White Croat conquest of Dalmatia

White Croat conquest of Dalmatia
Part of the Slavic migrations to the Balkans
Date c. 620s-630s Location Dalmatia (Roman province) (present-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) Result Croat victory Territorial changes Croats establish Duchy of Croatia and subjugate Avars
Belligerents
White Croats	Avar Khaganate
Commanders and leaders
Father of Porga (?)	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Many killed; survivors enslaved

The White Croat conquest of Dalmatia or Croat-Avar war refers to the early 7th century mass migration and settlement of early Slavic White Croats (ancestors of modern South Slavic Croats in the region) to the Roman province of Dalmatia in present-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and successful war against the Pannonian Avars. It resulted in the founding of the Duchy of Croatia and Croatian baptism into Christianity. This event plays an important role in the history of Croatian origin hypotheses.

Prelude

Pope Gregory I in 600 wrote to the archbishop of Salona, Maximus, in which he expresses concern about the arrival of the Slavs. ^{[1] [2]} According to De Administrando Imperio (DAI, 10th century), the capital city of Salona of the Roman province of Dalmatia was conquered circa 614 by the Avars and Slavs (in the DAI's chapters 29 and 30 on the history of Dalmatia and fall of Salona, the terms Avars and Slavs were interchangeably used but, most probably, generally meant the Slavs ^[3] ). ^[4]

There are a few narratives on the arrival of Croats in the region, but the main one suggests that the Byzantine Dalmatia had been ruled by the Pannonian Avars before the arrival of White Croats. ^{[5] [6]} The dating of the events is stated to have been during the rule of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius (610–641), and "before the Serbs came as refugees", ^[7] being commonly dated between 622 and 627, ^[8] or 622–638 (or c. 630). ^[9] It is considered that it coincides after failed Avar-Slav Siege of Constantinople (626), ^{[10] [11] [12]} or during the Slavic uprising led by Samo against the Avars in 632, ^{[13] [14]} or around 635–641 when the Avars were defeated by Kubrat of the Bulgars. ^{[15] [16]}

It is argued that the described 7th-century homeland and migration is anachronistic based on partly available information about the contemporary 10th-century White Croats. ^{[17] [18] [19]} There's a scholarly debate whether some unnamed Slavs or the Croats plundered the same province and Salona together with the Avars, ^{[20] [21]} and it is often considered as a date when the Croats revolted against the Avars after the Croatian migration and settlement in Dalmatia in the late 6th and early 7th century. ^{[22] [23] [20] [24] [25]}

Conquest

According to DAI 30th chapter, a group that broke off from the rest of Croats in White Croatia, was led by five brothers (Kloukas, Lobelos, Kosentzis, Mouchlo and Chrobatos) and two sisters (Touga and Bouga). ^{[26] [5]} This group of Croats emigrated to Dalmatia, which was ruled by the Pannonian Avars. The Croats entered into a several-year-long war against the Avars, on their own or the emperor's behalf. ^{[26] [5] [6]} Byzantine influence, mentioned in the 31st chapter, on the events cannot be entirely excluded. ^{[27] [28] [12] [29]} Croats had to be strong and well-organized enough to get a new homeland by war and victory over Avars. ^{[23] [30] [31]} When the Croats won and settled down, they had the father of Porga as their archon. ^[32]

Aftermath

The Croats occupied Dalmatia, killing many Avars in the process and subjugating the remaining ones. However, the statement about how "there are still descendants of the Avars in Croatia, and are recognized as Avars", according to Tibor Živković "was written by the one who personally saw the Croats and the Avars still living side by side in Pannonia. This situation never occurred in Dalmatia proper, as the Avars never lived there". ^[26]

The narrative of DAI on the Croatian conquest of Dalmatia received some criticism as it presented the event through Byzantine propagandistic view, where the Croats are presented as subjects of emperor Heraclius invited to the region to deal with Avars that previously devastated Illyricum. ^[33]

