ARTICLES
EMILIO PALLUA
A SURVEY OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF DALMATIA, CROATIA, AND SLAVONIA
In works concerned with the political history of the South Slavic provinces of Austria-Hungary the constitutional history of Croatia and Slavonia is seldom discussed or given a special place.* This history falls into four main periods. After the national dynasty died out, and after the struggle be- tween the Croat nobility and the Hungarian kings Ladislas and Koloman, a constitutional relationship between the King of Hungary and the Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia was established in 1102. This relationship lasted until 1527. The second period, which began January 1, 1527, with the elec- tion of Ferdinand I as king of Croatia and Dalmatia, lasted until 1790. the date of the reestablishment of constitutional rule after the death of Joseph II and the end of the absolutist rule that was called after him. A third period began with the Sabor (diet) of 1790 and ended with the civil war in the Austrian Monarchy, in which, in 1848, Croatia and Hungary took opposite sides. This period is charac- terized by the aggressive attitude of Hungary toward the constitu-
* Until 1918, the constitutional authorities of Croatia and Slavonia (the Sabor [diet], the Ban [prorex], and the Ban's government) always officially referred to the Kingdom of Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia, or, in reverse order, Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia. Dalmatia was only inserted in the title of kings and of the government by a legal fiction. In the period ending in 1918, the full title of the government of Croatia-Slavonia was Kraljevska Hrvatsko-Slavonsko- Dalmatinska Zemaljska Vlada-Royal Croatian-Slavonian-Dalmatian Government. This draws attention to the extreme complexity of the Dalmatian situation, in which are involved political factors that go beyond the limits of this article. tional rights of Croatia and by attempts to achieve the Magyarization of Croatia. The period culminated in a very clear cutting off of all constitutional relations between Hungary and Croatia and ended after evolution in the Austrian Monarchy brought about the Austro-Hungarian Ausgleich (Compromise) of 1867 and the creation of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian Compromise was followed in 1868 by the Hungaro-Croatian Nagodba (Compromise). The fourth and last period of Croatian constitutional evolution took place after the Nagodba. It is worth analyzing in more detail because it was the last period of the separate constitutional exis- tence of Croatia. With the unification of the South Slavic parts of Austria-Hungary and the Kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro, this special constitutional life based on the historical, largely unwritten constitution of Croatia came to an end. The first period of constitutional development, after the ending of the rule of the Croatian kings,1 and the establishment of a constitutional bond with Hungary that was to last for more than eight centuries, rested upon an agreement that is usually called Pacta Conventa.2 This agreement, which was reached between King Kolomon of Hungary and representatives of the twelve noble clans of Croatia, was further strengthened by privileges granted by the king after 1102 to various Dalmatian towns.3
1. For a history of the last years of this kingdom, see Ferdinand von !:;išié, Geschichte der Krodten (Zagreb: Matica Hrvatska, 1917), and by the same author, Povijest Hrvata u vrijeme narodnih vladara, (Zagreb: Zaklada skolskih knjiga, 1925). 2. The name Pacta Conventa is often given by legal writers, e.g., N. TomaSi6, Fundamenta juris publici regni Croatiae. Najstarije doba: Pacta Conventa (Zagreb: Kr. Hrv. -Slav. -Dalm. Zemaljska vlada, 1918). Some authors refer to it as Appendicula because it was appended to different manuscripts of Historia Salonitanae; see especially !:;išié. It is also referred to as Qualiter, by Barada and others, according to the first word of the transcript. 3. The geographic term Dalmatia covered different territories in different historical periods. F. !:;išié in La formation du terme gL4ographique actuel de "Dalmatie" (Zagreb: Narodne starine JAZU, 1930), pp. 1-9, explains how the Roman province of Dalmatia consisted of the territory between the River Rasta and the River Mat in Albania, to be restricted in the Byzantine period in the Middle Ages to the towns and islands on which the Byzantine Empire exercised its authority-Zadar, Trogir, Split, Dubrovnik (Ragusa), Kotor, and the islands of Krk, Cres, Losing, and Rab. Zadar remained over the centuries, until 1918, the seat of the authorities of Dalmatia. In the Middle Ages, Klis, Knin, and Biograd-na- moru were in Croatia. This Dalmatia, after 1420, passed into the domination of Venice and after various wars with the Turks was extended inland along two