Lower Paleolithic (500,000-300,000 years ago)
The very first Pre-Venetian settlements consisted of hunter-gatherers present between the Lessini and the Berici.
Venetici (3500 years ago)
The Venetkens of the Bronze and then Iron Ages, organized in Polis, city states, were a people with an economy based on agriculture, horse breeding and trade in amber of Baltic origin.
Homo of Mondeval de Sora
Equipped with a rich collection, the burial of a Mesolithic hunter was found at an altitude of 2150 meters in the Belluno Dolomites.
Venetians (3000 years ago)
The Venetians (Weneti, Eneti or Enetoy) are indicated for the first time in the Iliad by the famous Greek author Homer, as fearsome warriors placed to defend the city of Troy. Originally from Palphlagonia they moved to Veneto under the guidance of Antenore.
Venetian people
From the Indo-European root “Wen” (to love), the Popolo Veneto has been officially recognized as a community of people with language, culture, origins and traditions for over three millennia.
Venetians and Roman Empire
Linked by the common Trojan origin of its warrior founders (Aeneas progenitor of the Romans and Antenore progenitor of the Veneti) between the two peoples there was a relationship of alliance and cooperation called “Amicitia”. The Veneti will enjoy Roman citizenship in 49 BC.
Venetia
Territory of the Venetians since the Bronze Age, it was made official by the Roman emperor Augustus in the year 6 AD. (Decima Regio Venetia et Istria) and remained practically unchanged and recognized for 1860 years.
X Regio Venetia et Histria
Endowed with great political stability and high economic, cultural and social dynamism, it was an area organized into large aristocracies characterized by an active role in large-scale commerce.
Barbarian Invasions
Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, numerous barbarian populations passed and settled on the Venetian lands (Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Lombards, Franks)
Medieval Venetians
For a long time during the Middle Ages, while retaining their peculiarities as a people, the Veneti were divided into “Veneti di terraferma” (Venetians from the mainland) and “Veneti Marittimi” (maritime Venetians)
State of Venice and City of Venice
The toponym Venetia (Eng.: Venice) understood as State (Lat .: Venetiarum Res Publica) is much older than that of City (Venetiarum Civitas).
Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia (XV Sec.-1797)
Like England, France and Spain from the early 1400s also the Venetians united in their own National State (Venetiarum Res Publica or Venetian Republic). Since then, the State of Venice, with the City of Venice as its capital, will last for almost half a millennium.
Maritime Republic
Erroneously indicated in school books as one of the four “maritime republic”, the Republic of Venice was one of the largest national states on the Italian peninsula.
Franco-Austrian invasion (1796-1797)
Violating the principle of neutrality of the Serenissima, the armies of Bonaparte and that of the Habsburgs invaded the territory of Venice in 1796 and occupied it militarily, attacking each other for two years.
The Partition of Venetia
Austria and France end hostilities and agree on the division of the State of Venetia, first with the treaty of Leoben (April 1797) and then with that of Campoformio (October 1797.
French declaration of war
Napoleone from Marghera orders a suicide attack to cause a diplomatic incident with Venice. Having found the casus belli, the French army declared war on the Serenissima on 2 May 1797.
The irregular end of the Venetian Republic
Without the quorum to mark its end, the representatives of the government of the Serenissima on 12 May 1797 declared the end of the oldest and longest-lived Republic in the world.
Three subdiencies (1797-1945)
After 4 centuries of republican government, the Venetian population in less than one hundred and fifty years became French subjects of Bonaparte, of the Habsburgs of the Kingdom of Austria and of the Savoys of the Kingdom of Italy on several occasions.
The Austrian Kingdom of Lombardians-Venetians (it.: Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia)
In the Osterreich Lombardisch-Venetienanisches Konigreich (1815-1866), Venetia becomes a province of the Hapsburg empire, maintaining its capital (City of Venice). The Venetian people and the Venetian language continue to be legally recognized by the Kingdom of Austria.
Republic of San Marco (March 22, 1848 – August 22, 1849)
In 1848 the Venetian patriots reached the city of Venice and revived the Venetian Republic. With great heroism, the republicans defended the capital for a year and a half, fighting for national independence against the interference of any king or emperor.
