Hrvoje Petric

During the 17th century period, there was a gradual separation of Varaždin Generalate (Slavonnian Military Border) from the eastern part of medieval Križevci County (today: northwest Croatia). Varaždin military and Križevci County, with interlinked jurisdictions of both authorities were, however, a part of greater contact area on the border between the Habsburg and the Ottoman Empires. This is where many civil and military jurisdictions and relations were in conflicting complexity, as it was the case for many other borderline areas. In late 16th century this region, encompassing Varaždin Generalate was almost completely devastated with population cut down to insignificant numbers.

It badly needed a repopulation and establishing prerequisites for life in a functioning society of a military border. Organization of civil life was, at the same time a process of adapting natural environment to the new needs. So the stories of that period are ultimately of the environment, of the people and their settlements.

Initially, I wanted to determine what were the environmental consequences of this process. Then I tried to explain who the people, who had settled here, were. Finally, I showed what types of settlements were created in this colonization.

History of environmental issues in the studied area can be divided into two segments. The first is related to the impact of nature on humans in the studied area, and the second to human impact on nature.

The first segment highlights the issue the "Little Ice Age" and the influence of Drava River. Unlike today's times, when climate is significantly affected by human (wrong)doing, and climate changes have huge impact on people all over the world - the pre-industrial era had only impacts on the population. In order to better understand climate changes today, we should strive to better understanding of the climate before Industrial revolution and its changes without human interference.

This is why it’s important to research the climate of Early Modern times, or rather, the effects of so called Little Ice Age, as it affected Varaždin Generalate and Križevci County areas and its influence on the following in particular:

1) agriculture, farming food production and human sustenance
2) forestation and permanent clearance of beech forests from the lowlands
3) effects on human health
4) effects on society and its culture
5) wars and conflicts
6) migrations (and, possibly, link Vlach migrations to “global cooling”).

During the 17th century period, Varaždin Generalate and Križevci County borderline regions were rich in natural water resources, rivers and streams. People from the lowlands and river valleys were heavily endangered by frequent flooding on the research areas:

1) Drava River valleys
2) Sava River valleys
3) Lonja River and Česma River lowlands.

As for Drava River area, the hydro regulation of its stream had begun in the 17th century, in order to prevent flooding and save the settlements and population. In 17th century, the regulation effects were very limited, but also announced the future of increased human interventions into nature, unlike the medieval times. River regulations in this region would intensify in the late 18th century, and later, in the 19th century even to greater extent.

Wetlands and marshes were important as a natural regulator for flooding- these terrains absorbed excess of water in flooding. Such wetlands were usually along the big rivers, like Drava and Sava, but would be found near other, smaller rivers like Česma, Bednja and Lonja, the latter being best known for the marshes of Lonja River valley.

Forming of settlements, right in the middle of 17th century wetlands, is an evidence of successful colonization of the terrain. 17th century anthropization of terrains was followed by drainage of wetlands. The second half of 17th century saw some successful drainage in vicinity of Molve, Hlebine, Čigoč and some failed ones, like Mačkovec. Human settlement succeeded only on elevated terrain, like island of dry land surrounded by wetlands and marshes. Even today, such higher grounds are called ‘rooftop beams’.

Another nature’s influence on humans is clearly visible: enlarged thyroid gland, a goiter, often seen in people living by rivers, due to river water deficiency of iodine. The research of the Drava River area confirmed this, as a limiting factor to colonization processes. Suffering from enlarged thyroid gland caused serious health problems to population in close vicinity of rivers. 17th century records of goiter disease, the way it was detailed in 20th century records, could provide room for hypothesis that endemic cretinism, as a direct consequence of deficiency of thyroid hormones, might have been similar to those in the Early Modern Era times.

Pregled povijesti Srba i pravoslavlja na prostoru današnje Koprivničko-križevačke županije, Republika Hrvatska od srednjega vijeka do sredine 19. stoljeća. Tekst je dio knjige "Iz povijesti Srba Koprivničko-križevačke županije - od prvih doseljavanja do današnjih dana", kojoj je od 205. stranice koautor Filip Škiljan.
Nakladnik: Grafocentar, Zagreb
ISBN: 978-953-58969-3-7

The article represents the domestic and foreign environmental policy of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which was a nonaligned communist country within the Soviet-led bloc. Thus, Yugoslavia had a bridging position between East and West, between the capitalist and communist states. During the 1970s, Yugoslavia began to define a domestic environmental policy. After the adoption of the constitution in 1974 and assembly of the individual republics, Yugoslavia adopted the first laws related to the environment and established ministries for environment in most republics. At the same time the state was involved in numerous international environmental activities with democratic as well as socialist countries. It participated in the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), and was a member of the Committee on the Environment of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and has cooperated with the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.

