SERVIA 



327 



During the next three hundred ^ears the Turkish 

 rulers, supported by the ruthless janizaries, ground 

 down the unhappy people, and subjected them to 

 almost every Kind of injustice and barbarity : 

 many of the chief families were exterminated, 

 200,000 persons were carried off as slaves, and 

 in 1691 several thousands left their country for 

 good and settled in Hungary. The people who 

 remained liehind were little better than serfs, 

 and every seven years their boys were taken 

 from them to be brought up in the Moslem faith 

 and forced into the corps of the janizaries. The 

 victories of Prince Eugene brought about the 

 peace of Posharevatz ( 1718), by which Servia was 

 ceded to Austria ; but Austria had to restore it to 

 the sultan twenty-one years later. At length the 

 exasperated people, goaded to desperation, rose 

 in 1804 under the leadership of Kara George, a 

 stalwart and determined, though morose, swine- 

 owner, a rich man and a man of influence, who 

 by 1807 effectually drove the tyrannical janizaries 

 out of the country, and stormed and took posses- 

 sion of Belgrade and the other fortresses. The 

 struggle Ix-fore its conclusion had taken on the 

 character of a racial and religious war, Christian 

 Servian against Mohammedan Turk. In 1809 

 and 1810 the Turks made determined efforts to 

 recover their hold upon the country, and did over- 

 run the districts east of the Morava ; but with the 

 assistance of the Russians they were at length 

 l*aten off again. By the treaty of Bucharest, 

 which Russia made with Turkey, it was decreed 

 that the sultan's troops should regarrison the 

 fortresses, but that the Servians should govern 

 themselves in respect of all internal affairs. But 

 the Turks refused to observe these terms, and in 

 1813 assailed Servia on liotli sides with such vigour 

 that Kara George fled to Austria and the enemy 

 recovered the country. Turkish oppression again 

 provoked an uprising of the people in 1815 ; they 

 chose as their leader Milosh Ubrenovich, a herds- 

 man, who in a single campaign expelled the enemy, 

 except the garrisons in the fortresses. This man 

 was henceforth the leading spirit in the struggle of 

 the Servians for independence. In 1817 he caused 

 his rival Kara George, who had returned, to lie 

 assassinated, and was himself proclaimed chief 

 ruler of Servia. In 1829 the Ottoman government 

 at last formally agreed to the provisions of the 

 treaty of Bucharest, and in the following year 

 recognised Milosh as hereditary prince of Servia. 

 But his rule was arbitrary ami despotic, and in 

 1839 he was compelled to abdicate in favour of 

 his son Milan (died same year). Before he abdi- 

 cated the Turkish minister of Foreign Affairs and 

 the Russian ambassador at Constantinople had 

 drawn up a constitution, curtailing the power of 

 the prince and giving much authority to a senate 

 of the nobles. Milan's brother and successor, 

 Michael (1839-42), was driven out of the country 

 by a rival faction, who elected Alexander, son of 

 Kara George, as their prince. Alexander leaned 

 to Turkey and to Austria rather than to Russia, 

 whose czar regarded himself as the rightful ' Pro- 

 tector of Servia,' ami by this policy and his incapa- 

 city he lost the sympathy of his people and pro- 

 voked many enemies about him. In 1859 he was 

 compelled to alxlicate, his successor being the aged 

 exile, Milosh Obrenovich. 



On his death, less than two years later, the chief 

 power passed to his son Michael, who had been 

 expelled in 1842. Under his rule a new era be<jan 

 for harassed Servia ; the animosities of faction 

 were smoothed away, the supremacy of the law 

 was successfully vindicated and maintained, the 

 national spirit was encouraged and foreign inter- 

 ference minimised, the national militia was organ- 

 ised, armed, and trained, and the country began 



to move forward along the path of progress and 

 prosperity. In 1867 Michael procured the depar- 

 ture of the last Turkish garrisons from Servian 

 soil, namely those of Belgrade, Shabatz, and Sme- 

 derevo ; all the others had been withdrawn in 1862. 

