Slovenia during the time of Balkan wars 1

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1 Slovenia during the time of Balkan wars 1 Slovenia used to be a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The majority of the population lived within the Austrian part of the monarchy, and a minor part (in Prekmurje the region along the river Mura) and in Porabje (a region in the present Hungary) belonged to the Hungarian part of the monarchy. The people of those two regions lived separately from the majority of the Slovenian population (they were separated by the river Mura and there were hardly any traffic connections). They spoke their own dialect and possessed their own culture. The population of the Austrian part lived in the regions with strong historical tradition. The country identity was very strong; people had different habits and spoke different dialects, although a standard literary language was being formed from the mid- 19 th century on. The strong literary and cultural tradition dates back to the 16 th century, when the Slovenians got their first published book and soon afterwards the translation of the Bible. The majority of the population was literate and the instruction in primary school was carried out in Slovenian language, whereas secondary and higher schools were mostly German. The Austrian authorities did not allow a foundation of a Slovene university. Apart from the Slovenians living in the Hungarian part of the monarchy who presented a large and strong protestant community, most Slovenians were of Catholic religion. There were only very few Jews since most of them had been driven out of the Slovenian territory in the previous centuries. Slovenian science and art had been following the contemporary European tendencies of the time. Numerous Slovenians asserted themselves in science; they worked as university teachers in diverse Austrian universities. During the nineties of the 19 th century, political parties emerged in the Slovenian territory. They took part in the elections and delegated their representatives to the Austrian Parliament (Austria introduced a general right to vote for men in 1907). Three political camps gradually came forward within the Slovenian territory: the catholic, the liberal and the social-democratic. Since 1908, the political parties mostly advocated for trialism, as regards the regulation of the national question (at that time Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina which led to a substantial increase of the Slav population within the monarchy). Austria- Hungary was thus to be divided into three parts: the Austrian (German), the Hungarian and the South-Slav. Other Slav nations (the Czechs, the Slovaks, the Poles were in favour of setting up or restoring, respectively, their own states; however, this solution would have not allowed the Slovenes to establish a connection with them, since the Austrian Germans were situated in between). Only a minor group of revolutionary students called Preporodovci (after the magazine Preporod) and very few individuals (among them however, the best known Slovenian author Ivan Cankar) supported the idea of uniting Slovenia with other South Slav nations and establishing a separate state outside Austro- Hungary. The knowledge about other South-Slav nations was scarce and strongly idealised. There were Slovenians living within a 50 million population of Austro- Hungary at that time. Due to low death-rate, which was a result of modernised agriculture, improved nutrition and better hygienic conditions, but also of prevailing Catholic mentality, which demanded from couples to have as many children as God was willing to give them, the birth rate was very high, but on the other hand there was a strong emigration from Slovenian regions to other European countries, to the United States of America and also North Africa. There were very good traffic (railway) connections: the most important Austrian railway line Vienna Trieste actually crossed Slovenian territory. Trieste (which fell to Italy after World War I) was the most important seaport. It had inhabitants, 1 Slovenia during the time of Balkan wars. V: The Balkan Wars. Workbook 3. Teaching Modern Southeast European History. Alternative Educational Materials. Theassaloniki: Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe, 2005, p

