Nova Gradiška district 1886. - 1914.

Salopek Bogavčić, Iva. (2016). Nova Gradiška district 1886. - 1914.. PhD Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of History.
(Poslijediplomski doktorski studij moderne i suvremene hrvatske povijesti) [mentor Holjevac, Željko].

Preview

PDF (Croatian) Download (10MB) | Preview

Abstract

Premises of this thesis are based on the research of history and phenomenons in the Nova Gradiška administrative district from 1886. till 1914., work of its institutions and everyday life of its population. By studying administrative, economic, educational, ecological, health and social - economic aspects of the society the framework was created for understanding the term "everyday", which is introduced as a synonym for the totality of capillary structures and appearances of life for the population of Nova Gradiška district. Pervading and connecting historical phenomenon with everyday life and peoples features through a short time period of twenty years systematic overview of the area was created. With the help of micro - macro and macro - macro relations applied on processed objects of research it was tried to determine the existence of legality and what was the true nature of regional and broader national context. Considering the material, objects of the research were district institutions, population, marginal and privileged groups, factories and a number of different economic, social and ecological appearances in the district area of Nova Gradiška. For more efficient development of the crucial thesis these objects were put in following correlations: individual ↔ institution, village ↔ market town, market town ↔ district, district ↔ county, district ↔ district, market town ↔ town and district ↔ province. Topic of this thesis is researching a broader area of Nova Gradiška from 1886. till 1914. The area around Nova Gradiška was divided administratively and functionally since the forming of Slavonian military border in 1745. till the repeal of Gradiška regiment in 1871., in 1886. it was placed under Požega county and united with Cernik seigniory. In methodological context the thesis is based on the combination of chronological – problematic approach, multiperspectivity, interdisciplinarity and horizontal – vertical comparison of quantitive data. Because of the use of different materials, it was necessary to widen the horizon in understanding of certain areas, so I reached for the accomplishments in other areas of science, like art history, ethnology, museology and medicine. In every chapter of the thesis I tried to observe the topic from different perspective of macro and micro relations, from the dominant perspective of institutions and also from the perspective of an individual. Because of that I used multiperspectivity the same as private collections of materials, so all the findings can be interpreted on different levels. This research was focused on a number of questions and working hypothesis, and all of them were subjected to a common denominator of horizontal and vertical comparison of Nova Gradiska district with smaller, similar and bigger administrative units. By understanding the main hypothesis of the co-dependency between the Nova Gradiska district and Brod district, Pozega county and Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia, we can understand how life in Nova Gradiska district was organized. By horizontal comparison of data from Nova Gradiska district and data from Brod district, and vertical comparison of data from Nova Gradiska district and Pozega county and Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia, throughout all the chapters of thesis an authenticity and similarity in ways of functioning were observed. Administrative activity of Nova Gradiska district was a result of professional and political activity of the administration, and was completely under provincial and county verification. In political context Nova Gradiska district was under the events happening on a state, province and county level with the exception of the period 1895. – 1905. when the political actions were under the influence of city of Brod. During that period the Club of the Party of Rights and working movement was organized. Bad coexistence of Croats and Serbs in the area of Nova Gradiska district was transformed because of the common political interests and activity of Croatian – Serbian coalition in cooperation, which brought a late victory at elections during 1908. in Nova Gradiska district. The high treason process wasn’t directly accepted as negative in the Nova Gradiska district, but was understood in the context of what it was: manipulative tool for justifying the annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina. Nova Gradiska district didn’t follow the demographic trends of transition since on its area the communities were homogenous with the higher rate of marriages, higher birth and higher mortality rates. The co-dependency of the man and nature in Nova Gradiska district was noticed in both directions, mans influence on nature and natures on man. In the beginning of the first industry activities at Cernik seigniory, as a result of cutting down the forest appear a land erosion causing flood and hunger. On the other hand with inadequate regulation of river Sava, a flood was caused in Posavina, and due to its slow withdrawal to river bed the population was exposed to diseases and hunger. As a surprising element in research the connection between human inadequate repairs and landscaping with the appearance of floods and hunger was noticed. Economic activity of Nova Gradiska district didn’t deviate from the whole Pozega County. The same as in Pozega County, the majority of the population was working in the primary sector, Nova Gradiska district didn’t wholly follow all the economical tendencies of the region, nor the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia, so the growth of the district was slower. Nova Gradiska district was more similar, in cattle breeding for example, to Daruvar, Novska and Pakrac district then to Pozega and Brod district. In comparison to Pozega district, Nova Gradiska district had more family-household structures which were adopting harder to individual managing, in comparison to Brod area, Nova Gradiska district became more isolated with the termination of steamship station in Stara Gradiska in 1892. Nova Gradiska district experienced the economical growth from 1890. till 1900. when