The program consists of four research projects that include the entire area of the Croatian Kingdom, with the exeption of Slavonia. The main tasks of the researchers and novices participating in the individual projects are: the formulation and presentation of mutual, comparative scholary discussions, studies and syntheses, and the publication of source-books. The main research theme that links the projects relates to social and cultural integrative processes of the disunited Croatian Kingdom during the early modern age, i.e. from the Renaissance till the national revival in the first half of the 19th century. The main hypothesis of this program states that Croatian national identity succeded in maintaining itself in spite of the territorial and political division of the Croatian Kingdom on the margins of great European empires. The program focusses on a comparative analyses of the main factors of social and cultural integration: identities and mentalities (consciousness of a common past, fate and future, patriotism, nationalism); upbringing and education (schools, (il)literacy, reading-clubs); commercial ties (marketplaces, road systems); social ties (family, household, kinship, demography, carreers); concepts of freedom and liberty (rights, privileges, marginal and privileged groups); violence, crime and justice; public opinion (newspapers, literature); everyday life; stereotypes and images of others. Every factor will be explored with special regard to the temporal and spatial circumstances that influenced its emergence.
Projects withing this program:
- The Military Frontier: Socio-Cultural Processes of Integration and National IdentityCroatian
- Eastern Adriatic and Republic of Venice in the Early Modern Age
- Civil Croatia in early modern history: social, cultural and political relations
- Opis zemalja Kraljevine Hrvatske na vojnim kartama 18. i 19. stoljeća
