Causes of emigration

Croatia is distinctly an emigrant country. An estimate is that from the 1870s until the First World War, about 14 percent of the population emigrated. In the following periods, the emigration flow somewhat diminished, not including guest workers of the mid-1960s. However, given Croatia’s population, the emigration flow was always considerable. Over time, there were changes in destinations, origins, ages and occupations. [1]

It is impossible to determine how many Croats and their descendants live abroad today. However, the estimate is that there are as many abroad as in Croatia. In an article published in Slobodna Dalmacija in 1959, Ivan Lupis Vukić wrote about the number of emigrants and included data from the state emigration service. [2] According to the data, the number of Croatian emigrants was around 1,600,000, of which about 930,000 went to North America. Every fifth Croat was an emigrant, many from Brač, Hvar, Korčula, Šolta, and the Makarska Riviera. Emigrants from Brač were mainly in South and North America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, while people from Hvar went mainly in South America.[3]

Until the First World War, Dalmatia was a remote part of Austro-Hungary and primarily focused on agriculture. Due to poor soil, barley, corn, and wheat were mainly grown but in insufficient quantities. The most important agricultural products were olives and wine, and sheep and goat breeding were quite developed. Transportation to the mainland/interior was difficult. Industrial development was also barely growing, and intellectual occupations were few. Such an overall economic structure also determined the structure of the settlements. There were not many cities. In 1848 the largest one was Split, with 10,700 inhabitants. The rural and island populations were far more numerous. With the political decision, Austria lowered customs duties, thus enabling the breakthrough of Italian wines into the Dalmatian market. This was a significant blow to the Dalmatian economy. This so-called Wine Clause was effective from 1891 to 1904. Grapevine diseases followed and Dalmatian viticulture never fully recovered [4]

 

 

 

 

Besides, it was impossible to keep up with modern improvements; many were still using sailing ships during the steamboat era and had not adapted to new conditions. Between the 18th and 19th centuries, there were 154 sailing ships in Mali Lošinj, and 41 of these were able to sail outside the Adriatic due to their larger size. They had an unattainable primacy in Austria between 1855 and 1870 because, at that time, about 1,400 seamen were sailing on Lošinj’s sailing ships. After that, the Lošinj merchant fleet began to shrink due to the increasingly fierce competition from steamboats.

The Kozulić family of Mali Lošinj were an exception who were able to keep up with modern improvements. This family started the family business in 1857 when Antonio Fortunato Kozulić (1816 – 1884) built the Brick Fides, the first of four family sailing ships.

His sons Fausto (1845-1908), Callisto (1847-1918), and Alberto (1949-1927) noticed that sailing ships were becoming a thing of the past and moved the business to Trieste. There they teamed up with relatives from Venice and bought a steamboat that they named Ellena Cosulich. As early as the following year, they had three iron ships, and by 1900 they had fifteen. Their steamboat company was called Fratelli Cosulich. After introducing a regular route to North America in 1902, they renamed it Austro-Americana (Unione Austriaca di Navigazione). By the end of World War II, the entire family had emigrated to Italy. The company exists to this today and operates for maritime and air transport. They advertise with the motto: ‘’Whether it is the sea, the land, or the air, trust someone who knows it all.’’

 

 

 

 

                           

 

Kozulići su bili primjer obitelji koja se prilagodila novonastalim prilikama, ali nije sa svima bilo tako. Brojni brodovlasnici i pomorci propali su diljem cijele obale pa sve do Boke kotorske dokle je tada sezala Dalmacija. Tijekom 18. i 19. stoljeća u Janjini na Pelješcu živjela je pomorsko-trgovačka i brodovlasnička obitelj Bjelovučić. Obitelj je dala tridesetak kapetana koji su plovili Sredozemljem pod hrvatskom zastavom. Nikola Veliki (1814. – 1889.), Stjepan (1815. – 1881.) i Nikola Mali (1820. – 1878) osnovali su 1835. godine brodarsko društvo koje se zvalo Rođaci Bjelovučić. Sjedište društva bilo je u Janjini i imali su 27 jedrenjaka, koje su izgradili u brodogradilištima u Hrvatskom primorju, a nosili su imena Sklad, Danica, Vila, Ljubirod, Zvonimir i slična, čime su jasno izražavali pripadnost narodnom preporodu. Sin Nikole Malog, Stjepan Bjelovučić (1847. – 1901.) bio je narodni zastupnik u Dalmatinskom saboru i načelnik Janjine, koji je izgradio pristanište u luci Drače 1890. godine. Brodarsko društvo Rođaci Bjelovučić moralo se ugasiti 1895. godine, jer nisu bili konkurentni parobrodima. Tada su prodali zadnji jedrenjak Mati Ane, a ostali su u brodarstvu samo kao dioničari prvih dubrovačkih i peljeških parobrodarskih društava.

