lecture by Kristina Puljizević (Catholic University of Croatia, Zagreb)
In the 1820s, the Habsburg Monarchy was compelled to invest significant financial and human resources in the reorganization of the sanitary cordon on the Dalmatian-Ottoman border – a system widely regarded as ineffective and outdated amid growing anti-contagionist criticism.
The lecture follows the implementation of a highly organised and complex Habsburg anti-epidemic system along the borders of the former Venetian sanitary cordon between Dalmatia and the Ottoman Empire. While the Habsburg government applied rules and regulations already in place along the Croatian section of the sanitary cordon to the newly acquired territory, specific local circumstances – such as the plague outbreak of 1815-16 – significantly influenced the dynamics of this process.
The lecture invites discussion on the persistence of pre-modern elements within the sanitary cordon at the dawn of modern medical practices, and on the intersection of economic interests and public health concerns during an era of Habsburg aspirations for trade and political expansion.
Kristina Puljizević is Associate Professor at the Department of History at the Catholic University of Croatia, Zagreb. She is a social historian of the long nineteenth century, with over 10 years of experience specializing in historical demography and analysis of serial records. Her research combines quantitative methodologies with a history-from-below perspective with a particular focus on public health, the social history of medicine and women’s history
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