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Legal provision on the Roma population in Croatia and Slavonia from Maria Theresia to Franz Joseph I

The Roma settlement onto the Croatian lands starting in the second half of the 14th century brought certain changes among the local population. The Roma were different in an anthropological, linguistic, and culturological sense from the domicile population, but still managed to successfully integrate themselves into the extant late medieval and early modern society in the Croatian lands. However, the negative turn in the stance of the Croatian authorities towards the Roma near the end of the 16th century is, in a way, a reflection of similar changes among other European governments, which started to perceive the Roma as criminals, spies, spreaders of disease and immorality, etc. Because of this, the Croatian authorities, especially the Sabor (Diet) reacted by imposing numerous repressive regulations against the Roma, intending to drive them away, or to forcefully sedentarize and assimilate them. Such a repressive attitude was especially prominent during the time of Maria Theresa and Joseph II, who were the first to try and resolve the “Gypsy Question” in a systematic manner. Their decrees had the goal of completely transforming the Roma from a marginal and “asocial” social group into “productive and useful” members of a monarchistic society. This meant that their customs and even their name was banned, their children were forcefully reassigned to Christian families etc. However, even these systematic repressive efforts ended in failure, mostly because it was resisted by local authorities. The “Gypsy Question” remained unresolved and, following the arrival of new Roma from the Romanian lands in the mid 19th century, once again came to the attention of the Croatian authorities, which issued a slew of new decrees by which they tried to forcefully sedenterize the nomadic Roma and prevent the arrival of more foreign Roma to the Croatian lands. The pressure on the Croatian authorities did not exclusively originate from the local population, which often complained about the Roma’s criminal activity, but also from prominent social groups, such as the economists and intellectuals gathered around the Croatian-Slavonian Economic Society. One of the consequences of such “pressure” was the introduction of a special decree on the Roma in 1893, which sought to completely resolve the “Gypsy Question” through better coordination between the central and local authorities in Croatia. In practice, this meant a repeat of the extant decrees on the forced sedentarization of the Roma and the persecution of foreign Roma, but also on the better surveillance of their movement through the issuing of certain documents and repeated control. However, this decree also didn’t give any real results. During the war, in summer 1916, the Croatian authorities issued a new decree on the Roma, seeking to regulate their position and introduce certain forms of military service for them. However, a part of the Roma continued their nomadic lifestyle even after the end of the war, which means even the 1916 decree was unsuccessful. Thus, the Croatian authorities failed to resolve the question of regulating the position of the Roma over the course of several centuries. One of the reasons for their lack of success was the insufficient coordination between Croatian and local authorities, as well as between the Croatian authorities and the central authorities of the Monarchy.

Roma, Croatia, history, legal provision.

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