Hungarian Adriatic Association in the Age of State-Building Nationalism. Opportunities for a Hungarian ‘marine researcher’

The Hungarian Adriatic Association (HAA) is evidence of the relationship between cultural nationalism and science in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. By examining the cultural and scientific activities of the middle class, which provided the association both with members and with audience, this article shows that at the time of the development of oceanography, cultural nationalism in Hungary had an impact on the development of numerous disciplines, e.g. history, geography. Through the connection between cultural nationalism and oceanography and by means of the seaport of dualistic Hungary (Fiume/ Rijeka), the idea of the Hungarian empire is also manifested as a kind of condensation of the imperial attitude of the Monarchy. The emergence of the HAA followed Austrian and Italian models, and the professional career and relations of the founder and president of the association, Bela Gonda, help to understand the Hungarian oceanographic aspirations and to explore the results of the foundation and operation of the association.