Background and Byzantine
Dalmatia (theme) c. 925. Conflicts between Venetians and Croats, as well as other
Slavic nations or tribes on the Adriatic coast, including
Narentines, began very early, in the 7th and 8th century, because the Venetians demanded free passage for their
merchant galleys and did not want to pay
taxes. By the mid-9th century was formed Byzantine theme of
Dalmatia limited to the islands and coastal cities of the
Dalmatian city-states (Zadar, Split, Cres, Rab, Trogir, Krk, Dubrovnik, Kotor), hence, the medieval region of Dalmatia was a wide and long sea area of Eastern Adriatic, but with a very narrow coastline land area. Nearby the coastline and in its hinterland the control and influence was in the hands of Slavs, mostly Croatian dukes and kings who had royal courts at
Klis near Split,
Bijaći near
Trogir,
Knin,
Nin, and
Biograd na Moru among others. Beginning with
Doge Pietro II Orseolo, who ruled
Venice from 991 AD, Venetian attention towards mainland
Veneto was definitely overshadowed by a strong push towards the control of the Adriatic Sea. Inner strife was pacified, and trade with the
Byzantine Empire boosted by the favourable treaty (
Grisobolus or
Golden Bull) with Emperor
Basil II. The imperial edict granted Venetian traders freedom from the Kommerkion tax paid by other foreigners and the Byzantines themselves. In 1000 AD an expedition of Venetian ships in coastal Istria and Dalmatia secured Venetian
suzerainty in the area, and the
Narentine pirates were suppressed permanently. On this occasion Doge Orseolo named himself "Duke of Dalmatia", starting the colonial empire of Venice. He was also responsible of the establishment of the famous "
Marriage of the Sea" ceremony. At this time Venice had a firm control over the Adriatic Sea, strengthened by the expedition of Pietro's son
Ottone in 1017. From the 1030s however, after the fall of Doge
Otto Orseolo, Croatian kings
Stjepan I and his son
Petar Krešimir IV succeeded in taking almost the whole coast back, so the latter carried the title
King of Croatia and Dalmatia. During the 1074 invasion of the
Normans died Petar Krešimir IV, and in February 1075 the Venetians banished the Normans and secured the Dalmatian cities for themselves. The doge
Domenico Selvo self-titled himself as the doge of "Venice, Dalmatia and Croatia" (later only of "Dalmatia"), but did not have nominal power over Dalmatia and Croatia. In October 1075 was crowned
Demetrius Zvonimir as the king of "Croatia and Dalmatia" by the
Holy See and his power was felt even on the islands of Krk and Cres. His death in 1089 caused succession crisis in Croatia and Dalmatia, but although doge
Vitale I Michiel made with
Coloman, King of Hungary agreement of 1098—the so-called
Conventio Amicitiae—determined the spheres of interest of each party by allotting the coastal regions of Croatia to Hungary and Dalmatia to the Republic of Venice, Coloman in 1105 successfully conquered coastal cities of Dalmatia. During the 12th century, after Croatia
entered a personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary, kings
Coloman and
Béla II managed to return a considerable territory of
Dalmatia and
Croatian Littoral to their kingdom, but occasional conflicts almost never ceased. The creation of Venice's overseas empire began with the conquest of Dalmatia and reached its greatest nominal extent at the conclusion of the
Fourth Crusade in 1204, with the declaration of the
acquisition of three octaves of the Byzantine Empire. Venice with the help of crusaders
captured Zadar in 1202. In 1203, Pope Innocent III
excommunicated the entire crusading army, along with the Venetians, for taking part in the attack. After wintering in
Zadar, the Fourth Crusade continued its campaign, which led to the
siege of Constantinople. Hungarian king
Louis the Great launched a large
campaign in 1356–1358 and forced Venice to withdraw from Dalmatia.
Zadar Peace Treaty was signed on 18 February 1358 and Venice lost influence over whole coast from eastern Istria to southern Dalmatia.
Formation In 1409, during the 20-year
Hungarian civil war between King
Sigismund and the Neapolitan
House of Anjou, the losing contender,
Ladislaus of Naples, sold his rights on Dalmatia to the Venetian Republic for a meager sum of 100,000
ducats. Sigismund tried to recover the territory but Venice defeated his troops in the
Battle of Motta (1412).
Croatian Littoral and eastern Istria remained parts of Croatia, where
Croats, together with their allies, rejected Venetian efforts to subject them. The more centralized merchant republic took control of the coastal cities by 1420 (with the exception of the
Republic of Ragusa); they were to remain under Venetian rule for a period of 377 years (1420–1797). The southernmost area of Dalmatia (now part of coastal
Montenegro) was called
Venetian Albania during that time.
Ottoman–Venetian Wars In the period between the start of the
Ottoman–Venetian War (1499–1503) and the end of
Ottoman–Venetian War (1537–40), the Ottoman Empire made significant advances in the Dalmatian hinterland - it did not occupy the Venetian cities, but it took the
Croatian possessions between
Skradin and
Obrovac (forming
Croatian vilayet and then
Sanjak of Klis), eliminating them as a buffer zone between the Ottoman and Venetian territory. Venetians still perceived this inner hinterland as once part of Croatia calling it as "Banadego" (lands of
Ban i.e.
