Croatian Identity

Medieval Croatia in the 9th century- Croatian Dutcy (Map by Hxseek)

Modern Croatia (Hrvatska)

The first factual primary source, to mention the Croatian (Hrvat) identity in the Balkans was that of Duke Branimir (Written in Latin: "Branimiro comite dux cruatorum cogitavit" c. 880 AD). Duke Branimir was a Slav from Dalmatia.

• Dr Danijel Dzino of Macquarie University, Sydney Australia writes:

“	The first evidence of the Croat name, dux/rex Croatorum, does not appear until the ninth century. The Charter of Duke Trpimir is indeed the oldest text that mentions the Croat name, dux Chroatorum but its authenticity is disputed for good reason. The earliest certain evidence is the title dux Cruatorum from duke Branimir's inscription (c. 880), so that before this date we cannot assume with certainty that the Croat identity existed at all.	„

History - Medieval Croatia

Medieval Croatia evolved from the former province of the old Roman Empire named Dalmatia. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, from 480 to 535 AD Roman Dalmatia was ruled by the Ostrogoths (a Germanic tribe related to the Goths). When the Ostrogoth Kingdom cease to be it was divided between the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire) and the Carolingian Empire - Franks (the old Roman neighbouring province of Pannonia was at one stage under the Avar).

Both the Byzantine Empire and the Carolingian Empire created their own Dalmatian Ducatus. Within the boundaries of the former Roman province of Dalmatia it had a Roman Latin-Illyrian population as well as Liburnians, Greeks, Guduscani , Ostrogoths and the late arrivals, Slavs.

With time one of the Slavic tribes within Dalmatian Ducatus of the Carolingian Empire became the political elite and the leaders (dux) of the province. The fore-mentioned Slavic political elite from the late 9th century onwards were referred to as Cruatorum. This is when the first time that the Croatian identity (Hrvat) was used c. 880 AD. Cruatorum is a Latin translation of Hrvat.

During this period the Dalmatian Ducatus became independent and was renamed Ducatus Croatiae. Later it became a kingdom that was called the Regnum Chroatorum (Kingdom of Croatia 925–1102 AD). It had no permanent seat. Nin, Klis, Bijaci and Knin where some of the towns that have been mentioned.

Kingdom of Croatia

The new Kingdom of Croatia was ruled by Slavic nobility from the Dalmatian hinterland. The kingdom was named after the ruling class, which in turn ruled a medieval multi-ethnic state.

The Kingdom of Croatia with time became a powerful military state and expanded its borders, as well as being a Christian state then later Catholic. The Slavs were pagans upon arrival in Roman Dalmatia. It’s written language was Latin and Croatian Glagolitic. The Slavic rulers spoke old Slavic Chakavian.

The medieval state borders have been a matter of huge debate and will remain so until new historical evidence is found. However there is some factual information. The river Cetina was a major border in the south. The Roman cities of Jadera (Zara/Zadar), Spalatum (Spalato/Split), Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and Trau (Trogir) with their surrounding areas never became part of the state other than for a short period under Peter Kresimir IV. Other parts of the Dalmatian coast did. In the north the river Sava was a major border (Lower Pannonia). The region south of the river Cetina has been sometimes historically referred to as Red Croatia, which would indicate Croatian influence was felt beyond the river Cetina.

In the late 12 century the state fell into crisis when the neighbouring Hungarians-Magyars used this opportunity to expand their own state. In 1102 it ceased to exist and it became politically part of the Kingdom of Hungary . Parts of Croatian territory later came under Habsburg rule (Habsburg Monarchy was renamed Austro Hungarian Empire). The political power within the provence was transferred from Dalmatia's northern hinterland to the city of Zagreb, further inland (Zagreb was a Roman town of Andautonia). Zagreb today is the capital of modern Croatia. Over time the coastal part of Dalmatia became part of the Republic of Venice. The Republic of Venice controlled most of Dalmatia from 1420 to 1797.

Within the old Roman province of Dalmatia's borders, history presents it self as a region of Europe that has a very rich, multicultural and multiethnic past.

