History of Dalmatia

Even in the Stone Age the good climate, the rich soil and the protecting mountains of Dalmatia must have had a tempting effect. For near Sibenik and on Hvar archaeologists found relics testifying that there were first settlements here from 4500 BC at the latest. And as humanity, over the millennia, created the most varied markets and trade goods, the Adriatic area developed into the most important transshipment point between Europe and Asia. By this route the knowledge of how to keep domestic animals also reached Central Europe, for example. The first inhabitants of Dalmatia did not leave historians much: a few artefacts, drawings, hill forts. Otherwise we know little today about these people, neither where they came from nor where they went. All that is certain is: in the 11th century before our era new peoples streamed into the land...

From northern Europe to the Balkans came above all the Illyrians, who built the first permanent villages and castles here shortly before the beginning of our era. The Celts did likewise in the fourth century after Christ; they too were drawn to warmer climes. And even the sun-blessed Greeks travelled into the territory we know today as Dalmatia. They founded centres of trade and contributed their part to the rising density of population. No wonder that between the “new” and the “original inhabitants” waves ran high at times, but smoothed out over time through mutual adaptation of culture. Less harmonious was the first encounter with the Romans: they came even before the Greeks, in the second century BC, with the clear intention of making land and people their own. For this not only many small-step battles were necessary; the beaten and occupied Illyrians also rebelled amply, and so uprisings occurred again and again right into the fourteenth century. Yet the Roman province of Illyricum was already governed in the fourth century by a Caesar born in Dalmatia: the famous emperor Diocletian, whose palace forms the foundation stone and the heart of the city of Split. After his death two turbulent centuries begin for Dalmatia: first the Roman empire falls apart into an eastern and a western part, with the area that will later be called Croatia assigned to the west, but later conquered by the Eastern Roman empire. Despite brief interludes of Italian-German and Gothic rule, Croatia in this period belongs chiefly to Byzantium. But the Byzantines flee again quickly at the end of the sixth and beginning of the seventh century before the migration of the Slavs and Avars, which destroys Salona as well. The Slavs seize power and a sub-clan, the so-called Croats, settle. The region receives a new name, is cultivated and built up, and in the seventh century the first bishop's seat in Split is established in the palace of the Christian-hater Diocletian.

In northern Dalmatia, more precisely in Nin near Zadar, the Croatian state is born. Duke Trpimir declares himself here, in the middle of the ninth century, “prince of the Croats by God's grace”. His political ideas are followed and his claim to power recognised. His successor and descendant Tomislav already calls himself “king” in 924 and consolidates the idea of a Croatian ruling dynasty along the whole Dalmatian coast. But the line dies out and the remaining nobility would rather attach itself to the Hungarian empire than determine a new ruler itself. For Venice has at this point already been trying for some decades to appropriate the region. A strong, protecting ally can therefore do no harm. However, it is not of all that much use either: the Serenissima conquers Dalmatia, the Adriatic islands and a good part of Istria; the Turkish army wide parts of eastern Croatia. While Venice and the Ottoman empire squabble over the Dalmatian towns, the remaining, still Hungarian part falls to the Habsburgs. The whole chaos in the region benefits only the rising branch of the economy that is piracy. For the quarrels and disputes of the three great powers require goods, means of payment and provisions to be procured continually, which the skilful seafarers can easily capture and hide in the impassable mountains. Things became calmer in Croatia only when the Venetians had it officially confirmed at Karlowitz in 1699 that the conquered territories belonged to them. For almost a century palaces are built, trade strengthened and the Turkish army pushed further back — until in 1797 the end of the Republic of Venice is sealed and Croatia becomes part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. And that the region remains until the outbreak of the First World War — apart from a brief phase of French rule after the Napoleonic campaigns — which is however not to be underestimated for the self-confidence of the citizenry. Inspired by the national feeling of the French, the feudal system is first abolished, and in 1830 a national educational movement begins in Croatia: a unified written language, Croatian as the official language in Dalmatia, political parties and aims of its own are only a few effects of this turning back to one's own state. Yet one still feels so much a part of Austria-Hungary that one stands at its side when the world war comes.

