Hvar in the Modern Age takes you on a sailing voyage to the island that mirrored states, empires, nationalities, wars, and extremes. The scents of rosemary, lavender, olives, sardines and wine are felt across the centuries of hardship, convolution, and integration. From medieval travellers to contemporary tourists, you are also invited on this magnificent journey into the heart of Adriatic.
Mateo Bratanic, Associate Professor, University of Zadar, Croatia
In this open-access book, Florian Bieber traces the history of the Adriatic island of Hvar over half a millennium, from the advent of Venetian rule in the 15th century to the end of Yugoslavia in the late 20th century. The history of Hvar tells a larger story about modernity, the changing states and identity, tourism and the transnational entanglements of the Adriatic and Southeastern Europe. It shows how ordinary people dealt with the challenges of the rise of nations, transnational connections such as migration and tourism, and the shifting empires and states. Based on a wealth of archival materials from Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, the UK, and the USA, Hvar in the Modern Age also reveals the complexities of the history of the Venetian Republic, the Habsburg Monarchy and Yugoslavia from a bottom-up perspective and the realities and challenges of island life in southeast Europe during the modern period.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
List of Images and Maps
Preface
Introduction
1. Of Islands
2. From Antiquity to the Decline of Venice
3. Benign Neglect? Habsburg Rule
4. Competing Nation States
5. The Socialist Experiment
6. Croatia after Independence
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index