The Balkans: Powder Keg
of Europe
by Oksana Drozdova, M.A.
Lecture IV
Ottoman defeat and the rise
of nationalism in the
Balkans
Serbia
Greece
Hungary
Romania
2
3 height of its power, 1683
The Ottoman Empire at the
Serbia
4
Serbian ‘national identity’ in the Ottoman
Empire.
First, under the millet system, Christian Orthodox Serbs were
clearly not Muslim Ottoman Turks, as evidenced by their
subservient status in matters of law, taxes and privileges.
The second pillar of the Serbian community was the Serbian
Orthodox Church. Services were held in Old Church Slavonic
and the church therefore preserved Serbian identity.
Third, Turkish policies preserved Serbian village life. The election
of village headmen (knezes) and advisory assemblies
(skupstinas) promoted the creation of Serbia's secular leaders.
5
Proximity to the Habsburg Empire brought a revival of trading
opportunities to Serbia.
The presence of the Habsburg state across the Danube also meant
exposure to new ideas: the Ottoman system reminded Serbs that they
were Christian, the Austrians reminded them that they were Slavic and
Orthodox.
During the Austro-Turkish war of 1788-91, some Serbs served as
soldiers and officers in the Habsburg armies. They learned about
military tactics, organization and weapons.
Serbs also found a model to admire in Russia, a Slavic and Orthodox
country which had recently modernized itself and was now a serious
menace to the Turks.
Other Serbian thinkers found strengths
in the Serbian community itself.
6
At the roots of Serbian national identity
Dimitrije "Dositej" Obradović (1739–1811)
7
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (1787–1864)
Seća Knezova and the 1804 rebellion.
Serbian leaders had no plan to overthrow the sultan’s rule. The
immediate cause of the armed Serbian uprising in 1804 was a
further deterioration of the Ottoman system.
In 1798, the sultan stripped Belgrade of all the military support
to protect Egypt against Napoleon invasion. Unruly janissaries
exploited this opportunity to promote their own rule of terror.
In February 1804 they sent out bands of killers who murdered
seventy prominent priests and village leaders.
Village headmen assembled an army that consisted of 30,000
armed peasants. A military stalemate
then ensued.
8
Djordje "Karađorđe" Petrovic (1768–1817)
9
Miloš Obrenović I, Prince of Serbia (1780–1860)
Serbian autonomy (1815)
Taxes were precisely defined and would be collected by Serb officials without
Turkish involvement.
All janissaries were excluded and the Turkish garrison or administrators
were confined to a few fortress towns.
Serbian merchants gained the right to travel freely and conduct business
anywhere in the Ottoman Empire.
There was an amnesty and the Serbs kept their arms.
A Serbian administration and a national skupstina or assembly were created.
Milos became supreme knez with authority to carry out the decrees of the
Turkish pasha.
10
11
Serbian Constitution
In 1835, Miloš Obrenović granted Serbia its first constitution.
However, it was crafted in a way to serve the pleasure of the ruling
prince.
In 1838, a new constitution that favoured the powerful notables was
presented.
Unable to cope with militaries mutinies and the restraints of the new
constitution, Miloš Obrenović abdicated in favour if his son Milan
and left the country.
After another abortive coup in 1842, Michael Obrenović also left
Serbia and the anti-Obrenović notables completed their triumph by
selecting Alexander Karađorđević,12 Karađorđe's son, as prince.
Greece
13
The Greek establishment in the Ottoman Empire.
During the Ottoman rule, the Greeks had several considerable
advantages relative to other Balkan Christians.
First, Greek Orthodox clergy controlled the Orthodox millet.
Second, Greek notables already exercised substantial local power on the
Greek mainland as they were permitted commercial contact with nonbelievers.
Third, Muslim Ottoman subjects were discouraged from learning
European languages, policy that made the Greeks indispensable agents of
sultan’s administration.
Such advantages slowed the Greek encounter with national identity
in the modern form.
14
Adamantios Korais (1748–1833)
15
Rigas Feraios (1757–1798)
The Revolution of 1821
The Greek revolution of 1821 began as a planned conspiracy, in
which only select elements of the Greek nation played a role.
Philike Hetairia (friendly society) was founded in 1814 as a
secret, anti-Turkish lodge.
Pre-existing class difference among the Greeks impeded the
revolution from the start.
The revolution was also slowed down by the intervention of
Britain, France and Russia who wanted to make sure that the
results of the war in Greece would not hurt their strategic
political and economic interests16in Turkey.
Kingdom of Greece 1832
To end Turkish stalling, the Russians invaded Turkey.
