REFLECTIONS OF POLITICAL-GEOGRAPHIC SHIFTS IN THE USE OF THE GEOGRAPHIC NAME 'DALMATIA' ON MAPS IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD.

Dalmatia forms part of the eastern Adriatic coast, and after two thousand years of historical-geographic development, is part of the state of Croatia. The many changes in the historical region's spatial range and affiliation to various states can be followed on old cartographic depictions, among other things. Given the function of a geographic name, which is to provide the shortest possible linguistic description, optimally replacing in linguistic communication and spatial orientation a (long) description, and given the significance of maps as media for communicating in space and about space, it is possible to confirm a reflection of political-geographic shifts in the use of the geographic name Dalmatia by consulting old maps. From a comparative analysis of maps which emerged in different European cultural centres, applying the diachronic approach, it can clearly be seen that during the early modern period, the greatest influence on the depiction of Dalmatia on maps was exerted by a) reminiscences of the classical constitutional law tradition, b) political ambitions and the actual socio-economic influence of Venice on the eastern Adriatic coast, and c) the triple confrontation between the Habsburg Monarchy, the Ottoman Empire and the Venetian Republic in the Adriatic-Dinaric-Danube Basin contact area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]