The Throes Of Regeneration: Independent Serbia 1830-1903

During his rule of Serbia, which lasted virtually from 1817 till 1839,

Prince Milo[)s] did a very great deal for the welfare of his country. He

emancipated the Serbian Church from the trammels of the Greek Patriarchate

of Constantinople in 1831, from which date onwards it was ruled by a

Metropolitan of Serb nationality, resident at Belgrade. He encouraged the

trade of the country, a great deal of which he held in his own hands; he< r />
was in fact a sort of prototype of those modern Balkan business-kings of

whom King George of Greece and King Carol of Rumania were the most notable

examples. He raised an army and put it on a permanent footing, and

organized the construction of roads, schools, and churches. He was,

however, an autocratic ruler of the old school, and he had no inclination

to share the power for the attainment of which he had laboured so many

years and gone through so much. From his definite installation as

hereditary prince discontent at his arbitrary methods of government

amongst his ex-equals increased, and after several revolts he was forced

eventually to grant a constitution in 1835. This, however, remained a dead

letter, and things went on as before. Later in the same year he paid a

prolonged visit to his suzerain at Constantinople, and while he was there

the situation in Serbia became still more serious. After his return he

was, after several years of delay and of growing unpopularity, compelled

to agree to another constitution which was forced on him, paradoxically

enough, by the joint efforts of the Tsar and of the Sultan, who seemed to

take an unnatural pleasure in supporting the democratic Serbians against

their successful colleague in autocracy, who had done so much for his

turbulent subjects. Serbia even in those days was essentially and

uncompromisingly democratic, but even so Milo[)s] obstinately refused to

carry out the provisions of the constitution or in any way to submit to a

curtailment of his power, and in 1839 he left his ungrateful principality

and took refuge in Rumania, where he possessed an estate, abdicating in

favour of his elder son Milan. This Prince Milan, known as Obrenovi['c]

II, was seriously ill at the time of his accession, and died within a

month of it. He was succeeded by his younger brother Michael, known as

Obrenovi['c] III, who was then only sixteen years of age. This prince,

though young, had a good head on his shoulders, and eventually proved the

most gifted ruler modern Serbia has ever had. His first reign (1840-2),

however, did not open well. He inaugurated it by paying a state visit to

Constantinople, but the Sultan only recognized him as elective prince and

insisted on his having two advisers approved and appointed by the Porte.

Michael on his return showed his determination to have nothing to do with

them, but this led to a rebellion headed by one of them, Vu[)c]i['c], and,

though Michael's rule was not as arbitrary as his father's, he had to bow

to the popular will which supported Vu[)c]i['c] and cross the river to

Semlin. After a stormy interval, during which the Emperor Nicholas I tried

to intervene in favour of Michael, Alexander Karagjorgjevi['c], son of

Kara-George, was elected prince (1843). No sooner was this representative

of the rival dynasty installed, however, than rebellions in favour of

Michael occurred. These were thrown into the shade by the events of 1848,

In that memorable year of revolutions the Magyars rose against Austria and

the Serbs in southern Hungary rose against the Magyars. Prince Alexander

resolved to send military help to his oppressed countrymen north of the

Save and Danube, and, though the insurgents were unsuccessful, Prince

Alexander gained in popularity amongst the Serbs by the line of action he

had taken. During the Crimean War, on the other hand, Serbia remained

strictly neutral, to the annoyance of the Tsar; at the Congress of Paris

(1856) the exclusive protectorate of Russia was replaced by one of all the

powers, and Russian influence in the western Balkans was thereby weakened.

Prince Alexander's prudence, moreover, cost him his popularity, and in

1858 he in his turn had to bid farewell to his difficult countrymen.



In December of the same year the veteran Prince Milo['s] Obrenovi['c] I

was recalled to power as hereditary prince. His activities during his

second reign were directed against Turkish influence, which was still

strong, and he made efforts to have the Turkish populations removed from

the eight garrison towns, including Belgrade, where they still lived in

spite of the fact that their emigration had been stipulated for in 1830.

Unfortunately he did not live long enough to carry out his plans, for he

fell ill at Topchider, the summer palace near Belgrade, in the autumn of

1860, and died a few days afterwards. He was again succeeded by his son

Michael Obrenovi['c] III, who was already thirty-six years of age. This

able prince's second reign was brilliantly successful, and it was a

disaster for which his foolish countrymen had to pay dearly, when, by

their fault, it was prematurely cut short in 1868. His first act was with

the consent of a specially summoned skup[)s]tina to abolish the law by

which he could only appoint and remove his counsellers with the approval

of the Porte. Next he set about the organization and establishment of a

regular army of 30,000 men. In 1862 an anti-Turkish rebellion broke out

amongst the Serbs in Hercegovina (still, with Bosnia, a Turkish province),

and the Porte, accusing Prince Michael of complicity, made warlike

preparations against him.