U vrtlogu novih okolnosti stanovništvo se počelo stihijski iseljavati na sve strane svijeta. U razdoblju od 1899. do 1920. godine iz Dalmacije se iselilo 40 000 ljudi, poneseno pričama o zaradi.[6]  Bila je moguća, no ne i jednostavna, pa su kao i u svemu, uspijevali samo najjači. U početku su se iseljavali muškarci u dobi od 18 do 30 godina, ali nije bila rijetkost da se među njima nađu i dječaci od 13 –14 godina. Prvo se radilo za preživjeti i isplatiti put, a poslije i za pomagati obitelj u starom kraju. Tako je na iseljenicima u dobroj mjeri ležalo dalmatinsko gospodarstvo, što je ispočetka izgledalo korisno, ali, prema riječima povjesničara Ljubomira Antića, koristi su bile privremene, a štete dalekosežne.[7]

Vraćalo ih se otprilike 30 % od kojih je manji broj došao bogat, a većina bez ili s malo novaca. Žene koje su se iseljavale rjeđe su se vraćale, a najčešće su bile nekvalificirane.

Mladići su odlazili iz domovine i kako bi izbjegli vojničku dužnost koja je trajala pet godina pa su u slučaju povratka bili podvrgnuti teškim kaznama jer su bili smatrani bjeguncima. Tu situaciju uspio je dijelom ublažiti Starograđanin, zastupnik Juraj Biankini, u kolovozu 1897. godine, podnoseći rezoluciju u Dalmatinskom saboru i Carevinskom vijeću u Beču, u kojoj je molio da se podieli kraljevsko pomilovanje izseljenicim, kojima nije slobodan povratak radi vojničkih prekršaja, a prigodom 50 godina vladanja Nj. V. cara i kralja Franje Josipa.8]

Iseljavalo se mahom otočno i seosko stanovništvo, a onda se krenulo i iz gradova. U Tršćanskom Lloydu, pod naslovom Izseljivanje, 1905. godine pisalo je o odlascima iz Splita u kojemu je tada živjelo oko 19 000 stanovnika, a bio je podijeljen na Grad, Lučac i Veli Varoš:

Do sad davao je Split vrlo neznatan broj izseljenika. Ove godine izselilo se iz Splita u deset posljednjih mjeseci preko 50 Splićana, najviše u sjevernu Ameriku. Izdano je u Splitu 440 putnica i matrikula kod mjestnog kotarskog poglavarstva u prošloj godini 1904. Dočim je ove godine do konca t. mj. izdano već 700 putnica.[9]

Prije dolaska u New York svi brodovi su pristajali na otok Ellis, gdje se doseljenike skidalo do gola, da ne bi imali nametnike i upisivalo ih se u knjige. U razdoblju od 32 godine, koliko se vodila evidencija, odnosno od 1892. do 1924., bilo je upisano preko 600 Splićana. Istina je da je bilo dosta netočnih podataka, jer ih je skoro polovica bila iz splitske okolice, pa prava brojka iznosi 346.

