GÁBOR DEMETER Agrarian Transformations in Southeastern Europe

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

GÁBOR DEMETER Agrarian Transformations in Southeastern Europe GÁBOR DEMETER Agrarian Transformations in Southeastern Europe (from the late 18th century to World War II) PUBLICATIONS OF THE BULGARIAN–HUNGARIAN HISTORY COMMISSION 3. A MAGYAR–BOLGÁR TÖRTÉNÉSZ VEGYES BIZOTTSÁG KIADVÁNYAI ИЗДАНИЯ НА БЪЛГАРО–УНГАРСКАТАИСТОРИЧЕСКА КОМИСИЯ 2 PUBLICATIONS OF THE BULGARIAN–HUNGARIAN HISTORY COMMISSION 3. GÁBOR DEMETER Agrarian Transformations in Southeastern Europe (from the late 18th century to World War II) Institute for Historical Studies, BAS Institute of History, RCH, HAS Sofia 2017 3 The research has been supported by the Bolyai János Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences This volume was realised within the framework of the Bulgarian–Hungarian joint academic project entitled “Connected Histories: Sources for Building History in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th – 21st Centuries” © Gabor Demeter © Institute for Historical Studies, BAS © Institute of History, RCH, HAS Published by the Institute for Historical Studies, BAS Responsible Editor: Árpád Hornyák, Penka Peykovska ISBN 978-954-2903-31-4 (Institute for Historical Studies, BAS) ISBN 978-963-416-088-5 (Institute of History, RCH, HAS) ISSN 2535-0757 Front and back cover: map from Rónai, A.: Közép-Európa Atlasz. Balatonfüred, 1945. (Areas with grain surplus and graindeficits) and Kanitz (Rose picking). 4 Dedicated to Imre Ress _______________________ 5 6 Contents I. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 9 (a) Problems ........................................................................................................ 12 (b) The agro-ecological features of the region ................................................ 16 (i) Vertical and horizontal dissection .......................................................... 16 (ii) Climate...................................................................................................... 17 (iii) Soils .......................................................................................................... 19 (iv) Agroeconomic needs and best practices ............................................. 20 (c) Concept .......................................................................................................... 22 II. Agriculture and rural societies during the Napoleonic wars (1780–1820) ...... 27 (a) Agriculture in the Ottoman Empire ........................................................... 27 (i) Changing structures ................................................................................. 27 (ii) Agricultural production and society .................................................... 30 (iii) The system of provisionism and its collapse ...................................... 45 (b) Agriculture in landlocked non-Ottoman lands ........................................ 50 (i) The birth of a smallholder society – The origins of Serbian agrarian structure ......................................................................................................... 51 (ii) Borderlands .............................................................................................. 60 (iii) Integration into the imperial division of labour – Hungary ............. 65 (iv) Quantification of grain production and its distribution between social strata – Hungary ................................................................................. 86 III. Integration to the world market (1840s–1870s) ................................................ 104 (a) The effect of the liberalization on prices, trade patterns and wages.... 104 (i) Regional effects of international division of labour ........................... 104 (ii) Trends, prices and wages in agriculture ............................................ 113 (b) The profitability of agrarian production ................................................. 117 (i) The formation and transformation of chiftliks ................................... 117 (ii) Profitability of agrarian production: peasant economies ................. 122 (c) Modernization efforts ................................................................................ 130 (d) Social consequences ................................................................................... 134 (i) Burdens of agrarian societies ................................................................ 134 (ii) The living standard of agrarian classes .............................................. 140 (e) Alternatives of monocultural grain production ..................................... 144 7 IV. Shrinking opportunities of extensive agriculture (1873–1914) ......................152 (a) The impacts of global trends on agriculture, 1873–1900........................152 (i) Problems of measuring productivity and development – data interpretation ...............................................................................................160 (b) The agrarian decline ...................................................................................163 (i) Transformations I. – Land reforms andintrovertion in Bulgaria ......163 (ii) Transformations II. The landuse conflict of animal husbandry and grain production in Serbia .........................................................................167 (iii) Transformation in the borderlands I.: traditional conditions and development driven by colonization processes (Bosnia) .......................178 (iv) Croatia, Slavonia, Slovenia and