In the 1860-1945 period, eastern Croatia underwent its greatest changes. The processes of modernisation (the transformation of the traditional and the building of the new cultural, economic, political and educational institutions of a modern civil society, the great influence of the aristocracy at the beginning and the total cessation of its impact at the end of the period) and crucial political and administrative and state law changes in the period make this area particularly important in the history of Croatia. The attempts at appropriating Syrmia as a Serbian province in 1861 (and its final extraction in 1945) were the start of the Greater Serbian appropriations of Croatian areas, which was a source of all Croatian and Serbian conflicts until the end of the 20th century. In the process of the shaping of the Croatian national identity and of putting the final shape to the Croatian national, historical and state territory, the Croatian idea faced various national integration concepts – Hungarian, Serbian, Yugoslavian and the South Slavic generally etc. The Hungarianising policy of Khuen-Hedervary in the area of Slavonia also put forward “Slavonicness” in the ethnic sense. Because of the geographical position and ethnic component, the Kingdom of Slavonia and Baranya were particularly subjected to Hungarian and Greater Serbian designs. Research on this project will make a contribution to the understanding of the history of Slavonia, Syrmia and Baranya in the period in which modern society was created and national identity was formed, 1860-1945. The role of the political parties in the process (National Party, 1883-1903; Serbian Independent Party, 1903-1914; the Croatian Peasant Party, 1918-1941) will be investigated, with the development of ideologies and political thinking (particularly the various national integration projects expressed in examples from Croatian and Serbian, Croatian and Czech and Croatian and Polish relations), changes in the educational system and radical political projects connected with the area (the Greater Serbian project for the appropriation of the Croatian lands, the ISC/NDH policies vis-a-vis the Serbs). Attention will be devoted too to previously neglected problems related to the influence of World War I on the life in Slavonia, Syrmia and Baranya.
Leading researcher:
- dr. sc. Mato Artuković
Istraživači:
- dr. sc. Suzana Leček
- dr. sc. Dinko Župan
- dr. sc. Mario Kevo – visting researcher (HKS, Zagreb)
- dr. sc. Branko Ostajmer
- dr. sc. Vijoleta Herman Kaurić
- dr. sc. Mirko Valentić
- dr. sc. Piotr Żurek – visiting researcher (Poland)
