Naslov
At the Borders of Empires: Environment and Marginality in the Mediterranean Croatia

Autori
Fuerst-Bjeliš, Borna ; Cvitanović, Marin

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
Second World Congress of Environmental History: Environmental History in the Making: 8-12 July 2014, Guimaraes, Portugal / - Minho : Universidade do Minho, The International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations, 2014, 82-83

Skup
Second World Congress of Environmental History: Environmental History in the Making

Mjesto i datum
Guimarães, Portugal, 08.07.2014. - 12.07.2014

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Poster

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
borderlands; Croatia; Mediterranean; environment; marginality; karst

Sažetak
Borderlands, marginality and environment are issues that are generally strongly interrelated and have particular expression and meaning in Croatian Dalmatia. In a wider sense, Dalmatia is a border region throughout much of its history, since the Middle Ages. Specific position between the borderlands and the littoral developmental axis has launched the marginal character of the karst Dalmatian interior with considerable environmental response. Environmental response has different expressions due to the multiple factors interplay and their changing significance in the course of the centuries: borderlands, karst, and littoralization as inner and outer marginality factors. Narrative (travel accounts) and graphic (cadastral and cartographic) sources have documented the beginning of the main phase of environmental manipulation in 17th and 18th centuries as a consequence of increased number of population and cattle that occurred with the stabilization of Venetian - Ottoman border in Dalmatia. The image of the Dalmatian karst hinterland as presented in travel accounts of the time refers to rocky, dry and desert land. However, abandoning of land due to the process of littoralization in the second half of 20th century, initiated the inverse process of natural succession and re-afforestation. For interior Mediterranean Croatia, the littoralization process means primarily the loss of population. Population mostly permanently abandoned land and emigrated to the growing cities - working centers in the littoral zone. Depopulation, at the other hand, reduces the environmental pressure. Thus, depopulation, abandoning of land, and dissolution of traditional lifestyle based primarily on pastoralism and localized tillage zones, start the natural process of succession and re- afforestation.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

POVEZANOST RADA