The Problems Attending the Drawing of Boundaries between the Habsburg Empire and Venice under the Velebit Montain Chain and in the Zrmanja River Valley at the End of the 17th and the Beginning of the 18th Century

Abstract

Na temelju arhivske građe, objavljenih izvora i literature autor prikazuje habsburškomletačke pogranične sporove i pretenzije na međi Like i Dalmacije prije, za vrijeme i poslije Karlovačkog mira 1699. godine i utvrđivanja novih granica.The question of drawing the boundaries between the Habsburg Empire and Venice under the Velebit mountain chain and in the Zrmanja river valley at the end of the 17th and the begining of the 18th century has not up to the present day received satisfactory historical treatment even though this problematic has a decisive significance for shaping today’s regional boundaries (in the geographical sense) between Lika and Dalmatia. The recognizable contours of this border were created precisely at this point of history. The Croatian State Archive in Zagreb (as well as other sources) possesses, relatively speaking, a sufficient quantity of original material showing that we are speaking of a process whose nature was conflictive by nature. The question of drawing boundaries was in reality a question of the relationship of powers in the confrontation between the contradictory interests and aspirations of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Venetian Republic where the establishement of mutual differential distance. The “newly-gained acquisitions” was of equal importance to their common position against the Ottoman Empire during the Wien (or the War between the Holy League and the Ottoman Empire) war (1683–1699). Against the pronounced Habsburg advances onto the eastern Adriatic area the Venetians mounted an effort to broaden their authority to the region under Velebit, the Zrmanja valley and southern Lika, in effect to safeguard and secure their absolute dominium per mare. This is why frequent quarrels, misunderstandings, incidents and even outright armed conflicts (for example, near Zvonigrad) occurred in these contested regions even after the peace treaty in Srijemski Karlovci in 1699 and the drawing up of new boundaries. Various events described in the historical documents bear witness to the attempts of both sides to gain for themselves the best possible positions in the conflict over territory and for their own interests but also to their inability to fully realize many of their mutually antagonistic aspirations. At the same time, the inhabitants of the contested regions, who are also a part of the problematic, find themselves at the same time only on the edges of events