»I wrote this book with love, in accordance with the laws governing the art of history for history written for the people«

On the emergence and development of modern Croatian historiography in the 19th century

Abstract

In his paper, the author presents the development of Croatian historiography in the 19th century. Beginning with an outline of its development and the emergence of a need for knowledge of Croatian history in the first half of the 19th century, the author then continues with a more detailed look at the formative process of shaping Croatian historiography into a modern scientific discipline, which began after 1850. The author concludes that Croatian historiography developed in keeping with the different ways of understanding German historicism. However, it did not produce only narrow political histories focused on the state, and clearly evinces efforts made to research the various areas of social life in the past. Despite this, Croatian historiography nevertheless still had the characteristics of a political and event-based history, which remained its main defining feature well into the 20th century.