Balkans

The Croatian National Revival Movement (1830–1847) and the Serbs (III)

2020-02-072020-02-07 White Nettle

In the Yugoslav historiography (1918–1941; 1945–1991) Lj. Gaj’s decision to choose a Illyrian name and the štokavian dialect for the Croatian national revival movement was politically explained by his wish to culturally and even politically unite all the South Slavs, believing that this was an ancient common name for all the (Balkan) Slavs, because he like the other leaders of the Illyrian Movement considered the ancient Balkan Illyrians (or Illyrs) as the South Slavic and even Slavic ancestors. However, this decision had much deeper roots and totally different purposes than it was officially presented by the Yugoslav historians. An undisputable fact is that Lj. Gaj chose the Serbian literal language (based on the people’s spoken language) for the literal language of all Croats. Gaj by himself recognized that the Croatian leaders of the national revival movement accepted exactly the Serbian literal language, which was reformed by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, for the literal language of the Croats […]

Balkans

The Croatian National Revival Movement (1830–1847) and the Serbs (II)

2020-01-072020-01-07 White Nettle

Lj. Gaj and his followers required that the Croatian national language has to be accepted as an official-bureaucratic medium of correspondence in the Triune Kingdom (Dalmatia-Croatia-Slavonia) within the Habsburg Monarchy instead of the Hungarian, Latin or German […]

History

The Idea of Pan-Slavic Ethnolinguistic Kinship and Reciprocity in Dalmatia and Croatia, 1477–1706

2018-11-012018-11-01 White Nettle

This paper sets out to examine and clarify the historical development of the ideological concept of Pan-Slavism, which was created by the writers of Dalmatia and Croatia at the time of the late Renaissance and early Baroque (from the end of the 15th century to the very beginning of the 18th century). The literary works of that time by many of Dalmatia’s and Croatia’s writers deal with the ethnolinguistic aspect of Pan-Slavic unity, solidarity, kinship and reciprocity […]

Croats

The Idea of a Greater Croatia by Pavao Ritter Vitezović (III)

2018-09-262018-09-26 White Nettle

As a result of the Polonization of the vast territories of East-Central Europe from 1569 to 1795 many Poles considered these lands as the Polish linguistic and cultural space. It became a common attitude of modern Western historians of non-Polish origin to describe the Republic of Two Nations as an exclusively the Polish one, due to the great scope of the Polonization of the Lithuanian society and culture […]

Balkans

The Idea of a Greater Croatia by Pavao Ritter Vitezović (II)

2018-09-162018-09-16 White Nettle

P. R. Vitezović’s writings were especially directed against pro-Venetian texts of the famous historian and doctor of law from Dalmatian city of Trogir – Ivan Lučić (Lucius Joannes 1604–1679) – who is traditionally considered as a founder of the Croatian scientific historiography. Lučić’s most important work – De Regno Dalmatiae et Croatiae libri six (“The Kingdom of Dalmatia and Croatia in Six Volumes”), Amsterdam, 1668 – that includes many narrative sources, genealogical tables and historical-geographical maps, tells the historical truth that Dalmatia in former time was a separate territory from the state of Croatia and, in fact, the Venetian possession […]

Balkans

The Idea of a Greater Croatia by Pavao Ritter Vitezović (I)

2018-09-092018-09-09 White Nettle

The article will examine the model for the creation of a Greater Croatia designed by a Croatian nobleman, publicist and historian Pavao Ritter Vitezović (1652–1713). The article will offer a new interpretation of the substance and significance of Vitezović’s political ideology. Many historians have viewed Vitezović’s political thought and his developed ideological framework of a united South Slavic state as part of a wider pan-Slavic world […]