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.
[Illustration:
FIG. 45--The Bosporus seen mid-channel at its narrowest point.]
[Illustration:
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.
[Illustration:
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.
[Illustration:
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.
[Illustration:
FIG. 49--The broken aspect of the Dalmatian coastland is strongly
represented in this view of Lussinpiccolo and surrounding islets.]
[Illustration:
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.
FOOTNOTES:
[179] I have also seen this type among Anatolian Greeks. It is
observable among Greeks living in New York.
[180] Serbian authorities usually extend the zone of their
vernacular to points farther east. Cf. J. Cvijić: Die
ethnographische Abspreuzung der Völker auf der Balkan-halbinsel,
_Pet. Mitt._, Vol. 59, 1913, No. 1, pp. 113-118.
[181] Montenegro is peopled by descendants of Serbians who took
refuge in its mountains after the crushing defeat of Serbia by
Turkey on the battlefield of Kossovo in 1389.
[182] J. Erdeljanović: Broj Srba, i Khrvata, Belgrade, 1911.
[183] E. Haumant: La nationalité serbo-croate, _Ann. de Géogr._,
No. 127, Vol. 23, Jan. 15, 1914, pp. 45-59.
[184] N. Zupanić: Zumbercani i Marindolci, prilog antropologii i
etnografiji Srba u Kranjskoj Prosvetni Glasnik, Belgrade, 1912.
[185] E. Haumant: La nationalité serbo-croate, _Ann. de Géogr._,
No. 127, Vol. 23, Jan. 15, 1914, p. 48.
[186] A. Evans: The Adriatic Slavs and the Overland Route to
Constantinople, _Geogr. Journ._, Vol. 47, No. 4, April 1916, p. 251.
[187] G. Blondel: La Bosnie, _Bull. Soc. Norm. de Géogr._,
Jan.-March 1912, p. 18.
[188] C. Diehl: En Méditerranée, Paris, 1912.