Although Braudel's approach differs significantly from those who have worked in modern environmental history, his approach has been undoubtedly inspirational to many environmental historians. Without doubt can the works of Fernand Braudel be considered as predecessors of environmental history, but let us not forget that there are segments that can fit into a modern pluralized environmental history in the widest sense.

Europski kartografski izvori tijekom cijelog 16. stoljeća kontinuirano su donose podatke o Ptuju te da gotovo i nema karte koja bi prikazivala područje Štajerske uz rijeku Dravu, a koja ne bi imala ucrtani Ptuj, a u pravilu i Maribor te Ormož. Ptuj (s okolnim gradovima) je najviše bilježen na kartama tiskanim u 13 gradova i to na njemačkom prostoru (Nürnberg, Ingolstadt, Köln, Augsburg, Frankfurt na Maini i Strassburg/Strasbourg), a također i na kartama tiskanim u Italiji (Rim, Venecija), Nizozemskoj (Amsterdam, Antwerpen), Švicarskoj (Basel, Zürich) i Austriji (Beč). Uz njih postoji i nekoliko rukopisnih karata koje se čuvaju u Beču, Karlsruheu i Dresdenu. Prema trenutnom stupnju istraženosti Ptuj se javlja na nešto više od 70 kartografskih izvora iz 16. stoljeća, s time da ovaj broj nije konačan. Nešto manje su na kartama prisutni Maribor, a još manje Ormož. Povremeno ima i drugih okolnih naselja. Obavijesti iz karata o Ptuju, Mariboru i Ormožu 16. stoljeća su vrlo ograničene zbog toga jer su na karte bilježeni tek osnovni podatci. Učestalost pojavljivanja Ptuja, Maribora i Ormoža na kartama tijekom 16. stoljeća po prilici je u skladu je s njihovim tadašnjim značenjem. U radu je autor vrlo ograničeno nastojao ispitati i mogućnosti utvrđivanja promjena u okolišu, posebno u odnosu grad-rijeka, npr. kroz izgradnju mostova i meandriranje rijeke Drave.

Nature conservation in Croatia has a tradition since the late 19th or early 20th century. The article compares this tradition with Slovakia. It is interesting that in Croatia and Slovakia's first national parks established the same year: in 1949 (Plitvička jezera/Plitvice Lakes, Paklenica and Tatranský národný park). In Slovakia in 1969 based Slovakian Union conservation of nature and landscape (Slovak zväz ochrancov prírody a krajiny), which is under his wing gathered not only former members of the Section for the Protection of Nature (founded in 1958) of the National Museum Society, but also a variety of unorganized group of nature lovers. Slovakia Union security of nature and landscape has been particularly active in the 1980s and was influenced by, among other factors, on the development of Slovakia's environmental movement. On the emergence of environmental movement has certainly influenced industrialization that has upset the balance of the environment. In Croatia, the environmental movement occurs at the beginning of the 1970s, but he appeared in the system of socialist self-management that successfully prevents "subversive ecology", since the mid-1980s, there was environmental action "from below", which is reflected through the anti-nuclear movement, problems with waste, environmental spontaneous rebellion against the construction of hydroelectric power plants in other ways.

U ovom članku autor je nastojao definirati grupu ljudi koja je na predvođena braćom Antunom i Stjepanom Radićem radila na osnivanju Hrvatske pučke seljačke stranke te utvrditi njihovo teritorijalno podrijetlo i zanimanja odnosno društveni status 1904-1905. godine. Autor zaključuje kako je velika većina utemeljitelja potjecala iz središnje Hrvatske, a pretežito su predstavljali inteligenciju seljačkog podrijetla kojima su se kasnije pridružila dva seljaka. U tekstu su uz do sada uglavnom poznate podatke o braći Radić i njihovim suradnicima na osnivanju HPSS-a skupljeni su i neki manje poznati ili skroz nepoznati detalji pa je biografski obrađeno 20 od ukupno 27 utemeljitelja HPSS-a. K tome sam nastojao uočiti na kojem području je do sredine 1905. bila jezgra stranačke terenske infrastrukture zaključivši da se ponajprije radilo o Podravini s Bilogorom, sjevernoj Moslavini i Posavini (osobito brodskoj). Autor je u cijelosti donio nekoliko članaka i programskih spisa važnih za razumijevanje temeljne ideologije i inicijalne faze Hrvatske pučke seljačke stranke s težištem na razdoblje do početka ljeta 1905. godine.

The article discusses some aspects of the interrelationship between humans and the river Drava in the pre-industrial times. The main emphases are placed on regulations and floods. Regulations were necessary to keep the local population safe from relatively frequent flooding, which represented a significant threat, but they had negative consequences because the flood risk increased. People created a "vicious circle" of regulation and flood. Disturbance of the river returned as a boomerang.

