The Illyrian Movement

[croatchessmaster]

Croatian national revival. A revival performed by a group of young Croatian intellectuals during the first half of 19th century, around the years of 1835–1849.

This movement aimed to create a Croatian national establishment in Austria-Hungary through linguistic and ethnic unity among South Slavs.



The Illyrian name was revived officially during the Napoleonic Wars, when the French gave the name Illyrian Provinces to the Adriatic possessions acquired from the Austrian Empire in 1809. After 1813, when the territories were again included into the Austrian Empire, the Austrians kept the denomination and formed the Kingdom of Illyria.

Drawing its name from a Roman region in the Balkans and the Illyrian Provinces of 1809 - 13, the Illyrian Movement derived from a political party founded in 1841 which argued for the unification of all the ‘South Slavs’. The Illyrian’s believed these people shared a political, cultural and ethnic heritage which would form a working state in an area divided largely between the Ottoman, Austrian and Italian empires. The Illyrian Movement was created by intellectuals, and gave an intellectual justification for uniting Serbs with other South Slavs, so while there was an emphasis on escaping the neighbouring empires, in practice they were most concerned with forming a unified language and culture. The work of the movement is one reason why Serb and Croat are such similar languages.

The Illyrian movement is often related to Yugoslavism. Nationalism or patriotism centred upon the Yugoslav ("South Slav") peoples within the Yugoslav populated territories of Southeastern Europe.

Fojnicki grbovnik

Symbol of the Illyrian Movement.



The only South Slav territories not represented in the arms are Montenegro and Slovenia. The divisions are labelled with letters as follows: (A) Macedonia, (B) Slavonia, (C) Bosnia (the star-and-crescent of "Illyria" is present in an inescutcheon in the Bosnian coat of arms), (E) Dalmatia, (F) Serbia, (G) Croatia, (H) Rascia, (I) "Primordia", with an added imperial double-headed eagle (labelled J).

Ljudevit Gaj, a key figure of the Illyrian movement declared Croats and Serbs to be the two major subgroups of the South Slav or "Illyrian" nationality, which also included Slovenes, and South Slavic inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Montenegro.



During the Revolutions of 1848, the Illyrian movement became a strong political force in the Hapsburg Austrian Empire, and advocated cooperation between Croats and Serbs to oppose Hungarian rule of its South Slavic populated territories.

[croatchessmaster]

The most important focus of the new Illyrians was the establishment of a standard language as a counter-weight to Hungarian, and the promotion of Croatian written literature and official culture. Ljudevit Gaj was instrumental in providing the foundation for the flourishing of the Croatian literature.

The movement's plea for unity among the Slavs, particularly South Slavs, also found supporters among prominent Serbs of the time, most notably Vuk Stefanovi¿ Karadþi¿, the reformer of Serbian language. Ljudevit Gaj had, in fact, appealed to Serbia (along with Dalmatia and Russia) for moral and financial support given their ethnic and cultural connections.

In 1850, a small group of Illyrian and Serbian representatives signed the "Vienna agreement" which in effect proclaimed the southern Shtokavian dialect to be the standard, common language of Serbs and Croats, with Serbian Cyrillic and Croatian Latin alphabet as equal letters. The agreement was the basis of standardizing the Serbo-Croatian language.

A few Notables;

Petar Preradovic; (March 19, 1818 - August 18, 1872). Serb poet.



Like many from the area, he chose to become a professional soldier. He was educated at the military academy at Wiener Neustadt where he converted to Catholicism and later excelled as one of the best students. There he began to write his first poems in German.

Petar Preradovic in Zagreb



Preradoviã wrote poetry under the strong influence of national romanticism, while his poems often show Panslavist ideas. Due to family tragedy, he took interest in spiritism and wrote some articles about the subject.

Ivan Maþuraniã; (11 August 1814 – 4 August 1890), Croatian poet.



His realistic assessment of strengths and weaknesses of Croatia's position between the hammer of Austrian bureaucracy and the anvil of Hungarian expansionist nationalism served his country invaluably in times of political turmoil. Maþuraniã is best remembered for the "triple accomplishment"—contributions in economics, linguistics, and poetry.

