engleski

Proto-national ideologies and cultural components in Dalmatia, 1420-1848

Early-modern Dalmatians harboured various proto-national identities. This paper presents the development of their municipal consciousness and its relation to the broader ideologies of the Dalmatian regionalism and Croat and Slavic reciprocity. This transition followed the European pattern of Renaissance, Baroque, and Enlightenment. The legacy of Dalmatian regionalism ideologically and chronologically bridged medieval communal solidarity and modern nationalism. The municipal ideology can trace its roots from the medieval Dalmatian civitas which preserved the classical legacy of the Roman province. Venice initiated the integration of the Dalmatian medieval communes on the pattern of the supranational Venetian state. Administrative, economic and military changes integrated the province and replaced the old pro-Habsburg elite with a new one, devoted to Venice. During the last century of the Venetian rule, Dalmatian enlightened writers embarked on a process of spiritual integration of the province, using the regional idea to weld the population together. In the same time pro-Croatian political stimuli came from outside the city walls initiated by Franciscans like Kačić, Grabovac and Dorotić. Venice, France and Austria, the subsequent rulers of Dalmatia from the fifteenth century to World War I, emphasized the regional allegiance of the Dalmatians in order to withstand integration of the province with medieval Hungary-Croatia and to exploit the symbolism of ancient Roman Dalmatia for the sake of their own prestige. During the period of Habsburg restoration Dalmatia was perceived by Romanticists elite as a national bridge between East and West, the Italians and the Slavs. Yet, the revolutionary 1848 exposed the multi-cultural Dalmatian legacy to nationalizing efforts and drove a wedge between Italan and Slav liberals. The elite protested the appointment of the Croat Jelačić as governor of Dalmatia and discarded letters from Croatia calling for the union. Although the nobility and urban elite of the coast were aware of their Slavic origin, they felt different from Croats from Croatia proper. With the constitutional changes proclaimed in 1860, the fight for the modern national loyalty of the population, could start anew.

Dalmatia, Venetia, Habsburg Monarchy, protonationalism, regionalism, ideologies

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