Croatia emerges from the First World War as a loser. The country is divided between Italy (Istria, Zadar, some islands) and Serbia. The new state first calls itself the "Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes", later then Yugoslavia. But since Italy protested, a new allocation had to be found: in the end the bone of contention, Rijeka, was divided in such a way that only the Susak district remained in the kingdom and the rest fell to Italy. Yet the forcible division and merging did the young state no good. The conflicts between Croats, Dalmatians and Serbs grew too great, because what came about was not the utopian common state that intellectuals on both sides had long wished for, but a dictate decided centrally and single-handedly in Belgrade. The strife culminated in 1928 in an assassination attempt on the leader of the Croats' peasant party in parliament, in which three further party members also died. Thereupon the Croatian parties unanimously resolved to discontinue their collaboration in politics, which suited King Alexander very well: he promptly banned parties in general and established himself as dictator of Yugoslavia. In 1934 he dies in Marseille from the consequences of an assassination. The individual ethnic groups of Yugoslavia find no peace and even less any friendly dealing with one another, and so from 1941 onwards it was made relatively easy for the German and Italian fascists to murder Jews and Serbs systematically: for with Ante Pavelic a local takes over the leadership of the new fascist Ustasa regime. Mass murders of Croats out of revenge are the consequence of this opportunistic politics. Resistance fighters such as Tito's communist liberation army have to hide in the mountains and on islands, but their small successes still count as heroic deeds long after the war. For while they fight the great, cruel enemy, the Serbs and Croats, the Bosnian Muslims and the Serbs, and the Albanians make war on one another in a confused and brutal civil war.

The communism of Yugoslavia can hardly be compared with that of the rest of Europe and Asia. Tito, who after his successes as an underground fighter could easily have himself elected president, broke with Stalin as early as 1948 and was expelled from the Communist International. A status he did not regret. On the contrary: it was he who in 1961 organised the first conference of the non-aligned countries in order to strengthen himself and the others in their independence. Yet as adroitly as Tito could act on the foreign-policy stage, so blind was he to domestic problems: violence and ignorance were his style of government's answer to smouldering conflicts. The differences between the individual ethnic groups grew, so that after Tito's death in 1980 a new nationalism appeared in which it was not the state of Yugoslavia but individual origin that played the main role. This already high potential for conflict was further sharpened by a weak economy and social differences.

Shortly after Slovenia and Croatia had proclaimed their independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, war broke out. From Slovenia across Croatia to Bosnia-Herzegovina the front lines extended. Serbs conquered large parts of the Croatian hinterland, and cities such as Dubrovnik, Zadar and Sibenik were fiercely bombarded and fought over. By 1995, however, the Croats succeeded in reconquering the greater part of this territory, and the people driven out from there were able to return to their old homeland. Under international pressure a peace agreement was finally negotiated, and through the engagement of German politicians the EU recognised Croatia and Slovenia as independent states in 1992. But the new state was weakened: bombed-out houses, thousands of refugees, a barely existent tourism and the weak infrastructure gave Croatia a hard time. In addition, the resolute to authoritarian president Tudman blocked many of his own chances by not only refusing close cooperation with the international court of justice in The Hague but also making free reporting difficult for journalists. After his death in 1999 people in Croatia saw a new possibility for an upswing, lasting peace and a better life: the EU.

With Croatia's new president Stipe Mesic, member of the Croatian People's Party and voted into office in 2000 with 56%, Croatia has a head of state for whom membership of the EU has the highest priority. He supported The Hague in pending investigations, extradited war criminals, advocates the liberalisation of trade, wants to revise the legal system and is also not negatively disposed towards the privatisation of former state enterprises. Croatia's accession to NATO in the year 2000 was his first success; since 2005 he has been negotiating the exact conditions of membership with the European Union. And things are looking good for Croatia - not only as regards admission to the EU, but also and above all the situation of the country itself: in the end this turbulent, partly brutal, partly tragic, always episodic history does after all still lead to a condition of peace and stability, possibly even to a new golden age for Croatia - anyone who sees the optimistic faces of the Croats can hardly believe anything else!