Some Dalmatians-Generals in Foreign Armies

Sa？etak The military history of Dalmatia being in large part a neglected subject of study the author makes an attempt to at least partly fill in the void. He does this by calling attention to those men of Dalmatian descent who managed to reach the rank of general in foreign armies. Using original material the article gives short biographies of a number of Dalmatians who attained the highest officer ranking. Because Dalmatia during the last couple of centuries has constantly had foriegn rulers, its inhabitants have served in foreign armies. Although living in these conditions, many Dalmatians, mostly of Croatian nationality, became generals. They succeeded in doing this because of extraordinary abilities and bravery in battle, but also because of skills in military tactics. Most of them, for understandable reasons, made their careers in the Venetian army but also in the French, Austrian and Russian armies. Regretably some of them participated in unjust military campaigns and wars. These examples show that Croats deserve a distinguished position within the military history of the European peoples. If these men had served in their own, national army they would have surely shown even greater heroism and military skill