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Dry Border – Ottoman Conquest of Abandoned Fortresses along the Croatian Border in 1630s

Over the last couple of years thousands of migrants have attempted to enter Croatia from the north-western part of Bosnia and Hercegovina via roads that lead to Croatian border crossing Maljevac and the surrounding Kordun area. These endeavours present a significant security and humanitarian crisis, especially for the authorities of the Una-Sana Canton in Bosnia and Hercegovina. However, this particular area, has a long and tumultuous history. It was a part of the so called Dry border, a borderland area where the border between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire ran on dry land and not along the rivers, and as such was more exposed to migration, raids, skirmishes and various illegal activities. In my presentation I will address the question of the Ottoman conquest of abandoned fortresses along the Croatian Border in the course of the 1630s - which was an important step in forming of the aforementioned Dry border. After decades-long process of Ottoman advance on the Croatian territory, their expansion stopped in the late 1590s i.e. after the Peace of Zsitvatorok in 1606. From then on, the border between the Habsburg and Ottoman side on the Croatian territory was rather stabile. Nevertheless, sandwiched between the Ottoman Empire and Habsburg Monarchy stood a number of abandoned fortresses that by the terms of the peace treaty had to remain unoccupied and unmanned. It was so until the 1630s when Ottomans began seizing these fortresses which caused a big stir and protests form the Habsburg side. Based on the Habsburg sources I will demonstrate how this process occurred, how was the issue handled from the Habsburg side and what were the consequences of this late Ottoman expansion.

17. Century, Habsburg Monarchy, Ottoman Empire, Croatia, Croatian Border, forts, castles, towns, borders, frontiers, expansion, peace treaty, conflicts

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