Croatian Peasants' Revolt, 1573



A.) Prehistory

Following the disastrous Battle of Mohacs 1526, the larger part of Croatia was under Ottoman occupation and only the western fringes were under Hansburg rule (parts under Venetian rule).
The peasants complained about their ancient rights being infringed upon, peasant trade being interrupted. In addition, nobles often demanded excessive amounts of covee labour. Furthermore, the 16th century saw inflation at an unprece- dented level (price revolution).


B.) The Rising

In late January 1573 the peasants in a number of Croatian districts took up arms. Their revolt was directed both against Habsburg rule and against the feudal system; the peasants intended to establish a state of free peasants. The rebellion quickly spread across the border into Carniola and Lower Styria. The rebels took the cities of Rann and Gurkfeld; they organized into two units, one 2,600 men strong, in Lower Styria, the other 4,000-5,000 men strong, in Croatia, commanded by Ambroz Gubec.
The Croatian ban asked the Emperor for military aid to suppress the rebellion. Early in February the peasants' forces were defeated by much smaller, but disciplined and exprienced forces. On February 9th the rebels were decisively defeated; Ambroz Gubec was executed in Agram February 15th,




EXTERNAL
FILES 		Peasants Revolt, from Peasants Revolt Museum at Zagorje
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE Arnold Suppan, Zwischen Adria und Karawanken, Deutsche Geschichte im Osten Europas (Between Adria and Karawanken Mts., German History in Europe's East), Berlin : Siedler 1998, in German



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on June 9th 2003, last revised November 17th 2004

Click here to go Home
Click here to go to Information about KMLA, WHKMLA, the author and webmaster
Click here to go to Statistics