From: malenovi@plains.NoDak.edu (Malenovic Nikola V.)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: The Settling of Vojvodina ( VREME NDA 15 Sep 1992 )
Date: 15 Sep 92 22:03:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: plains.20379
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computing Network


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                  No. 51, September 14, 1992
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    The Settling of Vojvodina
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                              MIGRATION WEARINESS


           It is possible that Vojvodina  is not tired of settling,
           but the  people living there  are probably tired  of the
               political force and favoritism which follows them

    The  office of  the Serbian  Commissioner for  Refugees came  up with  a
    secret  solution "for  the accommodation,  or rather  the allocation  of
    refugees in  certain areas, with  the aim of  achieving a more  even and
    rational  distribution   of  accommodation  and   care,"  causing  great
    agitation  in Vojvodina.  The Democratic  Union of  Vojvodina Hungarians
    (DZVM) protested  over the "settling"  of some 30,000  Serbs in northern
    Backa,  thus   bringing  to  mind  numerous   organized  or  spontaneous
    settlements in the area of the Danube, Sava, Drava and Morisa rivers.

    If we  take a look at  the times which have  left us numerous historical
    data and facts concerning events in Vojvodina, then it must be said that
    a greater ethnic confrontation between the Hungarians and the Serbs took
    place  during  the  16th  century,  when  before  and  after the Turkish
    invasions  northwards,  the  people  wandered  around  between  Buda and
    Belgrade. It  is only towards  the end of  the 17th century  that we can
    speak of settling; after the Turks had been pushed south following their
    defeat before Vienna in 1683, and after Habsburg Emperor Leopold I broke
    the  back of  the Hungarian  aristocracy which  renounced its  electoral
    rights at the Assembly in Pozun in 1687. Leopold I issued a proclamation
    on April 6, 1690 calling all  Christians and Albanians in the Balkans to
    rise  against  the  Turks,  underscoring  that  they  all came under his
    authority  according to  state (Hungarian)  law. Leopold  I also  sent a
    letter  to  Serbian  Patriarch  Arsenije  III  Carnojevic, promising his
    people  protection,  the  honoring  of  earlier  privileges,  freedom of
    religion, exemption from higher taxation and levies, the free possession
    of  property on  condition that  they "did  not leave  their fields  and
    homes." History has long since  marched over this Imperial proclamation,
    which  in a  way, legalized  the Great  Migration of  the Serbs from the
    south to  the north, and  the promise  of  a free choice  of the Voivoda
    (duke) led to the name of Vojvodina.

    It may sound a bit cynical,  but the first organized settlement of Serbs
    in southern Pannonia started with a  late call for an uprising, when the
    Austrian breakthrough to  the south had been stopped  and when Patriarch
    Arsenije  III had  already "fled"  to Belgrade  from the Patriarchate in
    Pec. This settlement was based on a document which apart from the choice
    of Voivoda, did not offer the  Serbs anything which they had not already
    enjoyed under the Turks.

    The  Emperor's first  protectionist diploma  and later  confirmations of
    privileges  to  the  Serbs  did  not  make  any  mention  of territorial
    autonomy. The Serbs asked for territory  in 1694 at the Assembly in Baie
    and  assessed that  it should  be the  land between  the Drava  and Sava
    rivers  known under  the name  of Lesser  Wallachia. Without  going into
    depth and detail regarding the position of Serbs in the Habsburg Empire,
    we  must  recall  the  Serbs'  demands  at  the  Assembly  in  Timisoara
    (Temisvar)  in  1790.  In  today's   language,  the  demands  asked  for
    territorial autonomy,  personal autonomy, a  ministry for minorities,  a
    representative  in  the  highest  body  of  authority and separate local
    bodies of  authority. This was all  very well, but even  then the Serbs'
    reliance  on  Imperial  benevolence  and  privileges  and  insistence on
    autonomy,  prevented them  from struggling  for civil  rights in Hungary
    (from  which the  excorporatia of  Banat was  demanded.) Demarcation has
    always been  difficult in Vojvodina, at  all levels, and never  it never
    came cheaply.

    The question always cropped up as to  who had been there first, and with
    what  rights.  Today,  as  for   centuries,  the  division  between  the
    indigenous population and the newcomers in the province still exists. In
    the practical and not only the  philosophical sense of the word, all are
    settlers in Vojvodina. The Serbs are not the only settlers in Vojvodina.
    The  direct descendants  of Hungarians,  Ruthenians, Romanians, Slovaks,
    Germans and  Romanies are all  settlers. In short,  all the citizens  of
    present-day Vojvodina.