2 among them Slovenians. Ljubljana, which is now the capital of Slovenia, had inhabitants, Maribor, the second biggest city ; other Slovenian towns were smaller and hardly exceeded the population of In terms of the economic development, Slovenian regions lagged behind some more developed parts of the monarchy (the most developed one was Bohemia); however, at that time industrialisation was in progress in Slovenia too. Steam energy was replaced by electricity; bigger Slovenian cities possessed electric light. The most important branches of industry included metallurgy, coal-mining and woodworking industry, secondary industry was in progress too (leather and textile, breweries, oil mills, tinned meat factories, the production of straw hats). In addition there were a number of crafts and - due to favourable geographic position - also commerce. Agriculture was triturated, weak and fragmented; on the one hand there were some big estates (mostly owned by the Church or by big companies), on the other numerous small farms with less than 5 hectares of land. Over 60% of the people were still peasants. The majority of the capital was in foreign hands (mostly Austrian and German respectively); the proportion between the foreign and the Slovenian capital was approximately 10: 1. Slovenian press, above all the two leading dailies Slovenec and Jutro, reported about the Balkan wars in detail. Strong sympathy for South-Slav nations was evident. The war was presented as the war of the suppressed nations against Turkish supremacy (dating from the times of Turkish raids, the image of the Turks was still extremely negative in Slovenia), as a cultural and religious (Christianity against Islam) war, and also as a war for the union of South-Slav nations. Though the policy of Slovenian political parties was not directed towards finding perspectives for the solution of the Slovenian national question outside the borders of Austro-Hungary, they shared the belief that the liberation of South-Slav nations would strengthen the position of the Slav nations within the Austria-Hungary monarchy. The media and the general public were thus disappointed, when the second Balkan war broke out. It was perceived as a fratricidal war and the responsibility for it was to a large extend attributed to Serbia (for which there were rather negative feelings because of its disputes with Austria-Hungary and also because of the official propaganda), whereas there seemed to be more sympathy for Bulgaria. After both wars, a lot of articles appeared about the newly established geopolitical situation on the Balkans. As early as in 1914, a book with the title War on the Balkans 1912/13 was published, which brought an in-depth analysis of the nations involved in the war, the causes and consequences of the war. Before the War 2 - Reasons for War Serbia will to the sea On its west, Serbia borders to Bosnia and Herzegovina: on this territory the population is strictly Serbian. Serbia s southwestern border is with Turkey, where a lot of Serbs live too. This territory has been in a state of unrest up to the present. As you probably all remember, The Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, which closed the natural access of Serbia to the seacoast, almost led to a war between Serbia and the monarchy. The war could be prevented but Serbia for any case - immediately started with thorough preparations; and as the present state of its army shows, it is excellently prepared in all respects. Why then did Serbia start the war anyway? Serbia is the most densely populated country in the Balkans with the densest railway network. However, the more intensive the 2 Vojska na Balkanu, (War on the Balkans), edit by Anton Sušnik in dr. Vinko Šarabon, royal professors in Ljubljana, Katoliška bukvarna v Ljubljani, 1914, p

3 economic development of the country in recent years became, the more it felt how handicapped it was because it did not have a direct access to the sea. Six or seven years ago, all the exports of Serb cattle and agricultural products went to the north, to Austria- Hungary and from there to other countries. But the customs conflicts between our country (Austria-Hungary) and Serbia forced the latter to direct its exports towards the south (Thessalonica). However, due to the recurring uproars in Turkey, the commerce was constantly threatened. Every Serbian farmer has thus experienced that Serbia was an encircled country and Serbian nation a captured one. It is obvious that Serbia could not develop accordingly within such borders. Only if Serbia could get the Old Serbia from which there is the shortest access to the Adriatic coast along the river Drina valley, to the ports of Sv. Ivan, Lješ and Drač, it would have the necessary conditions for normal life and economic development Bulgaria will liberate the Macedonians Now, that their happier brothers in the Balkans went to the battle to free themselves from the terrible slavery, now the Macedonians have risen again too. They forgot the party disputes and brotherly embraced each other, when fighting for their home country. Some of them have joined the Bulgarian army as volunteers, others went to the mountains; they were both fighting for freedom for which they had craved for such a long time and for which so much blood had already been shed. They have risen to revenge themselves for the innumerable wrongs and atrocities, to avenge their fathers and mothers, their wives and children. Now they did not retreat to the mountains to hide from the Turks, they were allured by a bright glow, which announced the home country a new, free life. The big day now came for them about which our poet Simon Gregorčič wrote as early as in 1876: Balkans, the sad giant, For five hundred long years Fettered in the Turkish yoke, Counted to the dead and yet still alive! Balkans, the giant slave A Disgrace for Europe And deep sadness for their brothers, The martyr from the south: The day of your salvation has finally come! This is your great hour, And your tormentor will pay for its sins! A bloodshed dawn is coming into view, It must fall, it must! (free translation) Greece demands Crete The reason, which led the Greeks to join the Balkan states in the war against Turkey, was the island Crete..Since in 1669 Crete came under the Turkish authority, it has experienced a rapid decline. Due to the poor economic situation and high taxes there have been constant rebellions. A particularly serious one took place in 1866, which the Turks only just managed to suppress in At that time the European great powers supported the annexation of Crete to Greece, yet they withdrew their support after Turkey had promised reforms. In spite of that, 3

