In every way the patriarchal state of Prince Miloš proved the best possible preparation for Serbia’s political future. She matured slowly, like an apple in the sun, and fortunately was not compelled to ripen unnaturally. Moreover, the inborn gifts of the Serbian people, which I have already mentioned, proved a great help to this process. They began to see that poetry has its limitations, that a free people must become an organized state, and that political order, though it cannot be set in verse, is the only guarantee of prosperity to the nation. Of course, legal decisions and taxes were vexatious matters, but their good effect on the community was recognized. The law expressed the will of the people and was no longer resented as an imposition.
It was fortunate for the young State that Dositij Obradović, the greatest educational genius of Serbia, had lived before this critical time. He laid the foundations of a national educational system—that most necessary discipline for a young nation—and was beyond doubt one of the greatest men the Southern Slavs have produced in modern times. In Serbia he is called “the great sower.” He truly sowed the seed of enlightenment, not only in Serbia but wherever Serbs and Croats live. Dositij Obradović has not educated individuals, but whole generations, and through them the entire nation. And if the modern State is synonymous with civilization, then Dositij Obradović was the true founder of Serbia. He sowed the seed, all others have only been reapers.
Prince Miloš, who abdicated in 1839, was succeeded by his son Milan Obrenović II. He died, however, within a month of his accession. His successor and younger brother, Michael, was soon involved in serious differences with the Senate, and had to quit the country in 1842. Serbia now elected Alexander Karagjorgjević, son of the Black Kara-Gjorgje, who headed the insurrection against Turkey in 1804. In spite of his great gifts as a statesman, he failed to maintain himself on the throne on account of his leanings towards Austria. The nation, who instinctively scented their ancient enemy, mistrusted him, and matters finally came to a crisis in 1858. The Serbian Skuptchina (Parliament) formally deposed Alexander and again elected an Obrenović to the throne of Serbia. This was Miloš Obrenović, whose short reign was not remarkable for any striking events. His son Michael succeeded him in 1860.
Michael Obrenović was a brilliant, broad-minded, noble-hearted man. He found the national harvest already well grown, and courageously continued the work of his early predecessors. He thoroughly understood his people, with all their gifts and limitations, and, above all, he realized that the moment had arrived for Serbia to become “westernized” without sacrificing her national qualities. He “Europeanized” the State and made it respected at home and abroad. The educational system made great strides and was modernized in his reign. The finances of the country were placed on a sound basis, agriculture was developed on modern, rational lines, and industrial enterprise and foreign trade made their first appearance. Under the strong guiding hand of their prince, the organization of the army kept pace with the economic development of the nation. He initiated Serbian foreign policy[12] and was the best and wisest diplomat of his country. His policy towards Russia resulted in the Russian protectorate, which has proved so powerful to this very day, but it also aroused the jealousy of Austria. Above all things Michael Obrenović was a Serb, and his Slav policy was not only carried on in the interests of the nation, but dictated by his heart. He evolved the idea of a Serbia with a seaboard on the Ægean as well as the Adriatic. He knew that the future of his country will never be secure until all Serbs and Croats are united, and the ways open which will permit of a corresponding economic prosperity. Serbia’s demand for a seaboard is not mere aggression, but the recognition of a vital problem which will be disposed of as soon as her minimum requirements are satisfied.
Under the next Obrenović, the jovial Prince Milan (subsequently King Milan), Serbian policy occasionally deviated from the lines laid down by Prince Michael. Unfortunately, the good services which King Milan undoubtedly rendered his country are overshadowed by his many serious mistakes. At first his genial personality and great popularity seemed to fit him very well for the continuation and completion of the work Prince Milan had begun. But apparently his ambitions did not lie that way, for his reign presents a long record of discord at home and abroad. The party-spirit in civil and military affairs assumed formidable dimensions, and the State repeatedly barely escaped shipwreck. Milan was a spoilt man of the world. He preferred to live abroad and often left the administration for long periods wholly in the hands of the Cabinet of the moment, who, in the absence of the ruler, often found it most difficult to maintain their authority in the face of opposing factions. Abroad the king became acquainted with eminent foreign nobles and statesmen, and, as in most cases these were Austrians, he fell under the influence of the Monarchy. The tide of German pressure towards the East began to filter through into Serbia, and at times the official policy was frankly pro-Austrian. The King was still popular, but the people gradually lost confidence in him, and on several critical occasions he was fain to “save” himself by brilliant addresses to the people.[13] But the Royal blunders became increasingly frequent, and were further aggravated by intolerable domestic dissensions which finally led to the divorce of Queen Natalie. Fortunately Serbia possessed singularly able statesmen during the reign of King Milan, and it is solely due to their efforts that the country escaped public disaster. The present Serbian Premier, Nikola Pašić, already played a prominent part in those days, and repeatedly saved his King and country in times of imminent danger. But presently matters became intolerable, and King Milan abdicated in favour of his son Alexander, who was still under age. The reign of Alexander is the darkest period in the history of modern Serbia. During his minority the country was governed by a regency, and all went well; but when Alexander assumed the sceptre himself, the state began to crumble in its very foundations. Mentally deficient, and therefore dangerous in all his actions, he inaugurated a rule of autocracy, tolerated no opposition, and endowed every one of his mistakes with the distinction of a “supreme command.” The rift between King and people grew wider and more impassable, and finally became an abyss when he insisted on raising his mistress Draga Maschin to the position of legal wife and Queen of Serbia. But even this was not all. The new queen, with all the blind conceit of a parvenue, introduced the worst type of petticoat government at court and in politics, which showed itself in graft, corruption, unblushing exhibitions of contempt for the people, and insults to statesmen, scholars and especially to the officers of the army. When the scandal about the supposititious birth of an heir occurred, the wrath of the people turned to fury, and, in the night of May 28th, 1903, the garrison of Belgrade carried out the sentence of the nation upon the King and Queen.