The article analyzes the types of settlement and their environment on the basis of the topographic maps (five types of settlement). The aim of the article is to present the process of chenge and some of the factors which determine the form of settlement. The analysis deals with the region southeast of Varaždin, and northen of Koprivnica (Republic of Croatia). The oldest map (cca 1780.) shows a first organization of settlement. In the 19th century first organization of settlement develop and changed in environment.

Based on published and unpublished sources and literature available, the author here contemplates on some aspects of relationship between man, economics and his environment in Ludbreg, Koprivnica and Đurđevac of Podravina region.
The focus is placed on research of basic characteristics of population here with basic demographic processes, in the period from late 16th to early 18th century. Additionally, the author covered social, economic, cultural and religious aspects of life in 17th century Podravina. Each chapter here is backed up with so much not researched sources in archives, museums, church collections and the privately owned ones - so that after a systematic research for a few years in a row - we could write several extensive monograph books, not just one. This is why this text should be viewed as just another contemplation on what has been done so far in research of 17th century Podravina, and what directions the future research should go. Foundations, on which future Podravina historiography lies on, should be publication of historic data of value, currently kept in various archives. Perhaps it would be best to start with historiography publications of 17th century Podravina, as processes of those times originally fit into the everlasting relationship of people and their environment here, that can be traced, with more or less clarity, until the present day.

This paper shows an interrelation between man and his environment, on the Habsburg-Ottoman imperial borders in early modern period. As an example, we researched borderline areas alongside Drava River on the Habsburg Monarchy side of the border. This region is primarily the river Drava valley, the term ‘Podravina’, ‘Podravina multiborder area’ (region alongside Drava) was chosen. The center of this region is area surrounding the free royal town of Koprivnica, being the Military Frontier stronghold and administrative seat at the same time. This »case stud«y is an example of a man and his environment in border territory oin early modern period. Chronology data focus on 16th and 17th century, when this area was a frontier to both the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires. The paper focuses on borderline character, which influenced both man and his environment.

This paper deals with sand dunes area of fluvial and aeolian origins in South-East Europe, the northwest of Croatia, nearby the small town of Djurdjevac, due northeast of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, close to the Hungarian state border. These sands cover an area of approximately 1000km2 owing to combined effects of fluvial and aeolian processes during the Quaternary Period. Based on research of aeolian sheet sands on a greater region of Pannonian Valley, we can establish three stages of fluvial and aeolian formation of sand accumulation in Croatia: Stage1: approx. twenty thousand years ago (Würm glacial, the last Ice Age); stage2: Older Holocene; stage3: triggered by man and prolonged well into the Early Modern Period. This paper will deal with this third stage. Based on contemporary level of research, medieval archives do not provide any notice of «open» sands in this area; they might have been covered by humus before the Middle Ages. Under the influence of man, in the Early Modern Period (17th and 18th centuries) connective stems of plants (roots) gradually disappeared. There was aeolian erosion, so the sands reappeared on the surface. This brought up the issue of viable, sustainable development or rather, unsustainable one: is reappearance of Croatian sands (that previously had been under the humus layers) an example of disturbed ecosystem? As we consider the previous ‘coexistence’ of local population here with the sands, it’s logical to assume that early medieval ‘reappearance’ of sand dunes wasn’t just due to anthropogenous factor, but also to climate changes as well? The author leaves a door open to assumptions, that anthropogenous factors here, in the manner that change in economies (and/or new techniques and agrarian methods, as well as introduction of new plants) here influenced creation of «bare» sands, its resurface and move. It took great efforts to reattach these «bare» sands; the efforts put in motion since the late 19th century onwards. The plants that were introduced in the sand zone were quickly adjusting to the new terrain and life on sands. These plants enabled creation of humus substrate in the soil here. Slowly the new fertile lands appeared on the layers of sand, which in the 20th century grew with forest and grass vegetation and various agricultural crops; the sands here were covered various flora and fauna, quite atypical for other regions of Croatia. It’s important to notice how stopping of aeolian sheet layers, that had begun in the 19th century, is now revived and undergoing process until present day, by planting pine trees and spreading pine forests.

This paper brings an overview of Mt. Kalnik (in Croatia) natural and geographical characteristics, with an attempt to reconstruct what it was like in the early Modern Age, with further anthropization processes of Kalnik. The paper tries to define models of environmental history research in peri-Pannonian hills in the Early Modern Age, shown on a study case of Kalnik hills. This paper explores the hills of Kalnik, to the limited extent permitting (16th to 18th century documents) of the early Modern Age, focused on environmental history approach.

