FOOTNOTES:
[157] An increase in the percentage of the Hungarian element in Hungary at the expense of the other nationalities and particularly of the Germans is shown by official figures. The following table is instructive:
Percentages of the Population of Hungary, without Croatia (after Wallis).
| 1880 | 1910 | |
| Magyars | 46.7 | 54.5 |
| Germans | 13.6 | 10.4 |
| Slovaks | 13.5 | 10.7 |
| Rumanians | 17.5 | 16.1 |
| Ruthenians | 2.6 | 2.5 |
| Serbs and Croats | 4.6 | 3.6 |
| Others | 1.5 | 2.2 |
But cf. in this connection B. C. Wallis: Distribution of Nationalities in Hungary, Geogr. Journ., Vol. 47, 1916, No. 3, pp. 183-186.
[158] F. Teutsch: Die Art der Ansiedelung der Siebenbürger Sachsen, Forsch. z. deut. Landes- u. Volksk., Vol. 9, 1896, pp. 1-22. Cf. also O. Wittstock: Volkstümliches der Siebenbürger Sachsen, in the same volume. The name “Saxon” appears to have been applied indiscriminately in the Middle Ages to settlers of German speech in the Balkan peninsula. “Saxon” miners and “Saxon” bodyguards were also known in Serbian countries in that period.
[159] Luxemburg and the regions comprised between Trèves, Düsseldorf and Aix-la-Chapelle furnished German colonists during the middle of the twelfth century.
[160] Hungarian statistics show 2,470,000 in 1870; 2,403,000 in 1880 and 2,589,000 in 1890.
[161] Cf. V. Merutiŭ: Romîniĭ între Tisa şi Carpaţĭ, raporturī etnografice, Rev. Stiintifică Vasile Adamachi, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1915.
[162] N. Mazere: Harta etnografica a Transilvanei, 1:340,000, Inst. Geogr. al Armatei, Iasi, 1909.
[163] G. Weigand: Linguistischer Atlas des dacorumänischen Sprachgebietes, Leipzig, 1909.
[164] Their number is given at 750,000 by G. Murgocè and P. Papahagi in “Turcia cu privire speciala auspra Macedoniei,” Bucarest, 1911.
[165] The total number of Rumanians in the Balkan peninsula is estimated at about 10,300,000, distributed as follows: Rumania, 5,489,296 or 92.5 per cent of the population; Russia, 1,121,669, of whom 920,919 are in Bessarabia; Austria-Hungary, 3,224,147, of whom 2,949,032 are in Transylvania; Greece, 373,520; Serbia, 90,000.
[166] A. D. Xénopol: Les Roumains au Moyen-Âge, Paris, 1885.
[167] W. R. Shepherd: Historical Atlas, New York, 1911, pp. 34, 35, 39.
[168] Typical examples of seasonal migration are found in Switzerland, where conditions prevailing in the higher and the lower valleys of the Alps have induced the inhabitants to shift their residence with the seasons.
[169] A similar nomadism is observable among the Rumanians of the Pindus mountains. Cf. A. J. B. Wade and M. S. Thompson: The Nomads of the Balkans: An Account of Life and Customs among the Vlachs of Northern Pindus, London, 1914.
[170] About one-third of the words in Albanian are of Romanic origin.
[171] Bull. pour l’étude de l’Europe Sud-Orientale, June, 1915, p. 112.
[172] A. A. C. Stourdza: L’Héroïsme des Roumains au Moyen-Âge et le caractère de leurs anciennes institutions, Paris, 1911.
[173] Divided according to religion, the census of 1910 shows the following figures:
| Roman Catholics | 98,565 |
| Greek Catholics | 26,182 |
| Armenian Catholics | 657 |
| Orthodox Greeks | 547,603 |
| Gregorian Armenians | 341 |
| Lipps | 3,232 |
| Protestant sects | 20,518 |
| Jews | 102,919 |
| Unaccounted | 86 |
| Total | 800,103 |
[174] Czernowitz, Storozynetz, Sereth, Suczava, Radautz, Gurahumora, Kimpolung were among the cities most often selected.
