Slovene_minority_in_Italy_(1920–1947)
The Slovene minority in Italy (1920–1947) was the indigenous Slovene population—approximately 327,000 out of a total population of 1.3[1] million ethnic Slovenes at the time[2]—that was cut from the remaining three-quarters of the Slovene ethnic community after the First World War. According to the secret Treaty of London and the Treaty of Rapallo in 1920, the former Austrian Littoral and western part of the former Inner Carniola of defeated Austria-Hungary were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy. Whereas only a few thousand Italians were left in the new South Slavic[lower-roman 1] state, a population of half a million Slavs,[3] both Slovenes and Croats, was subjected to forced Italianization until the fall of Fascism in Italy. After the Second World War, most of the region known as the Slovenian Littoral was transferred to Yugoslavia under the terms of the Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947.