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Historical background to Split
Emerging from a Greek settlement founded between the 3rd and 4th centuries, the height of Split's history came in 295 AD when Roman emperor Diocletian ordered a residence for his retirement to be built there. It took ten years to build this magnificent palace and Diocletian lived there until his death ( 313 AD) and after that, many Roman rulers continued to use it as a retreat. When the Roman colony of Salona was abandoned in the 7th century, many of its inhabitants sought sanctuary behind the palace's high walls and their descendants lived there until the present day.
The city enjoyed a good degree of autonomy between the 12th and 14th centuries before 1420 when it was conquered by the Venetians. In 1797, after the fall of Venetian rule, Split was ruled by the Austrians, and briefly by the French, before becoming part of the Yugoslavia that was formed in 1918. Much of its development occurred after 1920 when Dalmatia's official capital, Zadar, became an Italian enclave. In 1941, the city was occupied by the Italians. A very strong resistance movement evolved soon and the city was first liberated in 1943, after the capitulation of Italy, and then finally in October of 1944 when the first people's government of Croatia was formed.