115 Dubrovnik Annals 3 (1999) foundations. The religious aspect, however, does not interfere nor dissipate its artistic or aesthetic value. Deeply implanted devotion is simply part of her being. Stjepan ΔosiÊ, Dubrovnik after the Fall of the Republic (1808-1848) (History of Dub- rovnik 1808-1848: Discontinuty and Trans- formation). Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU, 1999. The first half of the nineteenth century is characterized by radical social changes which marked the beginning of the history of modern bourgeois era. After exhausting Napoleonic campaigns, and despite resta- uration and absolutism, much of Europe wit- nessed the strengthening of the basic demo- cratic tenets founded on legal equality and the proclaimed goals of the bourgeois soci- ety. Democratic processes established dur- ing the revolutionary movements of the ’20s and ’30s, culminated in the general European unrest of 1848. Technological and industrial revolution, population explosion, and the growth of agricultural industry contributed to social changes, accompanied by a major shift in political theory and practice. The principle of monarchistic legality was gradu- ally replaced by various forms of conser- vativism. On the other hand, all the political streams striving toward reforms were found- ed on the liberal political philosophy. Lastly, the development and strengthening of na- tional consciousness in the liberal context, demanded, with its integrational power, abo- lition of territorial and ethnic dismember- ment, constructing at the same time the fra- mework of European power struggles. Dubrovnik area, and Croatian lands in general, did not experience these processes as intensely as did most of the Western Eu- rope. Nevertheless, the territory of the former Republic did witness reverberating effects of the global events, but in social terms, Dubrovnik was not yet ready to undergo in- ternal political reforms. The overall Euro- pean climate of change crept to the borders of the Republic, followed by repercussions of the Napoleonic wars. Rapid change of political and economic structure as well as the discontinuity in development resulting from these processes, engendered the loss of political autonomy, economic breakdown, and the dissolution of the old social struc- ture, demarkating thus fundementally new guidelines of Dubrovnik’s history in the first half of the nineteenth century. Periodization of Dubrovnik’s history fol- lowing the fall of the Republic is conditioned by a series of institutional and political changes. The 1808 French abolition of the Dubrovnik Republic should be recognized as a historical turning-point. Formally speak- ing, it marked the disappearance of a social, political, and economic structure which kept struggling over the centuries for its mainte- nance in the traditional world of the Ancien regime. Dramatical period of French admin- istration experienced two phases. The first, 1808-1809, when new government was es- tablished, even though the fate of the abol- ished Republic still seemed uncertain. The second phase, from 1809 to 1814, saw the annexation of the Dubrovnik area, and its becoming part of the Illyrian provinces. It was then, for the first time, that basic tenets of the bourgeois legislative were being par- tially introduced, which formally marked the discontinuity of the ancient aristocratic re- gime. This process was underlied by the complete economic paralysis resulting from the devastation of the commercial fleet, the chief element of Ragusan economic power. The profound social schism provoked the brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by University of Zagreb Repository