Banate). The economy of the Venetian cities in Dalmatia, severely impacted by the Turkish occupation of the hinterland in the previous war, recovered and held steady even throughout this war. During the entire duration of Venetian rule, Dalmatians served in Venetian military as professional soldiers (
naval personnel,
oltramarini infantry and
cappelletti cavalry) and conscripts (
galliots and
cernida militia). They fought on all fronts, from
Cyprus to
Terraferma and were led by local military elite. During the
Battle of Lepanto more than 9000 Dalmatians served on Venetian fleet, in the
1680s 3000 oltramarini formed the core of admiral
Francesco Morosini invasion force during the
Morean war, and finally during
the last days of the Republic it was the Dalmatian contingent of around 11,000 soldiers and sailors that stood against
Napoleons armies.
Uskok war The Uskok War was fought by the Austrians, Slovenes, Croats, and Spanish on one side and the Venetians, Dutch, and English on the other. It is named for the
Uskoks, soldiers from
Croatia used by the Austrians for
irregular warfare. Since the Uskoks were checked on land and were rarely paid their annual
salary, they resorted to
piracy. In addition to attacking Turkish ships, they attacked
Venetian merchantmen. The conflict began in January 1616 in the
Gorizia Hills and lasted until 1617. The Treaty of Peace (now known as the Preliminary Treaty of Paris and the
Treaty of Madrid) resolved that pirates would be driven from the maritime areas of the
House of Habsburg. The Venetians returned to Austrians all the places occupied by them in
Istria and
Friuli.
Cretan War to surrender. in 1797. The Dalmatian front was a separate theater of operations, which was involved in the early phase of the war. The conditions there were almost reverse to those in
Crete: for the Ottomans, it was too far away and relatively insignificant, while the Venetians operated near their own bases of supply and had undisputed control of the sea, being thus able to easily reinforce their coastal strongholds. The Ottomans launched a large-scale attack in 1646, and made some significant gains, including the capture of the islands of
Krk,
Pag and
Cres, and most importantly, the supposedly impregnable
fortress of Novigrad, which surrendered on 4 July, after only two days of bombardment. The Turks were now able to threaten the two main Venetian strongholds in Dalmatia,
Zadar and
Split. In the next year however, the tide turned, as the Venetian commander
Leonardo Foscolo seized several forts, retook Novigrad, temporarily captured the
fortress of Knin and took
Klis, while a month-long siege of the fortress of
Šibenik by the Ottomans in August and September failed. During the next few years, military operations stalled because of an outbreak of famine and plague amongst the Venetians at Zadar, while both sides focused their resources in the
Aegean area. As other fronts took priority for the Ottomans, no further operations occurred in the Dalmatian theater. Peace in 1669 found the
Republic of Venice with significant gains in Dalmatia, its territory tripled, and its control of the Adriatic thus secured.
Morean War In October 1683, the population of Venetian Dalmatia, principally
Uskoks of
Ravni Kotari, took arms and together with the
rayah (lower class) of the Ottoman frontier regions rose up, taking
Skradin, Karin,
Vrana,
Benkovac and
Obrovac. In the Morean War, the Republic of Venice besieged
Sinj in October 1684 and then again March and April 1685, but both times without success. In the 1685 attempt, the Venetian armies were aided by the local militia of the
Republic of Poljica, who thereby rebelled against their nominal Ottoman suzerainty that had existed since 1513. In an effort to retaliate to Poljica, in June 1685, the Ottomans attacked
Zadvarje, and in July 1686
Dolac and
Srijane, but were pushed back, and suffered major casualties. With the help of the local population of Poljica as well as the
Morlachs, the fortress of Sinj finally fell to the Venetian army on 30 September 1686. On 1 September 1687 the siege of
Herceg Novi started, and ended with a Venetian victory on 30 September.
Knin was taken after a twelve-day siege on 11 September 1688. The capture of the
Knin Fortress marked the end of the successful Venetian campaign to expand their territory in inland Dalmatia, and it also determined much of the final border between Dalmatia and
Bosnia and Herzegovina that stands today. The Ottomans would besiege Sinj again in the
Second Morean War, but would be repelled. On 26 November 1690, Venice took
Vrgorac, which opened the route towards Imotski and
Mostar. In 1694 they managed to take areas north of the
Republic of Ragusa, namely
Čitluk,
Gabela,
Zažablje,
Trebinje,
Popovo,
Klobuk and
Metković. In the final peace treaty, Venice did relinquish the areas of
Popovo polje as well as
Klek and
Sutorina, to maintain the pre-existing demarcation near Ragusa. ''. The "Linea Mocenigo" in 1718 Dalmatia was named after
Sebastiano Mocenigo, one of the last famous
Doges of Venice. Indeed, in Dalmatia -after the
Treaty of Passarowitz- he obtained some small advances for Venice, taking the areas of Sinj and Imotski in the hinterland. That was the last enlargement of Venetian Dalmatia (that partially enjoyed the "
Age of Enlightment" experienced by Venice) until the
Napoleonic conquest in 1797. However, Venetians lost Čitluk and Gabela to Ottomans according to this treaty.
End and aftermath The
Republic of Venice was dissolved in 1797 by
Napoleon Bonaparte, after which its territories were divided between
French First Republic and the
Habsburg monarchy. The Venetian possessions in Dalmatia were annexed by the Habsburgs. Subsequently, the area was ceded to the French client state
Kingdom of Italy in 1805, and in 1809 it came under the direct control of the
First French Empire and was incorporated into the
Illyrian Provinces. After the final defeat of Napoleon, the Illyrian Provinces were annexed by the
Austrian Empire in 1815 and
Kingdom of Dalmatia was created. ==Legacy==