The Serbian Question in Croatian Politics, 1848-1918
The Serbian Question in Croatian Politics, 1848-1918

Summary/Abstract: The author analyzes the significance of the Serbian question and the status of the Serbian ethnic minority in Croatian politics from the revolution of 1848 to the fall of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918. The most distinguished Croatian political theorists and activists during this period – Bogoslav Šulek, Ivan Kukuljević, Josip J. Strossmayer, Franjo Rački, Mihovil Pavlinović, Ante Starčević, Eugen Kvaternik, Frano Supilo, Stjepan and Antun Radić and others – advocated different variants of a Croatocentric ideology within which the South Slav or Slavic framework was sometimes entirely rejected (in Starčević’s case), but more often accepted. Starčević and some of his followers denied the existence of the Serbian minority, believing that all South Slavs, except the Bulgarians, were Croats. However, the vast majority of Croatian politicians and national activists acknowledged the existence of the Serbs and the Serbian minority in Croatia. They adhered to the concept of the “Croatian political nation,” which encompassed all citizens of the Triune Kingdom (Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia) regardless of ethnic origin. Most Serbian politicians, accepting the identification of speakers of the Shtokavian dialect as Serbs, believed that the Serbs in the Triune Kingdom were a separate nation, which had to be bearer of statehood. Over the long term, they expected that considerable portions of the Triune Kingdom – Slavonia, the Military Frontier and Dalmatia – would become part of an enlarged Serbian state after the collapse of Austria-Hungary. Croatian-Serbian relations from 1848 to 1918 passed through periods of cooperation, particularly when confronted by pressure from the seats of government in Vienna and Budapest, but also conflict due to irreconcilable pretensions to the same territories.

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