Events, however, were precipitated in such a way that, without waiting for

the opening of hostilities, the Turkish general in command of the fortress

of Belgrade turned his guns on the city; this provoked the intervention of

the powers at Constantinople, and the entire civilian Turkish population

had to quit the country (in accordance with the stipulations of 1830),

only Turkish garrisons remaining in the fortresses of [)S]abac, Belgrade,

Smederevo, and Kladovo, along the northern river frontier, still

theoretically the boundary of the Sultan's dominions. After this success

Prince Michael continued his military preparations in order to obtain

final possession of the fortresses when a suitable occasion should arise.

This occurred in 1866, when Austria was engaged in the struggle with

Prussia, and the policy of Great Britain became less Turcophil than it had

hitherto been. On April 6, 1867, the four fortresses, which had been in

Serbian possession from 1804 to 1813, but had since then been garrisoned

by the Turks, were delivered over to Serbia and the last Turkish soldier

left Serbian soil without a shot having been fired. Though Serbia after

this was still a vassal state, being tributary to the Sultan, these

further steps on the road to complete independence were a great triumph,

especially for Prince Michael personally. But this very triumph actuated

his political opponents amongst his own countrymen, amongst whom were

undoubtedly adherents of the rival dynasty, to revenge, and blind to the

interests of their people they foolishly and most brutally murdered this

extremely capable and conscientious prince in the deer park near Topchider

on June 10, 1868. The opponents of the Obrenovi['c] dynasty were, however,

baulked in their plans, and a cousin of the late prince was elected to the

vacant and difficult position. This ruler, known as Milan Obrenovi['c] IV,

who was only fourteen years of age at the time of his accession (1868),

was of a very different character from his predecessor. The first thing

that happened during his minority was the substitution of the constitution

of 1838 by another one which was meant to give the prince and the national

assembly much more power, but which, eventually, made the ministers

supreme.



The prince came of age in 1872 when he was eighteen, and he soon showed

that the potential pleasures to be derived from his position were far more

attractive to him than the fulfilment of its obvious duties. He found much

to occupy him in Vienna and Paris and but little in Belgrade. At the same

time the Serb people had lost, largely by its own faults, much of the

respect and sympathy which it had acquired in Europe during Prince

Michael's reign. In 1875 a formidable anti-Turkish insurrection (the last

of many) broke out amongst the Serbs of Bosnia and Hercegovina, and all

the efforts of the Turks to quell it were unavailing. In June 1876 Prince

Milan was forced by the pressure of public opinion to declare war on

Turkey in support of the 'unredeemed' Serbs of Bosnia, and Serbia was

joined by Montenegro. The country was, however, not materially prepared

for war, the expected sympathetic risings in other parts of Turkey either

did not take place or failed, and the Turks turned their whole army on to

Serbia, with the result that in October the Serbs had to appeal to the

Tsar for help and an armistice was arranged, which lasted till February

1877. During the winter a conference was held in Constantinople to devise

means for alleviating the lot of the Christians in Turkey, and a peace was

arranged between Turkey and Serbia whereby the status quo ante was

restored. But after the conference the heart of Turkey was again hardened

and the stipulations in favour of the Christians were not carried out.



