Phishing is a form of social engineering and scam where attackers deceive people into revealing sensitive information or installing malware such as ransomware. Phishing attacks have become increasingly sophisticated and often transparently mirror the site being targeted, allowing the attacker to observe everything while the victim is navigating the site, and transverse any additional security boundaries with the victim. As of 2020, it is the most common type of cybercrime, with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reporting more incidents of phishing than any other type of computer crime.

The term "phishing" was first recorded in 1995 in the cracking toolkit AOHell, but may have been used earlier in the hacker magazine 2600. It is a variation of fishing and refers to the use of lures to "fish" for sensitive information.

Measures to prevent or reduce the impact of phishing attacks include legislation, user education, public awareness, and technical security measures. The importance of phishing awareness has increased in both personal and professional settings, with phishing attacks among businesses rising from 72% to 86% from 2017 to 2020.

Types

Email phishing
Phishing attacks, often delivered via email spam, attempt to trick individuals into giving away sensitive information or login credentials. Most attacks are "bulk attacks" that are not targeted and are instead sent in bulk to a wide audience. The goal of the attacker can vary, with common targets including financial institutions, email and cloud productivity providers, and streaming services. The stolen information or access may be used to steal money, install malware, or spear phish others within the target organization. Compromised streaming service accounts may also be sold on darknet markets.

This type of social engineering attack can involve sending fraud emails or messages that appear to be from a trusted source, such as a bank or government agency. These messages typically redirect to a fake login page where the user is prompted to enter their login credentials.

Spear phishing
Spear phishing is a targeted phishing attack that uses personalized emails to trick a specific individual or organization into believing they are legitimate. It often utilizes personal information about the target to increase the chances of success. These attacks often target executives or those in financial departments with access to sensitive financial data and services. Accountancy and audit firms are particularly vulnerable to spear phishing due to the value of the information their employees have access to.

Threat Group-4127 (Fancy Bear) targeted Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign with spear phishing attacks on over 1,800 Google accounts, using the accounts-google.com domain to threaten targeted users.

A study on spear phishing susceptibility among different age groups found that 43% of 100 young and 58% of older users clicked on simulated phishing links in daily emails over 21 days. Older women had the highest susceptibility, while susceptibility in young users declined over the study, but remained stable in older users.

Whaling and CEO fraud
Whaling attacks use spear phishing techniques to target senior executives and other high-profile individuals with customized content, often related to a subpoena or customer complaint.

CEO fraud involves sending fake emails from senior executives to trick employees into sending money to an offshore account. It has a low success rate, but can result in organizations losing large sums of money.

Clone phishing
Clone phishing is a type of attack where a legitimate email with an attachment or link is copied and modified to contain malicious content. The modified email is then sent from a fake address made to look like it's from the original sender. The attack may appear to be a resend or update of the original email. It often relies on the sender or recipient being previously hacked so the attacker can access the legitimate email.

Voice phishing

Voice over IP (VoIP) is used in vishing or voice phishing attacks, where attackers make automated phone calls to large numbers of people, often using text-to-speech synthesizers, claiming fraudulent activity on their accounts. The attackers spoof the calling phone number to appear as if it is coming from a legitimate bank or institution. The victim is then prompted to enter sensitive information or connected to a live person who uses social engineering tactics to obtain information. Vishing takes advantage of the public's lower awareness and trust in voice telephony compared to email phishing.

SMS phishing

SMS phishing or smishing is a type of phishing attack that uses text messages from a cell phone or smartphone to deliver a bait message. The victim is usually asked to click a link, call a phone number, or contact an email address provided by the attacker. They may then be asked to provide private information, such as login credentials for other websites. The difficulty in identifying illegitimate links can be compounded on mobile devices due to the limited display of URLs in mobile browsers. Smishing can be just as effective as email phishing, as many smartphones have fast internet connectivity. Smishing messages may also come from unusual phone numbers.

Page hijacking

Page hijacking involves redirecting users to malicious websites or exploit kits through the compromise of legitimate web pages, often using cross site scripting. Hackers may insert exploit kits such as MPack into compromised websites to exploit legitimate users visiting the server. Page hijacking can also involve the insertion of malicious inline frames, allowing exploit kits to load. This tactic is often used in conjunction with watering hole attacks on corporate targets.

Calendar phishing

Calendar phishing involves sending fake calendar invitations with phishing links. These invitations often mimic common event requests and can easily be added to calendars automatically. To protect against this form of fraud, former Google click fraud czar Shuman Ghosemajumder recommends changing calendar settings to not automatically add new invitations.

Techniques

Link manipulation
Phishing attacks often involve creating fake links that appear to be from a legitimate organization. These links may use misspelled URLs or subdomains to deceive the user. In the following example URL, , it can appear to the untrained eye as though the URL will take the user to the example section of the yourbank website; actually this URL points to the "yourbank" (i.e. phishing subdomain) section of the example website (fraudster's domain name). Another tactic is to make the displayed text for a link appear trustworthy, while the actual link goes to the phisher's site. To check the destination of a link, many email clients and web browsers will show the URL in the status bar when the mouse is hovering over it. However, some phishers may be able to bypass this security measure.

Internationalized domain names (IDNs) can be exploited via IDN spoofing or homograph attacks to allow attackers to create fake websites with visually identical addresses to legitimate ones. These attacks have been used by phishers to disguise malicious URLs using open URL redirectors on trusted websites. Even digital certificates, such as SSL, may not protect against these attacks as phishers can purchase valid certificates and alter content to mimic genuine websites or host phishing sites without SSL.

Filter evasion
Phishers have sometimes used images instead of text to make it harder for anti-phishing filters to detect the text commonly used in phishing emails. In response, more sophisticated anti-phishing filters are able to recover hidden text in images using optical character recognition (OCR).

Social engineering
Phishing often uses social engineering techniques to trick users into performing actions such as clicking a link or opening an attachment, or revealing sensitive information. It often involves pretending to be a trusted entity and creating a sense of urgency, like threatening to close or seize a victim's bank or insurance account.

An alternative technique to impersonation-based phishing is the use of fake news articles to trick victims into clicking on a malicious link. These links often lead to fake websites that appear legitimate, but are actually run by attackers who may try to install malware or present fake "virus" notifications to the victim.

History

Early history
Early phishing techniques can be traced back to the 1990s, when black hat hackers and the warez community used AOL to steal credit card information and commit other online crimes. The term "phishing" is said to have been coined by Khan C. Smith, a well-known spammer and hacker, and its first recorded mention was found in the hacking tool AOHell, which was released in 1995. AOHell allowed hackers to impersonate AOL staff and send instant messages to victims asking them to reveal their passwords. In response, AOL implemented measures to prevent phishing and eventually shut down the warez scene on their platform.

2000s
In the 2000s, phishing attacks became more organized and targeted. The first known direct attempt against a payment system, E-gold, occurred in June 2001, and shortly after the September 11 attacks, a "post-9/11 id check" phishing attack followed. The first known phishing attack against a retail bank was reported in September 2003. Between May 2004 and May 2005, approximately 1.2 million computer users in the United States suffered losses caused by phishing, totaling approximately . Phishing was recognized as a fully organized part of the black market, and specializations emerged on a global scale that provided phishing software for payment, which were assembled and implemented into phishing campaigns by organized gangs. The United Kingdom banking sector suffered from phishing attacks, with losses from web banking fraud almost doubling in 2005 compared to 2004. In 2006, almost half of phishing thefts were committed by groups operating through the Russian Business Network based in St. Petersburg. Email scams posing as the Internal Revenue Service were also used to steal sensitive data from U.S. taxpayers. Social networking sites are a prime target of phishing, since the personal details in such sites can be used in identity theft; In 2007, 3.6 million adults lost  due to phishing attacks. The Anti-Phishing Working Group reported receiving 115,370 phishing email reports from consumers with US and China hosting more than 25% of the phishing pages each in the third quarter of 2009.

2010s
Phishing in the 2010s saw a significant increase in the number of attacks. In 2011, the master keys for RSA SecurID security tokens were stolen through a phishing attack. Chinese phishing campaigns also targeted high-ranking officials in the US and South Korean governments and military, as well as Chinese political activists. According to Ghosh, phishing attacks increased from 187,203 in 2010 to 445,004 in 2012. In August 2013, Outbrain suffered a spear-phishing attack, and in November 2013, 110 million customer and credit card records were stolen from Target customers through a phished subcontractor account. CEO and IT security staff subsequently fired. In August 2014, iCloud leaks of celebrity photos were based on phishing e-mails sent to victims that looked like they came from Apple or Google. In November 2014, phishing attacks on ICANN gained administrative access to the Centralized Zone Data System; also gained was data about users in the system - and access to ICANN's public Governmental Advisory Committee wiki, blog, and whois information portal. Fancy Bear was linked to spear-phishing attacks against the Pentagon email system in August 2015, and the group used a zero-day exploit of Java in a spear-phishing attack on the White House and NATO. Fancy Bear carried out spear phishing attacks on email addresses associated with the Democratic National Committee in the first quarter of 2016. In August 2016, members of the Bundestag and political parties such as Linken-faction leader Sahra Wagenknecht, Junge Union, and the CDU of Saarland were targeted by spear-phishing attacks suspected to be carried out by Fancy Bear. In August 2016, the World Anti-Doping Agency reported the receipt of phishing emails sent to users of its database claiming to be official WADA, but consistent with the Russian hacking group Fancy Bear. In 2017, 76% of organizations experienced phishing attacks, with nearly half of the information security professionals surveyed reporting an increase from 2016. In the first half of 2017, businesses and residents of Qatar were hit with over 93,570 phishing events in a three-month span. In August 2017, customers of Amazon faced the Amazon Prime Day phishing attack, when hackers sent out seemingly legitimate deals to customers of Amazon. When Amazon's customers attempted to make purchases using the "deals", the transaction would not be completed, prompting the retailer's customers to input data that could be compromised and stolen. In 2018, the company block.one, which developed the EOS.IO blockchain, was attacked by a phishing group who sent phishing emails to all customers aimed at intercepting the user's cryptocurrency wallet key, and a later attack targeted airdrop tokens.