[175] Their colonies are found at Rosh, Molodia, Tereblestie, Hliboka, St. Onufri, Altfratanz, Milleschoutz, Arbora, Itzkani, Ilischestie, Unterstanestie, Storozynetz, Neuzadowa.
[176] Their settlements are found at Jakobeny, Kirlibaba, Luisenthal, Pozoritta, Eisenau, Freudenthal, Bukschoja and Stulpikani.
[177] Today the predominance of Ruthenians in Bukovina is contested by Rumanians who claim that Austrian statistics are deliberately padded.
[178] I. Nistor: Românú si Rutenií in Bucovina, studiu istoric si statistu, Bucarest, 1915, p. 72.
[CHAPTER IX]
THE BALKAN PENINSULA AND ITS SERBIAN INHABITANTS
The Balkan peninsula presents in its physical features a clue to our understanding of the development of separate languages and nationalities within its area. Its mountainous center has always exerted a centrifugal action on Balkan peoples. This influence has been strengthened by the existence of important routes to the mainland of Europe and of Asia. Throughout historical times the region formed, with Asia Minor, a natural bridge joining the east with the west. Before mankind had begun to record its past, it had afforded a natural passage for the westerly migrations of Asiatic peoples. Today the region bids fair to maintain the same connecting rôle. But in future the human stream appears destined to be directed towards the east.
Physical environment forced Asiatic tribes to rove because the barren steppes of their birthplace failed to provide more than could be harvested at a single halt. These ancestors of the modern Khirgiz poured into Europe from protohistoric times. They were herded along by nature toward that most favored parallel of latitude, the fortieth, near which civilization has flourished preëminently. In their quest for sustenance they wandered along a path that led far into Europe as well as toward the smiling regions bordering the Mediterranean basin. Here fertility of soil and propitious climate rendered settlement possible.
Fig. 45—The Bosporus seen mid-channel at its narrowest point.
Fig. 46—A bit of Sarajevo with ample evidence of former Turkish rule over the Serbians of Bosnia.
How readily the peninsula affords easy access between Europe and Asia can be gathered from the map. The narrow watercourse which begins at the Ægean mouth of the Dardanelles and extends to the Black Sea entrance of the Bosporus provides, at both its extremities, the shortest fording places between the two continents. At Chanak, on the Dardanelles, about one mile and a half of channel separates the peninsula of Gallipoli from the Anatolian coast. The very outline of the European shore is symbolical, for in the Thracian and Gallipoli promontories the Balkan peninsula seems to stretch out two welcoming arms to Asia and thus invite intercourse. South of the straits, the deeply indented coast lines of Greece and of Asia Minor teemed with matchless harbors. Their shores became the birthplace of adventurous sailors. The Ægean itself, with its numerous islands, provided so many stepping-stones jutting out of its choppy waters to aid daring pioneers in their expeditions.
Every race of Europe and of western Asia has marched at some time or other through the valleys that extend in varying width between the uplifts rising south of the Danube and the Save. The attempt to determine the original element is almost futile in the face of the constant stream of invaders. To go back only to the period following the one in which the Thracians dotted the southeastern area with their quaint tumuli we find the peninsula already settled by Illyrians on its western border. The Albanians are supposed to be direct descendants of this ancient people. Secluded in their mountain fastnesses from contact with subsequent invaders of the peninsula, they best represent today the type of the peninsular inhabitant of about 2000 B.C. To the east the basin of the Danube was peopled subsequently by Dacians and Gaetes, who presumably were the ancestors of the peasants now occupying the Dobrudja.
North of the boundary-defining rivers dwelt the Scythians and the Sarmatians. The story of their migrations is the same for different epochs. It tells either of the appearance of sturdy barbarians before whose dash the settlers, somewhat effete on account of acquired comfort, give way. Or else it is the tale of the settler who has had time to organize his forces into orderly fighters and whose disciplined bands go forth to conquer new territory at the behest of his civilization. Thus did Roman legions sweep away the barriers to the acquisition of new colonies.
