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 to be built there for his retirement. It took ten years to build this magnificent palace and Diocletian lived there until his death in 313 AD. After that, many Roman rulers continued to use it as a retreat. In the 7th century, when the Roman colony of Salona was abandoned, 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 it was conquered by the Venetians in 1420. After the fall of Venetian rule in 1797, 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 Zadar, Dalmatia's official capital, became an Italian enclave. In 1941, the city was occupied by the Italians and a very strong resistance movement soon evolved 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.