2020s
Phishing attacks have evolved in the 2020s to include elements of social engineering, as demonstrated by the July 15, 2020, Twitter breach. In this case, a 17-year-old hacker and accomplices set up a fake website resembling Twitter's internal VPN provider used by remote working employees. Posing as helpdesk staff, they called multiple Twitter employees, directing them to submit their credentials to the fake VPN website. Using the details supplied by the unsuspecting employees, they were able to seize control of several high-profile user accounts, including those of Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, and Apple Inc.'s company account. The hackers then sent messages to Twitter followers soliciting Bitcoin, promising to double the transaction value in return. The hackers collected 12.86 BTC (about $117,000 at the time).

Anti-phishing

There are anti-phishing websites which publish exact messages that have been recently circulating the internet, such as FraudWatch International and Millersmiles. Such sites often provide specific details about the particular messages.

As recently as 2007, the adoption of anti-phishing strategies by businesses needing to protect personal and financial information was low. Now there are several different techniques to combat phishing, including legislation and technology created specifically to protect against phishing. These techniques include steps that can be taken by individuals, as well as by organizations. Phone, web site, and email phishing can now be reported to authorities, as described below.

User training

Effective phishing education, including conceptual knowledge and feedback, is an important part of any organization's anti-phishing strategy. While there is limited data on the effectiveness of education in reducing susceptibility to phishing, much information on the threat is available online.

Simulated phishing campaigns, in which organizations test their employees' training by sending fake phishing emails, are commonly used to assess their effectiveness. One example is a study by the National Library of Medicine, in which an organization received 858,200 emails during a 1-month testing period, with 139,400 (16%) being marketing and 18,871 (2%) being identified as potential threats. These campaigns are often used in the healthcare industry, as healthcare data is a valuable target for hackers. These campaigns are just one of the ways that organizations are working to combat phishing.

To avoid phishing attempts, people can modify their browsing habits and be cautious of emails claiming to be from a company asking to "verify" an account. It's best to contact the company directly or manually type in their website address rather than clicking on any hyperlinks in suspicious emails.

Nearly all legitimate e-mail messages from companies to their customers contain an item of information that is not readily available to phishers. Some companies, for example PayPal, always address their customers by their username in emails, so if an email addresses the recipient in a generic fashion ("Dear PayPal customer") it is likely to be an attempt at phishing. Furthermore, PayPal offers various methods to determine spoof emails and advises users to forward suspicious emails to their firstname.lastname@example.com domain to investigate and warn other customers. However it is unsafe to assume that the presence of personal information alone guarantees that a message is legitimate, and some studies have shown that the presence of personal information does not significantly affect the success rate of phishing attacks; which suggests that most people do not pay attention to such details.

Emails from banks and credit card companies often include partial account numbers, but research has shown that people tend to not differentiate between the first and last digits. This is an issue because the first few digits are often the same for all clients of a financial institution.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group, who's one of the largest anti-phishing organizations in the world, produces regular report on trends in phishing attacks.

Google posted a video demonstrating how to identify and protect yourself from Phishing scams.

Technical approaches
A wide range of technical approaches are available to prevent phishing attacks reaching users or to prevent them from successfully capturing sensitive information.

Filtering out phishing mail
Specialized spam filters can reduce the number of phishing emails that reach their addressees' inboxes. These filters use a number of techniques including machine learning and natural language processing approaches to classify phishing emails, and reject email with forged addresses.

Browsers alerting users to fraudulent websites

Another popular approach to fighting phishing is to maintain a list of known phishing sites and to check websites against the list. One such service is the Safe Browsing service. Web browsers such as Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 7, Mozilla Firefox 2.0, Safari 3.2, and Opera all contain this type of anti-phishing measure. Firefox 2 used Google anti-phishing software. Opera 9.1 uses live blacklists from Phishtank, cyscon and GeoTrust, as well as live whitelists from GeoTrust. Some implementations of this approach send the visited URLs to a central service to be checked, which has raised concerns about privacy. According to a report by Mozilla in late 2006, Firefox 2 was found to be more effective than Internet Explorer 7 at detecting fraudulent sites in a study by an independent software testing company.

An approach introduced in mid-2006 involves switching to a special DNS service that filters out known phishing domains: this will work with any browser, and is similar in principle to using a hosts file to block web adverts.

To mitigate the problem of phishing sites impersonating a victim site by embedding its images (such as logos), several site owners have altered the images to send a message to the visitor that a site may be fraudulent. The image may be moved to a new filename and the original permanently replaced, or a server can detect that the image was not requested as part of normal browsing, and instead send a warning image.

Augmenting password logins
The Bank of America website is one of several that asks users to select a personal image (marketed as SiteKey) and displays this user-selected image with any forms that request a password. Users of the bank's online services are instructed to enter a password only when they see the image they selected. However, several studies suggest that few users refrain from entering their passwords when images are absent. In addition, this feature (like other forms of two-factor authentication) is susceptible to other attacks, such as those suffered by Scandinavian bank Nordea in late 2005, and Citibank in 2006.

A similar system, in which an automatically generated "Identity Cue" consisting of a colored word within a colored box is displayed to each website user, is in use at other financial institutions.

Security skins are a related technique that involves overlaying a user-selected image onto the login form as a visual cue that the form is legitimate. Unlike the website-based image schemes, however, the image itself is shared only between the user and the browser, and not between the user and the website. The scheme also relies on a mutual authentication protocol, which makes it less vulnerable to attacks that affect user-only authentication schemes.

Still another technique relies on a dynamic grid of images that is different for each login attempt. The user must identify the pictures that fit their pre-chosen categories (such as dogs, cars and flowers). Only after they have correctly identified the pictures that fit their categories are they allowed to enter their alphanumeric password to complete the login. Unlike the static images used on the Bank of America website, a dynamic image-based authentication method creates a one-time passcode for the login, requires active participation from the user, and is very difficult for a phishing website to correctly replicate because it would need to display a different grid of randomly generated images that includes the user's secret categories.

Monitoring and takedown
Several companies offer banks and other organizations likely to suffer from phishing scams round-the-clock services to monitor, analyze and assist in shutting down phishing websites. Automated detection of phishing content is still below accepted levels for direct action, with content-based analysis reaching between 80% and 90% of success so most of the tools include manual steps to certify the detection and authorize the response. Individuals can contribute by reporting phishing to both volunteer and industry groups, such as cyscon or PhishTank. Phishing web pages and emails can be reported to Google.

Transaction verification and signing
Solutions have also emerged using the mobile phone (smartphone) as a second channel for verification and authorization of banking transactions.

Multi-factor authentication
Organizations can implement two factor or multi-factor authentication (MFA), which requires a user to use at least 2 factors when logging in. (For example, a user must both present a smart card and a password). This mitigates some risk, in the event of a successful phishing attack, the stolen password on its own cannot be reused to further breach the protected system. However, there are several attack methods which can defeat many of the typical systems. MFA schemes such as WebAuthn address this issue by design.

Email content redaction
Organizations that prioritize security over convenience can require users of its computers to use an email client that redacts URLs from email messages, thus making it impossible for the reader of the email to click on a link, or even copy a URL. While this may result in an inconvenience, it does almost eliminate email phishing attacks.

Limitations of technical responses
An article in Forbes in August 2014 argues that the reason phishing problems persist even after a decade of anti-phishing technologies being sold is that phishing is "a technological medium to exploit human weaknesses" and that technology cannot fully compensate for human weaknesses.

Organizational responses

Scholars have found that the investment into both technological and organizational factors can impact protection against phishing. The studies found that organizations can improve their technical education of employees if they include socio-technical factors in their training.

Legal responses

On January 26, 2004, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed the first lawsuit against a Californian teenager suspected of phishing by creating a webpage mimicking America Online and stealing credit card information. Other countries have followed this lead by tracing and arresting phishers. A phishing kingpin, Valdir Paulo de Almeida, was arrested in Brazil for leading one of the largest phishing crime rings, which in two years stole between  and . UK authorities jailed two men in June 2005 for their role in a phishing scam, in a case connected to the U.S. Secret Service Operation Firewall, which targeted notorious "carder" websites. In 2006, Japanese police arrested eight people for creating fake Yahoo Japan websites, netting themselves  () and the FBI detained a gang of sixteen in the U.S. and Europe in Operation Cardkeeper.

Senator Patrick Leahy introduced the Anti-Phishing Act of 2005 to Congress in the United States on March 1, 2005. This bill aimed to impose fines of up to $250,000 and prison sentences of up to five years on criminals who used fake websites and emails to defraud consumers. In the UK, the Fraud Act 2006 introduced a general offense of fraud punishable by up to ten years in prison and prohibited the development or possession of phishing kits with the intention of committing fraud.

Companies have also joined the effort to crack down on phishing. On March 31, 2005, Microsoft filed 117 federal lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The lawsuits accuse "John Doe" defendants of obtaining passwords and confidential information. March 2005 also saw a partnership between Microsoft and the Australian government teaching law enforcement officials how to combat various cyber crimes, including phishing. Microsoft announced a planned further 100 lawsuits outside the U.S. in March 2006, followed by the commencement, as of November 2006, of 129 lawsuits mixing criminal and civil actions. AOL reinforced its efforts against phishing in early 2006 with three lawsuits seeking a total of  under the 2005 amendments to the Virginia Computer Crimes Act, and Earthlink has joined in by helping to identify six men subsequently charged with phishing fraud in Connecticut.

In January 2007, Jeffrey Brett Goodin of California became the first defendant convicted by a jury under the provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. He was found guilty of sending thousands of emails to AOL users, while posing as the company's billing department, which prompted customers to submit personal and credit card information. Facing a possible 101 years in prison for the CAN-SPAM violation and ten other counts including wire fraud, the unauthorized use of credit cards, and the misuse of AOL's trademark, he was sentenced to serve 70 months. Goodin had been in custody since failing to appear for an earlier court hearing and began serving his prison term immediately.

