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| Official languages | Latin |
| Established church | Roman Catholic Church |
| Capital and largest city | Ragusa |
| Head of state | knez (duke) |
| Area | less than 1,500 km² |
| Population | less than 200,000 |
| Existed | 14th century - 1808 |
The Republic of Ragusa, also known as the Republic of Dubrovnik, was a maritime city-state that was based in the city of Ragusa (now Dubrovnik) from the 14th century until 1808. Its territory is currently part of Croatia. The Communitas Ragusina (Latin for "Ragusa municipality" or "community") was renamed Respublica Ragusina (Latin for "Ragusan Republic") in the 14th century. It is known as Dubrovačka Republika in modern Croatian and Repubblica di Ragusa in modern Italian.
History
- See also Dubrovnik.
Origins
From its establishment in the 7th century AD, the town of Ragusa was under the protection of the Byzantine Empire. After the Crusades, Ragusa came under the sovereignty of the Republic of Venice (1205–1358), and by the Peace Treaty of Zara in 1358 it became a vassal of the Kingdom of Hungary.
High Middle Ages
Having been granted complete self-government, bound only to pay a tribute to the king and provide assistance with its fleet, the Republic of Ragusa started its life as a free state and the city was fortified and had two harbors at Ragusa and Ragusavecchia (Cavtat) and the offshore Elaphiti Islands but gradually expanded its holdings. The Republic had to frequently accept foreign suzerainty as a vassal state. It accepted Venetian rule at first, but soon fell under the influence of neighbouring the Serbian state. In 1120, the Republic expanded its territory inland.
In the second half of the 1180s, Grand Prince/Duke Stefan Nemanja attempted to conquer the Republic by dispatching his brothers, Miroslav of Zahumlje and Stracimir of Zeta to besiege the city. Miroslav eventually made peace, so Stracimir did not join the siege. Ragusa's fleet assisted in relieving the naval conquest of Curzola (Korčula) by Stracimir. Stefan Nemanja and Stracimir tried once more to take the Republic, but peace was finally concluded in 1187, and it is kept in Miroslav's Gospel.
The Republic of Ragusa finally freed itself from Byzantine suzerainty in 1204.
In 1233, the Republic of Ragusa was used as a stop for the exiled Serbian King Stefan Radoslav of the House of Nemanja on his way to Dyrrachion (Durrës). In 1233-1242, the Republic expanded its territory deeper inland. Radoslav made attempts to use the Ragusan military power to restore himself, but utterly failed.
In 1240, Bosnia's Ban Matej Ninoslav issued an edict to the Republic of Ragusa proclaiming it as his protectorate in case of an attack from Serbia, and guaranteeing the rights of Ragusans (Vlachs) in Bosnia if the rights of Serbs (Srbl'i) in the Republic were guaranteed. He reconcluded the edict in 1249.
The Archbishopric of Ragusa had all the Roman Catholic Christians along the neighbouring coastline in the Serbian Kingdom under its influence. The Ragusan Prince demanded the abolition of the neighbouring Archbishopric of Bar, and King Stefan Uroš I of Nemanja doubled the standard tax that the Republic of Ragusa payed up to 2,000 Serbian perpers. The Ragusian authorities refused to acquiesce, so King Uroš I besieged the city in 1252. Ragusa managed to draw the Bulgarian Czardom on its side in the war against the Serbs in 1253, but had to accept amnesty in 1254 nevertheless. The Republic of Ragusa had to pay war damage to the Serb King and give up all dioceses except for the areas within the actual Republic.
In 1252, the island of Lagosta (Lastovo) decided of its own accord to join the Republic of Ragusa. This was confirmed in the Ragusa Statute written in 1272.