In 1877 Russia declared war on Turkey (cf. chap. 10), and in the autumn of

the same year Serbia joined in. This time the armies of Prince Milan were

more successful, and conquered and occupied the whole of southern Serbia

including the towns and districts of Nish, Pirot, Vranja, and Leskovac,

Montenegro, which had not been included in the peace of the previous

winter, but had been fighting desperately and continuously against the

Turks ever since it had begun actively to help the Serb rebels of

Hercegovina in 1875, had a series of successes, as a result of which it

obtained possession of the important localities of Nik['s]i['c],

Podgorica, Budua, Antivari, and Dulcigno, the last three on the shore of

the Adriatic. By the Treaty of San Stefano the future interests of both

Serbia and Montenegro were jeopardised by the creation of a Great

Bulgaria, but that would not have mattered if in return they had been

given control of the purely Serb provinces of Bosnia and Hercegovina,

which ethnically they can claim just as legitimately as Bulgaria claims

most of Macedonia. The Treaty of San Stefano was, however, soon replaced

by that of Berlin. By its terms both Serbia and Montenegro achieved

complete independence and the former ceased to be a tributary state of

Turkey. The Serbs were given the districts of southern Serbia which they

had occupied, and which are all ethnically Serb except Pirot, the

population of which is a sort of cross between Serb and Bulgar. The Serbs

also undertook to build a railway through their country to the Turkish and

Bulgarian frontiers. Montenegro was nearly doubled in size, receiving the

districts of Nik['s]i['c], Podgorica, and others; certain places in the

interior the Turks and Albanians absolutely refused to surrender, and to

compensate for these Montenegro was given a strip of coast with the

townlets of Antivari and Dulcigno. The memory of Gladstone, who specially

espoused Montenegro's cause in this matter, is held in the greatest

reverence in the brave little mountain country, but unfortunately the

ports themselves are economically absolutely useless. Budua, higher up the

Dalmatian coast, which would have been of some use, was handed over to

Austria, to which country, already possessed of Cattaro and all the rest

of Dalmatia, it was quite superfluous. Greatest tragedy of all for the

future of the Serb race, the administration of Bosnia and Hercegovina was

handed over 'temporarily' to Austria-Hungary, and Austrian garrisons were

quartered throughout those two provinces, which they were able to occupy

only after the most bitter armed opposition on the part of the

inhabitants, and also in the Turkish sandjak or province of Novi-Pazar,

the ancient Raska and cradle of the Serb state; this strip of mountainous

territory under Turkish administrative and Austrian military control was

thus converted into a fortified wedge which effectually kept the two

independent Serb states of Serbia and Montenegro apart. After all these

events the Serbs had to set to work to put their enlarged house in order.

But the building of railways and schools and the organization of the

services cost a lot of money, and as public economy is not a Serbian

virtue the debt grew rapidly. In 1882 Serbia proclaimed itself a kingdom

and was duly recognized by the other nations. But King Milan did not learn

to manage the affairs of his country any better as time went on. He was

too weak to stand alone, and having freed himself from Turkey he threw

himself into the arms of Austria, with which country he concluded a secret

military convention. In 1885, when Bulgaria and 'Eastern Rumelia'

successfully coalesced and Bulgaria thereby received a considerable

increase of territory and power, the Serbs, prompted by jealousy, began to

grow restless, and King Milan, at the instigation of Austria, foolishly

declared war on Prince Alexander of Battenberg. This speedily ended in the

disastrous battle of Slivnitsa (cf. chap. II); Austria had to intervene to

save its victim, and Serbia got nothing for its trouble but a large

increase of debt and a considerable decrease of military reputation. In

addition to all this King Milan was unfortunate in his conjugal relations;

his wife, the beautiful Queen Natalie, was a Russian, and as he himself

had Austrian sympathies, they could scarcely be expected to agree on

politics. But the strife between them extended from the sphere of

international to that of personal sympathies and antipathies. King Milan

was promiscuous in affairs of the heart and Queen Natalie was jealous.

Scenes of domestic discord were frequent and violent, and the effect of

this atmosphere on the character of their only child Alexander, who was

born in 1876, was naturally bad.