Notable incidents
 2016–2021 literary phishing thefts

See also

 Catfishing
 Clickjacking

 Link farm
 , many abusable by phishing
 Mousetrapping

 Trojan Horse
 TrustRank

References

External links

 Anti-Phishing Working Group
 Center for Identity Management and Information Protection – Utica College
 Plugging the "phishing" hole: legislation versus technology  – Duke Law & Technology Review
 Example of a Phishing Attempt with Screenshots and Explanations – StrategicRevenue.com
 A Profitless Endeavor: Phishing as Tragedy of the Commons – Microsoft Corporation
 Database for information on phishing sites reported by the public – PhishTank
 The Impact of Incentives on Notice and Take-down − Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge (PDF, 344 kB)

Internet terminology
Organized crime activity
Social engineering (computer security)
Spamming
Cybercrime
Confidence tricks
Identity theft
Types of cyberattacks
Deception
Fraud

Phishing


Aleksandr Sergeyevich Sergeyev (28 August 1897, Serpukhov – 24 January 1970, Moscow) was a Russian chess master.

He won the Moscow City Chess Championship in 1925. In other editions of the same event, he tied for 3rd-5th in 1922/23 (Nikolai Grigoriev won), took 6th in 1924 (Grigoriev won), took 7th in 1926 (Abram Rabinovich won), tied for 5-6th in 1927 (Nikolai Zubarev, won), tied for 3rd-4th in 1928 (Boris Verlinsky won), took 17th in 1930 (Zubarev won), took 19th in 1933/34 (Nikolai Riumin won), and tied for 10-12th in 1935 (Riumin won).

Participating on three occasions at the USSR Chess Championship, he tied for 16-17th at Moscow 1924 (Efim Bogoljubow won), tied for 9-10th at Leningrad 1925 (Bogoljubow won), and took 13th at Moscow 1927 (Fedor Bogatyrchuk and Peter Romanovsky won).

References

External links

1897 births
1970 deaths
Russian chess players
20th-century chess players

Aleksandr Sergeyev (chess player)


Inoculation (also known as variolation) is an historical method of making people immune to smallpox. Unlike a vaccine, inoculation uses infected material (for example scabs) from an infected patient. The benefit of inoculation is it gives the individual a less dangerous type of the virus. Another benefit of inoculation is the fact it has a death rate of 0.5% - 2% (as opposed to the 35% death rate of smallpox). Inoculation was eventually replaced after Edward Jenner discovered a vaccine against smallpox.

Historical uses

China
China may have used inoculation in the 10th century. The Emperor of China at the time lost his eldest son to smallpox. He wanted a way to help prevent smallpox from killing any more members of his family. He summoned many people from throughout the empire to attempt to find a cure to smallpox. A man carried out inoculation to Immunise his family. However, the source of the story was supposedly written 100's of years after the event.

Inoculation was not widely used in China until the 'Longqing Emperor'  in the 16th century. This was written by Yu Tianchi. Inoculation using the most deadly strain of the virus was banned from use in China to prevent high death rates. Inoculation is documented to have been used in India in the 18th century. It may have been used earlier than that, but there is no evidence to prove this.

Importation to Europe
The practice of Inoculation was first used in England after an ambassador's wife witnessed it in Constantinople. Her name was Lady Mary Wortley Montague and she was impressed by the benefits. She had lost her son, and bore scars of the virus herself. When an epidemic of smallpox occurred in England in 1721, she ordered that her daughter be inoculated. Many people visited her daughter, and were impressed at the results of inoculation. Eventually, inoculation was tested in Newgate Prison. This was before the members of the royal family were inoculated. After the success in England, many European countries began to use inoculation against smallpox.

Decline in Use
In 1796 Edward Jenner discovered a vaccine against smallpox which had a very low death rate. It was also more effective. Inoculation began to be replaced by this new vaccine, and was eventually outlawed in England in 1840. France banned Inoculation in 1762 due to the death rates associated with it.

References

Smallpox
Immunization

Inoculation


Prince Ulrik of Denmark (2 February 1611 – 12 August 1633) was a son of King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway and his consort Queen Anne Catherine of Brandenburg. As the fourth-born son, he bore the merely titular rank of Duke of Holstein and Schleswig, Stormarn and Ditmarsh; however, he had no share in the royal-ducal condominial rule of Holstein and Schleswig, wielded by the heads of the houses of Oldenburg (royal) and its cadet branch Holstein-Gottorp (ducal). In 1624 Ulrik was appointed administrator of the Prince-Bishopric of Schwerin as Ulrich III. However, in 1628 Wallenstein's conquest of the prince-bishopric de facto deposed him. His father had to renounce all his family claims to prince-bishoprics in 1629. When in 1631 Swedish forces reconquered the prince-bishopric Ulrik failed to reascend as administrator.

Ecclesiastical career
During his early childhood, he was raised under the supervision of Beate Huitfeldt. In 1617 Niels Frandsen, conrector in Roskilde, became the teacher of Duke Ulrik. A few years later Christian IV wielded his influence in order to provide his third-born son Frederick and Ulrik with prebendaries in Lutheran-ruled prince-bishoprics within the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1622 Ulrik received a canonicate at Bremen Cathedral chapter, where his brother Frederick had been appointed as coadjutor in September 1621, a function usually including the succession to the see. Also in 1622 Ulrik was elected coadjutor of the Prince-Bishopric of Schwerin, where his homonymous uncle served as Administrator Ulrich II. The plan to further provide him with the Pomeranian Prince-Bishopric of Cammin failed.

When Frederick, who had further become coadjutor of the Verden see in November 1621, ascended there as Administrator Frederick II of the Prince-Bishopric of Verden, Ulrik followed him to Verden upon Aller. When his uncle Ulrich II suddenly died in 1624, he and his grandmother the Danish Queen consort Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow attended Ulrich II's funeral and burial in the  in Bützow on 24 May 1624. They successfully effected Ulrik's succession as Administrator Ulrich III of Schwerin. Because he was only 13 years old, a steward cabinet was installed, but the subjects of the Prince-Bishopric rendered him homage at his visit in Bützow.

Ulrik then dispossessed his aunt, Catherine Hahn-Hinrichshagen, the widow of his uncle Ulrich II. He had endowed her with the manor and estates of Zibühl (a part of today's Dreetz in Mecklenburg) as her allodial dower, which he had bought for 17,000 rixdollars in 1621. After a rebuild and furnishing, including the fixture of her and his coat-of-arms on the outside, Hahn had moved in. Lacking the power she acquiesced on the dispossession for the time being. However, on 16 December 1628, after Wallenstein had conquered the prince-bishopric, Hahn sued Ulrik in the Ducal Court and Land Tribunal of Mecklenburg. Due to the changing fortunes of the Thirty Years' War the tribunal never rendered a verdict.

Meanwhile, Ulrik attended Sorø Academy, and in 1627 he was enfeoffed with the prior Schleswig-episcopally Schwabstedt manor and estates with its revenues, which also had belonged to his uncle. However, unlike his uncle, he was not appointed as Bishop of Schleswig. In the same year he left for a journey to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and France, returning in spring 1628.

Shortly after, the same year, he went to war serving under King Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden at his invasion in Ducal Prussia in the course of the Polish–Swedish War (1626–1629). He achieved recognition by Gustavus Adolphus before he was home in Denmark again in November 1628. Meanwhile, the Catholic Leaguist troops under Albrecht von Wallenstein had conquered most of Jutland forcing Christian IV to sign the Treaty of Lübeck on 22 May 1629, stipulating that Christian IV on his own and his sons' behalf renounced their prince-episcopal positions. Thus Ulrik lost the Schwerin see.

Military career

In support of his maternal uncle Christian IV, King  Charles I of England, Ireland, and Scotland had sent English and Scottish mercenaries, who stood in the western Schleswig marshes. In June 1629 Ulrik had the task of ensuring their repatriation over the North Sea. He then travelled via Glückstadt again to the Dutch Republic, fighting under Stadtholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange in his Siege of 's-Hertogenbosch until its surrender on 14 September 1629. Thereafter Ulrik returned to Denmark. In April 1630 he accompanied his father in his campaign against Hamburg, where Ulrik got into mortal danger.

In the same time Christian IV tried a rapprochement with Emperor Ferdinand II and Wallenstein in order to regain Schwerin and Verden for his deposed sons. To this end Ulrik participated in the Regensburg Diet of the prince-electors in July to November 1630 (), where he conferred with Leopold V, Archduke of Austria, brother of Ferdinand II, and Wallenstein, however, all in vain. The prince-electors, fearing too strong a position for the emperor, had enforced Wallenstein's dismissal and suspended the Restitution edict, which enabled the Catholic emperor to restitute church property and possessions, held by defeated Lutherans, to the Catholic Church.

Ulrik travelled to England via the Dutch Republic in order to visit his cousin King Charles I, persuading him to pay Ulrik an annual pension.  Ulrik spent the winter of 1630/31 in Denmark, before leaving in spring again to fight for the Protestant rulers of Brandenburg and Saxony.

Meanwhile, Swedish Lutheran troops had conquered the Catholic-occupied Prince-Bishopric of Schwerin, so that Ulrik hoped to regain his realm from Gustavus Adolphus. To this end Ulrik even considered the marriage with Princess Christina of Sweden. But regardless of this endeavor and new negotiations from Christian IV's side with the princes, the emperor and Wallenstein did not accept Ulrik's restitution.

Tired of travelling, Ulrik got his father's consent to enter into Saxon military service. In February 1632 he left for John George I, Elector of Saxony. He disliked Dresden court life, where people were more concerned about a good living than the ongoing war. So Ulrik was delighted once he set out for a campaign as a colonel in the Saxon army in March 1632. He advanced to the rank of general of the electoral Saxon artillery.

In Denmark Ulrik recruited a cuirassier company under his command, and – in summer – he joined with it the electoral Saxon army under Hans Georg von Arnim-Boitzenburg for Silesia. He probably participated in the conquest of Gross-Glogau and stayed in Neisse later the year. In a Jesuit College there he found Tycho Brahe's celestial globe, which he sent home to Denmark as war booty. After a quiet and peaceful winter in 1632/1633 fighting resumed in January, and Ulrik had the opportunity to excel.

At the same time the plan for Ulrik's marriage to Christina again surfaced, but was rejected by Axel Oxenstierna. While Ulrik's own interest was still more concerned about the Prince-Bishopric of Schwerin. In May 1633 Wallenstein had been reappointed in charge of the imperial army. His attempts to negotiate with the Protestant enemy regularly gave rise to armistices, and during one of them Ulrik met Wallenstein. During the war efforts, interrupting the negotiations, Ulrik excelled again, inflicting the imperial Croatian riders a significant defeat. New peace talks began between the two sides, and Ulrik participated in them.

