Its possessions in Dalmatia stretched from the Istria peninsula to what is today coastal Montenegro: they included all the Dalmatian islands and the mainland territories from the central Velebit mountains to the northern borders of the Republic of Ragusa.

With the 1718 Treaty of Passarowitz, Venice enlarged its possessions in Dalmatia to their greatest extent: it made some small advances, taking the areas of Sinj, Imotski and Vrgorac in the Dalmatian hinterland.

By the mid-9th century was formed Byzantine theme of Dalmatia limited to the islands and coastal cities of the Dalmatian city-states (Zadar, Split, Cres, Rab, Trogir, Krk, Dubrovnik, Kotor), hence, the medieval region of Dalmatia was a wide and long sea area of Eastern Adriatic, but with a very narrow coastline land area.

Nearby the coastline and in its hinterland the control and influence was in the hands of Slavs, mostly Croatian dukes and kings who had royal courts at Klis near Split, Bijaći near Trogir,[3] Knin, Nin,[4] and Biograd na Moru among others.

[5] Beginning with Doge Pietro II Orseolo, who ruled Venice from 991 AD, Venetian attention towards mainland Veneto was definitely overshadowed by a strong push towards the control of the Adriatic Sea.

Inner strife was pacified, and trade with the Byzantine Empire boosted by the favourable treaty (Grisobolus or Golden Bull) with Emperor Basil II.

In October 1075 was crowned Demetrius Zvonimir as the king of "Croatia and Dalmatia" by the Holy See and his power was felt even on the islands of Krk and Cres.

Zadar Peace Treaty was signed on 18 February 1358 and Venice lost influence over whole coast from eastern Istria to southern Dalmatia.

In 1409, during the 20-year Hungarian civil war between King Sigismund and the Neapolitan House of Anjou, the losing contender, Ladislaus of Naples, sold his rights on Dalmatia to the Venetian Republic for a meager sum of 100,000 ducats.

Croatian Littoral and eastern Istria remained parts of Croatia, where Croats, together with their allies, rejected Venetian efforts to subject them.

In the period between the start of the Ottoman–Venetian War (1499–1503) and the end of Ottoman–Venetian War (1537–40), the Ottoman Empire made significant advances in the Dalmatian hinterland - it did not occupy the Venetian cities, but it took the Croatian possessions between Skradin and Obrovac (forming Croatian vilayet and then Sanjak of Klis), eliminating them as a buffer zone between the Ottoman and Venetian territory.

The conditions there were almost reverse to those in Crete: for the Ottomans, it was too far away and relatively insignificant, while the Venetians operated near their own bases of supply and had undisputed control of the sea, being thus able to easily reinforce their coastal strongholds.

[14] The Ottomans launched a large-scale attack in 1646, and made some significant gains, including the capture of the islands of Krk, Pag and Cres,[15] and most importantly, the supposedly impregnable fortress of Novigrad, which surrendered on 4 July, after only two days of bombardment.

[20] During the next few years, military operations stalled because of an outbreak of famine and plague amongst the Venetians at Zadar, while both sides focused their resources in the Aegean area.

[23] In October 1683, the population of Venetian Dalmatia, principally Uskoks of Ravni Kotari, took arms and together with the rayah (lower class) of the Ottoman frontier regions rose up, taking Skradin, Karin, Vrana, Benkovac and Obrovac.

[25] In the 1685 attempt, the Venetian armies were aided by the local militia of the Republic of Poljica, who thereby rebelled against their nominal Ottoman suzerainty that had existed since 1513.

[25] In an effort to retaliate to Poljica, in June 1685, the Ottomans attacked Zadvarje, and in July 1686 Dolac and Srijane, but were pushed back, and suffered major casualties.

[29] In 1694 they managed to take areas north of the Republic of Ragusa, namely Čitluk, Gabela, Zažablje, Trebinje, Popovo, Klobuk and Metković.

[29] In the final peace treaty, Venice did relinquish the areas of Popovo polje as well as Klek and Sutorina, to maintain the pre-existing demarcation near Ragusa.

Indeed, in Dalmatia -after the Treaty of Passarowitz- he obtained some small advances for Venice, taking the areas of Sinj and Imotski in the hinterland.

After the final defeat of Napoleon, the entire territory was granted to the Austrian Empire by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, constituted as the Kingdom of Dalmatia.

The defeat of the Great Illyrian Revolt began the integration of Dalmatia which in turn led to the romanization of the region by the early Middle Ages.

From Giorgio da Sebenico to the influence on the early contemporary Croatian literature, Venice made its Dalmatia the most western-oriented civilized area of the Balkans, mostly in the cities.

Some architectural works from that period of Dalmatia are of European importance, and would contribute to further development of the Renaissance: the Cathedral of St James in Šibenik and the Chapel of Blessed John in Trogir.

The beginning of the Croatian 16th-century literal activity was marked by a Dalmatian humanist Marko Marulić and his epic book Judita, which was written by incorporating peculiar motives and events from the classical Bible, and adapting them to the contemporary literature in Europe.

[37] In 1997 the historical city-island of Trogir (called "Tragurium" in Latin when one of the Dalmatian city-states and "Traù" in Venetian) was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Trogir's grandest building is the church of St. Lawrence, whose main west portal is a masterpiece by Radovan, and the most significant work of the Romanesque-Gothic style in Croatia.

The new forms which he introduced were eagerly imitated and developed by other architects, until the period of decadence - which virtually concludes the history of Dalmatian art - set in during the latter half of the 17th century.