Filip Tomić
The Institutionalization of Expert Systems in the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia
The Founding of the University of Zagreb as the Keystone of Historiographic Professionalization, 1867–1918
In this paper, I analyze the founding of the University of Zagreb as the “top of the pyramid” in an attempt to create a modern national educational system within the framework of the general process of building a modern social order in the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia in the second half of the nineteenth century. I focus in particular on the founding of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Zagreb and its history chairs. The establishment of these chairs was crucial for the legitimate scientific grounding of Croatian national historiography. Through its sanctioned expert systems, these chairs then had the potential to exert a decisive influence on narratives of “Croatian” history and the creation and reproduction of discourse on the Croatian nation.
Keywords: University of Zagreb, nineteenth century, historiography, modernization, expert system