Late Middle Ages
After Bosnia's Ban Kotroman's death in 1314, his wife Jelisaveta and their children, including Stephen II Kotromanić retreated to the Republic of Ragusa, as they were oppressed by the Šubićs. The Croatian noble family under Mladen II Šubić soon invaded the Hum of the Serb King Stefan Milutin of Nemanja, and the long war seriously damaged the trading-dominated economy of Ragusa. Mladen II eventually lost the war and had to sent hostages, among them his brother Grgur Šubić, who King Milutin dispatched to Ragusa for safe-keeping. Stjepan II of Kotroman went to Bosnia and restore the power of the House of Kotroman. In 1322-1326, the Republic of Dubrovnik allied with Bosnia against the Zahumljian Branivojević Rogue Nobel family. One of the four brothers, Brajko Branivojević fled to Ragusa from the Bosnian army, where he was arrested and tortured. The Ragusans had Brajko executed in his dungeon on the command of Serbian King Stefan Uroš III Dečanski. After numerous raids on the Ragusan Littoral (Dubrovačko Primorje) in later wars, Ban Stepan II came into conflict with the Republic. He showed aggressiveness in the negotiations for a treaty that would compensate Ragusa's losses, but it was finally signed in 1326. The Bosnian Ban's viceroy in Hum often raided Ragusan trade caravans which caused new conflicts. Stepan additionally demanded that Ragusa pay him the old mogorish tax usually payed to the Zahumljian and Serbian rulers. Stepan II refused to negotiate and issued a forgiving edict to the Republic in 1332. In 1340-1343, Ban Stepan II brought the Franciscan vicars to Bosnia that greatly contributed to the conversion of Bogomils to Roman Catholicism and the eradication of the Bosnian Church.
The peninsula of Sabioncello (Pelješac) with the city of Ston and the island of Posrednica at the end of the Neretva, was sold to the Republic in 1333 by King Stefan Dušan for 8,000 perpers and an annual tax of 500 perpers. The Republic swore an oath to keep the Orthodox Serb Episcope in Ston, but broke it in 1335, and evicted the Orthodx Serb Episcope, implacing a Roman Catholic instead of him. Czar Dušan channalled the tax to the Serbian monastery of Saint Archangels in Jerusalem in 1350. The Republic converted the local population to Catholicism by 1394.
The island of Meleda (Mljet) was granted to the Republic in 1357 by the new Czar Stefan Uroš V. The Republic received the Ragusan Littoral around Slano in 1399, and in the 1427, the Canali (Konavle) region was sold by the Grand Bosnian Duke Sandalj Hranić Kosača. In 1451, the Bosnian Pavlović noble family sold the remaining areas of Canali to the Republic.
The Republic of Ragusa accepted Hungarian suzerainty with the Peace of Zara (Zadar) of 1358.
Supported by its wealth and skilled diplomacy, Ragusa achieved a remarkable level of development during the 15th and 16th century. After 1492, the city received a group of Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal. They used their contacts with other Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire and Europe for commercial benefit.
The city was ruled by aristocracy, and marriage between members of three different social classes was strictly forbidden. The nominal head of state was the Prince (knez), or during Venetian suzerainty the Rector (Rettore). Real power, however, was in the hands of three councils (Vijeće) that were held by the nobility.
The government of Ragusa was liberal in some other ways. The Republic's flag had the word Libertas (freedom) on it, and the entrance to the Lovrijenac fortress just outside the Ragusa city walls bears the inscription "Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro," meaning "liberty is not sold for any kind of gold." The Republic abolished the slave trade in 1418. However, the Republic was a staunch opponent of the Eastern Orthodoxy and only Roman Catholics could acquire Ragusan citizenship.
Modern Age
The fate of Ragusa was linked to that of the Ottoman Empire. Ragusa and Venice lent technical assistance to the Ottoman-Egyptian-Calicut-Gujarati alliance that was defeated by the Portuguese in the battle of Diu in the Indian Ocean (1509). In 1571, With all her persuasive powers Venice tried to involve Ragusa in the war against Turkey in order to deprive the town of its profitable trading on the mainland. Venice proposed that soldiers from the League should occupy Ragusa before the Turks did. With the help of their great diplomat Frano Gundulic and the support of the Pope and the Spanish King, Dubrovnik succeeded in withstanding all Spanish intrigues. Furthermore, they procured a guarantee from the members of the Holy League to recognise the unity of Ragusa's territory. After 1358 Venice for the first time had to give an international obligation to protect Ragusa territory. Dubrovnik greatly profited during the war and as a neutral state developed into a great intermediary in the trade of goods. Their trade grew 6-7 times the size it had been in times of peace, and in June 1570 the Customs Office collected 21000 ducats duty on goods trading through Dubrovnik. In the battle of Lepanto in the year 1571, the Ragusa navy, in accordance with its principles of neutrality, did not directly take part in that great settling of accounts between the fleets of the East and West. However, Ragusa ships were standing by on the side of the League. After this defeat, the spice trade went through the Portuguese ocean routes rather than the Mediterranean ones. In 1526 Ragusa acknowledged the suzerainty of the Ottoman Sultan (annual tribute was paid to the Sultan). A crisis of Mediterranean shipping and especially a catastrophic earthquake on the 6 April 1667 that killed over 5,000 citizens, including the rector, and leveled most of the public buildings, ruined the well-being of the Republic. With great effort Ragusa recovered a bit, but still remained a shadow of the former Republic.