 

 

The Kozulic family was able to adapt to new circumstances, but this was not the case with everyone. Numerous shipowners went out of business and seamen lost their jobs all along the Dalmatian coast, clear to the Bay of Kotor (today in Montenegro), which at that time was a part of Dalmatia.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Bjelovučić maritime-merchant and shipowner family lived in Janjina on Pelješac. About thirty captains from this family sailed the Mediterranean under the Croatian flag. Nikola Veliki (1814 – 1889), Stjepan (1815 – 1881), and Nikola Mali (1820 – 1878) founded a boat company in 1835 called Rodjaci Bjelovučić. The company’s headquarters was in Janjina, and they had 27 sailing ships, which they built various in shipyards on the Croatian coast. The ships carried names such as Sklad, Danica, Vila, Ljubirod, and Zvonimir, which clearly expressed their affiliation with the national revival. Nikola Mali’s son, Stjepan Bjelovučić (1847-1901), was a member of the Dalmatian Parliament and the mayor of Janjina, who built a port in the harbor of Drače in 1890. The boat company Rodjaci Bjelovučić had to be closed down in 1895, as they could not compete with steamboats. They sold the last sailing ship Mati Ana, and they remained in this business only as shareholders of the first Dubrovnik and Pelješac steamboat companies.

In the whirlwind of new social and economic circumstances, the population began to emigrate spontaneously to all parts of the world. From 1899 to 1920, 40,000 people emigrated from Dalmatia, driven by stories of better earnings elsewhere. There were many possibilities, most not easy, and as in everything, only the strongest succeeded.

Initially, men aged 18 to 30 emigrated, but it was not uncommon for boys aged 13-14 to be among them. First, they worked to survive, then to pay off the trip, and finally to help their families back home. Thus, the Dalmatian economy was mainly in the hands of the emigrants, which seemed helpful at first, but, according to historian Ljubomir Antić, the benefits were short-term and the damage long-term.

About 30% of them returned, out of which a small fraction had become wealthy, and most came back with little money. Women who emigrated were less likely to return and were most often unskilled.

Many young men left their homeland to avoid a five-year military service. If they returned, they were subjected to severe punishments because they were considered fugitives and they were punished even if they were citizens of other countries. Juraj Biankini, a citizen of Stari Grad, managed to alleviate this situation in August 1897 by submitting a resolution to the Dalmatian Parliament and the Imperial Council in Vienna. He pleaded for a royal pardon for emigrants who were not free to return due to their military offenses so that they can commemorate 50 years of His Highness the Emperor and King Francis Joseph’s reign.

Many of the island and village population emigrated, followed by others from the cities. In 1905, Split had a population of 19,000, and consisted of three areas — City, Lučac, and Veli Varoš. In that same year, in the records of Trieste’s shipping company Lloyd, and under the title of Emigration, is written about departures from Split, as follows: “So far, Split has had a minimal number of emigrants. This year, over 50 citizens have emigrated from Split in the last ten months, mainly to North America. Four hundred forty travel and nautical documents were issued in Split by the local county government in 1904. By the end of this year and this current month, documents have been issued for seven hundred passengers.”

Ships with emigrants heading for New York docked in either New York City or occasionally in New Jersey. The emigrants were all sent by barge to Ellis Island for proceeding. If body lice was suspected some of these people where asked to privately disrobe and their clothing was disinfected and return to them.

The written records for the emigrants were started in the port of departure, amended during the voyage, and given to the Ellis Island authorities upon arrival. According to those records, during 32 years, from 1892 to 1924, over 600 citizens from Split were enrolled. There was indeed a lot of inaccurate data because almost half of them were actually from places nearby Split, so the exact number is 346.

While many emigrants to Ellis Island declared that they were from Split but instead were from surrounding areas, the residents of Split themselves expressed their place of birth and national affiliation in various ways. At the time of these records, Dalmatia was ruled by Italy on behalf of Austria, so Split was in most cases written in Italian as Spalato Austria, Spatato, Lpalato, or Spoloto. It was the incorrect reading of the manuscripts that caused these differences. Some passengers stated that they were from Split or Spljet. Many of them stated that they were from Veli Varos or Lucac, so for example, it said Veli Varos S.H.S. or Lucac Austria. Split was most often written as a city in Austria, sometimes in Hungary, and later in the Kingdom of SHS and Yugoslavia. According to the Archives of Ellis’s island, most Split residents emigrated in the year 1907, where between the ages of 20 and 30, and a third were women.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, migrations were common throughout Europe. Despite the majority of the population being illiterate, newspapers played a significant role in informing the population. In Split in 1891, Pučki list began publication and with topics for peasant. After only two years, it had numerous subscribers worldwide and 300 from New Zealand. The emigrants wrote letters to the editor Juraj Kapić, asking whether the Wine Clause would be abolished, and he published those letters in almost every issue. Communication worked both ways, so Kapić also published questions from Dalmatians to emigrants. They mostly referred to those who had not written home for years, where were they and whether they were alive at all.

