Austria-Hungary

The name Illyria is a very ancient one, going back to centuries B.C., when the lands bordering the Adriatic on the eastern side were thus known. The boundaries of this state are uncertain and indeterminate, and varied greatly from time to time. Strabo, the ancient historian, mentions the country, saying that the coast-line was fertile and well supplied with harbours but that the people were barbarous and warlike. They are also described as tattooing their bodies and offering human sacrifices to their deities, but in a year given at various dates B.C. Illyria was made a Roman province and even became one of the four chief divisions of the Empire. The fine qualities of the men made the country a good recruiting-ground for the Roman army, and many of the Illyrians rose to the purple, Claudius, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian, and Maximian all being among the number. With the fall of the Empire the province lost its hold and was ravaged by the Goths. Then the Slavs and Huns began to occupy the northern land and push further and further south, and as the small Slavonic states became consolidated, they fell off from the central authority.

Shakespeare, who had a taste for placing his scenes in this part of the world, lays here the action in Twelfth Night. In 1809 Buonaparte revived the ancient name, and included in it many of the more northern states such as Carinthia, Carniola, Istria, and Croatia. As a matter of fact this was a statesmanlike plan, as most of these peoples were Slav, and the fact of being united under the ancient name roused enthusiasm among them. There was a newspaper established called The Illyrian Telegraph. The poet Vodnik wrote an ode called “Risen Illyria,” part of which is given in the translation of Louis Leger’s History of Austria-Hungary:

Even when in 1816 these provinces were restored to Austria she retained the name of Illyria for some time, but it was dropped in 1849.

The two provinces, districts, countries—call them what you will—of Croatia-Slavonia fall within the bounds of Hungary, and the rest here described within the empire of Austria. It is since the rearrangement of 1867 that the first-named Dual province has been incorporated with Hungary, and it cannot, under the present constitution, deal directly with the monarch, but only approach him through the Hungarian minister. It shares, as do all the little countries of the Dual Monarchy, in the common army, the post-office, and the financial dealings of the whole, yet it has a measure of independence, for it is governed internally by its own Ban, which odd name signifies its head man, who would be called President elsewhere. The Ban is nominated by the Hungarian Prime Minister, though appointed by the monarch, and Croatia-Slavonia sends deputies to the Hungarian House, and has also its own Diet with ninety members for the transaction of provincial matters.

The state claims to be the oldest complete one included in the Dual Monarchy, and dates its independent history back to 924, when Tomislav welded the country together under his own leadership, and became king. Since that date the Croatians have shared kings with Hungary more than once, and the present system of a monarch in common is not at all novel; but, whereas the Croatians look upon the situation as embracing two equal nations joined by the tie of a common monarch, the Hungarians are apt to regard Croatia-Slavonia as a province under Hungary. It is obvious that both parties will constantly find grievances to discuss when their views are so diametrically opposite.

At any rate Croatian is the official tongue, and it resembles Servian more than Hungarian. Public instruction, legislation, and the commands in the territorial army are carried out in this tongue, and the national spirit can thereby find outlet. But it is a sore point that taxes are imposed by the Hungarian parliament, even though forty Croatian representatives go to the Lower and three to the Upper house of Hungary. A certain proportion of the money collected in taxes is handed back for local purposes, and this amount is constantly being revised.

The country, which occupies such an invidious position politically, lies between the two rivers Drave and Save, and it falls naturally into two parts—the plain between these rivers, and the mountainous country stretching along by the Adriatic. It might be imagined that the plain would be rich and the most valuable part of the land, but on the contrary it is the mountains which bring in the revenue, for they are thickly covered with trees, such as the pine and beech and chestnut, and the narrow valleys between are astonishingly fertile. In these forests herds of swine are fed, and in the valleys and the plain there is a good deal of mixed agriculture. The people are not idle, and the breeding of cattle and horses is one of their principal occupations. A very large number of the inhabitants are continually migrating to America, but the land holds them nevertheless and calls them back, when they have made money, often by the hardest toil in the mines; they nearly always return to spend their little fortune in their native land, which remains in their minds as the ideal of all that is beautiful and desirable.

We have so far spoken of the joint provinces as a whole, but in reality it is Slavonia that occupies the rather featureless interior plains and Croatia that includes the rich and varied scenery along the coast, where the mountains are probably as rich in minerals as those of Transylvania, were they properly worked. The Croatians have not shown themselves amenable to industrial work, they have hardly as yet got beyond the first stage in the history of a nation, when agriculture or the supply of man’s natural needs from the soil is the prime work. In Southern Croatia the climate is often beautiful, and warm enough for the growth of the vine as well as lemons and oranges, but the winds sweep sorely over the northern plains and the temperature thus varies in extremes.