Following the Roman occupation of the peninsula a steady flow of uncouth northerners began to appear. Under the names of Sarmatians, Goths of various sorts, Huns, Bulgarians to whom the Byzantines gave their appellation because they came from the banks of the Volga, and Avars, they spread havoc far beyond the western limits of the Adriatic. These barbarians were followed by Slavs. The eastbound journeys of the Crusaders next intervene; then a final mighty onslaught of Turkish hordes whose savage fury seemed for a moment to obliterate the laboriously-reared western civilization.
To this bewildering succession of human types the extraordinary complexity of stock characterizing the present population of the peninsula is directly ascribable, each race or people having left some trace of its passage. The compilation of an ethnographical map of the region results in the representation of the most mosaic-like surface imaginable. Nor are the actual evidences of these ancient invasions lacking to the observant eye. Take, for instance, the fair-haired, blue-eyed Greeks, totally devoid of traces of nigrescence, who are by no means uncommon in Macedonia.[179] In them the Nordic type, due in part to the Achæan conquerors, has survived. To this day the tourist, wandering in any town formerly occupied by the Turks, may suddenly behold in the streets as pure a Mongolian type as is to be found on the highlands of western central China. In the Bosnian town of Sarajevo, as in the Macedonian villages north of the Ægean, the ugly features of these Asiatics often reveal but too plainly their origin.
Traces of these wanderings have lingered in the relics of former habitat observable in Balkan countries. Any one whom fate has made the guest of Turkish hosts will remember how toward bedtime rolled bundles leaning vertically against the corners of the rooms are brought out and laid open on the floor. These are the beds which the members of the household use. They consist of a mattress, sheets and blankets which had been removed during the day from the mat over which it is customary to spread them at night. Although it is centuries since the Turk has ceased living in tents, he still adheres to this custom of his nomad forefathers. The fact is observable in the two-storied dwellings of the Mohammedan sections of Adrianople or Constantinople. But the practical conversion of bedrooms into sitting rooms is only one of the many phases of Turkish indoor life which recall tent life. Rooms altogether destitute of furniture are quite usual. I am now referring to the average Turkish home—not to the relatively few in which European customs are observed. In the majority of cases the only furniture consists of rugs spread on the walls and floors. Articles of household use are kept in closets. No chairs or tables help to relieve the bareness. At meals the family will squat in groups around circular trays supported on low stools. A bowl of “yoghurt,” or curdled milk, is the invariable accompaniment of each repast. Indulgence in this preparation is observable with similar frequency in a broad belt which begins in the Balkan peninsula and extends eastward between parallels 45° and 35° of latitude to Mongolia. Signs pointing to Asiatic origins can likewise be witnessed outside the houses in Turkish cities. The national coat of arms, conspicuously displayed over the gates of government buildings, bears two horsetails surmounting the Prophet’s coat. In this emblem we see Tatar chieftains’ insignia of rank which have been coupled to Mohammedan symbolism.
In this same line of thought we find that traditions furnish evidence of a remarkably significant character. A tradition flourishes to this day among the Turks that their occupation of European territory could not be permanent. Often have I heard this voiced by Turks who simultaneously added by way of explanation that it could not be otherwise, since they were Asiatics. It is this feeling which lies at the root of the Turk’s unwillingness to be buried on the European side of the Bosporus or the Dardanelles. The same sentiment accounts for their relatively larger burying grounds along the Asiatic shores bordering the peninsula, as compared with those on the European coast.