4 Greece and Crete never abandoned their plan; they made use of every opportunity to come forward with their demand, among other occasions also during the Russian-Turkish war. At that time (1878) Crete got its National Chamber, financial independence and a Greek governor. The Greeks did not support the 1889 uprising. In 1896 however, Crete drove away the Turks forever with the help of Greece. As already mentioned, this led to the war between Greece and Turkey. However, even this time Greece and Crete did not succeed to get united Greece obviously attacked because of Crete: this is particularly evident from the fact, that even before the war was announced on October 14, the Greek president Venizelos allowed the representatives of Crete to enter the Chamber of Athens and so practically annexed the island to Greece. Anyway, Greece had a number of other reasons for the attack. Like the Slavs, also the Greeks suffered under the Turkish rule. Particularly in Epirus, the Turks and the Albanians slaughtered each other constantly. There was no peace on the islands either; shortly before the war, a ruthless rebellion was raging on the island of Samos. Europe and Turkish promises 3 Who could wonder that under such circumstances the Balkan nations constantly sharpened their swords? If they hadn t done it, they would have died from starvation. Still, it is beyond belief that the civilised Europe calmly observed such terrible conditions and tolerated the injustice and atrocities, which were destroying the life of Balkan nations and impeded any development on the cultural and economic field. The Turks suppressed, murdered, robbed and burnt houses, they killed and tortured, and the Christian small fry suffered and cried from despair and pain, people were dying in streams of blood, when at the same time European diplomats were sitting peacefully in their offices, watching the butchering and even praising the God. Peace and split 4 On the 30 th May ambassadors in London signed provisional peace treaty. A Latin proverb says woe to the vanquished. With the Bucharest and Istanbul Peace, the Bulgarians, in fact not defeated at all, had to experience it to an extend not ever experienced before in the history. They sacrificed most ( casualties, wounded, 1000 million crowns only during the second war) but won least. They had to turn over km² of ancient Bulgarian territory northern of Varna to the Romanians. This was the most advanced area of the empire with the population of people, among them over one hundred millionaire farmers and over 2 milliard (billion) crowns of national property. And all this was lost for the Slav world! Many thanks to the Serbs! With superhuman efforts the Bulgarians managed to take away km² of the Turkish territory but then had to give away km² of it, together with famous places like Odrin (Adrainopolus), Lozengrad, Ljule-Burgas and others (in total people). What they had to give to Turks is the best part of Tracie. Again, they have to thank the Slav Serbs and Russians for it. If the Russians only said a word, the Turks would have never dared to push forward towards Adrianopolus. And what is the benefit for the Russians to support Turkey? A German general in Istanbul! So Bulgaria only gained km² of territory and 3 Vojska na Balkanu, (War on the Balkans), edit by Anton Sušnik in dr. Vinko Šarabon, royal professors in Ljubljana, Katoliška bukvarna v Ljubljani, 1914, p. 42. The book based on newspaper articles, books, brochures and other materials which were published in Slovenia, Austro Hungary and Germany before and during the Balkan Wars. 4 Vojska na Balkanu, (War on the Balkans), edit by Anton Sušnik in dr. Vinko Šarabon, royal professors in Ljubljana, Katoliška bukvarna v Ljubljani, 1914, p. 233 and

5 people. Along the Aegean Sea, its territory stretches itself from Dedegač (which belongs to Bulgaria too) to the mouth of the river Meste; the border then turns to the north and the west Kavala, Drama and Seres belong to Greece only to give the Bulgarians a charity gift of Strumica. Then the border turns back to the east and further to the north again so that it reaches the ancient/ old Bulgarian territory south of Džustendila. Ohrid, the Prespan lake and Bitol belong to Serbia and so does Dževdželi in the valley of the river Vardar; further to the south all the territory belongs to Greece. Before the war, Greece had a territory of km², whereas at the time we are writing this article (December 1913) it has km² without the islands. The question of islands still remains unsolved. Serbia covered an area of km² before the war and after it However, Serbia ceded a part of Sanžak, Novi Pazar and the towns of Peć and Djakovo with their outskirts to Montenegro so that its territory grew from km² to km². According to Istanbul peace, km² of territory remained for Turkey, whereas Romania grew from to km². Bulgaria made particular effort to get the port of Kavala with its fertile land around it where excellent tobacco is grown, yet it did not succeed although the population there is Bulgarian. The mountainous territories they could keep in Macedonia and Tracie were poor and thinly populated. Of course the tough Bulgarians will soon improve everything; even now they have established such order as cannot be found anywhere else in the newly conquered countries. Instead of Kavala, they got the bay of Lagos, which was no replacement for Kavala. A million of Bulgarians were thrown at mercy of Serbia ( ) and Greece ( )! If to the people living under the Greeks the seized by the Romanians and given to the Turks are added, we get a million of people who are mostly of Slav origin even now and who would certainly remain Slavs in the future. A million of Slavs lost on the territory, which plays today such a role in the history of the world! Bulgarian Schools have been closed in Macedonia! Even the Turks were not like the Serbs and the Greeks are! They want to destroy everything that reminds of Bulgaria and even pursue the Bulgarian church. Since around 1895 on, huge sums of Bulgarian money have flown to Macedonia, thousands of Bulgarians shed their blood for liberation of their fellow countrymen. Bulgaria was the only support for Macedonians, and now? The Macedonians are now in a worse situation than they were under the Turks. When we started to write the history of this war, we couldn t even imagine, that things would come this far. The only hope for Bulgarians is Austria. Russia is striving to renew the Balkan union, yet so far without success. 5

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