Dalmatia – the dissolution of communal lands ..........................................................................................187 (v) Transformations in the borderlands II: Macedonia – the alternatives of shrinking grain exports ..........................................................................194 (vi) Forced grain exports against price trends .........................................201 (vii) The effects of independence on the agriculture of Bulgaria ..........209 (viii) Frozen agrarian conditions – Albania (1870-1930s) .......................214 (c) The era of extensive growth (1900–14) and price recovery ...................216 (i) Alternatives of grain production ..........................................................216 (ii) Livelyhood, taxation, wealth, living standards .................................222 (iii) A dead-end success – the polarized agrarian system of Hungary in the 1870s–1914 .............................................................................................232 V. The postwar agriculture, 1920s–40s ....................................................................249 (a) Persisting problems ....................................................................................249 (b) Reconstruction attempts of smallholder agrarian societies: land reforms and consequences .............................................................................................262 (c) Social tensions: living standards, prices, wages and indebtedness, regional differences ..........................................................................................271 (d) The great economic crisis: causes, consequences and responses; agrarian policy during the protectionist era .................................................279 (e) The beginnings of modernisation: technological advance and intensification in the agriculture ....................................................................290 Conclusions ................................................................................................................296 Bibliography ...............................................................................................................297 8 I. Introduction This book deals with the agrarian transformations of the Balkan Peninsula in the 18th-20th centuries. While focusing on the external and internal challenges and responses the volume gives a brief summary on the socio-economic transformations these had caused, and at the same time it tries to compare the evolution of the Balkan agriculture with the development of the neighboring Hungary – representing a different agrarian system. Though agrarian systems in Southeast-Europe were able to play decisive role in supplying Europe only for short periods,1 the agriculture of the Balkan Peninsula yet deserves deeper investigation as (1) 80% of the population of the Balkan Peninsula earned their living from agriculture even in the 1930s, and the state budget also relied on the agrarian incomes for a long time (tithe constituted 30% of state revenues not only in the Ottoman Empire around 1900, but in successor states as well); (2) thus, agrarian production was deeply intertwining with social and even with political questions, which was not so characteristic for Western Europe after the industrial revolution; (3) as this region was still characterized by the preindustrial stage of development, determined by climatic impacts, geographic conditions, self-subsistence and peasant mentality alien to the capitalist thinking; (4) as the development here can be rather described by constant transformations, responses to external (shift from the Levantine to the Atlantic world economy with all its consequences) or internal challenges (extreme population growth), than by quantitative increase (output/hectare); 1 As it was in 1847 for example. But generally, the region could not compete with the mass production of Russia, USA, etc. Even the famous special exports products, like Greek raisins, Bulgarian rose oil, Romanian walnut were more significant for the
Recommended publications
  • Introduction When the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes – from 1929 Kingdom of Yugoslavia – Was Formed in 1918, One of I
    Introduction When the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes – from 1929 Kingdom of Yugoslavia – was formed in 1918, one of its most important tasks was to forge a common collective identity. Intellectual elites in the young state with great optimism agreed that education would play a crucial role in this process. It should come as no surprise, then, that a relatively rich tradition of scholarly research into the representation of collective identities in Yugoslav education has originated, precisely to account for the failure of the Yugoslav project in the long term. Recently, a growing body of scholarly research has established textbooks as one of the more rewarding sources for studying collective identity in education, focusing on ‘what knowledge is included and rejected in ... textbooks, and how the transmission of this selected knowledge often attempts to shape a particular form of national memory, national identity and national consciousness’.1 For the Yugoslav case this emerging research field so far has primarily examined textbooks which were used in the period directly preceding, during and following the disintegration of Yugoslavia.2 However, as the present article hopes to illustrate, textbook analysis can also provide the historian with interesting new elements for the study of collective identities in Yugoslavia’s more distant past. With its focus on national identity in Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian textbooks before the First World War, and later also in interwar Yugoslavia, the work of Charles Jelavich still occupies a somewhat
