its territory: Italy annexed the city, while the corridor passed to Yugoslavia. The government-in-exile continued to claim sovereignty for decades.