The king, who had for some years been very popular with, his subjects with

all his failings, lost his hold on the country after the unfortunate war

of 1885, and the partisans of the rival dynasty began to be hopeful once

more. In 1888 King Milan gave Serbia a very much more liberal

constitution, by which the ministers were for the first time made really

responsible to the skup[)s]tina or national assembly, replacing that of

1869, and the following year, worried by his political and domestic

failures, discredited and unpopular both at home and abroad, he resigned

in favour of his son Alexander, then aged thirteen. This boy, who had been

brought up in what may be called a permanent storm-centre, both domestic

and political, was placed under a regency, which included M. Risti['c],

with a radical ministry under M. Pa[)s]i['c], an extremely able and

patriotic statesman of pro-Russian sympathies, who ever since he first

became prominent in 1877 had been growing in power and influence. But

trouble did not cease with the abdication of King Milan. He and his wife

played Box and Cox at Belgrade for the next four years, quarrelling and

being reconciled, intriguing and fighting round the throne and person of

their son. At last both parents agreed to leave the country and give the

unfortunate youth a chance. King Milan settled in Vienna, Queen Natalie in

Biarritz. In 1893 King Alexander suddenly declared himself of age and

arrested all his ministers and regents one evening while they were dining

with him. The next year he abrogated the constitution of 1888, under which

party warfare in the Serbian parliament had been bitter and uninterrupted,

obstructing any real progress, and restored that of 1869. Ever since 1889

(the date of the accession of the German Emperor) Berlin had taken more

interest in Serbian affairs, and it has been alleged that it was William

II who, through the wife of the Rumanian minister at his court, who was

sister of Queen Natalie, influenced King Alexander in his abrupt and

ill-judged decisions. It was certainly German policy to weaken and

discredit Serbia and to further Austrian influence at Belgrade at the

expense of that of Russia. King Milan returned for a time to Belgrade in

1897, and the reaction, favourable to Austria, which had begun in 1894,

increased during his presence and under the ministry of Dr. Vladan

Gjorgjevi['c], which lasted from 1897 till 1900. This state of repression

caused unrest throughout the country. All its energies were absorbed in

fruitless political party strife, and no material or moral progress was

possible. King Alexander, distracted, solitary, and helpless in the midst

of this unending welter of political intrigue, committed an extremely

imprudent act in the summer of 1900. Having gone for much-needed

relaxation to see his mother at Biarritz, he fell violently in love with

her lady in waiting, Madame Draga Ma[)s]in, the divorced wife of a Serbian

officer. Her somewhat equivocal past was in King Alexander's eyes quite

eclipsed by her great beauty and her wit, which had not been impaired by

conjugal infelicity. Although she was thirty-two, and he only twenty-four,

he determined to marry her, and the desperate opposition of his parents,

his army, his ministers, and his people, based principally on the fact

that the woman was known to be incapable of child-birth, only precipitated

the accomplishment of his intention. This unfortunate and headstrong

action on the part of the young king, who, though deficient in tact and

intuition, had plenty of energy and was by no means stupid, might have

been forgiven him by his people if, as was at first thought possible, it

had restored internal peace and prosperity in the country and thereby

enabled it to prepare itself to take a part in the solution oL those

foreign questions which vitally affected Serb interests and were already

looming on the horizon. But it did not. In 1901 King Alexander granted

another constitution and for a time attempted to work with a coalition

ministry; but this failed, and a term of reaction with pro-Austrian

tendencies, which were favoured by the king and queen, set in. This

reaction, combined with the growing disorganization of the finances and

the general sense of the discredit and failure which the follies of its

rulers had during the last thirty years brought on the country; completely

undermined the position of the dynasty and made a catastrophe inevitable.

This occurred, as is well known, on June 10, 1903, when, as the result of

a military conspiracy, King Alexander, the last of the Obrenovi['c]

dynasty, his wife, and her male relatives were murdered. This crime was

purely political, and it is absurd to gloss it over or to explain it

merely as the result of the family feud between the two dynasties. That

came to an end in 1868, when the murder of Kara-George in 1817 by the

agency of Milo[)s] Obrenovi['c] was avenged by the lunatic assassination

of the brilliant Prince Michael Obrenovi['c] III. It is no exaggeration to

say that, from the point of view of the Serbian patriot, the only

salvation of his country in 1903 lay in getting rid of the Obrenovi['c]

dynasty, which had become pro-Austrian, had no longer the great gifts

possessed by its earlier members, and undoubtedly by its vagaries hindered

the progress of Serbia both in internal and external politics. The

assassination was unfortunately carried out with unnecessary cruelty, and

it is this fact that made such a bad impression and for so long militated

against Serbia in western Europe; but it must be remembered that

civilization in the Balkans, where political murder, far from being a

product of the five hundred years of Turkish dominion, has always been

endemic, is not on the same level in many respects as it is in the rest of

Europe. Life is one of the commodities which are still cheap in backward

countries.



Although King Alexander and his wife can in no sense be said to have

deserved the awful fate that befell them, it is equally true that had any

other course been adopted, such as deposition and exile, the wire-pulling

and intriguing from outside, which had already done the country so much

harm, would have become infinitely worse. Even so, it was long before

things in any sense settled down. As for the alleged complicity of the

rival dynasty in the crime, it is well established that that did not

exist. It was no secret to anybody interested in Serbian affairs that

something catastrophic was about to happen, and when the tragedy occurred

it was natural to appeal to the alternative native dynasty to step into

the breach. But the head of that dynasty was in no way responsible for the

plot, still less for the manner in which it was carried out, and it was

only after much natural hesitation and in the face of his strong

disinclination that Prince Peter Karagjorgjevi['c] was induced to accept

the by no means enviable, easy, or profitable task of guiding Serbia's

destiny. The Serbian throne in 1903 was a source neither of glory nor of

riches, and it was notoriously no sinecure.



After the tragedy, the democratic constitution of 1888 was first of all

restored, and then Prince Peter Karagjorgjevi['c], grandson of

Kara-George, the leader of the first Serbian insurrection of 1804-13, who

was at that time fifty-nine years of age, was unanimously elected king. He

had married in 1883 a daughter of Prince Nicholas of Montenegro and sister

of the future Queen of Italy, but she had been dead already some years at

the time of his accession, leaving him with a family of two sons and a

daughter.