Kras v srednjeveškem pomenu – pokrajina med Furlanijo, Istro in Kranjsko – je imel od 13. stoletja samostojen političen razvoj. Vključuje strateške prelaze na cestah proti jadranskim pristaniščem in Italiji, zato je v poznem srednjem veku doživljal izredno dinamično obdobje. Za najpomembnejša gospostva in pristanišča so se spopadale številne sile severnojadransko-vzhodnoalpskega prostora: oglejski patriarhi, Andeški-Meranski, Spanheimi, Goriški, beneška republika, Habsburžani, Luksemburžani, Celjski, bavarski Wittelsbachi, Walseejci, Ogrska. Politična dinamika in spremljajoče vojaško dogajanje so bili skoraj nepregledni. V 15. stoletju si je cesar Friderik III. uspel podrediti večino Krasa, vojna z beneško republiko (1508–1516) pa je za tri stoletja zarisala zahodne meje in celotno Primorsko dokončno vključila v sklop ostalih habsburških dežel. V 15. stoletju je Kras oblikoval celo značilnosti samostojne dežele – prej geografski pojem je dobil politično vsebino. Kot »dežela v nastajanju« je funkcioniral še večji del 16. stoletja, dokler ni bil vključen v vojvodino Kranjsko.

 The medieval Karst—a land between Friuli, Istria, and Carniola—experienced an independent political development from the thirteenth century onwards. With its strategically vital mountain passes along the routes leading towards the Adriatic ports and Italy, this territory underwent a remarkably dynamic period during the Late Middle Ages. The most crucial seigniories and ports became the points of fierce rivalry among a number of powers that dominated the area between the north Adriatic and eastern Alps: the patriarchs of Aquileia, the House of Andechs-Meran, the Spanheims, the Counts of Görz, the Venetian Republic, the Habsburgs, the House of Luxemburg, the Counts of Cilli, the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach, the Lords of Walsee, and Hungary. The political dynamics and the ensuing military developments were highly chaotic. Emperor Frederick III managed to bring nearly all of the Karst under his control in the fifteenth century, while the war with the Venetian Republic (1508–1516) set the western borders for the next three centuries and incorporated all of the Littoral into the complex of Habsburg territories. In the fifteenth century, the Karst even developed the characteristics of an independent territory—what was formerly a geographical notion turned into a political one. The Karst continued to function as an »emerging territory« well into the sixteenth century until it was incorporated into the Duchy of Carniola.
The book ('The Clash for the Passes Towards the Adriatic and the Formation of the »Territory of the Karst« : Military and Political History of the Karst from the twelfth to the sixteenth Century') offers a readable depiction of the region’s complex political and military history and puts it into the larger context of Slovenian and Central European history.