In the present era of world-wide industrial expansion, the Balkan region retains its place as one of the most notable of international highways. So centrally is the peninsula situated with reference to Europe, Asia and Africa that its valleys afford the most convenient overland passage for the products of European ingenuity and science on their way to market in the populous centers of Asia and Africa. Even the air line connecting central Europe and India passes over the Balkans. The superiority of the Mediterranean-Red Sea route over the other avenues of traffic leading from west to east led to the construction of the Suez Canal. The advantages of this line still exist. With the march of events, however, the main commercial thoroughfare from Europe to the Orient is shifting gradually from the waters between the Eurasian and African continents to a more easterly and at the same time far speedier overland route. The tracks of the Oriental, Anatolian and Bagdad railroad companies form at present the northern section of the trunk of this system. Incidentally, it should be noted that nature’s provision for this world route is so well marked in the Balkan peninsula that the luxurious cars of the Orient Express roll over a steel-clad path which coincides remarkably with the trail followed by the first crusade—the one which Godfrey de Bouillon led along a path marked by nature. The prolongation of these railroads to Delhi and the shores of the Indian Ocean by junction with the railroads of British India advancing toward the northwest is now economically desirable.
Through connection with the Cape of Good Hope by way of Ma’an and the Egyptian frontier, over the Sinai peninsula and the Cape-to-Cairo line, will probably be exacted by the requirements of trade. In that case railroad ferries over the Bosporus will enable the same car to be hauled directly from the coast of the Baltic Sea to the shores of the Indian Ocean or to cities at the southernmost points of Africa. There is reason to believe, however, the Bosporus will be crossed by a bridge over the half mile of sea that separates the European and Asiatic fortresses facing each other at Rumeli Hissar.
Fig. 47—Communications in the Balkans. The gaps in the mountainous area are the connecting links in the land travel between Europe and Asia.
Within the Balkan peninsula every economic need which has determined the foreign policy of the several states is related to a given feature of the land. The seaward thrust of Serbia towards the Adriatic is naturally directed along the narrow Drin valley, cutting across the long chain of the Dinaric Alps. But the country’s efforts to obtain mastery of this important gap were blocked by the creation of an independent Albania. Bulgaria’s trade and industrial development is likewise hampered by the lack of a favorable issue towards southern seas. At present the connection between the east-west mountainous country formed by the Balkan ranges and the lowland extending to the Ægean involves the climbing of steep slopes. Bulgarians therefore naturally coveted the Struma valley which runs in Greek territory to the west of the Chalcidic peninsula. The Montenegrins living in a rocky land which cannot support its inhabitants look covetously on the narrow defiles which lead towards the Adriatic and their longing for Scutari is merely for the possession of agricultural lands. War with the Turks once forced them to retreat into their mountains. Now that that danger is over they are coming out of their fastnesses and endeavoring to resume intercourse with the outside world.
Geography is therefore stamping its impress on the political status of the modern inhabitants of the Balkan peninsula. We have just seen how this region forms a section of a great international commercial route. Coupling this fact with industrial requirements which find expression in the demand for unhampered right of way for products of toil and thought in transit to market, it can be understood how great European powers keenly desire to secure control, or at least maintenance of equal rights of passage, over an avenue so happily situated. The matter is vital because it is based on economic grounds. Continued operation of many Old World factories, or their shut-down, often depends on conditions prevailing on the site of that battle royal of diplomacy known as the Eastern Question. The matter of Serbia’s access to the Adriatic or the withholding of Austria’s acquiescence to Montenegrin occupation of Scutari must, therefore, be ultimately explained by the geographical causes which have converted the peninsula into a highway of such importance that the paramount influence of a single nation over its extension cannot be tolerated by the others. A clear view of this fundamental principle leads us to realize that the presentation of an ultimatum to Serbia by Austria on July 23, 1914, was the preliminary step toward opening a pathway for Germany and Austria to Salonica and Constantinople. Then, as soon as Austro-German power should be solidly established athwart the Bosporus, the intention was to secure control of the land routes to Egypt, the Persian Gulf and India.
As matters stand at present the balance of power oscillates between two groups represented by Teutonic and Slavonic elements respectively. Their clashing zone is the Balkan peninsula. The “Drang nach Osten” of Pan-Germanism found concrete geographical expression on the map, in 1908, by Austria’s final absorption of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A further step in the same direction was marked by the creation of a new Balkan nation, Albania. All this was a result of efforts to obtain control of the remarkable highway we have been considering. This easterly spread was hampered, however, by the steady southerly progress made by the Balkan countries. Their victories in 1912 and 1913 lengthened perceptibly Russia’s southwesterly strides toward ice-free coasts. The process taken as a whole is one of recurrence. Time has converted the stream of early Asiatic invaders into these two opposing currents. The Teutons are now repeating the exploits of the Greeks, the Macedonians, the Byzantines and the Crusaders. The Slavs, whose differentiation from Altaic ancestors has not been as thorough as that of their western neighbors, are likewise playing anew the part of their forefathers seeking milder regions by way of the Balkan peninsula.