The capital of the country is Agram, and the only port that Hungary boasts, namely Fiume, lies in Croatia, though it is not of it, for the port was presented to the Hungarians by Maria Teresa, and has ever since enjoyed autonomy. When it is realised that this is Hungary’s only outlet to the sea, its importance may be realised, even though it has in many ways been overshadowed by the Austrian port of Trieste.

Fiume has 40,000 inhabitants of a curiously mixed blend; the majority, between 17,000 and 18,000, are Italians; there are only about 3000 Hungarians and between 7000 and 8000 Croatians, while Illyrians, Germans and Wends form the surplus. The town is governed by a royal Hungarian governor, and is described as corpus separatum of Hungary. It possesses picturesque, narrow, and irregular streets in the old part and a fine new quarter also. There are relics of Roman occupation, especially well seen in a triumphal arch dating from Roman days; and it has also a cathedral dating from 1377. Millions have been spent on the harbour, which has a breakwater about 4000 feet in length. The chief factories and works in the town are the Whitehead torpedo factory, paper-mills, paraffin-refining works, and shipbuilding yards.

Beyond the bridge over the Fiumara, on Croatian territory, adjoining Fiume, is the Croatian town of Susak, well-built and pleasant. In the mountain heights above, through which the train has wound down to the coast there are many tunnels and vast precipices. The terrible wind called the Bora, which rages around here at times, is so violent that trains have had to be protected by the building of a high stone wall along the side of the line. Before this was done they were sometimes actually caught up by the whirling force of the wind, swept from the lines and dashed into the depths below the embankment on which they traversed the mountain side.

The western slopes of the tableland, which here drops to the sea, are called the Karst, and differ from the pleasant wooded heights inland already described. The Karst is in three terraces, formed of gigantic blocks of stone heaped on each other in irregular masses, and it is only in the crevices and deep hollows that any sort of vegetation, and then only scraggy and stunted bushes, will grow. Forests used to extend over these heights, but their exposure to the full force of the terrible Bora, and their wanton destruction by man during the Venetian occupation, has stripped the rocks bare, and they stand ugly and ragged, vast and lonely, as a rampart to the ocean.

To the south of Croatia-Slavonia lies another composite country, namely Bosnia-Herzegovina, which by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 was henceforward to be administered by Austria, a cession bitterly resented by Servia and Montenegro, as it drove a wedge between them. They knew well that once the Austrian foot was there in military occupation never again would it be withdrawn, and the future proved them right, for in 1908, when the Turk was in no position to protest, the whole control passed into the power of Austria, and the composite country became as much a part of the Dual Monarchy as those further north. Both countries which compose it are mountainous, many of the peaks rising to 6000 feet, and for the most part covered with forest. Lying so far south crops can here be raised which would not be attempted elsewhere. Those boxes or bottles of prunes, which so delighted our youth, come in large quantities from Bosnia, and are simply dried plums, though the flavour is so different from the fresh article. The vine, olive, fig, and pomegranate flourish in Herzegovina, but the chief product is tobacco. Mr. Geoffrey Drage says:

The names of Bosnia-Herzegovina are translated by some as “the land of salt” and “the land of stones,” but in regard to Bosnia “the land of coal” would be more appropriate, for it is said that the whole country is one vast coal-field, and if ever the time comes that our present supplies have run out and we have not yet learned to substitute petroleum, it is probable that here will be found the supplement. There is plenty of pasture-land in the country, and cattle, sheep, and goats are raised in large numbers, but the drawback to it all is that there is no coast-line or seaport, and therefore produce is turned inland for want of ready access by the coast, where the way is barred by Dalmatia. When the Austrians annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina one of the reasons they gave for doing so was that Dalmatia had no hinterland, that it stood in the air so to speak, a thin strip without support, but the reason seems somewhat frail; if it had been the other way and the Austrians had owned Bosnia-Herzegovina and sought an outlet to the sea-coast, as many another restless nation is now seeking to do, their object could have been more sympathetically considered.

The costume of the Bosnians is peculiar and picturesque; the men wear the red Turkish fez and their nether garments are fashioned in many and complicated folds around the seat, ending in extremities as tight as putties. This garment is secured by a wide sash or cummerbund, and above it is a white shirt covered by a sleeveless waistcoat richly embroidered. A Bosnian gentleman in full dress is a very beauteous object.