    Parallel to the  settling of Serbs, the Viennese  Court was carrying out
    the organized settling of Germans in  Vojvodina. It is easy to say today
    that the  idea had been to  drive a German wedge  between the Hungarians
    and  Turks (some  say between  the Serbs  in Banat  and those in Backa.)
    There were other political and  especially economic reasons, and this is
    borne out by the fact that even the French and Spanish settled here. The
    indigenous Serbs  and Romanians fled  from these newcomers  because they
    were obliged to  help them in building their hearths.  In 1723 the Court
    Chamber  in Vienna  ordered the  "Zupans" (Prefects)  of the neighboring
    districts  to   prevent  the  fleeing   of  "nationalists"  (Serbs   and
    Romanians.) When the Serbs and  Romanians cited their right to emigrate,
    haiduk guards  (nationalhaiducken) were placed along  the border to stop
    them. German principalities recruited adventurers and other riffraff for
    settlement, transporting  them by rafts  down the Danube.  They were not
    welcomed in Banat. There is a  well-known case when the boatmen unloaded
    a convoy  in  Perlez  claiming  they   had  arrived  in  Timisoara.  The
    combination of non-arable land and an unhealthy climate resulted in many
    dying of hunger, malaria and other  illnesses. Craftsmen have left it on
    record  that the  puderfabrikanten  (wig-makers;  peasants wore  wigs in
    those days) fared worst. Maria Theresa's successor Emperor Joseph II was
    obsessed with the  Physiocrats. During his 1784 visit  to Vojvodina, the
    Emperor  did not  allow the  Serbs to  leave their  fields in  favour of
    German settlers because they, as the indigenous inhabitants, were better
    farmers.  Every Serbian  household was   worth three  times more  than a
    German one, Emperor Joseph II used  to say. Later, the opposite case was
    true. When 400,000  Germans were banished from Vojvodina  in 1945, those
    who  moved  into  their   houses  found  prosperous  and  well-organized
    households (at the beginning of the  18th century the Court decreed that
    every settler's house must have a  covered lavatory at the bottom of the
    yard.)

    Joseph II loved  farming and in 1781 issued an  Edict on Tolerance which
    opened  the doors  for settling  in Vojvodina  to Catholics, Reformists,
    Protestants, Calvinists, Nazarenes, Evangelists,  Uniates etc. The Edict
    on Tolerance was necessary because  when French and German settlers came
    to  live  side  by  side  in  Banat,  in  the  villages of Saint Hubert,
    Charleville and Soltour,  Latin was adopted as the  official language in
    order to avoid bickering over language.

    After  the  catastrophe  at  Mohac  in  1526, the Hungarians practically
    disappeared from the  area of present-day Vojvodina. There  are very few
    of them in Banat, as the Emperor  did not allow them to settle there. At
    the beginning of the 18th  century Hungarian land-owners gradually began
    to settle the area, and Hungarian settlers arrived in Senta in 1745. The
    settling  was aimed  at returning  the Hungarian  national character  to
    northern Backa. The  Hungarians and Germans were incompatible  to such a
    degree  that  they  refused  to  cooperate  in  defending the village of
    Karavukov from  floods in 1772.  The Hungarians moved  to Bogojevo where
    they lived in harmony with the Serbs.

    At the  end of this  informal history of  settling in Vojvodina  (one in
    which every historian will find much to object to), let us return to the
    "settling"  announced  by  the  office  of  the Serbian Commissioner for
    Refugees. It  is possible that Vojvodina  is not tired of  settling, but
    the people  living there are probably  tired of the political  force and
    favoritism  which follows  them.  An  antagonism between  the indigenous
    inhabitants  and the  newcomers has   always existed  here. In  the 18th
    century a newcomer wine-grower had the right to sell wine from Archangel
    Michael's  Day  until  Christmas  (a  quarter  of  the  year), while the
    indigenous settler  did not. The  same holds true  today -- a  so-called
    autonomist cannot be a bank  manager, editor-in-chief or God forbid, the
    director of the local television station.
                                                            Dimitrije Boarov


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                  No. 51, September 14, 1992
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