 On 10th June 1868 Prince Michael was assassi- 

 nated in the park of Topshidere near Belgrade, 

 by partisans of the rival Kara George faction. 

 He was succeeded by Milan IV., a grandson of 

 Yephrem, brother of the heroic Milosh. The most 

 notable events during the reign of Milan (1868-89) 

 were the framing of a new constitution, which 

 placed all real power in the hands of the prince 

 and a freely elected national assembly of the 

 people ; a war against Turkey ( 1876), in which the 

 Servians were routed, and only escaped punish- 

 ment through the intervention of Russia ; partici- 

 pation in the Russo- Turkish war of 1877-78, 

 whereby Servia gained her complete independence, 

 and in addition the districts of Nisch, Pirot, and 

 Lescovatz ; the proclamation of the prince as king 

 Milan I. on 6th March 1882; war with Bulgaria 

 (1885), in which the Servians were defeated by 

 Prince Alexander (of Batten berg), ruler of Bulgaria, 

 at Slivnitza and at Pirot, and were again saved by 

 foreign intervention, this time that of Austria- 

 Hungary ; the quarrel between King Milan and 

 Queen Nathalie, a Russian, their divorce (1888), 

 and King Milan's abdication ( 1889) in favour of his 

 son Alexander (born 14th August 1876). 



See Ranke, Hittory of Servia (Eng. trans. Lond. 1853), 

 and Serbien vnd die Tiirtei im 19ten Jahrlmndert ( Leip. 

 1879); E. L. Mijatovios, History of Modern Serbia 

 (Lend. 1872); Rene-Taillandier, La Serbie an XIX' 

 Kiicle (1875); Kallay, Getchichle der Serbm (Pesth, 

 1877 ) ; and compare E. de Laveleye, Balkan Ptnintula 

 (Eng. trans. Lond. 1887), Denton, Servia and the Ser- 

 vian (Lond. 1862), and W. Miller, The Balkan! (1896). 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. The language 

 of the Servians I>elong8 to the southern division of 

 the Slav tongues, and has for its nearest congeners 

 Bulgarian, Slovenian, and Russian. Although 

 somewhat influenced by Turkish, it is the softest 

 tongue of all in the southern division, has a com- 

 plete grammar, and readily lends itself to poetic 

 composition. The dialect spoken by the Croats is 

 precisely the same as that spoken by the Servians ; 

 out whilst the latter use the Cyrillic (Russian) 

 alphal>et, the former employ the Latin. The 

 people of Montenegro and Bosnia speak Servian. 



The earliest productions in Servian date from the 

 12th century, and consist of monkish chronicles 

 and letters ; in the 13th and 14th centuries various 

 lives of the saints and kings, and annals, were 

 written by Stephen Nemanya, St Sava, Archbishop 

 Daniel, and others. But perhaps the most interest- 

 ing production of this period is the collection of 

 laws (Zakonik) made in 1349, when Stephen Du- 

 shan was king. Then came the battle of Kossovo 

 and the long period of Turkish oppression, and 

 during all that time there was no Servian litera- 

 ture except annals. But the language was not 

 wholly uncultivated. From the end of the 15th 

 down to the end of the 17th century a vigorous 

 school of writers in Servian, or Croato-Servian, 

 flourished at Ragusa (q.v.) on the Adriatic. It 

 was not, however, a purely national literature, but 

 was strongly influenced by Italian culture. The 

 literary productions of the Ragusa epoch were nearly 

 all in verse, chiefly lyrics (modelled after the Italian 

 love-poems), poetic dramas (sacred and profane), 

 epics, and eulogies. The greatest writers were Gun- 

 dalich ( 1588-1638 ), author of the epic Osman, which 

 celebrates the war of 1621 between Poland and 

 Turkey; Julius Palmotich (1606-57), a writer of 

 dramas, songs, and epics, most of these last 

 clever imitations of foreign models ; Maruliuh 

 (1450-1524 or 1528), author of the poetic History 



