It was along the eastern shore of the Adriatic, in Dalmatian coastal towns and on neighboring islands, in the narrow belt of territory that had escaped Turkish conquest, that the Croatian Renaissance developed. The literature of this period is considered the beginning of Croatian creative writing and the foundation of the Croatian revival, known also as the Illyrian movement, that occurred three centuries later. Why did this Slavic literature develop in this small territory, which had been taken away from the Hungaro-Croatian kingdom and annexed to the Venetian Republic (1409-20) and whose high administrative, military, and often ecclesiastical officials were imported from Venice? A brief survey of what took place during several centuries on this Dalmatian coastland—rocky and barren, but surprisingly rich in events of political and cultural importance—may provide some explanation.