The sultan gave in when the Russian army almost
reached Istanbul in 1829.
Russia accepted British and French participation in the
peace settlement.
The London Protocol of 1830 created a small,
independent Greek kingdom ruled by Prince Otto of
Bavaria, a German prince acceptable to all three powers.
17
18
Otto of Bavaria, the first King
of modern Greece (1832–1862)
19
20
Georgios I, King of Greece (1863-1913)
Hungary
21
1848 in Western Europe
In France, the emerging prosperous, urban middle class demanded
liberal ideals.
In Germany, the same principles were at work, although the ideal of
nationalism had more importance in the absence of a united state.
While the revolutions in the Habsburg Monarchy were inspired by the
same ideals, there was no large middle class in these places to sustain
liberalism.
Ethnic nationalism became the paramount issue as Italians, Slavs and
Hungarians resisted the rule of the German-dominated Habsburg state.
Except in Italy, nationalism did not just imply unification: it involved
language laws and rules that favoured
one ethnic group over another.
22
István Széchenyi (1791–1860)
23
Lajos Kossuth (1802–1894)
The rise of Hungarian nationalism
In 1847, thanks to the revolutionary agitation, the Diet passed ten
sweeping «April Laws» that were based on the idea of nationalism,
political and civil rights.
These reforms were the culmination of a popular nationalist trend
embraced by ethnic Hungarians, but one that ignored or offended
the non-Magyar ethnic minorities.
The language laws discriminated against the Slovak, Romanian and
South Slav minorities in the northern, eastern and southern regions.
While Magyars pursued autonomy for themselves, they ignored the
same desires among these groups.
24
Croatia
Croatia constantly struggled to preserve its special rights
in the face of Hungarian claims.
There were frequent conflicts between Hungarian and
Croatian law: the Hungarian Diet claimed its primacy in
such cases, while Croatians claimed that the decisions of
the Sabor (local parliament) should prevail within Croatia.
Against this background, a modern Croatian national
revival began with a self-conscious Croatian national
movement developed by 1848.
25
Defeat of the 1848 revolution
The Hungarian "April Laws" ignored Croatian autonomy and in
August 1848 a Croatian army fought its way through Hungary to
Vienna.
Full scale war followed in 1849. The Croatian army backed Franz
Joseph, the new emperor who replaced weak and inadequate
emperor Ferdinand.
In April 1849, the Diet voted to depose the Habsburg dynasty. To
conquer Hungary, the Austrians had to ask for Russian help.
The two countries finally reached the compromise when the dual
state known as Austria-Hungary was created in 1867.
26
Romania
27
28
Social Structure
At the top of society were the princes, elected by the
local nobles from among their own ranks but confirmed
by the Ottomans. The princes had little real power.
Below the princes were the other boyars (nobles). Dues
and taxes paid by peasants went through their hands,
and would-be princes bribed them to win their votes.
At the bottom of the social pyramid were the peasants.
29
Sources of Nationalism
Greek priests occupied many church posts in Romania. They filled the
upper ranks of the clergy and the monasteries, but there were not enough
Greek-speaking priests to fill all the rural parishes.
The imposition of foreign Greek princes and the growth of Greek
merchants as commercial competitors also led the boyars to a sense of
their own shared ethnicity, moving beyond their prior sense of shared class
interest.
Friction with Magyars in Transylvania was a third source of nationalist
sentiment.
A fourth model was France. Russian officers spoke French and introduced
French culture during their occupation of the area, and some Romanian
students went to Paris.
30
1848 in Romania
Started in Jassy, the Moldavian capital, the revolution was
poorly planned and was quickly stamped out by the ruling
prince.
The revolution in Wallachia was more successful because it
was better planned. Faced with widespread unrest, the ruling
prince agreed to a new constitution before fleeing Bucharest.
In August 1848, Turkish and Russian forces marched into
Bucharest and put down the revolution. When the old regime
was restored, it was altered to reduce the power of the boyars.
31
32
Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1820–1873)
33
After the Revolution
Most of the Romanian leaders fled to Paris and now opted for a
much more limited goal: unification of the two principalities
under a foreign prince who would be free of Ottoman and
Russian influence.
The new Romanian strategy involved waiting for an opportunity
when Russia and Turkey were at odds.
The opportunity for Romanian independence came during the
Crimean War (1853-56). Russia lost and the Treaty of Paris
granted Romania important freedoms from Russian domination.
34
35
Carol I
Dominator of Romania (1866-1881)
King of Romania (1881–1914)