    [Show full text]
  • State Authority and Competing Arrangements in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes/ Yugoslavia (1918–1941)
    ADMINISTORY ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR VERWALTUNGSGESCHICHTE BAND 5, 2020 SEITE 152–166 D O I : 10.2478/ADHI-2020-0010 State Authority and Competing Arrangements in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes/ Yugoslavia (1918–1941) IVAN KOSNICA Introduction and the content of the unitarian Constitution of 1921 The important feature analysed in this article is the because of this line of thinking, and pursued the relations between state authority and the Croatian policy of not recognizing the Constitution until 1925. Peasant Party (Hrvatska seljačka stranka) (hereinafter Furthermore, the HSS refined its policy from the HSS) with its para-state structures in the Kingdom of mid-1930s and significantly developed a system of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, known as the Kingdom para-state organizations. Thus, the HSS formed »the of Yugoslavia, for the period 1929–1941.1 Para-state state within the state« according to Suzana Leček.4 structures means the system of organizations organized The phrase »competing arrangements« is used in this by the HSS, namely the Peasant Community (Seljačka chapter to indicate the activities of the HSS in opposing sloga), the Economic Community (Gospodarska sloga) state authorities. This, however, does not mean that and the Croatian Civil and Croatian Peasant Protection it was all about competition because cooperation and (Hrvatska seljačka i Hrvatska građanska zaštita) participation of the HSS in state structures existed to a which were the most important ones.2 As stated above, certain degree as well.5 This was particularly apparent relations in the mostly Croatian populated areas of the during the period from 1925 to 1927 when the HSS was Kingdom are analysed.3 part of the central government.
    [Show full text]
  • The Empire Is Dead, Long Live the Empire! Long-Run Persistence of Trust and Corruption in the Bureaucracy
    IZA DP No. 5584 The Empire Is Dead, Long Live the Empire! Long-Run Persistence of Trust and Corruption in the Bureaucracy Sascha O. Becker Katrin Boeckh Christa Hainz Ludger Woessmann March 2011 DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit Institute for the Study of Labor The Empire Is Dead, Long Live the Empire! Long-Run Persistence of Trust and Corruption in the Bureaucracy Sascha O. Becker University of Warwick, Ifo, CEPR, CESifo and IZA Katrin Boeckh OEI Regensburg and University of Munich Christa Hainz Ifo, CESifo and WDI Ludger Woessmann University of Munich, Ifo, CESifo and IZA Discussion Paper No. 5584 March 2011 IZA P.O. Box 7240 53072 Bonn Germany Phone: +49-228-3894-0 Fax: +49-228-3894-180 E-mail: [email protected] Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but the institute itself takes no institutional policy positions. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public.
    [Show full text]
  • Poetika I Povijest Hrvatske Usmene Književnosti
    MARKO DRAGIĆ POETIKA I POVIJEST HRVATSKE USMENE KNJIŽEVNOSTI (FAKULTETSKI UDŽBENIK) AKADEMSKA GODINA 2007/08. Izdavač: Filozofski fakultet, Sveučilišta u Splitu Sinjska 2, 21.000 Split, Republika Hrvatska Tel. 021 384 144, www.ffst.hr Predsjednik Povjerenstva za izdavačku djelatnost: Doc. dr. sc. Ivan J. Bošković Odgovorni urednik: prof. dr. Josip Milat Recenzenti: Prof. dr. sc. Stipe Botica Doc. dr. sc. Ivan Bošković Prof. dr. sc. Boris Škvorc Grafička obrada: Josip Dragić, dipl. iur., Jozo Kraljević, prof. Lektori: Jozo Kraljević, prof., Helena Dragić, prof. Datum postavljanja na mrežu: Podatak o izdanju: 1. izdanje Dostupno u računalnom katalogu Nacionalne i sveučilišne knjižnice u Zagrebu pod brojem: ISBN-13: 978-953-7395-16-2 2 K A Z A L O UVOD .............................................................................................................................. 11 I. LIRSKA POEZIJA..................................................................................................... 14 1. VRSTE USMENIH LIRSKIH PJESAMA.............................................................. 15 SVJETSKA USMENA LIRSKA POEZIJA................................................................ 16 HRVATSKA USMENA LIRSKA POEZIJA U KONTEKSTU TRADICIJSKE KULTURE ...................................................................................................................... 18 ZBORNICI (RUKOPISNE ZBIRKE)..................................................................... 23 1. MITSKE PJESME................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • “Thirty Years After Breakup of the SFRY: Modern Problems of Relations Between the Republics of the Former Yugoslavia”
    RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, INSTITUTE OF ECONOMICS “Thirty years after breakup of the SFRY: modern problems of relations between the republics of the former Yugoslavia” 15th independence anniversary of Montenegro: achievements and challenges Prof. dr Gordana Djurovic University of Monenegro 21 May 2021 1 An overview: from Doclea to the Kingdom of Montenegro (1) • During the Roman Empire, the territory of Montenegro was actually the territory of Duklja (DOCLEA). Doclea was originally the name of the Roman city on the site of modern Podgorica (Ribnica), built by Roman Emperor Diocletian, who hailed from this region of Roman Dalmatia. • With the arrival of the Slovenes in the 7th century, Christianity quickly gained primacy in this region. • Doclea (Duklja) gradually became a Principality (Knezevina - Arhontija) in the second part of the IX century. • The first known prince (knez-arhont) was Petar (971-990), (or Petrislav, according to Kingdom of Doclea by 1100, The Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea or Duklja , Ljetopis popa Dukljanina, XIII century). In 1884 a during the rule of King Constantine Bodin lead stamp was found, on which was engraved in Greek "Petar prince of Doclea"; In that period, Doclea (Duklja) was a principality (Byzantine vassal), and Petar was a christianized Slav prince (before the beginning of the Slavic mission of Cirilo and Metodije in the second part of the IX century (V.Nikcevic, Crnogorski jezik, 1993). • VOJISLAVLJEVIĆ DYNASTY (971-1186) - The first ruler of the Duklja state was Duke Vladimir (990 – 1016.). His successor was duke Vojislav (1018-1043), who is considered the founder of Vojislavljević dynasty, the first Montenegrin dynasty.
    [Show full text]
  • The Empire Is Dead, Long Live the Empire! Long-Run Persistence of Trust and Corruption in the Bureaucracy
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Becker, Sascha O.; Boeckh, Katrin; Hainz, Christa; Woessmann, Ludger Working Paper The empire is dead, long live the empire! Long-run persistence of trust and corruption in the bureaucracy IZA Discussion Papers, No. 5584 Provided in Cooperation with: IZA – Institute of Labor Economics Suggested Citation: Becker, Sascha O.; Boeckh, Katrin; Hainz, Christa; Woessmann, Ludger (2011) : The empire is dead, long live the empire! Long-run persistence of trust and corruption in the bureaucracy, IZA Discussion Papers, No. 5584, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:101:1-201104134065 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/51599 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte.
    [Show full text]
  • The President Vujanovic Visited Herceg Novi
    Strasbourg, 25 July 2007 ACFC/SR(2007)002 Original language: English ___________ Report submitted by the Republic of Montenegro pursuant to Article 25, paragraph 1 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities ___________ (received on 25 July 2007) Republic of Montenegro GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MONTENEGRO Ministry for Human and Minority Rights Protection FIRST REPORT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MONTENEGRO PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 25 PARAGRAPH 1 OF THE FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES Podgorica, June 2007 2 FIRST REPORT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MONTENEGRO PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 25 PARAGRAPH 1 OF THE FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES TABLE OF CONTENTS: page I INTRODUCTORY NOTES-----------------------------------------------------------------3 II GENERAL INFORMATION--------------------------------------------------------------5 1. Brief historical review----------------------------------------------------------5 2. Basic demographic data--------------------------------------------------------6 3. Major economic indicators---------------------------------------------------11 4. Institutional minority protection---------------------------------------------14 5. Constitutional Reform---------------------------------------------------------15 III FRAMEWORK CONVENTION IMPLEMENTATION--------------------------17 Article 1-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------17 Article 2-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------20
    [Show full text]
  • Social Structure and Civil War Mobilization in Montenegro
    COUSINS IN ARMS: SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND CIVIL WAR MOBILIZATION IN MONTENEGRO By Vujo Ilić Submitted to Central European University Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science Supervisor: Erin Kristin Jenne Budapest, Hungary CEU eTD Collection 2019 Abstract Many contemporary civil wars occur in segmentary societies, in which social structure rests on cohesive social groups. These wars tend to produce fast, extensive mobilizations of civilians, yet this reoccurring connection has mostly evaded a systematic analysis. This thesis explains why and how such social structure affects the dynamics of civil war mobilization. Unlike most existing civil war mobilization literature, the theory identifies both prewar and wartime factors, as well as both social groups and armed actors, as the determinants of mobilization. The theory proposes that civil war mobilization is determined primarily by the pre-war social structure and the wartime armed actors’ effects on social structure. The more pre-war social structure rests on cohesive social groups, the more it enables individuals to mobilize in insurgencies effectively. However, the pre-war structure is necessary but not a sufficient explanation for civil war mobilization. When a war starts, armed actors gain a crucial role. Mobilization dynamics during wartime depends on armed actors’ behavior, especially military and political decisions that affect social group cohesion. The horizontal ties of solidarity between group members enable fast and extensive collective action. However, if the armed actors disturb the vertical group status relations, this can change the extent and direction of civilian participation in the war.