On 11 August 1633, during one of these meetings in Schweidnitz, he was fatally wounded  by an unexpectedly treacherous shot from an imperial horseman, and died the following night. His body was first taken to Liegnitz, thence to Dresden, where it stayed until spring 1634. After a funeral, it was then brought to Copenhagen, where it was set up in the Church of Our Lady, until his mortal remains found their final rest in Christian IV's chapel in Roskilde Cathedral in 1642.

Other occupations
In addition to being brave, Ulric was characterised as having extensive knowledge of languages and literary interests, besides  some small talent for drawing, painting, music and recitation of poems. Particularly in his last year he used to socialise with the poet Martin Opitz, at that time considered the greatest poet of German language. In 1631 Ulrik had already published a small satiric writing: "Strigelis vitiorum" (Scolding the Vices) specially blasting immoderate drinking a vice, which he apparently hated. In contrast to many of his contemporaries, he was quite free. And with all this went hand in hand a rare freshness and zest for action.

The return of an important portrait of Duke Ulrik in 2010

In June 2010, Jacob van Doort's portrait of Duke Ulrik was brought back to Denmark due to a donation from the Augustinus foundation.  The painting had been positively identified as being a childhood portrait of Duke Ulrik by Professor Steffen Heiberg who has written several books about King Christian IV and his reign. In 2008 the Danish-English Artconnaisseur and projectmanager, Msc. MCM Martin Guise, noticed the portrait at the Weiss Gallery in London. Following this Martin Guise started a private project to bring the portrait back to Denmark before it ended in a private collection again.

In 2009 he contacted the Royal collection museum at Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen and joined forces with the museum in order to bring the portrait back. The project was a success and the portrait was bought by the museum in 2010 with the donation from the Augustinus Foundation. It was revealed at spectacular event at Rosenborg Castle where the young Prince Christian, revealed the portrait together with his grandfather Prince Henrik,the prince consort. The portrait of Duke Ulrik has subsequently been placed in prominent hanging place in the writing room of King Christian IV at Rosenborg Castle - a room which has remained almost as when the King lived. The return of the portrait is significant because the wars and financial deficits during the reign of Christian IV greatly diminished the collection in Denmark of objects relating to his reign and immediate family.

Ancestry

In literature and media
Ulrik features prominently in the following works:
 Ulrik is a minor character in 1634: The Baltic War by Eric Flint and David Weber

References

 Martin Opitz von Boberfeldt, An den Durchlauchten, Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herren, Herren Uldrichen, Postulirten Administratorn desz Stiffts Schwerin, Erben zu Norwegen, Hertzog zu Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn undt der Ditmarschen, ... Lobgetichte (praising poems in honour of Duke Ulrik), Brieg: Gründer, 1633.

External links

 Julius Albert Fridericia, "Ulrik, 1611–33, Hertug", in: Dansk biografisk leksikon, vol. XVIII: Ubbe - Wimpffen, pp. 75seqq.
 Georg Christian Friedrich Lisch, "Katharine Hahn, Gemahlin des Herzogs Ulrich, Prinzen von Dänemark, Administrators des Bisthums Schwerin", in: Jahrbücher des Vereins für Mecklenburgische Geschichte und Altertumskunde, Verein für Mecklenburgische Geschichte und Altertumskunde (ed.), vol. 23 (1858), pp. 33–40
 Franz Schildt, "Das Bisthum Schwerin in der evangelischen Zeit", in: Jahrbücher des Vereins für Mecklenburgische Geschichte und Altertumskunde, Verein für Mecklenburgische Geschichte und Altertumskunde (ed.), vol. 49 (1884), pp. 145–279, here pp. 177–191

1611 births
1633 deaths
House of Oldenburg in Denmark
Danish princes
Norwegian princes
Children of Christian IV of Denmark
Lutheran Prince-Bishops of Schwerin
Danish people of the Thirty Years' War
Burials at Roskilde Cathedral
People from Hillerød Municipality
Sons of kings

Ulrik of Denmark (1611–1633)


The Curtiss F11C Goshawk is an American naval biplane fighter aircraft that saw limited success. It was part of a long line of Curtiss Hawk airplanes built by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company for the American military.

Design and development
In April 1932, when Curtiss was planning the Model 35B, the United States Navy contracted with the manufacturer for an improved derivative of the Model 34C, F6C as the F11C. It contained major changes that included the  Wright R-1510-98 radial engine, single-leg cantilever main landing-gear units, a slight increase in the interplane gap, metal- rather than fabric-covered control surfaces, and armament based on two  fixed forward-firing machine guns supplemented by a hardpoint under the fuselage for the carriage of a  bomb, or an auxiliary fuel tank. Curtiss designed the type as the Model 64 Goshawk, with the U.S. Navy designation XF11C-1 (later XBFC-1 after the adoption of the BF for Bomber-Fighter category). The aircraft was of fabric-covered metal construction, used the wing cell structure of the dismantled YP-23, and was delivered in September 1932.

Shortly before ordering the XF11C-1, the Navy had bought a company-owned Model 64A demonstrator. This had a Wright R-1820-78 Cyclone engine, slightly longer main landing-gear legs carrying wheels with low-pressure tires, a tailwheel in place of the tailskid, fabric-covered control surfaces on the tail, and external provision for underwing racks for light bombs as well as an under-fuselage hardpoint for either a 50 gal (189 L) fuel tank or the crutch that would swing a bomb clear of the propeller disc before release in a dive-bombing attack.

Flight trials of this XF11C-2 (later redesignated as the XBFC-2) revealed the need for a small number of minor changes. After making the changes, the XF11C-2 came to be regarded as the prototype for the F11C-2, of which 28 examples were ordered as dual-role fighter-bombers in October 1932.

From March 1934, the aircraft were revised with a semi-enclosed cockpit and a number of other modifications before they received the revised designation BFC-2 in recognition of their fighter-bomber or, as the Navy would have it, bomber-fighter role The last aircraft in the XF11C-2 contract was converted to the prototype XF11C-3, incorporating a more powerful R-1820-80 engine and a hand-operated retractable landing gear.

Operational history
The only U.S. Navy units to operate the F11C-2 were the Navy's famous "High Hat Squadron", VF-1B, aboard the carrier , and VB-6 briefly assigned to . In March 1934, when the aircraft were redesignated BFC-2, the "High Hat Squadron" was renumbered VB-2B, and then VB-3B, and retained its BFC-2s until February 1938. VB-6 never actually embarked on Enterprise with the BFC bombers.

The F11C-2 Goshawk was produced in two export versions as the Hawk I and Hawk II fighters. Essentially a modified XF11C-2, the Hawk II was fitted with a Wright R-1820F-3 Cyclone rated at  at  and 356 liters of fuel while the Hawk I had 189 liters of internal fuel. Both versions carried the same armament as the production F11C-2. Only the Hawk II was exported in quantity with Turkey, the first customer taking delivery of 19 on August 30, 1932. Colombia placed an order at the end of October 1932, receiving an initial batch of four twin float-equipped Hawk IIs, the first of a total of 26 float fighters delivered by the end of July 1934. The Colombian Air Force used Hawk II and F11C-2 based in floats in the Colombia-Peru War in 1932-1933. Nine Hawk IIs were supplied to Bolivia, of which three had interchangeable wheel/float undercarriages; four were delivered to Chile,  four to Cuba, two to Germany, one to Norway and 12 to Thailand as Hawk IIIs.

The Chinese Nationalist Air Force received 52 F11Cs as Hawk IIs and fought against the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Hawk II squadron commander Captain Chan Kee-Wong of the 28th Squadron, 5th Fighter Group based at Chuyung Airbase for the defense of Nanking at the outbreak of the war against the Imperial Japanese invasion, made a partial claim in the shooting-down of a Mitsubishi G3M medium-heavy bomber on 15 August, 1937. He and half of his squadron were soon dispatched to Taiyuan in the northern front of the war in China, and famously shot down Major Hiroshi Miwa (former military flight instructor for Zhang Xueliang's Fengtian Army air corps), commander of the 16th Hiko Rentai, 1st Daitai squadron of Kawasaki Ki-10 fighters during the Battle of Taiyuan It was the main battlefield of the F11C in World War II.

Thai Hawk IIIs saw action during World War II, including against the Royal Air Force. On 8 April 1944, a Thai Hawk III was shot down by a No. 211 Squadron RAF Bristol Beaufighter over Lamphun, the pilot of the downed aircraft escaping by parachute.

Variants
XF11C-1 (Model 64)
First prototype derived from the F6C Hawk.
XF11C-2 (Model 64A)
Second prototype, redesignated XBFC-2.
F11C-2 (Model 64A)
Production version, redesignated BFC-2; 28 built.
XF11C-3 (Model 67)
One F11C-2 fitted with retractable undercarriage and a  R-1820-80, later redesignated XBF2C-1 fighter-bomber.
BFC-2 Hawk
Redesignation of F11C-2.

Operators

 Bolivian Air Force

 Chilean Air Force

 Chinese Nationalist Air Force

 Colombian Air Force - Used in the Colombia-Peru War.

 Cuban Air Force

Two aircraft were bought by Germany for evaluation. One of them, D-3165, was tested as a floatplane.

 Royal Norwegian Air Force - One aircraft purchased for evaluation purposes.

 Royal Thai Air Force

 Turkish Air Force

Peruvian Navy - Three float-equipped aircraft were purchased in March 1933. Four additional machines were bought in 1934.

United States Navy operated 28 aircraft as the squadron VF-1B, flying from the aircraft carrier .

Surviving aircraft
During the spring of 1933, Franz Muller who was a senior official in the Reich Air Ministry, informed Göring that he was approached by Udet to seek approval for the purchase of two Goshawks for dive bombing trials. Göring authorized the funds via the German Embassy in Washington DC. In October 1933 the pair of Goshawks arrived in Bremerhaven aboard the liner SS Europa. Udet used one of these Goshawks (designated D-IRIK) in aerobatic exhibitions held during the 1936 Summer Olympics, the aircraft survived the war, was eventually found in a field outside Kraków, now on display in the Polish Aviation Museum.

A BFC-2 is in the National Naval Aviation Museum on NAS Pensacola, Florida.