South of the Hungarian and Slovene linguistic zones the Austro-Hungarian domain comprises a large portion of the area of Serbian speech. The language predominates everywhere from the Adriatic coast to the Drave and Morava rivers as well as up to the section of the Danube comprised between its points of confluence with these two rivers. Serbian in fact extends slightly east of the Morava valley towards the Balkan slopes lying north of the Timok river, where Rumanian prevails as the language of the upland.[180] To the south contact with Albanian is obtained. The area of Serbian speech thus delimited includes the independent kingdoms of Montenegro[181] and Serbia. Within the territory of the Dual Monarchy it is spoken in the provinces of Croatia, Slavonia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia. The language is therefore essentially that of the region of uplift which connects the Alps and the Balkans or which intervenes between the Hungarian plain and the Adriatic.
Union between the inhabitants of this linguistic area is somewhat hampered by the scission of Serbians into three religious groups. The westernmost Serbs, who are also known as Croats, adhere to the Roman Catholic faith in common with all their kinsmen the western Slavs. Followers of this group are rarely met east of the 19th meridian. A Mohammedan body consisting of descendants of Serbs who had embraced Islam after the Turkish conquest clusters round Sarajevo as a center. The bulk of Serbians belong, however, to the Greek Orthodox Church. Cultural analogies between the Mohammedan and orthodox groups are numerous. Both use the Russian alphabet, whereas the Croats have adopted Latin letters.
Fig. 48—Sketch map of Austria showing westernmost extension of Slavs and their languages in Europe. The German-Hungarian wedge between northern and southern Slavs is shown. The small cross-ruled patches are areas of Rumanian language.
Much has been made in interested quarters of the difference between Catholic Croat and Orthodox Serb. Intrigues directed from Vienna and Budapest have sought to accentuate these differences and to foment hatred where Christian charity would speedily have produced concord and understanding. Even in Russia, there have been fears lest close political contact between Serb and Croat dilute the purity of Serb orthodoxy. In other quarters political ambition has made use of divergence of creed as a pretext for seeking to perpetuate political division between the two main branches of the southern Slav race. But a Serbian saying, which can be heard in Bosnia, Croatia or Montenegro, is the best refutation of the existence of any political differences between Serbs of different creeds. “Brat yay mio Koye vieray bio,” “A brother is always dear whatever his religion.” A simple phrase, but one with national significance.
The Serbo-Croatian group made its appearance in the Balkan peninsula at the time of the general westerly advance of Slavs in the fifth and sixth centuries. A northwestern body of this people, wandering along the river valleys leading to the eastern Alpine foreland, settled in the regions now known as Croatia and Slavonia. Here the sea and inland watercourses provided natural communication with western Europe. Evolution of this northwestern body of Serbians into the Croatians of our day was facilitated by the infiltration of western ideas. But the great body of Serbians, occupying the mountainous area immediately to the south, had their foreign intercourse necessarily confined to eastern avenues of communication. They therefore became permeated with an eastern civilization in which Byzantine strains can be easily detected.
In spite of these cultural divergences, the linguistic differentiation of the Croat from the Serbian element has been slight. The Serbian sound of “ay” is generally pronounced “yay” by Bosnians and “a” by Dalmatians. The Croatian “tcha” corresponds to the “chto” of the Serbian. As a rule variations are slight, and natives of the different districts not only understand each other, but can also detect respective home districts quite readily on hearing each other.
