A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE CHANGES IN THE ETHNIC STRUCTURE OF POPULATION IN BOKA KOTORSKA

The data on ethnic composition of the Boka Kotorska population is more reliable only since 1948 because previous censuses did not collect data on nationality, i.e. national affiliation. Everything that can be discerned for the earlier period is the share of individual religion in the total number of inhabitants or the composition of the population based on the language point of view.

The correct assumption is that the indigenous Boka population, at least from the 15th century, was Catholic. Since the Ottoman conquests the Orthodoxy is prevalent, especially in the geographical hinterland of the bay. At the same time, three important relations regarding Catholicism and Orthodoxy can be detected: The Venetian (southeast) versus Ottoman (northwestern) territory, the area of coastal and hinterland and the relation between urban and rural. Continuous growth of the number of Orthodox population, mainly thanks to migrations, led very early to their absolute majority in the hinterland, and at the beginning of the 20th century and in the coastal cities of Boka.

From 1948 to 1991, the majority of Boka Kotorska residents were Montenegrins. The number of Serbs is subject to the most fluctuations, the share of Croats continuously decreases, while the number of Yugoslavs directly reflected the Yugoslav everyday occasions. Due to the collapse of a common state, the Yugoslav nation lost the largest share of its national corps. At the same time, the Yugoslavs experienced identity violence such as no Montenegrin, Croat or Serb in Yugoslavia. Therefore, the number of nationally undisclosed population is increasing rapidly. In them we should look for the former Yugoslavs whose nation, after the establishment of the nationalist regime in the 1990s, seems to be losing the right to exist.

Finally, the ethnic composition of Boka Kotorska was subject to great fluctuations due to changes in administrative power, migration, wars, and so on. Consequently, today the Gulf is an extremely ethnically heterogeneous area, and not just the bay, but also each of its municipalities individually.