The Terms Slav and Croatian

The term Slav was first used by the Byzantines-Eastern Roman Empire (i.e. Procopius-Byzantine scholar, Jordanes- 6th century Roman bureaucrat) and was recorded in the 6th century (cia. 550) in Greek (Σκλαβῖνοι-Sklabenoi). Later in Latin, Sklabenoi was written Sclaveni. Hrvat is a word of Sarmatian (Persian) origins. In 1853 a Russian archaeologist Pavel Mikhailovich Leontjev discovered the Tanais Tablets. The Tanais Tablets mention three men: Horoúathos, Horoáthos, and Horóathos (Χορούαθ[ος], Χοροάθος, Χορόαθος). They are written in Greek and are from the 3rd century AD from the city of Tanais, today's Azov, Russia. At that time the region had mainly a mix of Greek - Sarmatian population.

Tanais Tablet B containing the word Χοροάθος (Horoáthos).

From the information above one can conclude that we are dealing with contact between Slavic and Sarmatian tribes from late antiquity. From a modern day perspective the Sarmatian historical footprint is non existent. All traces of these people have disappeared other than Slavic terms surrounding the word or name Hrvat which translates to English as Croat. Radoslav Katicich a Croatian linguist (and a classical philologist, Indo-Europeanist, Slavist and Indologist) said that the names from the Tanais Tablet are personal and not national ones. Furthermore it also could be said that these names are not related to any ethnic identity. Historically the term Croat became fully established as a constructed identity in the 19th century.

Recent DNA Studies

It is also very interesting to note that recent DNA studies have stated that more than three quarters of today's Croatian men are the descendants of Europeans who inhabited Europe 13 000-20 000 years ago. From a DNA studies perspective, the peoples who were living in Roman Dalmatia (prior to the arrival of Slavic tribes) were genetically dominant and remain so to this day. The peoples who were living in Roman Dalmatia in that period predominately were of an Illyrian-Roman Latin population.

Settlement of the Slavs in Roman Dalmatia

Slavic tribes invaded the region of Roman Dalmatia in the early Middle Ages. Contemporary historian Danijel Dzino states that the 19 century theories of mass movements of people into the old Roman Province of Dalmatia are questionable. Modern Archaeological and Scholarly research seems to be saying that we are looking at much smaller groups of Slavs invading the region. According to historians Florin Curta and Danijel Dzino the term Slavs was first used by outside observers of the day (Greco-Roman) to describe the newcomers. The Slavs used the term to describe themselves at a later stage. Thus began the construct identity of the new arrivals. Later the Slavic peoples started to identify themselves and separated (or were separated by others) into different groups. There was also a good deal of interaction between the groups as shown by DNA studies.

Baska tablet 1100 AD from Baska, on the island of Krk-Croatia.

The issue of dates is an interesting one. Historians from the 18th and 19th century place the settlement of the Slavs into the Western Balkans in the 7th century but the more modern research undertaken by scholars and archaeologists cannot confirm this. The settlement of the Slavs in small groups has now been thought to be more in the region of the late 8th century or early 9th century. The early sources must have reflected the raid activity of the Slavic tribes within Roman Dalmatia.

According to the Baska tablet from 1100 AD they spoke old Slavic Chakavian. Baska tablet-mp3

Editor's Note

Duke Branimir from the 880s, spoke old Slavic Chakavian and was from the Dalmatian hinterland. Mr Branimir is, I believe the first Croatian or the first Southern Slav to describe himself as a Croatian (recorded as such and based on the current records that we have). In my opinion his tribe, who were the old Slavic Chakavian speakers, are the first Croatians (Hrvati).

The early medieval Western Balkans must have had multiple small Slavic ethnic tribes. In some cases the newly arrived Slavs lived amongst the population that was there prior to their arrival. It is my opinion that for whatever reason it appears that their history has not been recorded accurately or not recorded at all. From a Greco-Roman perspective they were all identified as Slavs. The Slavs found themselves living in a medieval multi-ethnic region: Roman Latin-Illyrian population as well as Liburnians, Greeks, Guduscani , Ostrogoths and others.

It was the most powerful chieftains (the main political players) who left a mark on history. Taking this into account, over a period of time in the middle ages we have new political identities of Southern Slavs emerging. Among these were Bulgarians, Croatians, Narentines, Serbs and etc.

As mentioned before the region south of the river Cetina has been sometimes historically referred to as Red Croatia, which would indicate Croatian influence was felt beyond the river Cetina. Historians F.Rački and V. Klaić think there might have been Croatians as far south as Kosovo.

“	F. Rački and V. Klaić think these Croats may have operated not only along the coast but inland as far east as what is now Kosovo, intermixed with Serb or other Slavic tribes...	„

When the Serbian forces were annihilated in the Battle of Kosovo by the Ottoman Empire in 1389 very large groups of peoples started to migrate westward. The Ottomans caused huge instability in the area and actually managed to twice besiege Vienna. The Western Balkans from that period forward began to acquire new groups of people in its regions (i.e., new Croatians, Serbs, Albanians, Greeks, Turks & others), thus creating new ethnic mixes. I believe that due to these events the old Slavic tribal borders, what was left of them, changed forever during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.

It is true that some of the origins of some of these words denoting southern slavic groups (i.e. Harvat, Horvat) can be traced further back in history. Some have wrongly associated the etymology of these words to proclaim ethnicities or national identities back deep into the past. To my understanding there is no real hard historic proof that these ethnic identities existed.

Language and Identity - Politics of Language Standardisation

The old language groups which have become diluted over time and are slowly becoming extinct (now referred to as dialects) may reflect some of the many original Slavic tribes who invaded Roman Dalmatia.

It is important to stress that these dialects in early medieval time could have been seen as languages. Current main dialect groups within modern Croatia are:

• Chakavian dialect
• Kajkavian dialect
• Shtokavian dialect

Distribution of central South Slavic dialects before 16th century migrations.In blue Chakavian dialect witch could have gone further south before they intermixed.

The politics of language standardisation is the issue at heart when it comes to the telling of the story of the modern Southern Slavic languages. In the 19th century, Slavic language standardisation entered firmly into the mix. This event had a huge influence on the region and its impact has to be fully examined. One question which can be asked.

Did the 19th century scholars and linguists do their research scientifically or were they seriously influenced by the politics of the 19th Century Pan Slavic movement?

(plus - is it continuing today?)

In this editors opinion, the answer is yes - they were very seriously influenced by the politics of the Pan-Slavic movement? The Pan slavic movement was heavily influenced by European Imperialism with an overriding attitude directed towards creating a unifying language for a state that negated the history of the various southern slavic language bases that were part of the Western Balkans. With this in mind the linguist of the day created a construct Serbo-Croatian language (or Croatian-Serbo) with a Shtokavian base.

In 1918 a construct Serbo-Croatian language was introduced by government policy as the main language to be used within the created state of Yugoslavia (a mini version Pan-Slavic state). Before Yugoslavia was established the policy had already started to be implemented by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the west-end of the Balkans and it was also being implemented in the east, in the Kingdom of Serbia.

There appears to be a common misconception in the former Yugoslavian regions that if you are taught and you learn to speak the standardised Serbo-Croatian language that you have historical connections to a particular ethnic group. This is not necessarily factual as many other ethnic groups, with various ethnic backgrounds, were caught up in this system of standardisation. These people were being forced to speak a common standardised language (Serbo-Croatian?). This does not accurately reflect the actual ancestry and ethnic history of the speaker (i.e is a Welshman a Englishman now that he can speak English?).

Extreme Pan-Slavic, Nationalistic, Communist ideologies and Croatia

Another important question to ask is how far back does one go in proclaiming Croatian Identity and nationhood (or any other nationhood)? In the past the Yugoslav Communist party, Pan-Slavists and the Croatian Nationalistic movements have taken this to extremes. These extreme Pan-Slavic, Nationalistic and Communist ideologies, regarding language, ethnicity and history who are clinging to beliefs based on a false history of a single nationhood have created a great deal of pain, destruction and falsehoods.

For example does a seventh generation Australian with English background start saying in modern Australia that he is a Saxon and start a nationalistic movement to assert his beliefs upon others. On the other hand certain historic perspectives in which it is states that there is no Croatian Identity or medieval peoples is incorrect. From this Editors perspective there is strong evidence that we are looking at a tribe that settled in the northern Dalmatian Hinterland and it's surrounding area who for a brief moment in history dominated the region of the western Balkans.

The Roman province of Dalmatia (pink colour) in the Western Roman Empire. 476 AD

External Links

• Becoming Slav, Becoming Croat (East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450) by Dr Danijel Dzino
• Dr Danijel Dzino - Macquarie University, Sydney Australia
• Brill Academic Publishers: "Founded in 1683, Brill is a publishing house with a rich history and a strong international focus."
• Government of the Republic Croatia - Official Web Portal

Coat of arms of Croatia (Hrvatska)

Croatia Dalmatia Croatian Identity Croatian Identity Prince Branimir Danijel Dzino Florin Curta