    [Show full text]
  • Dnevnik Signalizma 1984-1989 Miroljub Todorović Dnevnik Signalizma 1984-1989 Miroljub Todorović Dnevnik Signalizma 1984-1989
    MIROLJUB TODOROVIć DNEVNIK SIGNALIZMA 1984-1989 MIROLJUB TODOROVIĆ DNEVNIK SIGNALIZMA 1984-1989 MIROLJUB TODOROVIĆ DNEVNIK SIGNALIZMA 1984-1989 Biblioteka „Signal“ Biblioteku je osnovao Miroljub Todorović 1970. godine Izdavači „Everest Media“, 11070 Novi Beograd, Narodnih heroja 32/16 Međunarodna kulturna mreža „Projekat Rastko“ Za izdavače: Boban Knežević i Dejan Ajdačić Urednik biblioteke: Zoran Stefanović Znak biblioteke: M. T. Vid Priprema za štampu: Kasandra Knežević Štampa i povez: „Skripta internacional“, Beograd Tiraž prvog izdanja: 300 primeraka Zvanični sajtovi: Signalizam @ Projekat Rastko http://www.rastko.rs/knjizevnost/signalizam/index.php Signalizam: manifesti, studije, eseji, prikazi http://signalism1.blogspot.rs/ Miroljub Todorović http://www.miroljubtodorovic.com Everest medija www.everest.rs http://casopiskult.com/autori/jelena-maricevic/tokovi-signalizma MIROLJUB TODOROVIĆ DNEVNIK SIGNALIZMA 1984-1989 Beograd, 2019. 1984 „Šta je svet? Vrhovni, totalni i otkriveni horizont svega što je u nastajanju vremena a pokazuje se čoveku fragmen- tarno.“ Akselos „Svet i život su jedno. Ja sam svoj svet (mikrokosmos).“ Vitgenštajn Sreda, 11. januar 1984. „O, vi stvaraoci, vi viši ljudi. Tko mora da rodi, bolestan je, ali tko je rodio, nečist je. Pitajte žene, ne rađa se zato što bi to bilo zadovoljstvo. Od bola koko- daču tek kokoši i pjesnici. Vi stvaraoci, na vama je mnogo šta nečisto. To je zato što ste morali biti majka. Novo dijete: oh, koliko mnogo prljavštine dolazi tako na svijet! Uklo- nite se! A tko je rodio, treba da opere i očisti dušu.“ * (Niče: „Tako je govorio Zaratustra“) Prema prognozi u Beogradu danas umereno oblačno, suvo i prohladno. Ujutru slab mraz, temperatura oko –2 sa poledicom. Vetar slab, severo- zapadni.
    [Show full text]
  • Between Tribes and Nation: the Definition of Yugoslav National Identity in Interwar Yugoslav Elementary School Curricula
    Between Tribes and Nation: The Definition of Yugoslav National Identity in Interwar Yugoslav Elementary School Curricula PIETEr TrOCH (Gent) At the time of the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (SCS) in December 1918, the most important political actors, both within the Kingdom of Serbia and the former Austro-Hungarian lands, accepted the principle of national unity as a basic ideological fundament for the new state. This was clarified, for example, in the speech delivered by the representatives of the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, and in Prince-Regent Aleksandar’s reply on the occasion of the official formation of the Kingdom of SCS on December 1, 1918. In both documents the principle of ethnographical unity of Serbs, Croat and Slovenes took a prominent place.1 However, it soon became clear that concrete interpretations and definitions of Yugoslav national unity varied greatly among the political and cultural elites of the new state. A crucial point of disagreement was the relationship between the Yugoslav and other levels of collective identity available in the region, Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian identities in particular. In the discourse of the period, Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were generally called “tribes” of the Yugoslav nation, clarifying the multilayered character of collective identities in the Yugoslav lands at the time. On the one hand, the notion of an over- arching Yugoslav collective identity was generally accepted, but on the other, Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian particularities remained viable mobilising factors in both the political and cultural realm, and were recognised as a distinct level between the national and the regional.
    [Show full text]
  • Dubrovnik and Korcula Districts Case
    European Scientific Journal December 2013 /SPECIAL/ edition vol.1 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e - ISSN 1857- 7431 SOME DETERMINANTS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH CROATIA IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD: DUBROVNIK AND KORCULA DISTRICTS CASE Marija Benic Penava, PhD, Assistant Prof. University of Dubrovnik, Croatia Abstract The paper examines the territorial changes that have affected Dubrovnik and Korčula districts between the two world wars, as well as some characteristics of the economy in this area. By becoming a part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, southernmost Croatia was further isolated from the European core, and thus from modern economic trends. Therefore, the dominant Dalmatian agrarian economy with its lagging traditional system known as ‘settlers’, with its extremely divided land property, prevented competitiveness of agricultural products in the new market conditions. At the same time, a high proportion of workers in agriculture, a lack of skilled labour and a high illiteracy had significantly reduced the possibilities of the workers being the source of economic growth; which together with a lack of capital and technological progress restricted economic development in southern Croatia. Analyses of the structure and the cultivation of land in the Croatian far south indicates the reasons for an inclination of the population towards service industries in the districts of Dubrovnik and Korčula, which has been preserved in the structure of the economy today. Keywords: Croatia, Dubrovnik district, Korcula district, interwar period Introduction: The Croatian lands which were formerly part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire found themselves within the new interwar Yugoslav state. Thus, the southern part of the former Austrian province of Dalmatia which was in the 1920s divided into Dubrovnik and Korčula districts became a part of the Zeta Banovina in the 1930s.
    [Show full text]
  • Historical Development
    Published on Eurydice (https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice) The Name The name "Crna Gora" (Montenegro) was mentioned for the first time in the Charter of King Milutin (of the Nemanjić dynasty) in 1296. It is believed that the name was derived from the dense forests that covered Mount Lovćen and the surrounding area. The forests were so dark that the viewers got the impression of a "black" mountain. Key Historical Points and Periods During the Roman Empire, the territory of Montenegro was actually the territory ofDuklja (Doclea) named after Illyrian tribe that inhabited it. With the arrival ofthe Slaves in the 7thcentury, Christianity quickly gained primacy in this region. Duklja incorporated the area of Skadar Lake with the nearby mountains. The first ruler of Duklja was Duke Vladimir, the father of Vojislav who founded Vojislavljević dynasty, the first Montenegrin dynasty. Duklja fought its independence from Byzantine Empire in 1042, and was proclaimed kingdom in 1077. Thus, it became one of the first independent states in the Balkans. It was named Zeta, which in the old Slavic languages meant “the harvesters”. Vojislavljević dynasty ruled until the end of the12 th century, when the state was conquered by Serbian ruler Stefan Nemanja. The area of Montenegro was under rule of Serbian lords until the beginning of the second half of the 14th century, when local dynasty of Balšići gained power. They represent the second Montenegrin dynasty. In the 14th century, under the leadership of the Balšić and Crnojević dynasties, it became an independent feudal state and slowly expanded, fighting tirelessly the armies such as the Albanian, and later, the Turkish and the Venetian one.
    [Show full text]