A Hawk III, the only one existing, has been restored by the Royal Thai Air Force Museum. The aircraft on display is painted with (Hanuman, white body) insignia identifying it as belonging to Wing 4. The Hawk III served in the RTAF between 1934–1949.

Specifications (F11C-2) & (BFC-2)

Notes

Bibliography

Eden, Paul and Soph Moeng. The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft. London: Amber Books, 2002. .

Swanborough, Gordon and Peter M. Bowers. United States Military Aircraft Since 1911. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1976. .

External links

Bolivian Curtiss Hawk II
Curtiss Goshawk Marketing Brochure
The Curtiss F11C-2 Goshawk Images
Silhouette of the plane

F11C
1930s United States fighter aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Biplanes
Carrier-based aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1932
World War II Chinese fighter aircraft

Curtiss F11C Goshawk


Coragus (Κόραγος) of the Macedonian army was a celebrated warrior and companion of Alexander the Great.  He is best known for his defeat at the hands of the Athenian Dioxippus, practitioner of pankration.

During a banquet thrown by the Macedonian emperor, Coragus challenged Dioxippus to single combat, which he accepted.  Coragus attended the duel in full body armor and weaponry, including javelins, a spear, and a sword, while Dioxippus appeared with a simple club.  After having his javelin dodged and his spear shattered by Dioxippus, Coragus approached the warrior to engage him with his sword, but before he could draw his blade Dioxippus utilized his pankration techniques to topple the Macedonian warrior.  With Dioxippus' foot on his neck, Coragus was spared and released, and Dioxippus was declared the winner of the duel, much to the chagrin of the Macedonians (and the joy of the Athenians in attendance.)

Whether Coragus was involved in the later conspiracy that led to Dioxippus' suicide is unknown.

References

4th-century BC Macedonians
Pankratiasts

Coragus


The Opel Insignia was a car produced by the German carmaker Opel from 2008 to 2022. It is available as a hatchback, saloon or an estate. Like many Opel models, it is sold as a Vauxhall in the United Kingdom. In the North American and Chinese markets it is sold as the Buick Regal since the 2011 model year as a sedan only. The Insignia was originally intended to be the second generation Saturn Aura, but because GM discontinued the Saturn brand it was instead offered to Buick and was marketed as the fifth generation Buick Regal. The model was facelifted in 2013 and as a 2014 model for the Buick. The second generation went go on sale in mid-2017 and a new version of the Buick Regal was revealed as well, it was sold in Australia as the Holden Commodore from early 2018 to 2020 as Australian production of it stopped in October 2017.

Insignia
Front wheel drive vehicles
2000s automobiles
2010s automobiles
2020s automobiles

Opel Insignia


Slavonia (; ) is, with Dalmatia, Croatia proper, and Istria, one of the four historical regions of Croatia. Taking up the east of the country, it roughly corresponds with five Croatian counties: Brod-Posavina, Osijek-Baranja, Požega-Slavonia, Virovitica-Podravina, and Vukovar-Syrmia, although the territory of the counties includes Baranya, and the definition of the western extent of Slavonia as a region varies. The counties cover  or 22.2% of Croatia, inhabited by 806,192—18.8% of Croatia's population. The largest city in the region is Osijek, followed by Slavonski Brod and Vinkovci.

Slavonia is located in the Pannonian Basin, largely bordered by the Danube, Drava, and Sava rivers. In the west, the region consists of the Sava and Drava valleys and the mountains surrounding the Požega Valley, and plains in the east. Slavonia enjoys a moderate continental climate with relatively low precipitation.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which ruled the area of modern-day Slavonia until the 5th century, Ostrogoths and Lombards controlled the area before the arrival of Avars and Slavs, when the Principality of Lower Pannonia was established in the 7th century. It was later incorporated into the Kingdom of Croatia; after its decline, the kingdom was ruled through a personal union with Hungary.

It became part of the Lands of the Hungarian Crown in the 12th century. The Ottoman conquest of Slavonia took place between 1536 and 1552. In 1699, after the Great Turkish War of 1683–1699, the Treaty of Karlowitz transferred Slavonia to the Habsburgs. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Slavonia became part of the Hungarian part of the realm, and a year later it became part of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. In 1918, when Austria-Hungary dissolved, Slavonia became a part of the short-lived State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs which in turn became a part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later renamed Yugoslavia. During the Croatian War of Independence of 1991–1995, Slavonia saw fierce fighting, including the 1991 Battle of Vukovar.

The economy of Slavonia is largely based on processing industry, trade, transport, and civil engineering. Agriculture is a significant component of its economy: Slavonia contains 45% of Croatia's agricultural land and accounts for a significant proportion of Croatia's livestock farming and production of permanent crops. The gross domestic product (GDP) of the five counties of Slavonia is worth 6,454 million euro or 8,005 euro per capita, 27.5% below national average. The GDP of the five counties represents 13.6% of Croatia's GDP.

The cultural heritage of Slavonia represents a blend of historical influences, especially those from the end of the 17th century, when Slavonia started recovering from the Ottoman wars, and its traditional culture. Slavonia contributed to the culture of Croatia through art, writers, poets, sculptors, and art patronage. In traditional music, Slavonia comprises a distinct region of Croatia, and the traditional culture is preserved through folklore festivals, with prominence given to tamburica music and bećarac, a form of traditional song, recognized as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO. The cuisine of Slavonia reflects diverse influences—a blend of traditional and foreign elements. Slavonia is one of Croatia's winemaking areas, with Ilok and Kutjevo recognized as centres of wine production.

History

The name Slavonia originated in the Early Middle Ages. The area was named after the Slavs who settled there and called themselves *Slověne. The root *Slověn- appeared in various dialects of languages spoken by people inhabiting the area west of the Sutla river, as well as between the Sava and Drava rivers—South Slavs living in the area of the former Illyricum. The area bounded by those rivers was called *Slověnьje in the Proto-Slavic language. The word subsequently evolved to its various present forms in the Slavic languages, and other languages adopted the term.

Prehistory and antiquity

Remnants of several Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures were found in all regions of Croatia, but most of the sites are found in the river valleys of northern Croatia, including Slavonia. The most significant cultures whose presence was found include the Starčevo culture whose finds were discovered near Slavonski Brod and dated to 6100–5200 BC, the Vučedol culture, the Baden culture and the Kostolac culture. Most finds attributed to the Baden and Vučedol cultures are discovered in the area near the right bank of the Danube near Vukovar, Vinkovci and Osijek. The Baden culture sites in Slavonia are dated to 3600–3300 BC, and Vučedol culture finds are dated to 3000–2500 BC. The Iron Age left traces of the early Illyrian Hallstatt culture and the Celtic La Tène culture. Much later, the region was settled by Illyrians and other tribes, including the Pannonians, who controlled much of present-day Slavonia. Even though archaeological finds of Illyrian settlements are much sparser than in areas closer to the Adriatic Sea, significant discoveries, for instance in Kaptol near Požega have been made. The Pannonians first came into contact with the Roman Republic in 35 BC, when the Romans conquered Segestica, or modern-day Sisak. The conquest was completed in 11 BC, when the Roman province of Illyricum was established, encompassing modern-day Slavonia as well as a vast territory on the right bank of Danube. The province was renamed Pannonia and divided within two decades.

Middle Ages

After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, which included the territory occupied by modern-day Slavonia, the area became a part of the Ostrogothic Kingdom by the end of the 5th century. However, control of the area proved a significant task, and Lombards were given increasing control of Pannonia in the 6th century, which ended in their withdrawal in 568 and the arrival of Pannonian Avars and Slavs, who established control of Pannonia by the year 582. After the fall of the Avar Khaganate at the beginning of the 9th century, in Lower Pannonia there was a principality, governed by Slavic rulers who were vassals of Francs. The invasion of the Hungarian tribes overwhelmed this state. The eastern part of Slavonia in the 9th century may have been ruled by Bulgars. The first king of Croatia Tomislav defeated Hungarian and Bulgarian invasions and spread the influence of Croatian kings northward to Slavonia. The medieval Croatian kingdom reached its peak in the 11th century during the reigns of Petar Krešimir IV (1058–1074) and Dmitar Zvonimir (1075–1089). When Stjepan II died in 1091, ending the Trpimirović dynasty, Ladislaus I of Hungary claimed the Croatian crown. Opposition to the claim led to a war and personal union of Croatia and Hungary in 1102, ruled by Coloman. In the 2nd half of the 12th century, Croatia and the territory between the Drava and the Sava were governed by the ban of all Slavonia, appointed by the king. From the 13th century, a separate ban governed parts of present-day central Croatia, western Slavonia, and northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina, an area where a new entity emerged named Kingdom of Slavonia (), while modern-day eastern Slavonia was a part of Hungary. Croatia and Slavonia were in 1476 united under the same ban (viceroy), but kept separate parliaments until 1558.

The Ottoman conquests in Croatia led to the 1493 Battle of Krbava field and 1526 Battle of Mohács, both ending in decisive Ottoman victories. King Louis II of Hungary died at Mohács, and Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg was elected in 1527 as the new ruler of Croatia, under the condition that he provide protection to Croatia against the Ottoman Empire, while respecting its political rights. The period saw the rise to prominence of a native nobility such as the Frankopans and the Šubićs, and ultimately to numerous bans from the two families. The present coat of arms of Slavonia, used in an official capacity as a part of the coat of arms of Croatia, dates from this period—it was granted to Slavonia by king Vladislaus II Jagiellon on 8 December 1496.

