Few people symbolize Croatia’s historical struggles so potently as the Uskoks, the valiant, resourceful and fiercely proud frontier folk who formed a large part of Senj’s population in the sixteenth century.

The word Uskok is derived from the verb ‘to jump out’ or ‘to ambush’, an apt description of the way Croatian refugees from the Ottoman Empire fought a guerrilla-like rearguard action against the Ottoman Turkish advance.

Having occupied much of the Central Balkans in the fifteenth century, Ottoman progress towards the Adriatic coast was for a time held up by the fortress of Klis just outside Split, where Captain Petar Kružić had assembled a highly motivated force of Uskok warriors. When Klis fell to the Ottomans in 1537, many of the survivors fled to Senj.

Senj was at that time under the Austrian Habsburgs, who welcomed the Uskoks in the hope that they could be put to use as frontier troops. However the Austrians were unwilling to pay the Uskoks a living wage for their services, and the Uskoks turned instead towards cross-border raiding, cattle-rustling and piracy in order to make ends meet. The Austrians found this arrangement extraordinarily convenient: Uskok raiding parties totally destabilized the Ottoman border regions, frustrating Ottoman plans for further expansion.

Equipped with swift and easy-to-manoeuvre rowing boats, the Uskoks were particularly effective as sea raiders, although their habit of attacking Ottoman ships laden with goods intended for western ports did not go down at all well with the Mediterranean’s other powers. As a fighting force they were formidable however, and most Croats living in the Adriatic region (whether on Austrian, Venetian or Ottoman territory) regarded the Uskoks as heroes rather than rogues. The Uskoks played a leading role in the re-capture of Klis in 1596, and although the Ottomans soon re-took the fortress, the feat remained a powerful symbol of Uskok prowess. The keys to the fortress of Klis are still proudly displayed in the Senj’s Museum of Church Art.

The Venetians in particular were very critical of Uskok activities, as they provoked the Ottomans into retaliation and damaged Adriatic trade. In 1597 the Uskoks raided the Venetian-controlled ports of Rovinj and Pula to demonstrate that they had no fear of any neighbouring power. The Venetians increasingly put pressure on the Austrians to restrain the Uskoks, and in 1601 the Austrians sent commissioner Josef Rabatta to Senj to restore discipline. Rabatta aggravated the locals by having leading Uskoks arrested – the townsfolk responded by hacking Rabatta to bits. Venetian propagandists circulated lurid tales of how the Uskoks had feasted on Rabatta’s flesh, earning Senj an exaggerated reputation for savagery.

The Venetians blockaded the port of Senj three times over the next ten years in an attempt to cut down on Uskok sea raiding. The dispute drew the Austrians into a war with Venice, the so-called Uskok War of 1615-1617.  Convinced that the Uskoks were now a serious barrier to normal diplomatic relations with their neighbours, the Austrians  expelled the Uskoks from Senj, resettling them far from the coast in the Croatian Žumberak hills or the Slovenian Bela Krajina. Senj continued to play an important role in Central Europe’s anti-Ottoman defences, but the days of its heroic semi-outlaw status were more or less over.
 
Nominally subject to the Austrian crown but autonomous in most of their actions, the Uskoks served as a symbol of Croatian self-reliance at a time when most of its people were treated as gambling chips by neighbouring empires. Their practice of border raiding kept the Ottomans at bay for almost a century, saving the northern Adriatic from Turkish conquest. Most of all the Uskoks were renowned for a moral code that placed a high value on personal bravery, group loyalty, and a my-word-is-my-bond sense of honour. It’s this last aspect of Uskok life that provides them with enduring mystique, and it comes as no surprise to learnthat in today’s Croatia the government’s elite anti-corruption unit carries the name of Uskok.