When visiting Dubrovnik the first time 30 years ago, I thought "feels and looks like Venice" and automatically assumed it was a Venetian colony. But I was wrong. For most of the time Ragusa - as it was called until 1908 - was an independent republic.
Founded around 800 AD by refugees from the old, nearby Greek colony of Epidauros which was sacked by Slavic tribes (contradicts my previous story of peaceful migration - some sources say the raiders were Avars from Hungary).
Ragusa to the left - the Bay of Cavtet with former Epidauros to the right
Like Venice, Ancona and Raven na, Ragusa was until the 12th century part of the Byzantine Empire which was able to balance the commercial rivalries between these competing cities. But when Constantinople was sacked in 1204, Ragusa fell under Venetian influence and had to pay an annual tribute. But internally, it remained self-governed like under the Byzantines.
By 1358, Ragusa had developed its internal governance to a point that it could challenge Venice and became independent.
The heavily fortified harbour of Ragusa with its sea walls in May 2019
The conflict between Venice and the Hungarian Kings which expanded towards the Mediterranean allowed Ragusa to gain independence. The Republic offered to pay the Hungarian Kings a formal token tribute for switching sides which they happily accepted since it weekend Venice's position. Now, the Republic of Ragusa could determine its own fate. During the following years, Ragusa built a fleet of 100 vessels and could now enter in open completion with its former mother town. To strengthen its hand, Ragusa also negotiated a formal alliance with Ancona just across the Adriatic to curb Venice's influence in the lower Adriatic. The Republic of Ragusa was one of the First Nations to completely ban slavery - they were appalled by the atrocities committed by both Muslim and Christian pirates and wanted to set an example. Henceforth the Ragusan Fleet sailed under the Liberty Flag. It also added several islands to its territory to have more hinterland.
The territories of the Republic of Ragusa reached from Venician Kotor to Venitian Korcula
Constantinople's fall to the Ottomans in 1453 fundamentally changed Ragusa's strategic position. As the Hungarian Kings lost battles and ground to the advancing Ottoman Army, the Republic signed a treaty with the Sultan in Istanbul and formally became an ally to the Turks. It was a smart treaty. Ragusa negotiated the right not to contribute ever anything to the Ottoman's war efforts! It was thus allowed to ship Spanish troops during the campaign of Castelnuovo (Herceg Novi, C + 6). The generosity of the Turks was - of course - not selfless but in their national interest. Ragusa had to take over the trading between Bursa in Anatolia and Ancona. The Sultan could thus bypass the Venetian trading system and ship Turkish goods directly to Florence - a strategic rival to Venice, good friend of France and a willing buyer. Am pretty sure Catharine di Medici brought many Turkish products to France when she married the French King and lived in the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris
Ragusa in 1667 - the town made maximal use of the topography for its defensive walls
Staying neutral for the next 300 years, Ragusa was not involved in the many Venetian-Turkish wars and could focus on trading. Shipping primarily goods from Anatolia, it was less dependent on Asian goods than Venice. Their redirection via the Cape of Good Hope and Lisbon thus affected Ragusa to a far less degree. It was during these three centuries that a thriving Croatian community developed and the name of Dubrovnik was used more frequently. Much of the early Croatian literature has its roots in Dubrovnik. The Croatian influence was so strong that Ragusa's Grand Council had to remind its citizens that Romano-Dalmatico was the Republic's official language.
Ragusa's independence ended in 1808 when it was annexed by Napoleon. Seven years later, the Congress of Vienna merged it with the French provinces of Dalmatia and gave it to the Austrian Empire as a compensation for the loss of Belgium. A symbol of Ragusa's century long independence survived in Croatia's flag. The Red-Blue Strip Shield in the Crown is the Republic's old coat-of-arms.
Croatian Flag from 1992
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