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The republic of Ragusa, more rarely called the Republic of Dubrovnik, was a city-state and a maritime republic whose center town was Ragusa (in Croatian, Dubrovnik). It was created following the treaty of Zara on 1 January and existed until its annexation by the First French Empire on 1 December.
It was governed by a rector, elected every month. He was housed in the Rector's palace, where he received no friends or family, devoted entirely to his task.

It extended to a territory encompassing the South of Dalmatia, in the present-day Croatia. The Croatian name Dubrovnik comes from the so-called nearby place of Dubrava ("Chênaie"), a toponymous for the large forest that then grew in the vicinity (and that Croatian loggers deforested for the Ragusan fleet).

Originally, the Ragusa Republic consisted only of the ports of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and Old Ragusa (then Ragusavecchia in Italian, now Cavtat in Croatian) until 1420, when it extended its hinterland, until then disputed between the Rascia, Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. Its definitive boundaries were established in 1426. To the maximum of its extension, the Republic of Ragusa extended along a coastal strip from Neum to Sutorina (then Sant'Irena) and included the peninsulas of Prevlaka (then Vitaglina) and Pelješac (then Sabbioncello), the islands of Lastovo (Lagosta) and Mljet (Meleda), and some other small islands such as Koločep (Calamotta), Lopud (Media), and Šipan (Giuppana). This territory corresponded to a large part of the current Croatian county of Dubrovnik-Neretva.

His language was, until the 17th century, the Ragusan, a Dalmatian Romanesque dialect, then, from the 18th century, the Venetian (other Romanesque language) and from the Chtokavian (southern Slavic language, today Croatian). The republic reached its peak in the 19th century. It included for the intramural population of the city of Ragusa.

Names
Originally named Communitas Ragusina (meaning "Ragusian municipality" or "community" in French), it is renamed Respublica Ragusina (meaning "Ragusian republic") in the century. The name was first mentioned in 1385. Despite its name, it is not a republic since the Rector is appointed by Venice rather than by the General Council of Ragusus.

The Slavic name Dubrovnik derives from the word dubrava, an oak grove, by popular etymology. The first mention of the word Dubrovnik to refer to the city dates from 1189. It begins to be used in conjunction with Ragusa in the century. The Latin, Italian and Dalmatian name Regusa are potentially derived from Lausa (in Greek It is later modified to Rausium, Rhagesium, Ragesium or Rausia (as well as Lavusa, Labusa, Raugia and Rachusa) then Ragusa. Another theory is that the term "Ragusa" derives from the proto-Albanian Rāguša meaning "bay". The city became Dubrovnik after the First World War, following its attachment to the