engleski

Geostrategic Importance of Croatian Islands

Adriatic Sea has had a major geostrategic role on the contact between continental and Mediterranean Europe since the antiquity. Its position and physical features like profound indentedness of the sea into the mainland, well-indented coastline, and numerous islands and islets were crucial factors that attracted maritime forces and caused their mutual rivalry over that part of Europe. Many larger or smaller fortresses, forts, towers, keeps and walls scattered from the Brijuni Islands in the north-west to the Elafiti Islands in the south-east indicate strategic valorization of Croatian Islands during past. The importance of certain strategic points of Croatian archipelago is emphasized by their presence on the maps of different provenances. It should be pointed out that the island forts, except the military function, have also had a markings role, i. e. they were enabling the safer navigation through Adriatic. Until the 19th century, the majority of real and potential military threats that islands were confronting, had been coming from the mainland, and afterwards from the sea. In other words, with the fall of Venetian Republic and the consolidation of Habsburg Monarchy in the Adriatic, the settled and centuries-long geostrategic regularities of this space changed. Islands, that were out of the reach of war operations for a long time, came to the center of geostrategic attention due to external policy of European powers. This was particularly realized during and just after the Second World War. Contemporary military and geographical features of Croatian islands are determined foremost with the creation of independent Republic of Croatia in 1991 as well as it's accession to NATO in 2009.

Adriatic Sea; Croatian Islands; fortifications; geostrategy

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