Povijesni prilozi, Vol. 35 No. 51, 2016.
Original scientific paper
Military Entrepreneurship in Venetian Dalmatia and Boka (1700 – 1718)
Nikola Markulin
Abstract
In the period from 1700-1718, that is, from the end of the Morean War (1684 – 1699) until the end of the Second Morean War (1714 – 1718), Venetian army in Dalmatia and Boka consisted of professional soldiers (militia pagata) and territorial militia (ordinanza, cernida, krajina), same as in the previous periods. It was no exception among the early modern European states to build up their armies by relying on two different organizational models. However, whereas the organization of Venetian territorial militia was strictly controlled and supervised by the state, for the professional troops it relied on a broad range of private activities, for which modern historiography has coined the term “military entrepreneurship.”
Briefly, military entrepreneurship is manifested in the fact that the sovereigns of early modern European states, usually unable to build up, organize, finance, and control suitable armies through their administrative apparatuses alone, outsourced these activities to private entrepreneurs. Even though wider scholarly circles have largely perceived this model of military organization through the well-known practice of hiring mercenary troops that were established, organized, and equipped by military commanders known as condottieri, who then “sold” their services and those of their troops to various European states and rulers, at the time when this practice was at its pinnacle it encompassed a far broader spectrum of organizational and financial activities beyond the direct control of the state apparatus.
In the given period, between a third and a half of all professional troops in the Venetian army was established by cooperation with military entrepreneurs from Venetian Dalmatia and Boka, and consisted of soldiers who originated from the same region. These included infantry, which the sources refer to as Oltramarini, and cavalry known as Croati a cavallo. Local elites were strongly involved in mobilizing and organizing such troops, in which process they developed business links of the patron-client type that often surpassed the borders of Venetian sovereignty. Such military entrepreneurship contributed to the stratification of the local elites and also firmly interconnected and merged their interests with those of the state.
Keywords
military entrepreneurship; Venetian Dalmatia and Boka; professional troops of Oltramarini and Croati a cavallo; Second Morean War
Hrčak ID:
174126
URI
Publication date:
21.12.2016.
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