The paper was based on a land survey of the village of Torčec (a village in northwestern Croatia) made between 1775 and 1780 and preserved in Croatian National Archives (in Zagreb) as well as on other numerous sources. The document provides detailed information on all inhabitants of Torčec, including their old names and a detailed description of their landed property. Based on these facts a land possession and land cultivation analysis was produced, using quantitative methods. The terminology used in describing the parcelling of land was also examined. Torčec was at the time inhabited by freed serfs, freeman. Their status of freeman was a consequence of their colonization. Landlords and large estate owners offered and provided freedom to serfs in order to populate empty lands and to attract new labour. These ex-serfs from Slavonnia and other parts of Croatia in majority declined to move and work without personal freedom. Besides, for landlords the ever present danger was that serfs could easily flee to Military Border and join the Military Border as frontier guards. In order to precisely determine the land territory of Torčec in 1778, there had been a feudal regulation, ordered by the Queen Maria Theresa on 24 September 1773. By the regulation the borders of the main arable lands of the region were delineated and increased in length. This increased the number of plowlands, meadows and homesteads. More intensified processing of land, and increase of arable lands, helped a spatial expansion of Torčec. During 18th century Torčec expanded and number with the Triplex Confinium area as a case study. It was situated on Koprivnica (one of four main fortresses of the Slavonnian Military Border) and it was part of the 3Drnje County District and Drnje Parish (two kilometres from Torčec). It belonged at times to the Military Border and at other times to Civil Croatia. This analysis could also denote a beginning of eco-historical research in the Podravina (Drava Region).

During the Early Modern Times, the most populated cities of Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonnia were the ones with royal privileges and the title of a free royal borough: Zagreb, Varaždin, Križevci and Koprivnica. These cities were densely populated within their urban cores, surrounded by city walls. Public and privately-owned buildings were mostly built of mud and wood, with straw roofs. Those building materials were highly flammable, catching up fire quickly. From the mid-Sixteenth century onwards, Koprivnica was a walled-in city, surrounded by bulwark, a fortress defending the border between the two empires: The Ottoman and the imperial Hapsburg. In 1559, Koprivnica was ravaged by fire, deliberately set off by a refugee from the Ottoman Empire; this had a great damaging effect on the population, who fled destroyed city; Koprivnica lost its central functions and suffered economic decline.In 1736, another great fire struck, destroying most of the houses in the centre and neighboring rural suburbs. Cities and towns mostly suffered from ravaging fires every 30 or so years. For example, Zagreb had great fires in 1624, 1645, 1674, 1706, 1731 and 1786. The biggest fire in Zagreb erupted in 1645, caused by a drunken student. The spreading of fire was greatly helped by high winds. Citizens and rural population from neighboring villages were robbed of their food, so the town authorities organized help in food and later on encouraged the use of bricks for building of homes and public buildings. However, this process lasted for decades. This also affected spatial dispersion of population and building of new streets with canals, providing water for fire extinguishing. Due to new building style, cities established brickyards, for manufacture of bricks and roofing tiles. In order to have some fire alert system, cities hired night watchmen, as early as the Seventeen century. The night watch servicemen were individuals, who would walk the streets at night and watch over possible sparks or fire. Cities also had numerous draw wells, providing water to extinguish fires. The Croatian government at the time (known as Croatian Royal Council) in 1771 decreed that all orders on fire be publicly read aloud at artisan guilds' meetings; guild members were obliged to take action in case of fires, providing active support and help. The Croatian Royal Council decreed that houses be built of bricks; also, the order specifically mentioned that chimneys be above rooftops. In 1776, the city of Varaždin, the capital city in the second half of Eighteenth century, was destroyed by great fire, caused by a boy smoking tobacco. The fire spread on by gunpowder explosion in the house of a merchant. The consequence was devastating - 62% city houses and half the houses in suburbs were burned down to the ground. After this great fire, the Croatian Royal Council moved the capital to the city of Zagreb, which has been the capital city ever since. Varaždin was decreed to build houses of bricks exclusively, which reduced the danger of having new fires. From the second half of Nineteenth century, there were firefighting volunteers brigades all over Croatia and Slavonnia (the very first one established in Varaždin in 1864).

In this paper, the authors speak of Drava River flooding in the area of Varaždin«s and Koprivnica«s Podravina during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, placing this micro region into a wider, Central European context. The first detailed plans for Drava regulation are brought up, originally dating back to late 18th century. Regulations were needed to keep the local population safe from relatively frequent flooding, which brought significant danger. Drava water regulation was so important, as flooding brought harsh consequences. For example, 19th century flooding affected the population so some people, living in areas along Drava, were forced to move across the river to vicinity of today«s village of Gola. Additionally, flooding had impact on administrative changes, so 1829/1830 flooding cased the village of Drnje to lose a number of administration functions, which were moved to the nearby village of Peteranec, safely away from river flooding.