Serbia

Moreover, the withdrawal of Russian forces in the south owing to Napoleon's Moscow campaign encouraged the Porte to attempt the reconquest of Serbia in the summer of 1813. By October all resistance was crushed, and Karageorge forced into flight. But the new Pasha, Suleiman Skopljak, revived many of the worst features of the old regime, defied the Treaty and in Dec.

1814 beheaded or impaled nearly 200 of the younger notables. On Palm Sunday 1815, then, Milog Obrenovie (q.v.), again raised the standard of revolt. By August Serbia was virtually free, and Milog by diplomatic tact and moderation secured his recognition by the Porte as "Supreme Chief" (Vrhovni Knez) of Serbia. He further reassured the Porte by arranging the secret assassination of Karageorge, who had returned from exile in the hope of heading a movement for full independence. Thus began the long feud between two rival dynasties.

Serbia as

Autonomous State.—In 1817 Milog secured from the Skupgtina the recognition of his hereditary right, but this status was confirmed by the Sultan only in 1830, after the Conven tion of Akkerman (1826) and the Treaty of Adrianople (1829) had provided for Serbian autonomy on fuller lines than those laid down at Bucharest in 1812. The hatti sherif of 1830 still further defined that autonomy and in 1833 Milos was able to occupy the Six Districts till then in dispute with the Turks. Turkish garrisons were retained in Belgrade, Sabac, Smederevo, tTiice and two other places, and Turkish residents were henceforth restricted to these towns. In home affairs Milog developed highly autocratic tenden cies, opposed representative institutions and used his position to enrich himself. In 1835, however, a serious conspiracy forced him to summon a Skupkina, and though the new constitution which it voted never came into force owing to the hostility of the Porte and the Powers, another was promulgated by hatti sherif of the Sultan in 1838, instituting a Council of State or Senate and a Cabinet of four ministers. These years witnessed the curious spectacle of the two autocracies, Russia and Turkey, working to restrict the Prince's autocratic powers, while the Western Liberal Powers, Britain and France, favoured their extension. Fortunately the efforts of Palmerston's agents, Colonel Hodges and Lord Ponsonby, were unsuccessful. In 1839 Milog was forced to abdicate and withdraw, and government was carried on by the so-called "Defenders of the Constitution" (Ustavo branitelji), led by Vue"i6 and PetronijeviC, first in the name of Milog's eldest son Milan, and on his death a month later, of the second son Michael (q.v.). In 1842 Michael also was abandoned by the army and popular feeling and driven into exile. The Skupkina, instead of electing Thomas Vue'i6 as he himself had hoped, now summoned to the throne Alexander, son of Ka ra george, a man of mediocre ability and weak will. The hostility of

Tsar Nicholas delayed recognition for many months, but in June 1843 a newly elected Skupkina unanimously confirmed the election of Prince Alexander.

Alexander Karageorgevie.

The new reign was a period of growth and transition, in which a civil code was promulgated (1844), the judicial system completed (1846), a state printing press set up, the National Museum and Serbian Scientific Society founded. Primary and secondary education was encouraged, and an increasing number of young Serbs began to visit French and German universities. The publication of Vuk Karadiies version of the New Testament (1847) was a landmark in literary prog ress : and his great services in collecting popular tales, ballads and proverbs and issuing the first scientific Serbian grammar and dictionary were crowned by his philological reforms and a new phonetic Serbian orthography, which, following parallel lines with Gaj's revision of Croat orthography, made Serbo-Croat literary unity a reality and thus laid the basis for political unity.

In foreign policy Alexander leaned towards Austria. The racial war in Hungary which followed the revolution of 1848 (see HUNGARY and CROATIA-SLAVONIA) caused great excitement in Serbia, numerous volunteers flocking across the river to help their Serb kinsmen against the Magyars—notably the Senator Stephen KnRanin. There were close confidential relations be tween Alexander, the Patriarch Raja6C and Meyerhofer, the Austrian Consul-General, who afterwards became governor of the autonomous Vojvodina established by Austria The Prince's chief minister Garaganin, an enthusiast for Western culture, but also infected by the Slavophil ideas current in Prague, travelled to the Court of Napoleon III. to appeal for French help, but Tsar Nicholas regarded him as a pupil of Kossuth and Mazzini and forced his dismissal upon the reluctant Prince. In the Crimean War Serbia found it difficult to choose between her suzerain and her protector, and maintained an uneasy armed neutrality which at least prevented an Austrian occupation. The Treaty of Paris (1856) brought Serbia one stage nearer to independence : she was now placed under a special guarantee of the signatory Powers, and was assured full autonomy in administration, legislation, religion and trade. The Turkish gar risons remained, but armed interference in Serbian affairs was henceforth forbidden, save by consent of the Powers (§ 21). Thus a quite illogical situation arose, in which the sovereign rights of the Porte were restricted by the Powers, who substituted a virtual protectorate of their own for that of Russia.