Today the political aspirations of this compact mass of Serbians are centered around the independent kingdom of Serbia, which is regarded as the nucleus around which a greater Serbia comprising all the Serbian-speaking inhabitants of the Balkan peninsula will group. This Serbo-Croatian element is estimated to comprise at least 10,300,000 individuals.[182] The southern Slav question centers chiefly around the fate of those unredeemed populations. The Near Eastern Question cannot be settled without cutting away from Austria-Hungary, and uniting with Serbia and Montenegro, all the southern Slav provinces of the Hapsburg crown. It is stated of Metternich that he had openly proclaimed his belief in the necessity of annexing Serbia to either Turkey or Austria. That was in the day, however, when popular claims counted for little.
Southern Slav unity and independence are both necessary to Europe. Serbia, or rather Serbo-Croatia or “Jugoslavia,” is reared on a land-gap that provides Europe with a gateway to the east. The freedom of Balkan peoples and to a great extent the freedom of Europe depend upon the power of the southern Slavs to hold the gate. It is therefore to the advantage of European countries to strengthen the southern Slavs by every means in their power. A partial unity that would leave any considerable portion of Jugoslavia unredeemed would but divert southern Slav energy into irredentist channels and deflect it from its chief mission.
The ties which unite Serbians and Croatians have led writers to consider the two peoples as one under the name of Serbo-Croatians.[183] In the eleventh century Skilitzer, a Byzantine writer, alludes to the “Croatians, who are called Serbians.” Little distinction was made between their tribes when they first made their appearance in Balkan lands. Both peoples are Slavs and it is not unlikely that they are derived from a common stock. The location of the territory they occupied affords a clue to the origin of differences between them. Their homelands lie on the confines of the two Roman empires which ruled respectively over eastern and western Europe. It was natural that some groups of the Serbo-Croatian element should follow the religious leadership of Rome while others rallied to the Orthodox teachings of Byzantium. The main distinction between Serbians and Croatians is found in this diversity of religious views.
From a geographical standpoint the area of Serbian speech presents excessive diversity of features. National unity within its bounds is therefore apt to be sorely hampered. Dalmatia, teeming with islands and fiords, enjoys the advantage of easy access to all its districts by way of the sea. The Dinaric Alps separate it, however, from the land of the ancient kingdom of Serbia which arose on the basins of the Save and Morava. The two areas form in reality isolated compartments. A capital suitable to both cannot be located. Belgrade or Nish is appropriate enough for the valley of the Danube, Spalato or Ragusa for the coastland. Uskub is perhaps more centrally situated on the road connecting the Danube to the Adriatic. But this city also belongs to the eastern watershed of the isolating mountains. Whatever be the political destiny of this linguistic area, it is bound to be divided into two parts with outlets respectively on the Adriatic and the Danube.
Between the sixth and thirteenth centuries, the Serbian invaders of the Balkan peninsula grouped themselves into a number of independent tribes. The Serbian state to which the smaller units adhered politically came into being in the thirteenth century. That it was inhabited by a prosperous people is proven by numerous works of art which are still preserved in the churches of the land. A hundred years later the kingdom of Serbia attains its widest extension. Under Stephen Dushan, the country spreads from the Black Sea to the Adriatic and from the Danube and Save valleys to the Ægean. In 1346 Dushan is crowned emperor at Uskub. He is about to march on Constantinople, but death puts an end to this project. Henceforth Serbian power is to be on the wane. The appearance of the Turks in the Balkans in the last decade of the fourteenth century marks the end of Serbian independence. In the ensuing four hundred years, Serbian lands and their inhabitants are the prey of merciless Asiatics. The devastating grip of Turkish oppression begins to be relaxed in 1815 when, under the leadership of Miloch Obrenovitch, the Serbians laid the foundation of their modern independence by forcing the Turks to grant them a partial self-government. Thence to the year 1867 political emancipation from Turkey progressed steadily.
