Hrvatska percepcija Balkanskih ratova
Croatian Perception of the Balkan Wars

Summary/Abstract: The most important role in shaping public opinion in the early 20th century had newspapers that mirrored political attitudes and commercial interests of different groups. From that time press publishers engaged correspondents in the field, what shed new light on war phenomena. Since the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, through the Balkan Wars and the World War I, one can follow the new reflection patterns on intenational politics and national question in Croatian areas within the Habsburg Monarchy. In general, political elite saw until the First Balkan war the key to national issues in federalization or trialistic reform of the Austro- Hungarian Empire. According to these views the creation of one fully autonomuous unit would be fulfilled requests of the Croats or other South-Slavic peoples under the Habsburg crown. The introduction of the commissariat in Croatia opened the door for the extreme changes of public scene. Some actors took into account the wider environment, approaching swiftly the idea of South Slav integralism upon the ruins of the Habsbug Monarchy. The Balkan wars were a milestone in an anti- Habsburg mood that spilled over particularly among the members of youth movements. Thereafter, the concept of Yugoslav integralism was operated through opinion that victorious Serbia must be Piedmont of the whole South Slavs region. In this way, general public during the Second Balkan war openly supported the Serbian side and strongly condemned the Bulgarians as breakers of Slavic solidarity. The evolution was also reflected in the movement of Croatian nationalists who encouraged the memory of uprisings (martyrdom of Eugen Kvaternik, for example) and some of them took part in the attempted assassinations of officials. In some ways the Balkans wars brought a new interpretation of traditional ideology by which the exlusive Croatian statehood ideology can be even incorporated into the Yugoslavism. The Balkan Wars’ results strengthen position of Serbia in the eyes of many Croats. This was the case with the prominent Croat artists who became euphoric and wrote pieces on fallen Kosovo heroes in the struggle against the Turks who born again in the Serbocentric Yugoslavism.

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