We landed in Dubrovnik after being told that we might have needed to divert to Split (many hours away) because of high winds. This was no idle threat, as the US Secretary of Commerce and his entourage had died in a crash while landing here. (OK, the Serbs had stolen a lot of the airport's navigation gear, but that's another story.) The red on this map shows the once independent republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) which ceded sea access to the Ottoman Bosnia province -- and cut Dubrovnik's area (shown in red) off by land from the Venetians encroaching down the Dalmatian coast. (The rest of Croatia is shown in gray.)This tiny republic was pretty close to most Mediterranean trade routes -- and bullies. It stayed independent for four centuries by playing Slavs, Ottoman, and Venetians off against each other through skilled negotiation, tribute, and bribes.
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