References

1. Vlasto, Alexis P. (1970). The Entry of the Slavs into Christendom: An Introduction to the Medieval History of the Slavs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 187. ISBN   9780521074599.
2. Rapanić, Željko. (2013) "O početcima i nastajanju Dubrovnika" (The origin and formation of Dubrovnik) p. 94; Starohrvatska prosvjeta, Vol. III No. 40
3. Rapanić, Željko (2006). "Propast Salone". Starohrvatska Prosvjeta. III (43). Split: Muzej hrvatskih arheoloških spomenika Stjepana Gunjače b.b.: 96–97, 116–118.
4. Džino 2014, pp. 95–96.
5. Džino 2014, p. 96.
6. Hrvoje Gracanin (2021). "Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos on Croats in Early Medieval Southern Pannonia (DAI, c. 30, 75–78)". Zagreb: University of Zagreb. p. 26.
7. Živković 2012, p. 49–50.
8. Dvornik 1962, p. 117.
9. Živković 2012, p. 58–59.
10. Dvornik 1962, p. 117, 124.
11. Heršak & Silić 2002, pp. 211–213.
12. Sedov 2013, p. 450.
13. Gluhak 1990, p. 217.
14. Majorov 2012, p. 62.
15. Sedov 2013, p. 182.
16. Filipec 2020, p. 154–157.
17. Budak 1995, pp. 141–143, 147.
18. Sedov 2013, p. 450–451.
19. Majorov 2012, pp. 48, 54, 58, 61–63.
20. Voitovych 2010, p. 45–47.
21. Filipec 2020, p. 154-159, 162–166.
22. Sedov 2013, pp. 182, 450.
23. Heather 2010, pp. 406, 425, 444.
24. Majorov 2012, pp. 60–64.
25. Filipec 2020, p. 154–159, 162–166.
26. Živković 2012, p. 114.
27. Dvornik 1962, p. 124.
28. Budak 1995, p. 75.
29. Kardaras 2018, p. 94.
30. Majorov 2012, p. 21.
31. Filipec 2020, p. 157.
32. Živković 2012, p. 49–54.
33. Džino 2014, pp. 96–98.

Bibliography

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• Budak, Neven (2018). Hrvatska povijest od 550. do 1100 [Croatian history from 550 until 1100]. Leykam international. ISBN   978-953-340-061-7. Archived from the original on 3 October 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
• Francis Dvornik; Romilly Jenkins; Bernard Lewis; Gyula Moravcsik; Dimitri Obolensky; Steven Runciman (1962). Jenkins, Romilly (ed.). De Administrando Imperio: Volume II Commentary. London: The Athlone Press, University of London. ISBN   9780884020219.
• Džino, Danijel (2014). "Local knowledge and wider contexts: stories of the arrival of the Croats in De Administrando Imperio in the past and present". Brisbane: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies.
• Filipec, Krešimir (2020). Praishodište i/ili situacija. Slaveni i Hrvati – do zauzimanja nove domovine[Origin and/or situation. Slavs and Croats – until the conquest of a new homeland] (in Croatian). Zagreb: Centar za ranosrednjovjekovna istraživanja Zagreb-Lobor: Odsjek za arheologiju Filozofskog fakulteta Sveučilišta, Katedra za opću srednjevjekovnu i nacionalnu arheologiju: Arheološki zavod Filozofskog fakulteta. ISBN   978-953-57369-1-2.
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• Kardaras, Georgios (2018). Florin Curta; Dušan Zupka (eds.). Byzantium and the Avars, 6th–9th Century AD: political, diplomatic and cultural relations. Brill. ISBN   978-90-04-38226-8.
• Majorov, Aleksandr Vjačeslavovič (2012), Velika Hrvatska: etnogeneza i rana povijest Slavena prikarpatskoga područja[Great Croatia: ethnogenesis and early history of Slavs in the Carpathian area] (in Croatian), Zagreb, Samobor: Brethren of the Croatian Dragon, Meridijani, ISBN   978-953-6928-26-2
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