Ottoman conquest

Following the Battle of Mohács, the Ottomans expanded their possessions in Slavonia seizing Đakovo in 1536 and Požega in 1537, defeating a Habsburg army led by Johann Katzianer, who was attempting to retake Slavonia, at Gorjani in September 1537. By 1540, Osijek was also under firm control of the Ottomans, and regular administration in Slavonia was introduced by establishing the Sanjak of Pojega. The Ottoman control in Slavonia expanded as Novska surrendered the same year. Turkish conquest continued—Našice were seized in 1541, Orahovica and Slatina in 1542, and in 1543, Voćin, Sirač and, after a 40-day siege, Valpovo. In 1544, Ottoman forces conquered Pakrac. Lessening hostilities brought about a five-year truce in 1547 and temporary stabilization of the border between Habsburg and Ottoman empires, with Virovitica becoming the most significant defensive Habsburg fortress and Požega the most significant Ottoman centre in Slavonia, as Ottoman advances to Sisak and Čazma were made, including a brief occupation of the cities. Further westward efforts of the Turkish forces presented a significant threat to Zagreb and the rest of Croatia and the Hungarian kingdom, prompting a greater defensive commitment by the Habsburg Monarchy. One year after the 1547 truce ended, Ivan Lenković devised a system of fortifications and troops in the border areas, a forerunner of the Croatian Military Frontier. Nonetheless, in 1552, the Ottoman conquest of Slavonia was completed when Virovitica was captured. Ottoman advances in the Croatian territory continued until the 1593 Battle of Sisak, the first decisive Ottoman defeat, and a more lasting stabilisation of the frontier. During the Great Turkish War (1683–1698), Slavonia was regained in between 1684 and 1691 when the Ottomans abandoned the region—unlike western Bosnia, which had been part of Croatia before the Ottoman conquest. The present-day southern border of Slavonia and the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina is a remnant of this outcome.

The Ottoman wars instigated great demographic changes. Croats migrated towards Austria and the present-day Burgenland Croats are direct descendants of these settlers. The Muslim population in Slavonia at the end of Turkish rule accounted for almost half of Slavonia's population who was indigenous, primarily Croats, less immigrants from Bosnia and Serbia and rarely genuine Turks or Arabs. In the second half of the 16th century Vlachs from Slavonia were no longer an exclusive part of population because the Vlach privileges were attractive for many non-Vlachs who mixed with the Vlachs in order to get their status. To replace the fleeing Croats, the Habsburgs called on the Orthodox populations of Bosnia and Serbia to provide military service in the Croatian Military Frontier. Serb migration into this region peaked during the Great Serb Migrations of 1690 and 1737–39. The greatest Serb concentrations were in the eastern Slavonia, and Sremski Karlovci became the see of Serbian Orthodox metropolitans. Part of the colonists came to Slavonia from area south of the Sava, especially from the Soli and Usora areas, continuing the process which already started after 1521. At beginning of the 17th century it seems that there was a new wave of colonization, about 10,000 families which are assumed to come from Sanjak of Klis or with less possibility from area of Sanjak of Bosnia.

Habsburg Monarchy and Austria-Hungary

The areas acquired through the Treaty of Karlowitz were assigned to Croatia, itself in the union with Hungary and the union ruled by the Habsburgs. The border area along the Una, Sava and Danube rivers became the Slavonian Military Frontier. At this time, Osijek took over the role of the administrative and military centre of the newly formed Kingdom of Slavonia from Požega. The 1830s and 1840s saw romantic nationalism inspire the Croatian National Revival, a political and cultural campaign advocating unity of all South Slavs in the empire. Its primary focus was the establishment of a standard language as a counterweight to Hungarian, along with the promotion of Croatian literature and culture. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 Croatia sided with the Austrians, Ban Josip Jelačić helping to defeat the Hungarian forces in 1849, and ushering in a period of Germanization policy. By the 1860s, failure of the policy became apparent, leading to the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and creation of a personal union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. The treaty left the issue of Croatia's status to Hungary as a part of Transleithania—and the status was resolved by the Croatian–Hungarian Settlement of 1868, when the kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia were united as the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. After Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina following the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, the Military Frontiers were abolished and the Croatian and Slavonian Military Frontier territory returned to Croatia-Slavonia in 1881, pursuant to provisions of the Croatian-Hungarian Settlement. At that time, the easternmost point of Croatia-Slavonia became Zemun, as all of Syrmia was encompassed by the kingdom.

Kingdom of Yugoslavia and World War II

On 29 October 1918, the Croatian Sabor declared independence and decided to join the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, which in turn entered into union with the Kingdom of Serbia on 4 December 1918 to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The Treaty of Trianon was signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary as one of the successor states to Austria-Hungary. The treaty established the southern border of Hungary along the Drava and Mura rivers, except in Baranya, where only the northern part of the county was kept by Hungary. The territorial acquisition in Baranya was not made a part of Slavonia, even though adjacent to Osijek, because pre-1918 administrative divisions were disestablished by the new kingdom. The political situation in the new kingdom deteriorated, leading to the dictatorship of King Alexander in January 1929. The dictatorship formally ended in 1931 when the king imposed a more unitarian constitution transferring executive power to the king, and changed the name of the country to Yugoslavia. The Cvetković–Maček Agreement of August 1939 created the autonomous Banovina of Croatia incorporating Slavonia. Pursuant to the agreement, the Yugoslav government retained control of defence, internal security, foreign affairs, trade, and transport while other matters were left to the Croatian Sabor and a crown-appointed 'Ban'.

In April 1941, Yugoslavia was occupied by Germany and Italy. Following the invasion the territory of Slavonia was incorporated into the Independent State of Croatia, a Nazi-backed puppet state and assigned as a zone under German occupation for the duration of World War II. The regime introduced anti-semitic laws and conducted a campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide against Serb and Roma populations, exemplified by the Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška concentration camps, but to a much lesser extent in Slavonia than in other regions, due to strategic interests of the Axis in keeping peace in the area. The largest massacre occurred in 1942 in Voćin.

Armed resistance soon developed in the region, and by 1942, the Yugoslav Partisans controlled substantial territories, especially in mountainous parts of Slavonia. The Serbian royalist Chetniks, who carried out genocide against Croat civilian population, struggled to establish a significant presence in Slavonia throughout the war. Partisans led by Josip Broz Tito took full control of Slavonia in April 1945. After the war, the new Yugoslav government interned local Germans in camps in Slavonia, the largest of which were in Valpovo and Krndija, where many died of hunger and diseases.

Federal Yugoslavia and the independence of Croatia

After World War II, Croatia—including Slavonia—became a single-party Socialist federal unit of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, ruled by the Communists, but enjoying a degree of autonomy within the federation. The autonomy effectively increased after the 1974 Yugoslav Constitution, basically fulfilling a goal of the Croatian Spring movement, and providing a legal basis for independence of the federative constituents. In 1947, when all borders of the former Yugoslav constituent republics had been defined by demarcation commissions, pursuant to decisions of the AVNOJ of 1943 and 1945, the federal organization of Yugoslav Baranya was defined as Croatian territory allowing its integration with Slavonia. The commissions also set up the present-day  border between Serbia and Croatia in Syrmia, and along the Danube River between Ilok and mouth of the Drava and further north to the Hungarian border, the section south of confluence of the Drava matching the border between the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and the Bács-Bodrog County that existed until 1918 and the end of World War I.

In the 1980s the political situation in Yugoslavia deteriorated with national tension fanned by the 1986 Serbian SANU Memorandum and the 1989 coups in Vojvodina, Kosovo and Montenegro. In January 1990, the Communist Party fragmented along national lines, with the Croatian faction demanding a looser federation. In the same year, the first multi-party elections were held in Croatia, with Franjo Tuđman's win raising nationalist tensions further. The Serbs in Croatia, intent on achieving independence from Croatia, left the Sabor and declared the autonomy of areas that would soon become the unrecognized self-declared Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK). As tensions rose, Croatia declared independence in June 1991; however the declaration came into effect on 8 October 1991. Tensions escalated into the Croatian War of Independence when the Yugoslav National Army and various Serb paramilitaries attacked Croatia. By the end of 1991, a high intensity war fought along a wide front reduced Croatia to controlling about two-thirds of its territory.

In Slavonia, the first armed conflicts were clashes in Pakrac, and Borovo Selo near Vukovar. Western Slavonia was occupied in August 1991, following an advance by the Yugoslav forces north from Banja Luka across the Sava River. This was partially pushed back by the Croatian Army in operations named Otkos 10, and Orkan 91, which established a front line around Okučani and south of Pakrac that would hold virtually unchanged for more than three years until Operation Flash in May 1995. Armed conflict in the eastern Slavonia, culminating in the Battle of Vukovar and a subsequent massacre, also included heavy fighting and the successful defence of Osijek and Vinkovci. The front line stabilized and a ceasefire was agreed to on 2 January 1992, coming into force the next day. After the ceasefire, United Nations Protection Force was deployed to the occupied areas, but intermittent artillery and rocket attacks, launched from Serb-held areas of Bosnia, continued in several areas of Slavonia, especially in Slavonski Brod and Županja. The war effectively ended in 1995 with Croatia achieving a decisive victory over the RSK in August 1995. The remaining occupied areas—eastern Slavonia—were restored to Croatia pursuant to the Erdut Agreement of November 1995, with the process concluded in mid-January 1998.

After the war, a number of towns and municipalities in the region were designated Areas of Special State Concern.

Geography

Political geography

The Croatian counties were re-established in 1992, but their borders changed in some instances, with the latest revision taking place in 2006. Slavonia consists of five counties—Brod-Posavina, Osijek-Baranja, Požega-Slavonia, Virovitica-Podravina and Vukovar-Syrmia counties—which largely cover the territory historically associated with Slavonia. The western borders of the five-county territory lie in the area where the western boundary of Slavonia generally has been located since the Ottoman conquest, with the remaining borders being at the international borders of Croatia. This places the Croatian part of Baranya into the Slavonian counties, constituting the Eastern Croatia macroregion. Terms Eastern Croatia and Slavonia are increasingly used as synonyms. The Brod-Posavina County comprises two cities—Slavonski Brod and Nova Gradiška—and 26 Municipalities of Croatia. The Osijek-Baranja County consists of seven cities—Beli Manastir, Belišće, Donji Miholjac, Đakovo, Našice, Osijek and Valpovo—and 35 municipalities. The Požega-Slavonia County comprises five cities—Kutjevo, Lipik, Pakrac, Pleternica and Požega—and five municipalities. The Virovitica-Podravina County covers three cities—Orahovica, Slatina and Virovitica—and 13 municipalities. The Vukovar-Srijem County encompasses five cities—Ilok, Otok, Vinkovci, Vukovar and Županja—and 26 municipalities. The whole of Slavonia is the eastern half of Central and Eastern (Pannonian) Croatia NUTS-2 statistical unit of Croatia, together with further areas of Central Croatia. Other statistical units correspond to the counties, cities and municipalities. The five counties combined cover area size of , representing 22.2% of territory of Croatia.