they started with bigger exploitation of natural resources, organizing more industrial complexes, housing bigger populations of workers and organizing the Economy exhibition of 1894. Nova Gradiska district wasn’t developing enough in the period from 1900. till 1910. – it became more backward then Brod district and average in comparation with Pozega county and whole Kingdome. In the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th century Nova Gradiska district was mostly rural area, oriented on primary sector, especially on cattle and plum export. Due to inadequate adjustment to the market, the ratio of population working in secondary and tertiary sectors wasn’t growing fast enough, which resulted in the whole area not being economically competitive enough in regional and broader context of Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia. Educational and health system were founded on the quality legacy inherited from the period of Military Border when every company place had a school, the same as was the military hospital built it 1846. Although the education system was modernized with school adaptation, population literacy and bigger percentage of female children in education, the main problem was school absence, which had continuity from the 18th century. Health system was modernized with hospital adaptation, employment of adequate medical staff and compulsory health check ups for students. Bad social – economic conditions had an influence on the appearance of diseases and hunger. Population of the district was predominantly falling ill from malaria and trachoma, mostly from inadequate rehabilitation of wetlands, or terrible hygienic conditions. Bad economical conditions, destruction of the vine and the change in interest to plum cultivation, existence of a large number of entrepreneurs who were in plum cultivation and alcohol production, resulted in growth of pure ethanol production in the district area. All of the above influenced on a bigger consumption of alcohol drinks. The interesting part in studying the question of alcoholism is in the fact that in the broader regional area of Slavonia, including Nova Gradiska also, the problem of alcoholism obviously existed also in the 18th century, since it is mentioned also by Matija Antun Relkovic. Alcoholism was recognized as an issue in Nova Gradiska district during 1906. what led to establishment of the first anti alcoholic newspaper. From the total number of anti alcoholic members’ in Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia, 20% of them were from Nova Gradiska district. This is why it is no surprise the pioneer work by dr. Fran Gudrum – Oriovčanin and dr. Andrija Štampar, since being surrounded with alcoholism from childhood, decided to dedicate themselves in their mature age to this problem. Andrija Štampar started his medical activity in the County hospital and helped to conquer the malaria epidemic in Posavina, and he also played a big role in the construction of a wells. The mentioned work, together with advocating the idea of a hygienic minimum based on clean water and food, was a start of a “School of public health” philosophy, which had its continuity from the stated period and evolved into an international project implemented in the basics of World health organization. Diverse development processes changed the everyday life of the population in a way that they infiltrated innovation and market town legacy into the homogenous village life, while the heterogeneous market town was trying to reach the status of a city. Apart from the positive changes, the development processes influenced also the slow and inadequate adaptation, which was seen in: vertical social differentiation, population pauperization, deviant behaviour, alcoholism, larger percentage of misdemeanours, practice of excessive solemnization and adornment, migration, national and religious conflicts and social discriminations. According to obtained results four out of seven hypothesis have been confirmed, two have been refuted and one hypothesis was partially confirmed due to a new aspect of the study. In the fields of education, health, economy and administration the hypothesis have been confirmed, in the fields of demography and modernization they have been refuted, while in the ecology field a new aspect appeared. An exception is seen in the demographic picture of the district, so the hypothesis of the modernization rise was refuted given that the statistic data processing showed that the demographic movements in the district area of Nova Gradiška point to slower processes of modernization rise in comparison with the region and province, which was not expected. Also it was determined that multinational and diverse structure of the population did not influence to such extent on the long-term changes, as it would be expected. The development of the social – economic structures was influenced by interdependence of primary, secondary and tertiary sector of the economy, also as it was noticed the negative trend of the interconnection between the ecological and economical aspects. The foundation of stability was the educational and health systems. Some new areas, which weren’t anticipated, were discovered during the research of this topic, areas such as eco- history, history of alcoholism and the newly discovered humanitarian dimension of the society. In the overview of the appearances and events, and comparison between districts of Nova Gradiška and Brod, including this micro systems in a regional and also a broader province context prerequisites were acquired for a more reliable understanding of the social structures. Researching specific objects through different corelations in the area of Nova Gradiška a fundamental base was created for understanding the processes and phenomenon which started in the end of the 19th or the beginning of the 20th century. It was manifested in its fullness in the contemporary age, such as the Croatian - Serbian conflict in this area or the special significance and role of Andrija Štampar, who formed his first ideas during his activity in the district area of Nova Gradiška. By bringing some border conditionalities which were not researched before, like ecological - health history or humanitarian dimension of the history, the perspective of the common man during a certain period in time of history in the district area of Nova Gradiška was perceived in a different way.

Actions (login required)

View Item