The Adriatic Sea alone provides the Serbo-Croatian peoples with a definite boundary. The line of the Drave on the north once formed a frontier for the twin group. In modern times a number of Croatian settlements have pushed forward along the Raab valley toward Slovak territory. Here they stand in danger of becoming lost in the midst of the Hungarian population, as were the Serbian settlements which in the seventeenth century were scattered as far as Budapest. On the southwest, the boundary of the Serbian linguistic area presents many obstacles to accurate delimitation. There was a time when all northern Albania was part of the Serbian empire. In the eleventh century the Serbian kingdom, established in the Lake Scutari district, comprised Albanian populations within its boundaries. Immediately before the Turkish conquest Serbian language and customs had advanced as far south as Epirus. The coming of the Asiatics caused profound changes in the distribution of Balkan populations through the conversions to Mohammedanism by which it was attended. Many Serbians who had penetrated to the south and a large number of Albanians became followers of the Prophet. Their descendants became “Turks” and as such endured the vicissitudes which marked the decline of Ottoman power. The Serbian element lost its individuality in the midst of Albanians. A record of its former advance in northern Albania subsists in the Serbian villages which are scattered in the region.
Small areas of Serbian are found at Zumberak and Mariondol on the southern slope of the Uskok mountains in Croatia near the Carniola boundary. These Serbian groups occur on the border line separating Croats from Slovenes. They were founded by refugees from the south and east who had settled in the military confines of the Empire previous to 1871. In 1900 the population of Mariondol consisted of a few hundred inhabitants, many of whom have since emigrated to the United States. In Zumberak for the same year the number of inhabitants was estimated at 11,842, of whom 7,151 were “uniats” and 4,691 Catholics.[184] The conversion of these Serbians from Greek orthodoxy was accomplished in the eighteenth century.
Scattered Serbian settlements are found between the Danube and Theiss valleys as far north as Maria-Theresiopel and farther south at Zombor and Neusatz. The rich corn-growing districts southeast of Fünfkirchen (Pechui) contain some of the most important Serbian centers in Hungary. Serbian is the language of the entire district of confluence of the Theiss and Danube as well as of many colonies in the Banat of Temesvar. Religious diversity alone has prevented fusion of these Serbians with the Hungarian majority of the land. Whenever they come into contact with Rumanians of the same religion the Serbians lose ground and become merged in the bosom of the Latin population. “A Rumanian woman in the house,” says the Serbian proverb, “means a Rumanian home.” Such Rumanian households are now solidly established north and south of the Danube valley in the northeastern angle of Serbia where a century ago they were practically non-existent.[185]
Among these Serbian settlements of southern Hungary those in the Banat of Temesvar are the most important. Temesvar itself although an ancient seat of Serbian voivodes[186] contains fewer Serbians than Germans and Hungarians. The Slavs however occupy the western part of the Banat and form majorities between Zombor and Temesvar, Becherek and Panchova. Around Maria-Theresiopel (also known as Subotica or Szabadka) the Serbian element contains many Roman Catholics—the so-called Bunjevci, who were emigrants from former Turkish provinces, mainly Herzegovina.
Fig. 49—The broken aspect of the Dalmatian coastland is strongly represented in this view of Lussinpiccolo and surrounding islets.
Fig. 50—Usual landscape in mountainous Montenegro.
The old sanjak of Novibazar, which became part of Serbia after the last Balkan war, is largely Serbian in people and speech. In the long centuries of Mohammedan rule the Turks had become possessors of the majority of cultivated lands. But the task of farming was left entirely in the hands of the Serbian peasants—whether of Mohammedan creed and known as Boshnaks, or Christians. The Moslem element as a rule resided in the towns which grew around a castle or fortress.
From the twelfth to the fourteenth century the great commercial route which led from the Adriatic at Ragusa to Nish and Byzantium passed through Sienitza and Novibazar. Prosperity never since equaled flowed with the commerce from Venetian cities and the Dalmatian coast to the Orient. The districts of the sanjak then boasted of denser and wealthier populations. The Turkish conquest, however, diverted this trade route into the Morava valley with the result that the erstwhile frequented sanjak became almost completely isolated and neglected. West of the Lim the sanjak has always been predominantly Serbian. East of this river the pure Serbian type is preserved in the districts of Stari Vlah, Novi Varosh and Berane. The region’s earliest inhabitants are found in the secluded gorges of the Tara and the Ograyevitza tableland. Albanian settlements are met in Peshtera and Roshai.
