Dubrovnik: Encyclopedia II - Dubrovnik - History

Dubrovnik - History

See also Republic of Dubrovnik.

Dubrovnik was founded by joining two small towns: Laus, a town on a small island off the southern Dalmatian coast, which provided shelter for the Italic refugees from the nearby city of Epidaurum (today Cavtat); and Dubrava, a settlement of Slavic immigrants at the foot of the forested Srđ hill.

The strip of wetland between the two parts of the town, was reclaimed as a landfill in 12th century, unifying the city around the newly made plaza (today Placa or Stradun). Placa was paved in 1468 and reconstructed after the earthquake of 1667. The city was fortified and two harbors were built on each side of the isthmus.

From its establishment in the 7th century AD, the town was under the protection of the Byzantine Empire. After the Crusades, Ragusa/Dubrovnik came under the sovereignty of Venice (1205–1358), and by the Peace Treaty of Zadar in 1358 it became part of the Hungarian-Croatian Kingdom.

Between 14th century and 1808 Dubrovnik ruled itself as a free state named Respublica Ragusina (Ragusan republic), also known as Republic of Dubrovnik. The Ragusan Republic reached its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries, when the Dubrovnik thalassocracy rivalled the Venetian Republic and other Italian maritime republics.

The city was ruled by aristocracy that formed two city Councils (Vijeće). They maintained a strict system of social classes, but they also abolished slave trade early in the 15th century and highly valued liberty. The city successfully balanced its sovereignty between the interests of Venice and the Ottoman Empire for centuries.

The Republic gradually declined after a crisis of Mediterranean shipping and especially a catastrophic earthquake of 1667. In 1699 it was forced to sell two patches of its territory to the Ottomans in order to protect itself from the advancing Venetian forces.

Its final demise was caused not by Venice, but by Napoleon's forces, which conquered first the Venetian territories and then the Dubrovnik Republic in 1806. In 1808, Marshal Marmont abolished the Dubrovnik Republic and amalgamated its territory into the Illyrian provinces.

In 1815, by the resolution of Congress of Vienna, Dubrovnik was annexed to Austria (from 1867 on Austria-Hungary), and remained in the Kingdom of Dalmatia until 1918. During that time its official name was 'Ragusa'. Then it became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia from 1929). At the very beginning of the World War II, Dubrovnik was first part of the Independent State of Croatia. From April 1941 until September 1943, Dubrovnik was occupied by the Italian army and after that by the Germans. In October 1944, the Partisans liberated Dubrovnik from the Germans and it became part of the second Yugoslavia in 1945.

Despite the 1970s demilitarization of the old town by the Yugoslav People's Army in an attempt to prevent it from becoming a casualty of war, following Croatia's independence in 1991, the same army attacked and surrounded the city on October 1, 1991 and the siege lasted until May 1992. The heaviest artillery attack happened on December 6 with 19 people killed and 60 wounded. Total casualty in the conflict on this area according to the Croatian Red Cross were 114 killed civilians, among them the celebrated poet Milan Milisic (born 1941).

Following the end of the war, a major rebuilding project led by the Croatian authorities and UNESCO began. They rebuilt the city in the ancient style to keep its sense of beauty and history. As well as rebuilding damaged buildings, surviving structures were strengthened against earthquakes. As of 2005, most damaged buildings in the city have been repaired.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki