− | ''Republic of Ragusa'' was set up by Latin/Illyrian families. The Republic's city, Ragusa (today called Dubrovnik) was established in the 7th century, post Slavic and Avar invasions. The refugees from Epidaurum (a Roman city) built the settlement in Dalmatia, today in southernmost modern Croatia. Over the centuries the City State-Ragusa started to have relations with the Slavic hinterland, then called Red Croatia (this term for the region ceased to be used from the 11th century onwards). Ragusa itself became an independent state in 1358. | + | ''Republic of Ragusa'' was set up by Latin/Illyrian families. The Republic's city, Ragusa (today called Dubrovnik) was established in the 7th century, post Slavic and Avar invasions. The refugees from Epidaurum (a Roman city) built the settlement in Dalmatia, today in southernmost modern Croatia. Over the centuries the City State-Ragusa started to have relations with the Slavic hinterland, then called Red Croatia<ref>[http://books.google.com.au/books?id=eaq90_BOvqIC&pg=PA119&dq=Andrea+Dandolo+Venetian+author+Chronicle+of+Dalmatia+Red+Croatia&client=safari&cd=2#v=onepage&q=Andrea%20Dandolo%20Venetian%20author%20Chronicle%20of%20Dalmatia%20Red%20Croatia&f=false Byzantium's Balkan Frontier:] A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900-1204 by Paul Stephenson </ref><ref>Presbyter Diocleas: De Regno Sclavorum; Ioannes Lucius: De Regno Dalmatie et Croatiae (Amsterdam 1666) 287-302; Schwandtner Scriptores rerum hungaricarum III (Vienna) 174; Sl. Mijušković: Letopis Popa Dukljanina-1967)</ref><ref>Flavius Blondus: Historiarum ab inclinatione Romani imperii, dec II, lib II (Venetiae 1483, f. 115 r; ed Basilea 1559) 177.</ref><ref>Andrea Dandolo (1300-1354), the Venetian author of Chronicle of Dalmatia, who writes of Croatian lands (Dalmatian Kingdom), reiterated the boundaries of Red Croatia</ref> (this term for the region ceased to be used from the 11th century onwards). Ragusa itself became an independent state in 1358. |
| The Croatians (Slavs), some time in the middle ages started to be part of the Republic's population. There is a theory that the Croatisation of the region started to happen in the 19-century, with the Republic becoming part of the [[Austria|Austro-Hungarian]] Empire (then called the Habsburg Monarchy). The second theory is that it was much earlier. | | The Croatians (Slavs), some time in the middle ages started to be part of the Republic's population. There is a theory that the Croatisation of the region started to happen in the 19-century, with the Republic becoming part of the [[Austria|Austro-Hungarian]] Empire (then called the Habsburg Monarchy). The second theory is that it was much earlier. |