1. Yugoslavia: History and Disintegration
The age of nationalism (1): Habsburg South Slavs and the emergence of the Yugoslav idea
Yugoslavia: History and Disintegration
Dr Dejan Djokić
Department of History
Goldsmiths
University of London

2. Ethnic composition of the Austrian empire, 1815

3. Three stages of Yugoslavism in the ‘long’ 19C
The Ilyrian movement (1830s-1840s)
Yugoslavism of the 1860s
Croat-Serb Coalition (‘New course’), early 20C

4. The Illyrian movement
Early development of the Yugoslav idea inseparable from the emergence of the Croatian national ideology
Early 19C ‘Croatian lands’ under the Habsburg rule, but divided administratively (Croatia-Slavonia => Budapest & Dalmatia => Vienna] and ‘linguistically’ (Kajkavski, Čakavski, Štokavski).
In addition, mix of religions : Roman Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs.

5. Military border (Vojna krajina)

6. The Illyrian movement
Illyrian provinces under Napoleon. The French introduce cultural reforms: e.g. ‘language of the peasants’
Napoleon’s defeat, Congress of Vienna 1815
Greater centralisation within the Habsburg Monarchy follows
1827 Hungarian obligatory language in Croatian elementary schools

7. Illyrian provinces, 1805-1813 [and Serbia]

8. The Illyrian movement
‘Illyrianism’: initially a cultural movement led by intellectuals, who aimed to unite the Croats, and also Croats with Serbs.
Unofficial leader of the movement Ljudevit Gaj.
Other eminent members: Count Janko Drašković, author of Dissertation (1832), Ivan Kukuljević.

9. Count Janko Drašković (1770-1856)

11. Ljudevit Gaj (1809-1872) a monument to Gaj, Zagreb, Croatia

12. Danica Ilirska (The Illyrian Morningstar)

13. The Illyrian movement
Ideology: Nation understood as a community of speakers of one language. Therefore, Croats and Serbs one nation. Religion, history/tradition of secondary importance.
Why did it emerge? Three principal factors:
1.) existence of a small group of middle-class intelligentsia influenced by ideas coming from the West
2.) Influence from the ‘West’: German Romanticism (language = nation) and French revolutionary ideas (anti-traditionalist)
3.) Hungarian threat

14. The Illyrian movement
1841: The Illyrian Party, in reaction to a recently formed Croato-Hungarian Party
1843: People’s Party (Narodna stranka). Kukuljevic makes the first speech in the Croatian language (hitherto called ‘Illyrian’) in Croatian Sabor, demanding introduction of the ‘people’s language’ in public life and amdinistration – demands accepted in 1847.

15. The Illyrian movement Problems:
1.) while Croats spoke all three dialects (Kajkavski, Čakavski, Štokavski), Serbs spoke Štokavski only. In addition, Slovenes speak a different language, as do Bulgarians
2.) Serbs not as divided linguistically as Croats + an autonomous Serbia emerging within the Ottoman empire, so Serbs politically more ‘successful’
3.) ‘Illyrian’ a ‘foreign’, ‘artificial’ name
4.) Hungarian opposition, but initially support from Austria. Yet, when Austria ceased giving it support, the movement gradually disappears after 1848.
5.) Failed to unite the ‘Illyrians’ (ie Croats and Serbs), but it did help the emergence of a modern Croatian national identity.

16. Yugoslavism of the 1860s New leaders of the People’s Party:
Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer
Canon & historian Franjo Rački
Spiritual and cultural unification of the South Slavs, centred on Zagreb, based on
1. common culture
2. common literary language
Strossmayer believed that only deepening of true nationalism (Croat & Serb) and Christianity (Catholic & Orthodox) could lead to a better understanding among the South Slavs.

17. Yugoslavism of the 1860s
Contacts with the Prince Michael of Serbia (at the same time Bulgarian revolutionaries make contacts with Serbia)
1867: Yugoslav Academy of Arts and Sciences. Rački first president of the Academy.
1867: Ausgleich (Austro-Hungarian Compromise)
1868: Croatian-Hungarian Compromise (Nagodba). The same year Prince Michael of Serbia assassinated (murder unresolved to this day)

18. Josip Juraj Strossmayer (1815-1905)

19. Franjo Rački ( )

20. The Croat-Serb Coalition
October 1905: the Rijeka Resolution of the main Croatian parties. Call for the right to self-determination for all empire’s nationalities. Followed by the Zadar resolution of the main Habsburg Serb parties, who support their Croat counterparts.
Dec 1905: Croat-Serb Coalition. Wins elections for the Sabor the following year.
Main demands:
1. Liberal-democratic institutions
2. right to national self-determination
3. opposition to participation of the clergy in politics
The Yugoslav movement becomes political. Politics of the ‘New Course’

21. Party of (Croatian) Rights
Founded It stood for the ‘natural right’ of the Croat nation to its own state.
Party leader: Ante Starčević. Eugen Kvaternik another prominent member.
Nationalism of the Party of Rights not much different from other 19C nationalist ideologies – it idealised values of the nation and glorified its past, and it had its ‘Other’: Serbs. But, it was more extreme (in its anti-Serbianism)
Party split in the 1890s: pro-Serb faction (Trumbić & Supilo) and anti-Serb faction, led by Josip Frank ( ).

22. Ante Starčević ( )