Editing Morlachs (section)

{{Short description|Term for a Christian community}}
{{Main|Vlachs in the history of Croatia}}
{{Other uses|Morlachs (disambiguation)}}
[[File:Valerio - Paysan Morlaques des environs de Spalato, 1864.jpg|thumb|250px|Morlach peasant from the [[Split, Croatia|Split]] region (of modern [[Croatia]]). Théodore Valerio (1819–1879), 1864.]]

'''Morlachs''' ({{lang-sh-Latn-Cyrl|Morlaci|Морлаци}}; {{langx|it|Morlacchi}}; {{langx|ro|Morlaci}}) is an [[exonym]] used for a rural [[Christians|Christian]] community in [[Herzegovina]], [[Lika]] and the [[Dalmatian Hinterland]]. The term was initially used for a bilingual [[Vlachs of Croatia|Vlach]] pastoralist community in the mountains of [[Croatia in the union with Hungary|Croatia]] from the second half of the 14th until the early 16th century. Then, when the community straddled the [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]]–[[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] border until the 17th century, it referred only to the Slavic-speaking people of the Dalmatian Hinterland, [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Orthodox]] and [[Catholic Church|Catholic]], on both the Venetian and Turkish side.<ref>Davor Dukić; (2003) ''Contemporary Wars in the Dalmatian Literary Culture of the 17th and 18th Centuries'' p.132;  Journal of Ethnology and Folklore Research (0547–2504) '''40''' [https://hrcak.srce.hr/33095]</ref> The exonym ceased to be used in an [[ethnic]] sense by the end of the 18th century, and came to be viewed as derogatory, but has been renewed as a [[social anthropology|social]] or [[cultural anthropology|cultural anthropological]] subject. As the nation-building of the 19th century proceeded, the Vlach/Morlach population residing with the Croats and Serbs of the Dalmatian Hinterland espoused either a [[Croats|Croat]] or [[Serbs|Serb]] ethnic identity, but preserved some common sociocultural outlines.