Austro-Prussian War (June and August 1866)
The Kingdom of Italy allies itself with the Kingdom of Prussia against the Kingdom of Austria. The Savoy army, despite having lost both the two decisive battles against the Habsburgs (Custoza and Lissa), enjoys the weapons of the Prussian victory at Sadowa without honor and effectively annexes a part of Venice (Euganea).
Cession of Venice (October 19, 1866)
The official transfer of Venice (Euganea) to the Kingdom of Savoy, snubbed by the Kingdom of Austria as undefeated on the battlefield, took place only through the French representative of Napoleon III.
Plebiscite (October 21 and 22, 1866)
Organized and managed between 21 and 22 October 1866 by Piedmontese officials during the Savoy occupation.
The plebiscite deprived the Venetians, controlled on sight during the vote by the Savoy military, of the basic right to freedom, secrecy and autonomy.
Annexation of Venetia (November 2, 1866)
The highly intimidating plebiscite (which in any case took place two days after the already implemented transfer) resulted in 99.99% for the Savoys. (unmatched achievement in history)
The division of Venetia
Between 1866 and 1918 the ancient territory of Venetia (henceforth called with the Italian toponym of Venice) was divided into three. Venice Euganea becomes a subject of the Savoy. The Tridentine and Giulia Venetias remain subjects of the Austrian Habsburgs.
Kingdom of Italy
Once the Venetian people (after three millennia of existence) and the Venetian language (after 500 years of documentary history) were ceded to the Kingdom of Italy, they cease to be legally recognized by the Savoy government. Its territory was divided into provinces and managed by royal prefects.
The Great Venetian Emigration
After the Piedmontization of the Euganean Venice, due to the very heavy taxation on the popular class (salt tax and ground tax) in less than thirty years 10 to 30% of the Venetian population fled the Kingdom of Italy.
La Boje “La boje, e de boto la va fora”
In June 1884 in Ceregnano (RO) “la Boje” broke out, the first major agricultural strike in the Kingdom of Italy. The protest was resolved with government repression, the dispatch of the carabinieri, the arrest of 160 Venetian peasants and the subsequent 22 trials.
WWI
In 1915, after 32 years of close alliance, the Savoys declared war on Austria and invaded the remaining Venetian territories under Habsburg jurisdiction. Their conquest will cost the Venetian population great suffering (1/4 will be called to arms) and the death of an entire generation of very young conscripts from all over the Kingdom of Italy and forced to fight.
Second Venetian Emigration
The war ends and misery continues in the Kingdom of Italy. The Venetians emigrated to the Americas, to Europe, and within the Kingdom of Italy to reclaim vast swampy areas in Lazio, Tuscany and Sardinia.
WWII
Following the defeat of the Fascist Kingdom of Italy, most of the Istrian Veneti became the object of genocidal violence by the Yugoslav forces of Marshal Tito. Forced to abandon their lands, they will create a mass exodus opposed by a large part of Italian public opinion.
Italian Republic
After the subjection to the Savoy of the Kingdom of Italy ended, all the inhabitants of the Three Venices in 1945 became citizens of the State of the Italian Republic. Istrian Veneti citizens of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Third Venetian Emigration
After the Second World War, Venetian emigration was directed towards Australia, Canada, Venezuela and South Africa. In Europe to Belgium, Germany and France.
Regions of the Italian State
In 1970 the “Tre Venezie” operated as the Veneto Region, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and the Trentino Alto Adige Region. Veneto is the only one of the three aforementioned regions of the State of the Italian Republic that does not enjoy the status of Autonomous Region.
The Serenissimi
Two hundred years after the fall of the Republic of Venice on 9 May 1997, all the newscasts in the world broadcast the news of the demonstrative action on the bell tower of San Marco by a group of Venetian separatists.
Referendum on the Autonomy of the Veneto Region
The constitutional referendum of 22 October 2017 largely expressed the will of the Venetians to obtain it in a favorable way.
