Border Area Development between the Una River and the Adriatic Sea: From the Habsburg Military Border to the Schengen Edge of the EU

The Lika and coastal areas between the Una and the Adriatic twice experienced development that was significantly influenced by the international border: the first time in the Habsburg Military Region (from the 16th century to 1881) and the second time during the last 30 years with the establishment of the independent Republic of Croatia and its accession to the European Union and the Schengen Area. In the 18th and 19th centuries, a specific method of defense and military administration prevailed in that area, which stretched from the Adriatic to the Carpathians. Marginality and borderlineness with everything that is implied by that are essential features of modernity in that area. Through archival research in institutions that contain historical sources for this topic, an attempt will be made to reconstruct the life of people in that area at that time. In particular, the phenomenon of contemporary bordering will be investigated in the field, both spatially and organizationally, in order to get a clearer picture and confirm the specific role of Lika in the time from the 18th century to the present day and the establishment of the Schengen system with migration as a new challenge. The idea is to publish publications from the project that speak and confirm the basic hypothesis that centuries of living in poverty and insecurity along and on the border was the central element in the emergence of creeping or delayed modernization that resulted in the demographic weakening of the area and negative economic and social indicators. Project team members: Ivan Brlić (Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences), Anita Bušljeta Tonković (Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences), Željko Holjevac (Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences), Ema Bašić (Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences), Adrian Knežević (Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences), Heike Karge (University of Graz), Christian Promitzer (University of Graz) and Siegfried Gruber (University of Graz).