Nezavisna Država Hrvatska i Boka kotorska nakon kapitulacije Kraljevine Italije u rujnu 1943. godine
RELATIONS OF INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA WITH THE BAY OF CATTARO AFTER THE CAPITULATION OF THE KINGDOM OF ITALY IN SEPTEMBER 1943

Summary/Abstract: The Bay of Cattaro, or Kotor, today in the Republic of Montenegro, on the Adriatic coast, is an area historically inhabited by Croat population. During the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Cattaro was part of its province of Dalmatia. For these ethnic and historical reasons, the Ustasha movement led by Ante Pavelić claimed Cattaro as a territory of the future independent Croatian state. Shortly after the Axis invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the Ustasha movement, supported by the Germans and Italians, declared the Independent State of Croatia (ISC). During that period there were attempts to establish Croatian authority in the Bay of Cattaro, but they failed because the Italians occupied and annexed that area as well as large parts of Dalmatia. After the capitulation of Italy in September 1943, the ISC had an opportunity to reclaim Dalmatian and other territories lost to Italy in 1941. This article is based mostly on archival documents of the ISC ministries of internal affairs and liberated areas dealing with the Bay of Cattaro. ISC authorities officially proclaimed the Bay of Cattaro to be part of the Great County of Dubrava in Dubrovnik, i.e. territory of the ISC. In fact, the Germans did not allow the establishment of Croatian administration in that area, but during 1944 ISC authorities sent food supplies to the Bay of Cattaro and tried to protect the local ethnic Croat population from the violence of Serb nationalists. The ISC authorities obviously hoped that they would be able to claim the Bay of Cattaro in the future, after the war. Obviously, such plans came to nothing with the final defeat of the Axis powers.

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