 

In the late 19th and early 20th century, migrations were common throughout Europe. Despite the majority of the population being illiterate, newspapers played a significant role in informing the population. In Split in 1891, Pučki list began publication and with topics for peasant. After only two years, it had numerous subscribers worldwide and 300 from New Zealand. The emigrants wrote letters to the editor Juraj Kapić, asking whether the Wine Clause would be abolished, and he published those letters in almost every issue. Communication worked both ways, so Kapić also published questions from Dalmatians to emigrants. They mostly referred to those who had not written home for years, where were they and whether they were alive at all.

Also in 1891, Ivan Lupis Vukić, who lived in North and South America for a while, and eventually in Split and who can be considered our first correspondent from America, published an article entitled Instructions For Our Emigrants in which he writes:
Ever since this damned clause affected us, our people from Dalmatia have started to move in growing numbers to the distant world, to earn their daily bread there, since the same is being taken relentlessly from one’s mouth here at home. They are ruthless, and since they demand to take our taxes and blood at home, they need to provide us with a way to earn our livelihood in return. The highest injustice is our livelihood being taken away. It is not for the poor man to lament or to participate in futile lawsuits. He wants to earn his daily bread and wants to live, and when he does not have that at home, he goes out into the world.

Ever since the English government prohibited our people from entering New Zealand, everyone swarmed into North America. Many of them, not having enough money to travel further, went to New York. That seems to be a big mistake because since New York is the central landing place for immigrants, thousands stop there, making job opportunities scarce. There are always more workers than work. The poor immigrant, therefore, faces disaster. All this does not necessarily apply to those who have family or good friends in New York, but whoever goes there and has no one there of his own should move further on.

 

 

Lupis then gives two, in his view, essential tips:

1. When you disembark in New York, and they ask what your nationality is, always answer: I am a Croat. This way, it will be known how many Croatian people came to America during the year, and they will not unknowingly include us among the Austrians, Hungarians, Slovenes, etc. Furthermore, do not forget that you are always proud of your beloved Croatian name in America and your homeland, and tell everyone that you are a Croat. Americans love people who honor others but also proudly honor their own. Poturica is also hated in Turkey. Why should we celebrate and spread a name that is not ours when we have our own?

2. In the last Pučki List, I said that our brothers in North America have about 200 support societies or organizations. All these societies are united in one large collective or cooperative called: the People’s Croatian Community. The societies’ purpose is to help our brothers – the members— in sickness and misfortune or after the death of their wives, children, and families. For example, when a member falls ill, he has free medical care and medicine, and while he is ill, his brothers will always come to visit him. If he dies, his family receives $800 from the Croatian community, which is 4,000 crowns in our money, followed by a fitting Christian burial while escorted by his brothers to the grave.

So listen, folks! I have been all over the world, so I know how it is. If you can live at home, then do not be greedy. If, on the other hand, trouble pushes you to go out into the world, make it clear and say without fear that you are Croatian, enroll in Croatian societies and the Croatian National Community.

Pučki list reflected on other emigrant nations’ experiences, and the editor would get asked for advice on whether to emigrate somewhere or not. Interestingly, he always responded but also dissociated himself, and it was evident that, like Lupis, he did not want to encourage emigration.

Business people of the time quickly realized that transporting emigrants could be a good source of income. It became an organized business where boat companies had advertising in newspapers, representative offices, and employed agents all over the coast, in Zagreb, and even in Donja Lendava . For a down payment of 10 forints , passengers would be escorted from the train station to the ship or to their accommodation, making the down payment well worth it to avoid getting lost in an unknown, foreign port.

Passengers were able to depart from German ports such as Hamburg and Bremen or the French port of L’Havre. Because many people were coming to these ports from various places, they sometimes had to undergo quarantine or medical examinations.

Most Dalmatians who moved to another country departed from the port of Genoa. Many Italians also went to Argentina for seasonal work at harvest time, and after six months, they would return home to harvest in Italy. In this way, they took advantage of the benefits of different seasons of the two hemispheres. Croats, and perhaps some other European nations, followed in their footsteps.