Stanko Vraz (born Jakob Frass); (June 30, 1810 - May 20, 1851)

Croatian-Slovenian poet. He Slavicized his name to Stanko Vraz in 1836.



In 1842 he and two of his other contributors founded Kolo, one of Croatia's first literary magazines. The magazine, as well as his works, were influenced by national romanticism.

Dimitrija Demeter ; (21 July 1811 – 24 June 1872)

Croatian writer, born in a merchant family of Greek origin.



He studied philosophy in Graz and medicine in Vienna and Padua. During his studies he practiced his literary work and after his return to Croatia he joined the Illyrian movement. He mostly used historical subjects to express his patriotic aspirations and to speak out about the current social situation in society.

One of his most known works includes early romanic poem Grobnik field (near Rijeka) written in 1842 for the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Grobnik field where according to legend Croats defeated the invading Tatars. This works shows it was written by an extremely talented writer, although it was only his literary debut.

Josif Runjanian ; (December 8, 1821–February 2, 1878)

a Serb composer from Austrian Empire, most notably known for composing the melody of the Croatian national anthem and of the Serbian patriotic song "Rado Srbin ide u vojnike" (Gladly will the Serb enlist in the Army). He was lieutenant-colonel in the Austro-Hungarian Army.



The family moved to Bijeljina in Bosnia in 1718 when Austria took over Serbia and Northern Bosnia.

Most of the family's members fled once again, during the Second Great Migration of Serbs in 1739 when Serbia and Northern Bosnia returned to Ottoman rule and found refuge in the area of Osijek in the Austrian Empire controlled Slavonia.

During his lifetime he was recognized for having composed three major songs which are popular to this day:

-Music for the Croatian national anthem Lijepa naša domovino (Our beautiful homeland).

-Rado Srbin ide u vojnike (Gladly will the Serb enlist in the Army)

-Ljubimo te naša diko (Hrvati svome banu)[1][2] - Song composed in honour of Josip Jelačić.

Monument to the Croatian anthem

[croatchessmaster]

In 1840, the Illyrian movement suffered an internal setback when Stanko Vraz, Joakim Rakovac and Ljudevit Vukotinoviæ split off from the movement due to creative differences in poetry. In 1842 they started publishing their own literary newspaper named Kolo.

More importantly, the movement was not well received by Hungarians and pro-Hungarian nobility for obvious reasons, the southern Slavs were to become too powerful for any great-empire to handle. In 1843, the use of the Illyrian name was banned.

Political disputes in the Croatian Sabor were so fierce they caused unrest on Zagreb streets. On July 29, 1845, violent clashes erupted at St. Marko's square, the casualties of which were to become known as the "July victims". Notwithstanding these events, Hungarian officials were unable to crush the movement.

Speaking in front of the Sabor on 23 October 1847, Ivan Kukuljeviæ Sakcinski advocated Croatian as the official language instead of Latin and the deputies subsequently voted unanimously in favor of said proposition.

Leaflet praising the Sabor of the Triune Kingdom for elevating the "people's language" to the "honor of diplomacy".

[croatchessmaster]

The movement formed the basis for a common Serbo-Croatian language, and it fostered support in Croatia for the later creation of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918. However, in its ultimate goals of creating an Illyrian state, the movement failed. This failure of the idea to achieve Serbian-Croatian unity was apparent with the occurrence of the bloody Yugoslav wars. Furthermore, increasing Croatian nationalism back-fired on pan-Slavic ideals because a Croatian identity being a farily-new Southern Slavic identity, and superseded the "Illyrian" hopes.

This segregation by the time Croats was influenced by the Austro-hungarians and western Empires.

[uz]

not to mention the Vatican.

