Vlachs in the history of Croatia

Later in the 16th and 17th century with the Ottoman conquest and mass migrations, the term was primarily used for a socio-cultural and professional segment of the population rather than to an ethnicity, and referred to the mostly Slavic-speaking emigrants and refugees from Ottoman-held territories to the Habsburg Empire (such as Croatia) and the Republic of Venice (Dalmatia), mostly of Eastern Orthodox faith, and to a lesser degree, Catholic.

With the nation-building in the 19th century this population played a significant part in the national ideologies in Croatia and Serbia,[1] and according to religious confession espoused either Croat or Serb ethnicity.

[5] Regardless of their religious affiliation that is the entire population of Generalate[clarification needed] which came from the Ottoman and Venetian territories were called Vlachs; they were distinguished by their semi-nomadic pastoral way of life as economically transhumant shepherds, mainly of sheep, goats and horses.

[7] Such a lifestyle allowed specific socio-cultural traits, like learning about the area, orientation during multi-day movement, organization and wartime skills, which was recognized and used by the Late Medieval nobility and kings.

[10] The regions of Lika (which mostly involved the Croatian Military Frontier) and Dalmatia were the border area between Habsburg, Ottoman and Venetian empires, a place of mass migrations and mixing of communities.

The Croats were Catholics, Habsburg subjects, made up of an agrarian population concentrated around frontier towns, of nuclear families, and linguistically predominantly Chakavian-speaking (or Chakavian-based speech).

[54] The data on Lika and Krbava in the 1712–1714 censuses was studied by Croatian historian Marko Šarić who also divided pre-modern ethnic groups (etnije) into Orthodox Vlachs (Serbian Orthodox) listed in the census as Schismatics (Schismatische Wallachen, Walachi, Wolochi), Catholic Vlachs (Bunjevci), Carniolans (Kranjci), Croats and Turks (Catholicized former Muslims), based on Zagreb bishop Martin Brajković's earlier groupings.

[65] The "Carniolan" surnames indicate a Kajkavian cultural and regional sphere, and are characteristically mostly occupational, many linguistically Germanic, some permeate with other dialects, and they have the smallest share of the ending suffix "-ić".

[68] Despite the fact that Velebit Vlachs (Morlacs) were mostly Croats and Catholics, among them are Romanians; this can be seen from their surnames such as Bučul, Čutul, Prendivoj, Hamet, Kapo, Sebikoč, Cako, Delebrajde, and Čepulado.

Pope Gregory XI, in his letter from 1372 to the Franciscans in Bosnia, ordered them to convert the Vlachs who lived in tents and pastures (Wlachorum... quorum nonnulli in pascuis et tentoriis habitant), also relating to the activity of the Bosnian Church (see also stećaks).

[73] The Libellus Policorion, a church cartulary dated to the mid-14th century that includes transcriptions of older collected documents about the estates of the now extinct Benedictine Abbey of St John the Evangelist in Biograd and Saints Cosmas and Damian on the island of Pašman, mentions one Kutun (Katun) district.

[78][79] In 1344 Morolacorum were mentioned in lands around Knin and Krbava, within the conflict of counts from Kurjaković and Nelipić families, and that they could shelter their livestock on the islands of Rab, Hvar, and Brač.

[80] In 1345 they are mentioned in the charter by king Louis I of Hungary to the Nelipić family, to whom was confiscated Knin in exchange for Sinj and other fortresses in Cetina county with all "with their inhabitants, Croats and Vlachs".

In 1412 King Sigismund bestowed the Sinj county and Travnik fortress to Ivan III Nelipić, and mentioned that Croats and Vlachs were at his disposal (cum universis Croatis et Vlahis).

[96] In 1432, on the order of King Sigismund, Morlachs were required for military service and to gather at the ban's camp where they were joined by the "whole of the Croatian Kingdom and co-existing forces of the Vlachs".

Encouraged by these promises, the Vlachs attacked nearby littoral towns under Venetian control, but in 1436 on behalf of King Sigismund, the Ban of Croatia Matko Talovac waged war against Ivan Frankopan who did not manage to survive.

[105] In 1463, Vlachs from the de genere Thwlich (Tulić) in the župa of Vrlika were mentioned, gifted by King Matthias Corvinus to the local Croatian nobel Ivan Čubretić.

[111] In 1499, the Carinthian parish priest Jakob Urnest mentioned a Czyschnlandt territory between the Croatian and Bosnian kingdoms, which some consider to be the Cetina river region in southern Croatia.

[131] King Ferdinand I in September 1538 responded to general commander Nikola Jurišić, who informed him about some Servian or Rascian captains and dukes who were willing to come with their people to serve in military service, and that they were given privileges.

In the same letter, Jurišić informed the king about the Vlachs who "in our (Croatian) parts are called as Old Romans" (alt Römer genennt),[23] and who came with others from Turkish areas (the river Zrmanja), to be given the same promises and privileges which were given to the Serbs.

[132] Serbs from the Cetina part of the 1538 migration were taken care of by the captain of Bihać, Erazmo Thurn, and his men, Croatian Ban Petar Keglević, and the counts of Slunj, Zrinski, and Blagaj.

[107] Around 1530, some Vlachs settled in the lands of Stjepan Frankopan from Ozalj, in Otok and Hreljin, who in 1540 were mentioned for receiving a reward from King Ferdinand for their success in spying on the Turks.

At Predojević's order, Vlachs, as well as some Turkish nobility, settled near the towns of Brekovica, Ripač, Ostrovica and Vrla Draga up to Sokolac Fortress in such numbers that they formed a significant population in the region.

[136] In 1609, two burgs, Brlog and Gusić-Grad, were given by Senj captain and Croatian nobleman Sigismund Gusić to accommodate the newly arrived Vlachs in exchange for their military service.

Vlachs, under the protection of the Ban of Croatia Miklós Erdődy and General Ivan Josip Herberstein, were also settled around Petrinja, Glina, Skradin, Vojnić, Krstinje and Budačko.

[148] In Dalmatia the Morlachs were immigrants who settled in the Venetian-Ottoman border, on the outskirts of coastal cities, and entered Venetian military service, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

This activity prevented the Croatian envoy to the Austrian court, Benedikt Vinković, who was there to consult on the "Vlach question", from pursuing a union of the Vlach-settled Military Frontier with Croatia.

[167] The exact ethnic identity of the Frontier Vlachs (and in part the ancestors of the Krajina Serbs) is complex and at present unexplained without at least some national ideologies and mythologization which emerged in the 19th century.

[172] Hrabak emphasized that South Slavic scholarship and Serbian nationalists tried to neglect or minimize the contribution of Vlachs in their ethnogenesis and history because the old-Balkan element insulted their idea of pure Slavs.

[177] According to Zlatko Kudelić, the term Vlach has a broader meaning and denotes the entire Krajina population but is also a confessional label for Orthodox Grencers who are referred to as Serbs in Serbian historiography.