For this purpose, the so-called Emigrant Home for Third Class Passengers was built in Genoa but collapsed in 1930. It was a five-story building that housed 250 people. First, half the ceiling on the third floor collapsed, and shortly afterward, the entire building collapsed. In the accident, 40 people lost their lives, many ended up injured, and the blame fell on the steamboat companies that maintained the building poorly.

Quarantines and medical examinations slowed down the journey, which could drag on for months due to the distance and slow transportation. It was a traumatic experience nevertheless, especially for women.
Let’s take a journey of Marulina Boskovic who traveled from Selca (in the mainland) on the island of Brač to the Pacific coast of America between the two wars. She started the journey early in the morning by walking to the port of Sumartin and then getting on a boat to Makarska. From Makarska, she went by boat to Split and from there by train to Belgrade to get a passport. After that, she traveled from Belgrade by train to Hamburg to travel to New York by boat. In New York, quarantine and medical examinations on Ellis Island followed, and then a train ride across America to the other coast. This journey was costly and many people starved themselves or ate very little most of the way.

Going to South America was not any different either. Ships from Genoa mainly docked in Buenos Aires – the door to that immense continent. Some docked in the Brazilian port of Santos, from where they traveled by train to Sao Paulo. There was a hotel at the train station where medical examinations were performed and also the possibility of free accommodation. The dormitories were, in fact, large halls, meaning no privacy, and a person could stay there for one week. In Brazil, the only option was to work on coffee plantations, and this job was unpaid; workers would only receive food in the manner of slavery. Emigrants who fully experienced this were those from Prigradica (the port of Blato as it is on the mainland) on the island of Korčula who went to Brazil in search of a better life. About seventy families left Blato at the same time on April 21, 1925.
Not knowing what awaited them, they readily accepted the Brazilian government’s offer, for paymanet for travel expenses. Through time it became known what was going on there, so the Kingdom of SHS’s government banned traveling to Brazil. Today, the Sao Paulo train station accommodation building has been converted into the Museum of Emigration.

 

 

 

Advertisements for trips to distant destinations have been all over the newspapers since the early 20th century. Everything looked great in the advertisements, and many fraudsters took advantage of this, took people’s money, and then disappeared. Emigrants traveled third class, which did not meet the expectations derived from the commercials. There were many riots, and therefore complaints.

Ivan Lupis Vukić traveled with his father by boat to New York in 1891, when he wrote: ‘’I still remember the ship. Her name was Columbia. Back then, the emigrants were transported like cattle. We were placed in a “group” of 16 passengers on the steamboat, somewhere at the ship’s bottom. Each group had one dish that they would use when they took food from the kitchen, and then you had to wash the dishes and plates on your own. Once a storm hit and most of the passengers became seasick. The area in the boat where the emigrants were, became an absolute hell of vomit and stench. Today, third-class travelers travel like true gentlemen in comparison to how emigrants traveled at that time.’’

Vicko Jurjević from Split described his journey and experience with travel agents for the Zadar newspaper Narodni list on June 30, 1908: ‘’When we arrived in Hamburg, they locked us in a tavern and did not let us out; then they asked us each for three crowns for food. The next day at 11 o’clock, the agent led us to the unfortunate steamboat Pretoria, which took us to America. There were 1,200 women on board and over 2,000 men. We were overcrowded, and the agent tricked us. Earlier he told us, if we paid 132 forints each, we would arrive in 14 days, and if we were patient enough to travel for 18 days, we would get a better price. We all unanimously said that we do not mind spending more in order to arrive faster. Then the agent took our money – damn him! – and fooled us to think that we would have good food. If there are any issues – he assured us – he will return our money, but this was promised to us verbally, and he did not give us anything in writing, so it was impossible to track him down later.’’

‘’Now let me tell you what our food was like. In the morning, we had very bitter coffee. Then we were given soup at noon, covered in worms with pieces of horse meat, and for the side dish, unpeeled and unwashed potatoes. No bread or wine. We were disgusted, so we threw that stinky food into the sea. For dinner, they gave us fish, which is called renga and is so salty. They took it out of the barrel and put the uncleaned fish in front of us as if we were animals. Worms covered the fish… Luckily, they gave us some bread for dinner. Not only was there no wine, but also no water. If you wanted to, you could buy a quarter-liter of beer for 40 forints in the canteen.’’

