many italians were forced to leave the country after massacres. economic insecurity, fear of further retaliation and the change of regime that eventually led to the iron curtain splitting the trieste-istria region, resulted in approximately 350,000 people, mostly italians, leaving territories in istria and dalmatia. the inhabitants of territories that were under italian rule since world war i according to the treaty of rapallo of 1920, later assigned to yugoslavia by the paris peace treaty of 1947-02-10 and the london memorandum of 1954 were given a choice of opting to leave (optants) or staying. these exiles were to be given compensation for their loss of property and other indemnity by the italian state under the terms of the peace treaties.