Croatia

Croatia to the Ottoman conquests

The lands where the Croats would settle and establish their state lay just within the borders of the Western Roman Empire. In the 6th and 7th centuries ce, Slavs arrived in the western Balkans, settling on Byzantine territory along the Adriatic and in the hinterland and gradually merging with the indigenous Latinized population. Eventually they accepted the Roman Catholic Church, though preserving a Slavonic liturgy. In the 9th century an independent Croatian state developed with its centre in northern Dalmatia, later incorporating Croatia proper and Slavonia as well. This state grew into a powerful military force under King Tomislav (reigned c. 910–928). Croatia retained its independence under native kings until 1102, when the crown passed into the hands of the Hungarian dynasty. The precise terms of this relationship later became a matter of dispute. Nonetheless, even under dynastic union with Hungary, institutions of separate Croatian statehood were maintained through the Sabor (an assembly of Croatian nobles) and the ban (viceroy). In addition, the Croatian nobles retained their lands and titles.

Over the following centuries, the area associated with the name Croatia shifted gradually north and west as its territory was eroded, first with the loss of Dalmatia to Venice by 1420 and then as a result of Ottoman conquests in the 16th century. The Croatian nobility maintained their claims to lands occupied by the Ottomans, hoping to repossess them once liberated. A Croatian national tradition also survived within these territories, as well as in lands under Venetian rule. A broader Croatian ethnic identity would be further consolidated among the Catholics of Dalmatia and of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the nationalist movements of the 19th century.

The Austrian Habsburgs, elected to the throne of Croatia in 1527 after the death of King Louis II of Hungary at the Battle of Mohács, defended the “remnant of the remnants” of Croatia by establishing the Military Frontier (German: Militärgrenze; Serbo-Croatian: Vojna Krajina), a defensive zone along the border with the Ottoman-controlled lands. Because it was ruled directly by the Habsburg war council, the Military Frontier further reduced the amount of land under the control of Croatian nobles, the Sabor, and the ban. Furthermore, its military units and their land rights attracted not only some Croatian peasants but also a larger Orthodox inflow from the Ottoman-conquered territories. Such was the origin of Croatia’s minority Serb population.

Under the pressures caused by the Ottoman invasions and increased obligations to landlords, the position of the Croatian peasantry deteriorated, leading to a number of rebellions—most notably in 1573. The nobility, too, was under pressure from Habsburg absolutism. An anti-Habsburg conspiracy of Croatian and Hungarian nobles was unsuccessful, and its leaders, including Petar Zrinski, ban of Croatia, were executed in 1671. Their extensive properties in Croatia were confiscated by the Habsburg crown.

Ragusa and the Croat Renaissance in Dalmatia

The Adriatic port of Ragusa had been founded by Latinized colonists, but by the 14th century it had been largely Slavicized and had acquired its alternate name of Dubrovnik. The largely Croat republic of Ragusa maintained a precarious autonomy under the suzerainty of Venice, Hungary, and (after 1397) the Ottoman Empire. Its wealth as a trading power was based on its role as an intermediary between East and West, and it nurtured a flourishing cultural life. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Ragusa and other Dalmatian cities under the rule of Venice became the centre of the Croat Renaissance, which produced, in addition to works of art and science, an extensive and powerful literature that had a lasting influence on the development of the Croatian literary language. As a mercantile power, however, Ragusa eventually entered a decline parallel to that of Venice, so that by the 18th century it had become little more than an economic backwater. Ragusa retained its autonomy as a city-state until 1806, when it was occupied by Napoleon I’s armies. During the French occupation of all of Dalmatia, which lasted until 1813, the region was designated as part of the Illyrian Provinces, where education and publications in South Slav languages were allowed.