Dalmacija i Austrijsko Carstvo prve polovine 19. stoljeća: pisana riječ u službi stvaranja poslušnih i lojalnih građana
Dalmatia and the Austrian Empire in the first half of the nineteenth century: Making obedient and loyal citizens through the written word

Summary/Abstract: This essay analyses the ways in which the Austrian authorities, upon the acquisition of Dalmatia for the Austrian Empire, attempted to educate their new citizens in the spirit of obedience and loyalty. Efforts to educate the new imperial citizens in the new (Austrian) spirit were primarily guided by the idea of the creation of not only a shared present and future but also a shared past. The repetitive calendar ceremonial of imperial birthdays—publicized in almanacs and in occasional poetry—was supposed to give rise to a new tradition. Furthermore, the continued recording of the anniversaries of emperors’ and imperial family’s deaths, as well as the registration of those events that pointed to the very short yet extant shared history of Dalmatia and the Austrian Empire, were all supposed to develop a sense of common national destiny. Messages of loyalty to the ruler (emperor) and the Austrian Empire that filled the pages of catechisms and similar booklets used to raise literacy were also tools for bringing up the new citizens in the Austrian spirit. It is for this reason that the fall of the Venetian Empire came to be celebrated as the beginning of a new era of peace and prosperity in Dalmatian history. At the same time, four centuries of Venetian rule were marginalized and described as turbulent and anarchic. Similarly, the Austrians suppressed everything that had a French origin and in particular anything related to Napoleon and the French revolution. The latter ideas were considered a threat to the old order and the Empire itself. In contrast, the period of Ottoman-Venetian wars was presented as the golden era of heroic past. Its purpose was to help the collective renaissance of the nation, and to raise new citizens as loyal subjects of the Empire. The essay warns that this practice was not new, and that Dalmatia—as a new Austrian province—was by no means an exception. The study is based on an analytical interpretation of written sources printed in Dalmatia in the first 35 years of the Austrian rule (1815-1850).

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