I. A Homogeneous People—A Militant Past—The Bogumili—National Bondage—Napoleon—Illyrism—Agreement with Hungary—Count Khuen-Hedervary.

II. The greatest representative of the Southern Slavs—Strossmayer’s generosity and courage—Fall of Count Khuen-Hedervary—Death of Strossmayer.

III. False Dawn—Conference of Fiume—Ban Paul Rauch—Monster Trial in Zagreb—The Friedjung Case—Cuvaj—Frano Supilo.

IV. Dalmatia, Istria, Carniola—The Italian Element—Bosnia-Hercegovina—Conclusion.

I.

The whole south of the Dual Monarchy is inhabited by Slavs. The Kingdoms of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia, with the Duchy of Carniola, Istria, and Bosnia-Hercegovina—these, comprising a population of about seven millions, belong almost exclusively to one race. Whereas in all other countries of the Monarchy (especially in Hungary and Bohemia) the different races are represented in varying percentages, the non-Slav population in Croatia, Slavonia, Bosnia and Hercegovina amounts only to about 5-1/2 per cent., in Carniola and Istria to 4 per cent., and in Dalmatia only to 2 per cent. The considerable number of Croats and Slovenes (750,000) living in Southern Hungary (in Torontal, Bacs-Bodrog and Temes) must be added to the above-mentioned seven millions.

Ethnologically speaking, the inhabitants of all these countries form one people, and are a brother nation to the Serbs in the Kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro. Their language, customs, historical past and achievements in art, science and literature, are identical. The sole difference between them is that the Croats and Slovenes are Catholics, while part of the inhabitants of Bosnia are Mohammedans. Those confessing the Serbo-Orthodox faith (more than a third of the population) also own to the national name and call themselves Serbs. This compact and homogeneous national body would certainly have become a most important factor in the Monarchy had they not been cut in two by administrative policy. Here as elsewhere throughout all her dominions Austria has applied her principle of dividing and dismembering, and the Southern Slav provinces were shared between two spheres of power. Croatia and Slavonia were allotted to the Hungarian; Carniola, Dalmatia and Istria to the Austrian sphere, and a mixed Austrian and Hungarian administration was introduced in Bosnia and Hercegovina. This system made a unanimous political rally of the Southern Slavs quite impossible, and provided German and Magyar propaganda with a more manageable field of operations. In both spheres unremitting efforts were devoted to the task of eliminating the Southern Slav element, stifling Slav thought, and transforming the Slavs into slaves. But the Southern Slav is endowed with unusual tenacity; the most zealous efforts on the part of the Government were frustrated by his dogged resistance, and they merely defeated their own ends. German “kultur” and Magyar lack of culture were held in equal abomination by the Slav nations upon whom they were to be inflicted, and the ruthless spoliation to which they were likewise subjected engendered a deep-seated animosity. The Northern Slavs, who possess more practical business capacity than the Southern, did not allow themselves to be economically strangled, and even contrived to hold their own in this respect; whereas the Southern Slavs, being mainly an agricultural people, found themselves the helpless victims of Austrian and Hungarian rapacity. Dalmatia, one of the loveliest spots in Europe, has for the last century known no privilege except that of paying taxes, and Austria’s mal-administration of that country has become proverbial. Croatia and Slavonia fare little better. They have to pay 56 per cent. of their revenues to Hungary. This tax figures under the head of “contributions to mutual interests,” chiefly represented by the railways and the postal system. The net annual income from these two sources amounts to 250 million Kr., but of this Croatia never receives a penny! The net profit all goes to Hungary who brazenly employs it to subvention the Magyar propaganda in Croatia. The condition of Carniola and Istria is almost as deplorable as that of Dalmatia, and in Bosnia and Hercegovina the Austro-Hungarian Government has for thirty-five years built villages “after the pattern of Potemkin,” for the edification of foreign journalists, while the people have been left to starve, or sink into poverty and ignorance. The numerous foreign tourists who have travelled in these beautiful countries have seen nothing of Austria’s “work of civilization,” as they are kept to the beaten tracks specially prepared for them, and they only see the country like a carefully staged panorama on the films of the Royal and Imperial State Cinematograph! But had these travellers caught a glimpse of the abject misery of the people, their pleasure in these beautiful countries would have been spoilt, and they would have better understood why the inhabitants are rebelling against the “blessing” of Austro-Hungarian rule.

It is much easier to understand why the political horizon in the Southern Slav corner of Europe is always clouded if one is given a clearer view of the Chartered rights, as opposed to the actual position, held by the Southern Slavs in the Monarchy; but this view is not usually obtained through the official channels of Vienna and Budapest. According to these, all ancient charters of liberty are so many “scraps of paper,” and the actual law merely the right of the strongest. The Hapsburgs did not come as victors with the rights of a conqueror to the Southern Slav provinces. They became rulers of these countries in virtue of voluntary treaties, and they themselves issued manifestos and bulls, in which the integrity and independence of the Southern Slav countries are incontestably guaranteed. Centuries ago, while the Hapsburg dynasty was endangered by constant wars, and especially during the Turkish invasion, these guarantees were faithfully observed. But with the altered conditions of affairs the Southern Slavs had to wage a bitter struggle for their rights.

Of all this group Croatia-Slavonia alone still retains the slightest degree of autonomy, while the countries belonging to Austria have been deprived of every vestige of self-government, and only appear to be distinct dominions in the State by their mock Landtags, whose decisions are almost invariably disregarded. Croatia-Slavonia, which belongs to Hungary, has to this day at least theoretically maintained her political independence. Croatia was once more guaranteed this independence by the agreement between herself and Hungary in 1868. When the Hapsburg Empire was reconstructed in 1867 the constitutional independence of Croatia could not be set aside, especially as this reconstruction was founded on the Pragmatic Sanction, which provided for the separate constitutional independence of Croatia under guarantee of the Royal Oath. Moreover, the events of the revolution of 1848 were still too fresh in the memories of the Hungarian statesmen who had laboured for the establishment of Hungary’s State Constitution from 1861 till 1867, and in their dealings with Croatia they did not dare to repeat the mistakes they had made in 1847 and 1848. Francis Deak, the chief of these statesmen, knew very well that the catastrophe that overtook Hungary in 1848 would never have been so great, if the Croatian national forces had fought side by side with Hungary. Thus it was his wish to conclude a lasting peace with Croatia on a just basis. Under Deak’s influence, and with the co-operation of Croatia’s leading representatives, an agreement was concluded which assured Croatia the position of a State enjoying equal rights with Hungary, with complete self-government as regards her internal affairs, a separate legislative parliament, and her own army; only the railways and the postal and financial systems were to be under mutual control, and Croatia was guaranteed a proportionate share of the revenues from these sources. The Croatian tongue was to be the official language in the Landwehr, and in all courts of law, whether joint or autonomous. The important Croatian seaport Fiume was declared a “corpus separatum adnexæ rex,” and thus constituted a joint open port. I shall presently show how Hungary kept her side of the bargain.

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