Dalmatia is a long narrow strip, forming practically the only sea-board of Austria, and therein lies its value. The only Austrian seaport, Trieste, is at the northern end. The people show strongly their connection with the Italians, to whose country theirs was so long joined. It belonged to the Venetian republic for the greater part of its career, but in 1796, by the Treaty of Campo-Formio, fell into Austria’s hands. Dalmatian history is a long series of see-saws between the Slav and Italian power, the country falling sometimes under the dominion of the one and sometimes under that of the other. The Croatians consider that Dalmatia ought to be incorporated into their state, and as the population is of the same race as themselves, Serbo-Croatians being in an overwhelming majority, against about 3 per cent of Italians, there is something to be said for this view. Dalmatia, however, is part of the Austrian empire, and sends eleven members to the Reichsrath, while Croatia, as we have seen, is included in Hungary. Cattle-breeding, the growing of vines and olives, fishing and shipbuilding, chiefly occupy the inhabitants of this coast-land, and any one who visits Dalmatia cannot fail to be struck by the enormous number of goats kept by the peasantry.

By far the best-known town in Dalmatia is Spalato, famous by reason of the magnificent ruin of the palace of the Roman Emperor, Diocletian. This was built in 303 A.D., and a good deal of it is still standing. The little town is situated at the head of a bay backed up by a line of low hills, and the Emperor showed taste and judgment when he selected this site. His palace covered about eight acres of ground, and the south front facing the harbour was 521 feet in length. The palace was built in a quadrangular form, and each side faced one point of the compass. The building was more of a camp than what we are accustomed to associate with the word palace, and enclosed within its walls many buildings, divided by regular streets running from the four gates in the outer walls. Here the Emperor Diocletian retired in the full prime of life, for he was only fifty-nine, to cultivate his garden and live in peace. Few men nowadays can shake themselves free from the fetters of business, and many postpone the enviable day of freedom simply because they have run so long in harness, they fear to fall without it. Yet this vigorous man laid aside power and responsibility and grandeur with firm determination. His action was the more wonderful in that he was born of slave parents, and might therefore have been expected to cling more closely to the purple robe than those whose lives have always been lapped in it.

In the town, compressed into a space at one time sufficient only for the palace of one man, the houses are high and jammed together, the streets mere alleys, the buildings are entirely irregular and placed anyhow, the sunshine hardly penetrates the long narrow slits between. The city is now the See of a Bishop, and has an extensive trade in wine and oil. In its best days it was one of the most important ports on the Adriatic.

That Spalato has a strong rival in Ragusa, the capital, is shown by Mr. Geoffrey Drage’s remarks:

To this we add the delightful little word-picture in Mrs. Russell Barrington’s book, Through Greece and Dalmatia:

Ragusa is an ancient republic and stood independent of the rest of Dalmatia until united thereto by Napoleon in 1809. The history of Ragusa is exceedingly interesting. The rich seaport, established since the seventh century, was coveted by many of the nations around, and from time to time for safety’s sake the inhabitants had to submit nominally, at least, to one or another in order to preserve their real independence. In this way they came under the sway of Venice, they bowed subsequently to Hungary and even paid tribute to the Turks, but they managed nevertheless to keep their plums unfingered. In the fifteenth century 300 ships traded from the port, Ragusa boasted 40,000 inhabitants, and had agents and consuls at all known Mediterranean ports. But in 1667 a cruel earthquake tore the town to pieces, killing over 5000 people, and the town never completely recovered from the blow. After having been joined to Dalmatia it came into the possession of Austria. Even now, though containing but a few thousand inhabitants, it is known as a centre of Slav literature, and the reminiscences of the early days, when in the Middle Ages it was the seat of a school of Slav poetry which produced works still considered classics, hang around it. Ragusa has brought forth many famous sons including the mathematician, Bos Kovic.

Trieste occupies the proud position of being Austria’s only port, and supports the burden easily. Through a long and chequered history the city has generally managed to retain control of its own affairs, and the inhabitants look on themselves as a race apart. Standing on the debatable ground between Italy and Austria, ground so often drenched in blood, coveted as a jewel beyond price by the Venetians, Trieste is scarred with war. She carries the traffic, necessitated by her being the outlet for the empire, without difficulty, and holds her own in political affairs. As a writer in the Times (December 13, 1912) says:

Trieste is connected with Villach and Salzburg by rail, and this is one of the routes on which the Austrian government has agreed to place the Canadian observation cars. The steamers of the Austrian-Lloyd line sail from here, and it is the point of departure for India, China, and Japan. Quite recently the Canadian-Pacific Railway Company have put on a service of steamers to link up Austria with Canada, a fact of which numbers of emigrants are taking advantage. A voyage of four and a half hours lies between Trieste and Pola, the Austrian naval base. The principal government dockyard is at Pola, but at Trieste there are two building slips capable of receiving dreadnoughts.