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sandjak of Novi-Pazar, it was turned into a veritable Tibet, and a legend was spread abroad that if any
foreigner ventured there he would be surely murdered by Turkish brigands; meanwhile it was full of Viennese
ladies giving picnics and dances and tennis parties to the wasp-waisted officers of the Austrian garrison.
Bosnia and Hercegovina, on the other hand, became the model touring provinces of Austria-Hungary, and no
one can deny that their great natural beauties were made more enjoyable by the construction of railways,
roads, and hotels. At the same time this was not a work of pure philanthropy, and the emigration statistics are
a good indication of the joy with which the Bosnian peasants paid for an annual influx of admiring tourists. In
spite of all these disadvantages, however, the Serbo-Croat provinces of Austria-Hungary could not be
deprived of all the benefits of living within a large and prosperous customs union, while being made to pay for
all the expenses of the elaborate imperial administration and services; and the spread of education, even under
The Balkans - A History Of Bulgaria--Serbia--Greece--Rumania--Turkey 49
the Hapsburg régime, began to tell in time. Simultaneously with the agitation which emanated from Serbia
and was directed towards the advancement, by means of schools and religious and literary propaganda, of
Serbian influence in Bosnia and Hercegovina, a movement started in Dalmatia and Croatia for the closer
union of those two provinces. About 1906 the two movements found expression in the formation of the
Serbo-Croat or Croato-Serb coalition party, composed of those elements in Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia
which favoured closer union between the various groups of the Serb race scattered throughout those
provinces, as well as in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Hercegovina, and Turkey. Owing to the circumstances
already described, it was impossible for the representatives of the Serb race to voice their aspirations
unanimously in any one parliament, and the work of the coalition, except in the provincial diet at Agram,
consisted mostly of conducting press campaigns and spreading propaganda throughout those provinces. The
most important thing about the coalition was that it buried religious antagonism and put unity of race above
difference of belief. In this way it came into conflict with the ultramontane Croat party at Agram, which
wished to incorporate Bosnia, Hercegovina, and Dalmatia with Croatia and create a third purely Roman
Catholic Slav state in the empire, on a level with Austria and Hungary; also to a lesser extent with the
intransigent Serbs of Belgrade, who affected to ignore Croatia and Roman Catholicism, and only dreamed of
bringing Bosnia, Hercegovina, and as much of Dalmatia as they could under their own rule; and finally it had
to overcome the hostility of the Mohammedan Serbs of Bosnia, who disliked all Christians equally, could
only with the greatest difficulty be persuaded that they were really Serbs and not Turks, and honestly cared for
nothing but Islam and Turkish coffee, thus considerably facilitating the germanization of the two provinces.
The coalition was wisely inclined to postpone the programme of final political settlement, and aimed
immediately at the removal of the material and moral barriers placed between the Serbs of the various
provinces of Austria-Hungary, including Bosnia and Hercegovina. If they had been sure of adequate
guarantees they would probably have agreed to the inclusion of all Serbs and Croats within the monarchy,
because the constitution of all Serbs and Croats in an independent state (not necessarily a kingdom) without it
implied the then problematic contingencies of a European war and the disruption of Austria-Hungary.
Considering the manifold handicaps under which Serbia and its cause suffered, the considerable success
which its propaganda met with in Bosnia and Hercegovina and other parts of Austria-Hungary, from 1903 till
1908, is a proof, not only of the energy and earnestness of its promoters and of the vitality of the Serbian [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]