Serbia

Serbia Under Turkish Rule.

Serbia, like Bulgaria, felt the full weight of Turkish rule, for they were the direct road of strate gic advance westwards. The Serbian aristocracy was wiped out— save in Bosnia, where it accepted Islam to save its lands and thus became a-national in feeling : the peasantry was bled mercilessly by the haratch (bloodtax), their children thus supplying the Turk ish army with recruits and becoming the instrument of their own subjection. Only the Church kept the national spirit alive. In 1557 the grand Vizier Mohammed Sokolovie, a native of Herze govina, revived the Patriarchate of Pee (Ipek) in favour of his brother Makarij : and this See avoided the Hellenizing influences which submerged the Bulgarian sister Patriarchate of Ohrid. Native literature almost ceased to exist, though fragments of cul ture survived in the monasteries. During the 16th century Serb was still the lingua franca of the Peninsula, spoken by the local Begs and Pashas and freely used in correspondence between the Porte and Ragusa or John Zapolya of Hungary : this explains the attempt of the Slovenes, Primus Truber and Baron Ungnad, to win over to Protestantism the Balkan Slays, and even the Turks, by issuing from Urach and Tiibingen Slav books in Latin, Cyrillic and Glagolitic type. Under Turkish rule the Serbs were increas ingly agricultural, Balkan trade being mainly in the hands of Vlachs and Ragusans. The mining industry was abandoned, and Sarajevo, Mostar and Novipazar grew in importance. Ragusan efforts declined rapidly after the earthquake of 1667: while colo nies of exiled Sephardim Jews from Spain became prominent trading factors. In the 17th century there grew up a class of broken men, known as Hajduks, round whom popular legend and poetry centred : the most notable examples were in Montenegro (q.v.) and among the Uskoks (q.v.), of Dalmatia.

In the long war waged by the Habsburgs to recover Hungary, Croat and Serb soldiers played a great part in the Imperialist armies. It seemed as though Leopold I. might emancipate at least the western half of the Balkan Peninsula. In 1690 he issued a proclamation to the Christian population, urging them to rise against their oppressors and promising his protection : and on the strength of this the Patriarch, Arsen Crnojevie, with 36,000 Serbian families, migrated to Hungary. Two charters assured their recognition as a nation, freedom of religion and the right to elect their patriarch and voivode. These privileges were not observed, Arsen's successors were not allowed to call themselves Patriarchs, and the office of voivode remained unfilled. But the tide of Serb emigration continued; in the 18th century the Serbs formed flourishing centres at Karlovci (Karlowitz), Novi Sad (Neusatz), Kikinda etc. ; and in the repeopling of the Banat and Baaa under Charles VI. and Maria Theresa they played a part only second to the Germans.

The Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) restored all Hungary save the Banat to Habsburg rule : after Eugene's victories the Treaty of Poiarevac (Passarowitz, 1718) not merely won back the Banat, but converted Belgrade and the northern portion of Serbia (known as the Sumadija) into an Austrian province. During the next 20 years the hopes of the whole race turned towards Vienna, and such culture as the Serbs possessed centered in the towns of southern Hungary and the Military Frontiers. But the constant diversions of western policy and the exhaustion following the long wars prevented the Habsburgs from extending their con quests farther southwards: and when in 1737 they renewed hostilities with Turkey, they suffered reverses and by the Treaty of Belgrade (1739) restored to the Porte all territory south of the Danube and Save. This, following upon the abortive rising

in 1735 (due to non-fulfilment of the Leopoldine charter), increased the disillusionment of the Serbs, who henceforth turned their eyes increasingly towards Russia ; numerous Serb colonies were founded north of Odessa by the Empress Elizabeth. In the Turkish war of 1769-74 Catherine the Great issued a manifesto to the subject Christian populations, while Austria remained inactive: and the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainardji (1774) formally recognised Russia's claim to champion Orthodox and Slav in terests. In 1787, when Russia and Austria again made joint cause against Turkey, the Serbs formed irregular bands in the latter's service, and Loudon's capture of Belgrade was the chief exploit of the war. When foreign complications forced Leopold II. to conclude peace and restore Belgrade (1792), the Serbs again saw their hopes dashed : but a new spirit was stirring, and the Turkish commissioner who saw one of the fortresses evacuated by a well armed and drilled detachment of native Serbs, exclaimed in just alarm to the Austrians, "Neighbours, what have you made of our rayah?" Serbia's War of Independence.—During the next decade the rapid decay of the central Turkish authority placed outlying provinces at the mercy of insubordinate and rapacious soldiers : in Serbia there was a sharp conflict between the Pasha of Bel grade, Hadji Mustafa, and the Janissaries quartered throughout the country. These latter allied themselves with Pasvan Oglu, the Pasha of Vidin, who successfully defied two sieges by regular Turkish armies (1796-98) and on his reconciliation with the Porte induced it to support the Janissaries against Mustafa, whose mildness had earned him the name of "Mother of the Serbs." Finally the four "Dahis," or military chiefs, murdered Mustafa in Dec. 1801, subjected Serbia to their lawless rule, and when the Serbs protested to Constantinople, organized a massacre of many of their foremost leaders (Feb. 1804). Fortu nately a notable substitute was found in Karageorge (q.v.), who led an insurrection against the Dahis and decisively defeated the Pasha of Bosnia at Migar in Aug. 1805, storming the citadel of Belgrade in the following December. Though at first the in surgents professed loyalty to the Sultan, the breach became irreparable when in March 1807 Suleiman Pasha and his 200 Janissaries, after having duly evacuated the fortress, were treacherously murdered on their way to the frontier. This was followed by the complete ejection of the Turks from the whole Pashalik of Belgrade. Karageorge, combining in a primitive manner the functions of commander-in-chief and chief of state, summoned the first Skupgtina or assembly of notables, created a Senate on western models and laid the rudiments of administra tion and education. Finding his overtures to Vienna (through Archduke Charles and the Aulic War Council) rejected, he turned to Russia, and in July 1807 negotiated a convention with Rodofinikin, the first Russian agent in Belgrade. The young state gallantly cooperated with Russia in her war with the Porte, and the Treaty of Bucharest (1812) included clauses which are the first international recognition of Serbia, secured to her a limited autonomy and to Russia a permanent right of interference on her behalf. On the other hand, its reinstatement of Turkish garrisons in Belgrade and other fortresses was a bitter disappoint ment to the Serbs, who had hoped for complete independence.