The pre-modern society of the Croatia proper in the 19th century

Abstract

Gradual modernization processes, that have stretched over the European continent, affected the territory of Croatian lands a little bit later than the rest of Europe, particularly the western Europe. These processes emphasized the role of the society that is called “Late estate society” or “premodern society”. The national integration, cultural homogenization and linguistic standardization were processes that have been closely linked to the modernization process of society, state and administration and their qualities indicate the degree of modernization. Pre-modern society in this paper is presented separately, stratum after stratum. Stratification of society was similar to the one in the Middle Ages. However, in 19th century there was a strong positioning and strengthening of stratum named as “honor” - the high bourgeoisie and traders. In this paper is, also, described the daily life of each individual stratum of Croatian pre-modern society. Firstly, the importance of historical demography is indicated as a starting point to show and explain the daily life and the role of social classes. Secondly, it is explained how the modernization processes increased and how they affected the Croatian population. At the same time this paper is based on pointing out the problem of availability of data related to demographics and the lack of demographic and sociological research of the Croatian society throughout history. To sum up, this paper is focused on elaborating how Croatian society in 19th century, through modernization changes, made the foundations of modern Croatian society.