Like Albania, Bosnia was originally peopled by Illyrians, a people of Alpine race whose living representatives are found among the Skipetars or rockmen of Albania. Although the land was conquered by the Romans, its inhabitants were never thoroughly Romanized. The mountainous character of Bosnia accounts for this failure of Latinism. Many traces of the Roman invasion are being continually discovered on the sites of ancient military camps and in inscriptional remains which are frequently unearthed in the territory comprised between the Adriatic and the Danube. Dalmatia and Pannonia were the two provinces into which the Romans had subdivided the region for administrative purposes. The Slavs who began to appear in the middle of the sixth century left a deep impress on the inhabitants. The influence of these latest comers is the only one that has prevailed to our day.
The coming of Hungarians in Europe may be likened to a wedge driven into the mass of Slavic populations. The success of these Asiatics brought about the separation of the southern Slavs from their northern kinsmen. In the course of these adjustments Bosnia and its inhabitants became part of the kingdom of Croatia which originated in the valleys of the Drave and Save. The province was administered by a Ban, who, though a vassal of the Croatian crown, always managed to retain a certain measure of independence.[187]
After the Hungarian conquest of Croatia, the Bans were allowed to maintain their rule. Their policy consisted in cultivating friendly relations with the ruling element and at the same time in drawing closer to the Serbian populations in the east. The intimate connection between Serbia and Bosnia dates from the end of the twelfth century. Two hundred years later Stephen Turtko, the son of Serbia’s greatest monarch, was crowned king of Serbia, Bosnia and the Littoral provinces at the shrine of Saint Sava. But the independence of Greater Serbia was short-lived. Hungarian arms were soon in the ascendant and Bosnia became a prey of feudal lords—a land divided against itself.
The Turks found it in this condition in the fifteenth century and easily subdued its petty princes. They used their rights of conquest to force Mohammedanism on the Bosnians. The mass of the landed gentry accepted the Arabic faith in order to retain possession of their property. Many of the Bosnian Mohammedans are descended from adherents of Bogomil heresies who welcomed this method of finding relief from persecution. The fanaticism of these converts and that of their descendants became noteworthy even in the midst of Turkish religious intolerance. It has delayed the expulsion of the Turks from this region, prevented the consolidation of Bosnia with Serbia in the early years of the nineteenth century and finally paved the way for the Teutonic advance towards eastern lands.
The Austrian occupation of Bosnia in 1879 was followed by a current of German immigration. The new settlers came from Germany and the German-speaking provinces of Austria. To weaken Serbian influence in the land the flow of this human tide was favored by the government. Engaging terms were offered to the colonists. The land they took up was turned into homesteads which became the property of the settler on easy terms, and after ten years’ occupation Bohemians, Poles and Ruthenians were also lured to Bosnia. The Posavina district teems with these Slav immigrants. German peasants however were considered the most desirable element in the eyes of Austrian officials. Through this migration Windhorst is now peopled mainly by Germans from the Rhine provinces and Rudolfthal by Tyrolese. Swabians from Hungary founded a large colony at Franz-Josefsfeld, while Germans from the same country created settlements at Branjevo and Dugopolje. Although these German emigrants constitute a numerically unimportant fraction of the Bosnian population, their presence has sufficed to warrant them the solicitude of Pan-Germanist writers in whose works they are referred to as “Our German brothers of Bosnia.”[188]
By its geography, no less than racially, Bosnia is an integral portion of Serbia. For over a thousand years Bosnians and Serbians have had a mutually common civilization. The same historical and political vicissitudes have been shared by the two peoples. Common economic aims and the identity of inhabited territory have furthermore acted as unifying factors. Whatever be the name applied to Croats, Dalmatians, Slavonians, Bosnians or Serbs, all speak the Serbian language. All have striven for centuries to promote their individuality as a nation. To help them realize themselves as a political unit merely implies furthering the process begun by nature.