The Early Modern Era—Ottoman Decline

Abstract

The decreased rate of expansion of the Ottoman Empire on the eve of the Modern Era was also reflected in the internal degradation of the Empire’s societal and political systems and coincided with the advancement of Christian states (in societal, political, and economic terms). The Ottoman withdrawal from the Pannonian Basin and parts of Dalmatia was one of the most important events for Croatia during this period, as was the stabilisation of a new border after a series of peace treaties between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy and the Republic of Venice in the eighteenth century. In the deserted and economically destroyed borderland areas, a policy of settlement and economic valorisation was implemented, largely in Slavonia, the Dalmatian Hinterland, and within the new administrative entity along the border: the Military Frontier. Along with a policy of planned settlement in Slavonia, there were also policies intended to stabilise settlement patterns and the division of land in both Slavonia and the Dalmatian Hinterland. This considerably changed the cultural landscape and enabled an agricultural revolution in commercial grain cultivation. Newly acquired Pannonian territories and economic surpluses created the basis for a new combined transportation axis from Pannonia to the northern Adriatic. This was one of the leading international trade and transport routes during the eighteenth century, until the laying of the first railway. It had great significance for the area of Croatia, but also for neighbouring countries—Bosnia and Herzegovina (under the Ottoman rule) and Serbia—which had previously been linked to international trade by southern Adriatic harbours (Dubrovnik and Split).