Historical Demography in Croatia

This recently published book under the title Povijesna Demografija Hrvatske has been written by Vladimir Stipetic and Nenad Vekaric. It contains a wealth of historical, ethnical, and population statistics for Croatia, plus is filled with biographical information on Croatians who have contributed to our understanding of the population history of present day Croatia. Though written in Croatian, it has a 21 page summary in English and French, as is typical of many ethnographic works published in Croatia by the Hrvatska Akademija Znanosti i Umjetnosti, Zavod za Povijesne Znanosti u Dubrovniku (Croatian Academy of Arts and Science, Office of Historical Arts in Dubrovnik).

The volume's 272 pages are well illustrated with charts and photographs including a large number of images of individual Croatians who contributed to the study of Croatian historical demography. Such individuals include Baldo Bogisic (1834-1908) who pioneered the traditional demographic approach and gave us one of the first studies on the institution well know in Croatian history as the zadruga. Mentioned is made of Fran Vrbanic and his economic history approach to demography. Both medieval studies and modern studies are described, such as Irgard Mahnken's study of Dubrovnik's population and Fedor Mikic's population studies of the island of Susak and Brsec in Istria.

This book illustrates how genealogical studies have contributed to the study of Croatian history. Mahnken's study of Ragusan families of the 14th and 15th centuries relies on genealogical data. Parish census and vital records can be used to reconstruct local population statistics as pointed out by Vekaric.

The book is divided into seven chapters covering all aspects of historical demography as it relates to Croatia and Croatians.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION
   • Origin and future of scientific history
   • Roots of historical demographic research in Croatia - traditional and historical economic direction
   • Statistical demography direction
   • Historical medical and anthropological direction
   • Documentary and genealogical direction
   • Breakthroughs in historical demographic research in Croatia - demographic trends
   • Social anthropological trend in historical demography
   

2. INFRASTRUCTURE
   • Reference books
   • Documents
   • Register of births, marriages, and deaths
   

3. CROATIAN POPULATION RESEARCH
   • Historical demographic synthesis
   • Demographic transitions
   • Problems of depopulation and loss of agriculture
   • War victims and demographic losses
   • Famine and epidemics
   • Ethnic and national groups in Croatia
   
   • Archaeology and anthropology - disciplinary perspectives for the investigation of ethnicity
   • Inclusion of historical demography - research on religious and national structure
   • National minorities in Croatia
   
   Albanians
   Monenegrians
   Czechs, Slovaks, Russians, Ukrainians
   Greeks
   Hungarians
   Bosnian Muslims
   Germans and Austrians
   Gypsies
   Slovenians
   Serbs
   Italians
   Jews
   Others
   
   • Research in family structure
   • Marginal groups
   

4. REGIONAL STUDIES
   
   Zagreb
   Northwestern Croatia
   Slavonia
   Banija, Kordun and Lika
   Rijeka, Primorje and Gorski Kotar
   Istria and the Kvarner
   Dalmatia
   Dubrovnik
   

5. CROATIANS OUTSIDE CROATIA
   • Autonomous Croatians in Bosnia and Hercegovina, Boka Kotorska and Slovenia
   • Antemurale Christianitatis
   • Mediterranean migration
   • Dubrovnik's expansion in the Balkans
   • Emigration to oversea countries
   

6. OUTSIDE PERSPECTIVE: FOREIGN RESEARCH ON HISTORICAL DEMOGPRAHY IN CROATIA
   

7. PERSPECTIVES ON CROATIAN DEMOGRAPHIC HISTORY
   • Creating new historical demography reference material
   • Critical analysis of sources
   • Sophisticated historical demographic analyses - development of methodology
   • Continued regional research to a new synthesis
   

ENGLISH SUMMARY
FRENCH SUMMARY