The journey from Genoa to Buenos Aires, according to the story of Miho Moljaš from Dol near Dubrovnik:

‘’We slept in rooms with 20-30 beds, one above the other, and a wooden fence separated us from the other passengers. We all ate in the same room at a long table without a tablecloth. Each passenger had a tin plate and a glass in front of them. The first days we ate bread that was baked in Genoa, and then we would get these hard “cakes” that could not be broken by hand. In the morning, we would get hot diluted coffee. The waiters would bring food to the table for everyone, and we would serve ourselves. Lunch usually consisted of soup and horse meat with a side dish of potatoes. There was no wine or tea, only water. All of us washed with cold water in one place. During the trip, which lasted about twenty days, we slept in our suits, and there was no possibility to do laundry, nor could we change into clean clothes.’’

Emigrants often used newspapers to express their dissatisfaction. Thus, in 1924, the Split newspaper Novo Doba published an entire correspondence entitled The lawsuits of emigrants going to Australia, who wrote about the Banac and Rusko companies’ poor services. It often happened that companies would sell more tickets than there was room for on the ship, so they made people board other ships whether they wanted to or not.

People emigrated from all over the country, but Dalmatia was in the lead. The coastal people were familiar and comfortable with the sea, and they were skilled in sailing and fishing. They applied and adapted their knowledge in other parts of the world and in much more demanding seas. Some even found new seaways with ease and taught others how to cope with the sea. Among them were sailors, fishermen, shipbuilders, officers in the navies of other states. We must not ignore the fact that our people, although illiterate, were also inventors in the field of fisheries thinking about how to make things easier for themselves and others. The first generation had to pave the way everywhere. However, for the most part, they did not regret educating their children, so we find Croatian traces in many places in the world and various spheres of society from culture, education, medicine, various forms of science, business, politics…

Branka Bezić Filipović, author
Petra Filipović, translator
Sponsored by Juroslav Buljubašić, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Chile

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1. Bezić Filipović, Branka: Ivan Lupis Vukić, first emigrant journalist, review dr.sc. Ljube Antić, Split, 2011, p.7
2. Name for state bodies responsible for emigration such as the Emigration Commissariat and SORIS (Union of Emigrant Organizations), which operated between the First and Second World Wars.
3. Slobodna Dalmacija, Split, June 3, 1959
4. Bezić Filipović, Branka, Hvar fishermen and shipbuilders in the New World, Museum of the Stari Grad, 2019, p.7
5. Croatian Technical Heritage Portal: Lexicographic Institute Miroslav Krleža 2018
6. Bezić Filipović, Branka: Splićani vanka Splita, Split, 2005
7. Bezić Filipović, Branka: Hvar Fishermen and Shipbuilders in the New World, Stari Grad, 2019, p. 7
8. Ibid
9. Trieste Lloyd, Trieste, 4 November 1905, no. 141, p. 2200
10. Split was divided into three suburbs: Grad, Lučac, and Veli Varoš.
11. This data was obtained when I researched the Ellis Island Archives in 2005
12. Pučki list, Split 1902, number 24, page 195
13. They – the government
14. Convert to Islam
15. The truth is: many of them. As Lupis lived in Chicago he new better what was going on the East Coast.
16. Donja Lendava is a small town in Slovenia nearby Croatian north border.
17. Pučki list, Split 1900., number 20, page164 (50 dollars today)
18. Novo Doba, Split, 4.6. 1930, number 128., page 1
19. Petrich, Mary Ann/Roje, Barbara, Some Settled in Eatonville, The Yugoslav in Washington State: Among the early Settlers, Tacoma: Washington State Historical Society, 1984
20. Bezić Filipović, Branka, Ivan Lupis Vukić, the First Emigrant Journalist, Split, 2011, p. 12
21. Bezić Filipović Branka: Splićani vanka Splita, Split, 2005, p. 15
22. Antić Ljubo, dr.sc.: Hrvati u Južnoj Americi do 1914. (Croats in South America until 1914), Stvarnost i Institut za migracije i narodnosti, Zagreb, 1991
23. Novo Doba, Split, 03.06. 1924., number 129, page 3