engleski

South Croatia – regional complex of Dalmatia as mental construction

The specific theoretical approach used in researching the region is a traditional or historical-geographical region i.e. an entity existing in the collective awareness of people (vernacular). It was established upon the collective awareness of common history, territory and origin, whereas the main uniting element is the region's geographical name (horonym). Considering frequent historical and political- geographical changes all over Croatia, Croatian territory has been divided into several large historical regions that were developing in different European states (Dalmatia, Slavonia, Istria). In traditional and social geographical circumstances the area of South Croatia has been perceived as the region of Dalmatia. However, the last political-geographical spatial unit that de jure existed and carried the name of Dalmatia is the homonymous Kingdom during the so-called second Austrian Government. Since 1918 there is no longer administrative and territorial region that carries the name. Although the horonym Dalmatia stopped existing de jure, there is still a perception of Dalmatian territory which still exists within certain exceptions, mostly in the frames of the former territorial region called Austrian Dalmatia. That perceptive region mostly corresponds with the contemporary Croatian territorial county organization, according to which (the already mentioned area) is divided into 4 smaller regions. However, territorially, these do not match completely with the former Kingdom of Dalmatia. Furthermore, the area of the South Croatia according to the contemporary economic views doesn't have territorial integrality but it is under the huge influence of a certain towns such as Split and Zadar and less by Sibenik and Dubrovnik. The region includes the connection between the certain area and community which is a bearer of a collective identification, the aim of this work is to analyze territorial identification of the population of South Croatia. The survey includes population on the former Austrian Dalmatia territory especially to point out the bordering areas that nowadays partly belong to neighboring country Montenegro and also the area which includes, according to the county organization of the Republic of Croatia, territorial parts of the other regions (particulary Lika).

: collective identification; historical region; horonym; vernacular region; Dalmatia; Croatia

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