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The accession of the Karagjorgjević dynasty, who were really entitled to the crown, opens a new national and political era for Serbia. An old man was called to the throne, but a grand seigneur of the best French school—a school which did not produce debauchees and Boulevard-trotters, but soldiers and statesmen of the first order. King Peter was a Western European in the best sense of the word. He was not only of the blood of the black Karagjorgje, the scion of a house of heroes, but an experienced soldier and statesman. During the long years of his exile he was an officer in the French army, and in virtue of his social position had every opportunity of garnering valuable experience both in peace and in war. All this time he was emphatically the “one who looked on” and watched the development of his country from afar—her struggles and her trials. Although he never resigned his pretendership to the Serbian throne he was often, surely very often, convinced that he himself would never be called to ascend it. But his heart and his love ruled with the Serbian people, and probably he felt the misfortunes of his country more keenly than any other Serbian. It is absurd to hold King Peter responsible for the murder of his predecessor. Any one privileged to know him would indignantly repudiate the thought. His accession to the throne was merely a consequence and in no way a cause of the Obrenović tragedy. But Europe was too horrified at the murder to discriminate at the time, and would accept neither reasons nor explanations proving the necessity of making a fresh start—and this quite apart from the circumstance of the murder. Europe regarded the deed and not the causes of the deed; and refused to search her own histories for similar deeds provoked by similar causes. Thus King Peter was confronted with a two-fold difficulty. On the one hand both he and his country had forfeited the sympathies of Europe, and on the other he succeeded to the government of a country demoralized by the previous reign, and torn by party dissensions. It was a most difficult situation, so many conflicting interests had to be reconciled! Truly a very weighty task for an elderly and perhaps already world-weary man.
But King Peter did not come to Serbia as a pretender who has at last gained the crown he has coveted; he came as the champion of the Serb ideal of the past—whose last representative had been Michael Obrenović,—the ideal of national expansion, of a Serbian future. He recognized his difficulties but attacked them without flinching. For the Serb nation—impulsive, tempestuous and sensitive—it was a blessing to pass under the guidance of a calm, wisely deliberate king. He went his way step by step, firmly, and without illusions. Amid the tumult of acclamations that greeted him in Belgrade his was probably the only heart heavy with care. He knew only too well that the violent coup d’état was not the solution but merely the beginning of the problem. This consciousness and his patriotic ideal have been the ruling motives of his reign from the very first. One of King Peter’s first tasks was the rehabilitation of Serbia in the eyes of Europe. Unjustly enough the entire responsibility for the loss of Serbia’s prestige was laid to his charge, and it was uphill work to alter the opinion of Europe, but he refrained from protestations and excuses. He realized that Serbia must be regenerated in such a fashion as to win back the full confidence of Europe. By the wisdom of his policy and with the help of able statesmen—principally Nikola Pašić—he steered Serbia’s foreign policy back into a healthy, normal channel, and within a few years the country once more took her position as a well-ordered European State—apart from the calumnies and enmity of Germany and Austria. In fact, this successful reconstruction was proof in the eyes of Europe that the dynastic change was a necessity for Serbia, and that in the solution of the Balkan problem she might certainly be trusted to take her part of the burden as a civilized State. She proved her mettle soon afterwards in the first Balkan War, for in this war the ideal of the King—which he shares with his people—scored its first great success, when the hard-pressed nation displayed a high degree of valour, statesmanship and true nobility.
In his ten years’ reign King Peter has gone far to restore to Serbia her ancient glories. During his reign her politics have become more settled at home and abroad. Agriculture, trade and industry have improved and expanded. Literature and art have made miraculous strides, so that Serbia may fairly consider herself the equal of the Western nations; and the Serbian army has now demonstrated its excellent organization and great military value in three successive wars.
King Peter, whose short reign became so stormy towards the end, may look back on the results of his labours with the same calm assurance with which he took up the sceptre. He has quickened the new soul of Serbia, and although he retired shortly before the outbreak of the present war, and entrusted the sceptre to his son, his spirit still lives in his people and army and—please God—will lead them both to victory. IV.