MIGRAŢII SPONTANE ŞI ORGANIZATE ÎN TERITORIUL ZAREI (ZADAR-ULUI) LA MIJLOCUL SECOLULUI AL XVI-LEA. CAZUL MORLACILOR ISTRIENI
SPONTANEOUS AND ORGANIZED MIGRATIONS IN THE HINTERLAND OF ZARA (ZADAR) AT THE MIDDLE OF THE 16th CENTURY. THE CASE OF THE ISTRIAN MORLACHS

Summary/Abstract: Sometime during the summer of the year 1538, Alvise Badoer, provveditore generale in Dalmatia, and Camillo Orsino, the general governor of Dalmatia, facilitated the transfer of some Morlachs from the Ottoman Empire to the Venetian territory. Initially, the Morlachs complied with the Venetian settlement practices and accepted the status and the privileges that had been offered to them in the Istria region. However, some of them failed to adapt and decided to return to the Balkans. Some Morlachs went back to Turchia, while others settled in the border region of Zara and received the name of morlacchi istriani. This study aims to analyze the different stages of this immigrant wave, as well as the development of the Morlach community within the Venetian state from 1540 to 1570. The article focuses on the people involved in the Morlachs’ settlement in the hinterland of Zara, such as Venetian officials, Dalmatian nobles, soldiers and Morlachs. A special attention is paid to the relationship between the Morlach colonists and the native inhabitants of the region. The study also argues that the Morlachs played an active diplomatic role in the border negotiations between Venice and the Ottomans. The Istrian Morlachs, as an example of a community in the making, provide a thought-provoking case study that captures the difficulties of the Venetian settlement policy when confronted with spontaneous and organized migrations.

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