[Croatian Vanguard]

Feb 11, 2012 19:16:38 GMT -5 @croatchessmaster said:

The movement formed the basis for a common Serbo-Croatian language, and it fostered support in Croatia for the later creation of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918. However, in its ultimate goals of creating an Illyrian state, the movement failed. This failure of the idea to achieve Serbian-Croatian unity was apparent with the occurrence of the bloody Yugoslav wars. Furthermore, increasing Croatian nationalism back-fired on pan-Slavic ideals because a Croatian identity being a farily-new Southern Slavic identity, and superseded the "Illyrian" hopes.

This segregation by the time Croats was influenced by the Austro-hungarians and western Empires.

Don't get too confused here. Many mistake the Illyrian movement for being a 'Yugoslav' movement. In other words , people think that the Illyrian intellectuals wanted to create a state that resembled the Yugoslavia that actually was created later. Nothing is farther from the truth.

Few key points. The Illyrian movement was , at its root, a Croatian nationalist movement however it was not exclusive like other Croatian nationalist movements and sought to gain the support of non-Croat Slavs living in the Triune Kingdom that made up Croatia and in Bosnia.

There was no actual intention to include Serbia into this union though a few Croatian and Serbian intellectuals flirted with the idea but ultimately it could not gather enough support from either the Serbian or Croatian people.

The Illyrian movement wanted to actually remain within the AH Empire but wanted the south Slav areas , under Croatian leadership, to become an equal third partner in the Dual Monarchy.

When Serbia broke away from the Ottoman Empire it immediately set its sights on Bosnia as an access point to the Adriatic Sea. Russia also wanted a pocket ally with access to the Adriatic and Serbia was its conduit. The problem was , and Serb historians know this - much to their dismay , that the path from Serbia to the Adriatic was filled with non-Serbs and Belgrade needed a 'way in.' They picked up on the naive Croat intellectuals who were courting the Orthodox Slavs in Croatia promising to use the Serbian military with Russian backing as a tool to create a real south Slav state.

In otherwords , Serbia was not part of the Illyrian plan even though Serbs in Croatia/Bosnia were. The Illyrian movement was an INCLUSIVE Croatian movement. Serbian nationalists and intellectuals used the Illyrian/Yugoslav propaganda as a backdoor to press Greater Serbia interests in Croatia/Bosnia.

All this is backed up by the attitude of Serbian rulers towards non Serbs in the first Yugoslavia when Serbia basically got exactly what it wanted.

[terroreign]

[croatchessmaster]

To Prisojanin

Read the first sentence in this thread. Judging by your post you only read my last post. Who is talking about Yugoslavism? Who said that the movement was not to stay within the the Austrian empire? The Illyrian movement had nothing to do with greater Serbia. Greater Serbia was older and I wouldn't be surprised if the Illyrian movement came from it. The same idea was painted differently.

[croatchessmaster]

Feb 14, 2012 15:23:09 GMT -5 @terroreign said:

Stjepan Radic and Basaricek were spreading lies and fear for their own personal benefit.

[croatchessmaster]

1. The Illyrian Movememt: A gold 6-point star (morning star or star of Zionism) over a crescent on a blue shield - thought of as an ancient Illyrian symbol and possibly the most ancient flag used by Croatians.

2. State of Dubrovnik: This region was once a republic in southern Dalmatia, specifically from 1358-1808. Two red stripes on a dark blue colored shield represent its coat-of-arms.

3. Independent Dalmatia: Its shield is represented by three golden crowned leopards on a light blue background.

4. Istria: The peninsula on the northwestern end of Croatia, which has heavy Italian influence. Its crest is a golden goat with red horns. Goat representing, sacrifice/ritual.

5. Slavonia: The furry creature in the middle is a marten (called "Kuna" in Croatian, which is also the name of the country's currency), with a 6-point gold star above it.

The Red and White checkers;



This pattern is the symbol of Croatian kings, dating back to the 10th century. A Croatian king who was once captured by Venetians was introduced the game of chess while in prison. Being the leader of the Croatian people The Venetians converged this King amongst them, to do their bidding within the region for them, in return a forever symbolic seal will represent the time when the Croatia nation/state subdued to the elitists while always being at their will.

The red and white checkerboard pattern was first seen representing Croatia in 1491, and was officially used in 1527 when Ferdinand of Habsburgh was declared king.