Premodern Croatian Nationalism?

Elite Nationalism and the Crumbling of Multi-Ethnic Coexistence: Habsburg Dalmatia and the Language Question in the Wake of Italian Unification

“…Whereas the idea of an Illyrian "nation" comprising all South Slavs had existed as a literary phenomenon since the 15th century (Stergar 2017), the idea of a Croatian state under Habsburg rule had emerged amongst Croatian elites in the late 18th century (Drakulic 2008). The aspirations of the Illyrian movement in the mid-19th century were premised on the preservation of Croatia-Slavonia's autonomy within the Habsburg Empire and the dream of a South Slav state under the Habsburgs (Greenberg 2011).…”

National indeterminacies at the periphery of the Habsburg Monarchy: Nationalisms versus multi‐ethnic identities in Fiume/Rijeka and Trieste, 1848–1867

“…It had spanned Slavonia, the area of Zagreb and the Croatian Littoral, that is the Lika region north of Zara/Zadar, coinciding grosso modo , and with the exception of Istria and Dalmatia, with present‐day Croatia. Also, the notion of a Croatian national state still under Habsburg rule but free from Hungarian encroachments had emerged amongst Croatian elites in the late 18th century as part of the Illyrian movement (Drakulic, 2008: 540). As coeval documents show, a distinction between the various Catholic South Slavs into Croatians proper, Slavic Dalmatians, and Slovenes had been in place at least since the late 18th century (Carmichael, 1996), although Italian sources tended to refer to these through the umbrella term “Slavs.” In Croatia, Slavonia and the Kvarner, the language spoken was Croatian, although in the Kvarner the dialect resembled Slavic‐Dalmatian, which was spoken as far south as Dubrovnik and had significant Venetian influences, as local administrators noted (Municipal delegations of the Kvarner 1850).…”

“…As coeval documents show, a distinction between the various Catholic South Slavs into Croatians proper, Slavic Dalmatians, and Slovenes had been in place at least since the late 18th century (Carmichael, 1996), although Italian sources tended to refer to these through the umbrella term “Slavs.” In Croatia, Slavonia and the Kvarner, the language spoken was Croatian, although in the Kvarner the dialect resembled Slavic‐Dalmatian, which was spoken as far south as Dubrovnik and had significant Venetian influences, as local administrators noted (Municipal delegations of the Kvarner 1850). Consequently, while referring to “Italian” per se can be misleading (also in view of the similar propaganda unleashed by irredentists, D'Annunzio's legionnaires, and Fascists), in the Fiuman context, to speak of “Croatian” does not imply essentialist notions of ethnicity, which nonetheless emerge in historiographical efforts to legitimize the Croatian incorporation of Dalmatia (see, for example, Drakulic, 2008; Gross, 1979). This article is steeped in the deconstruction of Italian nationalist narratives, but neither the Slovene, since in Trieste Slovene nationalism was a later development in response to Italian national rhetoric, nor the Croatian, given the different context of Dalmatia with respect to the Fiuman.…”