The Historical Geography of Croatia

This monograph gives a comprehensive but in-depth analysis of the territorial development of Croatia and historical processes of significant spatial impact. It covers the millennial time span - from prehistory till the present, through relevant periods, e.g., prehistory, antiquity, Middle Ages, period of Ottoman progression and retreat, Post-Ottoman period of development of the Middle European railway network, the period of South Slavic political associations (old and new Yugoslavia), and the post-Yugoslav period of independent Croatia. The book is highly illustrated with maps and figures. It is written by scholars from the region, based on the original research and the vast body of literature. It is one of the only books in English that interprets the overall development of the territory and cultural landscape of Croatia. Its scientific but comprehensive approach makes it of use to scholars, students and anyone interested in historical and geographical processes and features of Croatia and the Balkan region.

Auteur
Borna Fuerst-Bjeli is a professor at the University of Zagreb (Croatia). Her research interests are mainly focused on historical geography, environmental history and landscape change, borderlands areas, spatial perceptions and spatial (regional) identities. She has been serving as the vice-president of the European Society for Environmental History (201719). Since 2020 she was appointed chair of the IGU Commission on Marginalization, Globalization and Regional and Local Response. She has co-authored 6 textbooks, edited 4 books and authored or co-authored more than 90 papers, among which 60 peer reviewed scholarly book chapters and research journal articles. Nikola Glamuzina is a professor at the University of Split (Croatia). His research interests are primarily economic geography, historical geography, urban geography and historical cartography with focus on Croatia and neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has authored or co-authored 4 scientific books (including 2 textbooks), and more than 30 papers, mostly research journal articles.

Contenu
Introduction

1. Croatia territory and the process of bordering
2. An outline of the environment

3. Prehistory - the beginnings of the human-environmental relations

· Paleolithic - the first human-environmental interactions prior to the Holocene

· Development and defining of the first settlement zones in the Neolithic · Geographic origins of Indo-European migrations

· Environmental priorities in the Eneolitic: mountains and hill fortresses

4. Antiquity - the first model of the territorial organization

· The spatial impact of the Ancient Greek colonization

· Ancient Roman civilization as a turning point in the modeling of cultural landscape

o Urban network as a main holder of spatial organization

§ Town and ager the functional whole o Transportation system as the element of spatial organization and transformation

· Administrative organization as the element of spatial transformation

· The geographic heritage of the Roman Antiquity

5. Early Medieval Croatian state - spatial organization and

new cultural landscape

o De-urbanization and declension of Roman cultural landscape

o Historical-geographical implications of Slavic colonization

o Primary geopolitical nucleus and territorial organization in the context of new environmental values

o Beyond the nucleus - conceptualization of Croatian historical regions o Comitatus - primary territorial unit

o Pagania integration of borderland principalities

o Landscape change - duality of Adriatic and continental Croatia

o Population change as the consequence of Slavic colonization

6. Middle Ages - economic and political stabilization, re-urbanization and regional differentiation

o New geopolitical nucleus and development of the geographic concepts of Croatian regions o Slavonia - Urban and transportation network as indicator of political and economic change

o Adriatic Croatia

o Dalmatia - the change of spatial concept; urban and economic continuity

§ Venetian Republic The impact of the emerging power on the spatial, economic and political relations in the Adriatic

o Dubrovnik o Istria - politically and culturally contact area

7. Historical-geographical developments of the neighboring lands in the Middle Ages o Geographical nucleus and spatial developments of the Bosnian state

o Medieval Serbia

8. The Ottoman conquests and its impact on the territorial reduction and spatial change

o The medieval European feudal crisis as a prerequisite of the spatial disintegration

o The general setting of the Ottoman conquest in the European space

o Croatian lands under Ottoman rule o Territ...