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Apendix 7

COASTAL YUGOSLAVIA: HISTORICAL NOTES

Dalmatia:Illyria:Appolonia

The earliest known inhabitants of Dalmatia were Thracians. Later came lyrians and the Celts.

The Greeks settled the coast and knew it as Appolonia.In due time these parts became part of the Roman Empire.

When the Roman Empire divided into two, Western based on Rome and Easter based on Constantinople,this coast was roughly divided between the two.The Roman Empire Diacletian,early 4th century, built a very large and

Palace at Spolato, Split, much of which survives to this day.

1081 - 1085 The Angevin invasion of the Balkans by way of Dalmatia during the Crusades.

1102 King of Hungary invaded Dalmatia.

1116 Venetian sea power rolls the Hungarians back.They were repelled substantially and other traditional rulers continue to govern.

1160 Local counts, Holy Roman Emperor,assigned jurisdiction over bishops

1177 Frederick Barbarossa, Patriarchof Grado.

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1120 Venetian salt came mainly from saltpans and workings along Dalmatia to what is now Yugoslavia. Salt was a source of great

Dalmatian coast,wealth to the Venetians.

Grain was grown from earliest times along the Dalmatian coast on a coastal strip of land of varying depth.

1366 Venetiawas forced to surrender Dalmatiato the King of Hungary after a long struggle.

1385 The steady advance of the Ottoman Turks forced the Hungarians to give up Dalmatia to Venice.

Dalmatian ports, among them Ragusa,were involved with the grain over many centuries the flourishing trade in spice, wine and became of importance city state and Republic of Ragusa(Dubrovnik)

1453 After many attempts over a long period, Constantinople was finally captured and destroyed by the Ottoman Turks under their leader MohammedII. It then became their capital city, Istambul.

1473 The Venetian Empire was on the defensive against the Ottoman Turks. Their efforts failed to check the advance of the Sultan's forces. Venice had an extensive chain of island ports of refuge and for supplies served as valuable rest stations and Possessions and port bases which from home for their ships trading far.

The people of the Dalmatian coast were substantially Christian; Roman Catholic in the north and further south they were Orthodox.

1626 From this time the Ottoman Turks under Suleiman the Magnificent gradually swept through the Balkans and Hungary over a long period.

By the later 17th century the Turks were at the gates of Vienna with successive attacks and sieges. Successive attacks were made upon the Turks by the armies of various European countries under the leadership of the Holy Roman Emperors, notably Charles V.

By 1669 the possessions of Venice were confined to Dalmatia and the Tonian Islands.

Based on Ragusa(Dubrovnik)the tradition of Roman civilisation persisted. Ragusa with its coastline had formed part of the Roman Empire. From time to time the Turks made concessions to the Serbs in this conquered province of theirs. Much of Dalmatia(southern part) was occupied by the Turks for over 300 years.

In 1683 Turkish armies tempered by a decade of difficult war in the Ukraine, turned westwards and in that year penetrated to the heart of Austria and laid siege to Vienna.

In 1684, after the siege of Vienna by the Turks failed, an attack was launched by the Turks in Dalmatia.This was defeated by forces led by Morosini, a Venetian,who was later to become Doge of Venice.

From 1694 onwards the Russian Czar joined the war against the Turks. Allied forces combined against the Ottomans in Hungary. Peace was made with the defeated Turks at Carlowitzin

1699.Most of Hungary was then ceded to the Habsbergs, the Emperors of Austria.

In 1711 the Turks defeated Czar Peter the Great of Russia and his Allies at the Battle of the River Pruth, bordering Bessarabia (now in the USSR).

In 1714 the Turks gathered their forces and attacked the Venetians in Dalmatia, and enveloped the whole Balkan peninsula.

During 1768-74 also 1787-92 the armies of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, advanced Russian borders to the River Dniester. At this period the Austrians occupied northern Serbia whilst southern Serbia was also included in the Austrian Empire.

1571 At the decisive sea battle of Lepanto the Venetians gained an Important victory over the Turks destroying the Turkish fleets.

Venetian ships generally known as galleys were manned mainly by slaves. Some of the slaves came from Dalmatia and some were Serbs. The galleys were rowed by slaves chained to bars in banks of two or three levels (galley slaves).The Venetians had important war fleets

for many hundred years and at one time controlled much of the Mediterranean Sea.

-Acknowledgement is made to a book called"Venice, Hinge of Europe1081 1797"

by W H McNeill.1974.Universityof Chicago, USA.

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