Istrian identity

[Ricardolindo]

The medieval Kingdom of Croatia only included far eastern Istria and lost it to the Holy Roman Empire in the late 11th century. However, the local South Slavs developed a Croatian identity. Why was this so and how can it be changed? Could the local South Slavs develop their own identity?

 

[Ricardolindo]

I asked MakiRoc at Reddit, who I knew from the other place, and he told me that Istria was depopulated by several outbreaks of the plague in the 15th century and repopulated by Croats. He says he believes an Istrian national identity to be possible as there is a very strong regional identity. For a Slovene identity, we would need it to be populated by Slovenes, which we could if the Holy Roman Empire had all of it and repopulated it with Slovenes.
Anyways, according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istria#Italy_(1919–1947), there was a strong movement for an independent Istria following World War I.