With a 26 January 1699 peace agreement, the Republic of Ragusa ceded two patches of its coast to the Ottoman Empire so that the Republic of Venice would be unable to attack from land, only from the sea. One of them, the northwestern land border with the small town of Neum, is today the only outlet of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Adriatic Sea. The southeastern border village of Sutorina later became part of Montenegro, which has coastline to the south.
In 1776, The Republic of Ragusa became the first foreign power to recognize the government of the United States.
In 1806, the Republic surrendered to forces of the French Empire to end a months-long siege by the Russian-Montenegrin fleets (during which 3,000 cannonballs fell on the city). The French lifted the siege and saved Ragusa. The French army, led by Napoleon, entered Ragusa in 1806. In 1808 Marshal Marmont abolished the Republic of Ragusa and amalgamated its territory into the French Illyrian Provinces himself becoming the Duke of Ragusa. (Later, in the 1814 Battle of Paris, Marmont abandoned Napoleon and was named a traitor. The word "ragusade" was coined in French to signify treason and "raguser" meant a cheat.) In 1814 , Led by general Todor Milutinovic, the Austrian army marched into Dubrovnik. With them came the British army and the local insurgents against the French occupation. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, (from 1867, Austria–Hungary) as part of the crown land of the Kingdom of Dalmatia which it remained a part of until 1918.
In 1815, nobles of the former Ragusan Government met for the last time with efforts to reestablish the Republic of Ragusa in vain. After the fall of the Republic most of the aristocracy died out or emigrated overseas, just the 20% of the noble families were recognized by the Austrian empire. Some of the families that were recognized and survived were Ghetaldi-Gondola, Gozze, Caboga, Sorgo, Zlataric, Zamagna, and Pozza.
Although colloquially known to its residents as Dubrovnik for centuries, the city of Ragusa officially changed its name to Dubrovnik only in 1918 with the fall of Austria-Hungary and the incorporation of the area into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Culture
Italian was the language of the higher social strata, though not necessarily their mother tongue; this way local aristocrats distinguished themselves from the lower social classes. Ragusan Dalmatian, a Romance language, was the language of the old residents. With the course of time, the language of the Croats poured itself into all areas of social life, pushing out the Romance languages. The Romance language population has peacefully assimilated through the ages into the Croats, and the Ragusan Dalmatian became extinct. In the high society it was assimilated by Italian, that became also the official language of the Republic.
The best and most fruitful literary works in Republic of Ragusa were written in Croatian. Among writers of those literary works are Džore Držić, Marin Držić, Ivan Bunić Vučić, Ignjat Đurđević, Ivan Gundulić, Šišmundo (Šiško) Menčetić, Dinko Ranjina; and following writers, beside others from 16th - 19th century (before the Age of Romantic National Awakenings) were explicit in declaring themselves as Croats and theirs language as Croatian: Vladislav Menčetić, Dominko (Dinko) Zlatarić, Bernardin Pavlović, Mavro Vetranović, Nikola Nalješković, Junije Palmotić, Jakov Mikalja, Joakim Stulli, Marko Bruerović, Peter Ignaz Sorgo, Michael Anton Sorgo (1749. 1826), Giovanni Francesco Sorgo(1706. 1771)
Other important Ragusan people like diplomats, podestá and military were Fran Gundulic, Vlaho Getaldic Biaggio Ghetaldi, Frana Getaldic-Gundulic (Ghetaldi-Gondola), Bernhard Caboga, Marija Gundulic Gucevic (Maria Gondola Gozze), Šišmundo (Šiško)Gundulic (Segismondo Gondola), Trojan Gundulic.
Continuity runs from Middle Ages; cultural level was much above the rest of Croatia. Because of these facts, the local Croatian dialect from the Ragusa area was used as basis for the Croatian standard language.
Noble families of Ragusa
- House of Gondola (Gundulić), (Ghetaldi-Gondola)
- House of Pozza (Pucić)
- House of Zlatarić
- House of Sorgo
- House of Reesti (Rastić)
- House of Boshko (Bošković)
- House of Gozze ( Gucevic )
- House of Bosdari
- House of Gradic
- House of Ghetaldi (Getaldic)
- House of Caboga
- House of Bona
- House of Giorgi
- House of Saraca
- House of Cerva
- House of Zamagna
- House of Luccari (Lukarevic)
- House of Tudisi