Physical geography

The boundaries of Slavonia, as a geographical region, do not necessarily coincide with the borders of the five counties, except in the south and east where the Sava and Danube rivers define them. The international borders of Croatia are boundaries common to both definitions of the region. In the north, the boundaries largely coincide because the Drava River is considered to be the northern border of Slavonia as a geographic region, but this excludes Baranya from the geographic region's definition even though this territory is part of a county otherwise associated with Slavonia. The western boundary of the geographic region is not specifically defined and it was variously defined through history depending on the political divisions of Croatia. The eastern Croatia, as a geographic term, largely overlaps most definitions of Slavonia. It is defined as the territory of the Brod-Posavina, Osijek-Baranja, Požega-Slavonia, Virovitica-Podravina and Vukovar-Syrmia counties, including Baranya.

Topography

Slavonia is entirely located in the Pannonian Basin, one of three major geomorphological parts of Croatia. The Pannonian Basin took shape through Miocenian thinning and subsidence of crust structures formed during Late Paleozoic Variscan orogeny. The Paleozoic and Mesozoic structures are visible in Papuk, Psunj and other Slavonian mountains. The processes also led to the formation of a stratovolcanic chain in the basin 17 – 12 Mya (million years ago) and intensified subsidence observed until 5 Mya as well as flood basalts about 7.5 Mya. Contemporary uplift of the Carpathian Mountains prevented water flowing to the Black Sea, and the Pannonian Sea formed in the basin. Sediments were transported to the basin from uplifting Carpathian and Dinaric mountains, with particularly deep fluvial sediments being deposited in the Pleistocene during the uplift of the Transdanubian Mountains. Ultimately, up to  of the sediment was deposited in the basin, and the Pannonian sea eventually drained through the Iron Gate gorge. In the southern Pannonian Basin, the Neogene to Quaternary sediment depth is normally lower, averaging , except in central parts of depressions formed by subduction—around  in the Slavonia-Syrmia depression,  in the Sava depression and nearly  in the Drava depression, with the deepest sediment found between Virovitica and Slatina.

The results of those processes are large plains in eastern Slavonia, Baranya and Syrmia, as well as in river valleys, especially along the Sava, Drava and Kupa. The plains are interspersed by the horst and graben structures, believed to have broken the Pannonian Sea surface as islands. The tallest among such landforms in Slavonia are  Psunj, and  Papuk—flanking the Požega Valley from the west and the north. These two and Krndija, adjacent to Papuk, consist mostly of Paleozoic rocks which are 350 – 300 million years old. Požeška Gora and Dilj, to the east of Psunj and enveloping the valley from the south, consist of much more recent Neogene rocks, but Požeška Gora also contains Upper Cretaceous sediments and igneous rocks forming the main,  ridge of the hill and representing the largest igneous landform in Croatia. A smaller igneous landform is also present on Papuk, near Voćin. The two mountains, as well as Moslavačka gora, west of Pakrac, are possible remnants of a volcanic arc related to Alpine orogeny—uplifting of the Dinaric Alps. The Đakovo – Vukovar loess plain, extending eastward from Dilj and representing the watershed between the Vuka and Bosut rivers, gradually rises to the Fruška Gora south of Ilok.

Hydrography and climate

The largest rivers in Slavonia are found along or near its borders—the Danube, Sava and Drava. The length of the Danube, flowing along the eastern border of Slavonia and through the cities of Vukovar and Ilok, is , and its main tributaries are the Drava  and the Vuka. The Drava discharges into the Danube near Aljmaš, east of Osijek, while mouth of the Vuka is located in Vukovar. Major tributaries of the Sava, flowing along the southern border of Slavonia and through cities of Slavonski Brod and Županja are  the Orljava flowing through Požega, and the Bosut—whose  course in Slavonia takes it through Vinkovci. There are no large lakes in Slavonia. The largest ones are Lake Kopačevo whose surface area varies between , and Borovik Reservoir covering . The Lake Kopačevo is connected to the Danube via Hulovski canal, situated within the Kopački Rit wetland, while the Lake Borovik is an artificial lake created in 1978 in the upper course of the Vuka River.

The entire Slavonia belongs to the Danube basin and the Black Sea catchment area, but it is divided in two sub-basins. One of those drains into the Sava—itself a Danube tributary—and the other into the Drava or directly into the Danube. The drainage divide between the two sub-basins runs along Papuk and Krndija mountains, in effect tracing the southern boundary of the Virovitica-Podravina County and the northern boundary of Požega-Slavonia County, cuts through the Osijek-Podravina County north of Đakovo and finally bisects the Vukovar-Syrmia County running between Vukovar and Vinkovci to reach Fruška Gora southwest of Ilok. The Entire Brod-Posavina County is located in the Sava sub-basin.

Most of Croatia, including Slavonia, has a moderately warm and rainy continental climate as defined by the Köppen climate classification. Mean annual temperature averages , with the warmest month, July, averaging just below . Temperature peaks are more pronounced in the continental areas—the lowest temperature of  was recorded on 24 January 1963 in Slavonski Brod, and the highest temperature of  was recorded on 5 July 1950 in Đakovo. The least precipitation is recorded in the eastern parts of Slavonia at less than  per year, however in the latter case, it mostly occurs during the growing season. The western parts of Slavonia receive  precipitation. Low winter temperatures and the distribution of precipitation throughout the year normally result in snow cover, and freezing rivers—requiring use of icebreakers, and in extreme cases explosives, to maintain the flow of water and navigation. Slavonia receives more than 2,000 hours of sunshine per year on average. Prevailing winds are light to moderate, northeasterly and southwesterly.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, the total population of the five counties of Slavonia was 806,192, accounting for 19% of population of Croatia. The largest portion of the total population of Slavonia lives in Osijek-Baranja county, followed by Vukovar-Syrmia county. Požega-Slavonia county is the least populous county of Slavonia. Overall the population density stands at 64.2 persons per square kilometre. The population density ranges from 77.6 to 40.9 persons per square kilometre, with the highest density recorded in Brod-Posavina county and the lowest in Virovitica-Podravina county. Osijek is the largest city in Slavonia, followed by Slavonski Brod, Vinkovci and Vukovar. Other cities in Slavonia have populations below 20,000. According to the 2001 census, Croats account for 85.6 percent of population of Slavonia, and the most significant ethnic minorities are Serbs and Hungarians, comprising 8.8 percent and 1.4 percent of the population respectively. The largest portion of the Serb minority was recorded in Vukovar-Syrmia county (15 percent), while the largest Hungarian minority, in both relative and absolute terms, was observed in Osijek-Baranja county. The census recorded 85.4% of the population declaring themselves as Catholic, with further 4.4% belonging to Serbian Orthodox Church and 0.7% Muslims. 3.1% declared themselves as non-religious, agnostics or declined to declare their religion. The most widely used language in the region is Croatian, declared as the first language by 93.6% of the total population, followed by Serbian (2.6%) and Hungarian (1.0%).

The demographic history of Slavonia is characterised by significant migrations, as is that of Croatia as a whole, starting with the arrival of the Croats, between the 6th and 9th centuries. Following the establishment of the personal union of Croatia and Hungary in 1102, and the joining of the Habsburg monarchy in 1527, the Hungarian and German speaking population of Croatia began gradually increasing in number. The processes of Magyarization and Germanization varied in intensity but persisted until the beginning of the 20th century. The Ottoman conquests initiated a westward migration of parts of the Croatian population; the Burgenland Croats are direct descendants of some of those settlers. To replace the fleeing Croats the Habsburgs called on the Orthodox populations of Bosnia and Serbia to provide military service in the Croatian Military Frontier. Serb migration into this region peaked during the Great Serb Migrations of 1690 and 1737–39. Following the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918, the Hungarian population declined, due to emigration and ethnic bias. The changes were especially significant in the areas north of the Drava river, and Baranja County where they represented the majority before World War I.

Since the end of the 19th century there was substantial economic emigration abroad from Croatia in general. After World War I, the Yugoslav regime confiscated up to 50 percent of properties and encouraged settlement of the land by Serb volunteers and war veterans in Slavonia, only to have them evicted and replaced by up to 70,000 new settlers by the regime during World War II. During World War II and in the period immediately following the war, there were further significant demographic changes, as the German-speaking population, the Danube Swabians, were either forced or otherwise compelled to leave—reducing their number from the prewar German population of Yugoslavia of 500,000, living in Slavonia and other parts of present-day Croatia and Serbia, to the figure of 62,000 recorded in the 1953 census. The 1940s and the 1950s in Yugoslavia were marked by colonisation of settlements where the displaced Germans used to live, by people from the mountainous parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and migrations to larger cities spurred on by the development of industry.  In the 1960s and 1970s, another wave of economic migrants left—largely moving to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Western Europe.

The most recent changes to the ethnic composition of Slavonian counties occurred between censuses conducted in 1991 and 2001. The 1991 census recorded a heterogenous population consisting mostly of Croats and Serbs—at 72 percent and 17 percent of the total population respectively. The Croatian War of Independence, and the ethnic fracturing of Yugoslavia that preceded it, caused an exodus of the Croat population followed by an exodus of Serbs. The return of refugees since the end of hostilities is not complete—a majority of Croat refugees returned, while fewer Serbs did. In addition, ethnic Croats moved to Slavonia from Bosnia and Herzegovina and from Serbia.

Economy and transport

The economy of Slavonia is largely based on wholesale and retail trade and processing industry. Food processing is one of the most significant types of the processing industries in the region, supporting agricultural production in the area and encompassing meat packing, fruit and vegetable processing, sugar refining, confectionery and dairy industry. In addition, there are wineries in the region that are significant to economy of Croatia. Other types of the processing industry significant to Slavonia are wood processing, including production of furniture, cellulose, paper and cardboard; metalworking, textile industry and glass production. Transport and civil engineering are two further significant economic activities in Slavonia. The largest industrial centre of Slavonia is Osijek, followed by other county seats—Slavonski Brod, Virovitica, Požega and Vukovar, as well as several other cities, especially Vinkovci.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of the five counties in Slavonia combined (in year 2008) amounted to 6,454 million euro, or 8,005 euro per capita—27.5% below Croatia's national average. The GDP of the five counties represented 13.6% of Croatia's GDP. Several Pan-European transport corridors run through Slavonia: corridor Vc as the A5 motorway, corridor X as the A3 motorway and a double-track railway spanning Slavonia from west to east, and corridor VII—the Danube River waterway. The waterway is accessed through the Port of Vukovar, the largest Croatian river port, situated on the Danube itself, and the Port of Osijek on the Drava River,  away from confluence of the rivers.

Another major sector of the economy of Slavonia is agriculture, which also provides part of the raw materials for the processing industry. Out of  of utilized agricultural land in Croatia, , or more than 45%, are found in Slavonia, with the largest portion of the land situated in the Osijek-Baranja and Vukovar-Syrmia counties. The largest areas are used for production of cereals and oilseeds, covering  and  respectively. Slavonia's share in Croatia's agriculturally productive land is greatest in the production of cereals (53.5%), legumes (46.8%), oilseeds (88.8%), sugar beet (90%), tobacco (97.9%), plants used in pharmaceutical or perfume industry (80.9%), flowers, seedlings and seeds (80.3%) and plants used in the textile industry (69%). Slavonia also contributes 25.7% of cattle, 42.7% of pigs and 20% of the poultry stock of Croatia. There are  of vineyards in Slavonia, representing 18.6% of total vineyards area in Croatia. Production of fruit and nuts also takes up a significant agricultural area. Apple orchards cover , representing 42.3% of Croatia's apple plantations, plums are produced in orchards encompassing  or 59.7% of Croatia's plum plantations and hazelnut orchards cover , which account for 72.4% of hazelnut plantations in Croatia. Other significant permanent crops are cherries, pears, peaches and walnuts.

In 2010, only two companies headquartered in Slavonia ranked among top 100 Croatian companies—Belje, agricultural industry owned by Agrokor, and Belišće, paper mill and paper packaging material factory, headquartered in Darda and Belišće respectively, both in Osijek-Baranja County. Belje ranks as the 44th and Belišće as the 99th largest Croatian company by income. Other significant businesses in the county include civil engineering company Osijek-Koteks (rank 103), Saponia detergent and personal care product factory (rank 138), Biljemerkant retail business (rank 145), and Našicecement cement plant (rank 165), a part of Nexe Grupa construction product manufacturing company. Sugar refining company Viro, ranked the 101st and headquartered in Virovitica, is the largest company in Virovitica-Podravina County. Đuro Đaković Montaža d.d., a part of metal processing industry Đuro Đaković Holding of Slavonski Brod, ranks the 171st among the Croatian companies and it is the largest business in Brod-Posavina County. Another agricultural industry company, Kutjevo d.d., headquartered in Kutjevo, is the largest company in Požega-Slavonia County, ranks the 194th in Croatia by business income. Finally, the largest company by income in Vukovar-Syrmia county is another Agrokor owned agricultural production company—Vupik, headquartered in Vukovar, and ranking the 161st among the companies headquartered in Croatia.

Culture

The cultural heritage of Slavonia represents a blend of social influences through its history, especially since the end of the 17th century, and the traditional culture. A particular impact was made by Baroque art and architecture of the 18th century, when the cities of Slavonia started developing after the Ottoman wars ended and stability was restored to the area. The period saw great prominence of the nobility, who were awarded estates in Slavonia by the imperial court in return for their service during the wars. They included Prince Eugene of Savoy, the House of Esterházy, the House of Odescalchi, Philipp Karl von Eltz-Kempenich, the House of Prandau-Normann, the House of Pejačević and the House of Janković. That in turn encouraged an influx of contemporary European culture to the region. Subsequent development of the cities and society saw the influence of Neoclassicism, Historicism and especially of Art Nouveau.

The heritage of the region includes numerous landmarks, especially manor houses built by the nobility in largely in the 18th and the 19th centuries. Those include Prandau-Normann and Prandau-Mailath manor houses in Valpovo and Donji Miholjac respectively, manor houses in Baranja—in Bilje, at a former Esterházy estate in Darda, in Tikveš, and in Kneževo. Pejačevićs built several residences, the most representative ones among them being manor house in Virovitica and the Pejačević manor house in Našice. Further east, along the Danube, there are Odescalchi manor house in Ilok, and Eltz manor house in Vukovar—the latter sustained extensive damage during the Battle of Vukovar in 1991, but it was reconstructed by 2011. In the southeast of the region, the most prominent are Kutjevo Jesuit manor house, and Cernik manor house, located in Kutjevo and Cernik respectively. The period also saw construction of Tvrđa and Brod fortifications in Osijek and Slavonski Brod. Older, medieval fortifications are preserved only as ruins—the largest among those being Ružica Castle near Orahovica. Another landmark dating to the 19th century is the Đakovo Cathedral—hailed by the Pope John XXIII as the most beautiful church situated between Venice and Istanbul.

Slavonia significantly contributed to the culture of Croatia as a whole, both through works of artists and through patrons of the arts—most notable among them being Josip Juraj Strossmayer. Strossmayer was instrumental in the establishment of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, later renamed the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the reestablishment of the University of Zagreb. A number of Slavonia's artists, especially writers, made considerable contributions to Croatian culture. Nineteenth-century writers who are most significant in Croatian literature include Josip Eugen Tomić, Josip Kozarac, and Miroslav Kraljević—author of the first Croatian novel. Significant twentieth-century poets and writers in Slavonia were Dobriša Cesarić, Dragutin Tadijanović, Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić and Antun Gustav Matoš. Painters associated with Slavonia, who contributed greatly to Croatian art, were Miroslav Kraljević and Bela Čikoš Sesija.

Slavonia is a distinct region of Croatia in terms of ethnological factors in traditional music. It is a region where traditional culture is preserved through folklore festivals. Typical traditional music instruments belong to the tamburica and bagpipe family. The tamburica is the most representative musical instrument associated with Slavonia's traditional culture. It developed from music instruments brought by the Ottomans during their rule of Slavonia, becoming an integral part of the traditional music, its use surpassing or even replacing the use of bagpipes and gusle. A distinct form of traditional song, originating in Slavonia, the bećarac, is recognized as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO.

Out of 122 Croatia's universities and other institutions of higher education, Slavonia is home to one university—Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek— as well as three polytechnics in Požega, Slavonski Brod and Vukovar, as well as a college in Virovitica—all set up and run by the government. The University of Osijek, has been established in 1975, but the first institution of higher education in the city was Studium Philosophicum Essekini founded in 1707, and active until 1780. Another historical institution of higher education was Academia Posegana operating in Požega between 1761 and 1776, as an extension of a gymnasium operating in the city continuously, since it opened in 1699 as the first secondary education school in Slavonia.

Cuisine and wines

The cuisine of Slavonia reflects cultural influences on the region through the diversity of its culinary influences. The most significant among those were from Hungarian, Viennese, Central European, as well as Turkish and Arab cuisines brought by series of conquests and accompanying social influences. The ingredients of traditional dishes are pickled vegetables, dairy products and smoked meats. The most famous traditional preserved meat product is kulen, one of a handful Croatian products protected by the EU as indigenous products.

Slavonia is one of Croatia's winemaking sub-regions, a part of its continental winegrowing region. The best known winegrowing areas of Slavonia are centered on Đakovo, Ilok and Kutjevo, where Graševina grapes are predominant, but other cultivars are increasingly present. In past decades, an increasing quantity of wine production in Slavonia was accompanied by increasing quality and growing recognition at home and abroad. Grape vines were first grown in the region of Ilok, as early as the 3rd century AD. The oldest Slavonian wine cellar still in continuous use for winemaking is located in Kutjevo—built in 1232 by Cistercians.

Slavonian oak is used to make botti, large barrels traditionally used in the Piedmont region of Italy to make nebbiolo wines.

See also

Regions of Croatia

References

Bibliography

External links

Croatian National Tourist Board – Slavonia
Regional Development Agency of Slavonia and Baranja

Historical regions
Regions of Croatia
Historical regions in Croatia
Rusyn communities

Slavonia


Justin Harrison, born 20 April 1974 in Sydney, is a former Australian international rugby union player, who played lock forward and is currently the head of the Australian Rugby Union Players Association (RUPA)

Career
Discovered in 1993 by GoldRats Rugby Union Club of Southern Cross University, Lismore, New South Wales while studying coastal and fisheries management, he then moved onto the Tuggeranong Vikings Rugby Union Club in Canberra, he made the 1994 Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Under-21s and then the Australian Universities team. The following year, he played in the Australian U21s team and made his debut for the ACT against New South Wales B. He made his Super 12 debut with the Brumbies in 1997.

He made his international début as Australia took on the British and Irish Lions in the third and final test of the 2001 series; at the time Harrison was a student studying for a Bachelor of Applied Science in Sports Administration at the University of Canberra from which he graduated in 2001.

A veteran of the 2003 Rugby World Cup, Harrison joined the New South Wales Waratahs at the beginning of 2004 for two seasons before moving to the northern hemisphere to play for Ulster.

As of 23 May 2006, Harrison had played 25 games for Ulster, 19 of those in the Celtic League and 6 in the Heineken Cup. Harrison proved an effective player in the Celtic League, a consistent winner of line-out possession and aggressive in rucks and mauls. Although regarded as inspiring by other Ulster players, his tendency to indulge in sledging led to confrontation with a number of opposing players and a number of off the pitch incidents.

At the end of the 2008 season, Harrison moved to Bath Rugby. until his retirement after involvement with the cocaine scandal and a bar fight with Harlequins players at Bath at the end of the 2008/09 season.

On Monday 30 November 2009, it was announced that Justin Harrison would return to play for the Brumbies in 2010 on a one-year deal, as coverage for Peter Kimlin. However, the ARU has not endorsed this contract.

In July 2010 it was announced that Harrison would become forwards coach at Brumbies, agreeing a two-year deal with the club.

References

External links
Bath profile
Ulster profile
Rugby Heroes page 1
Rugby Heroes page 2
Brumbies

Living people
University of Canberra alumni
Australian rugby union players
Australian rugby union coaches
Australia international rugby union players
ACT Brumbies players
New South Wales Waratahs players
Ulster Rugby players
Bath Rugby players
Barbarian F.C. players
Rugby union locks
1974 births
Doping cases in rugby union
Southern Cross University alumni
Rugby union players from Sydney
2003 Rugby World Cup players

Justin Harrison