The first-fruits of the complete national regeneration were seen in
the great movement started in 1835 and known by the name of Illyrism.
Illyrism began with a small group of patriots and poets whose leaders
were Ljndevit Gaj and Count Janko Drašković. They founded newspapers
and periodicals, published patriotic books and poems, and roused the
national enthusiasm of the people to the highest pitch. In this mission
they successfully sought help and advice from other Slavs, especially
the Csechs and Serbs; they were also the first to come into touch with
Russia. Austria-Hungary tried sharply to repress this movement, and
for the first time found herself confronted by a united nation bent on
going its own way. The Illyrist movement cannot point to any positive
political results, but it laid a foundation for future political and
national activity and did an incalculable amount of pioneer work which
would have been most difficult to carry out under the conditions that
followed. In 1843 the name of Illyrism was prohibited by an Imperial
edict, and it was hoped by the Austrian authorities that this would
be the end of the patriotic movement. But their labour was lost. In
fact, under the spur of persecution the patriots passed from their
idealistic literary campaign to more tangible activities. By the
prohibition of the Illyrian name the motto of the poetic propaganda
was lost, and it became the duty of the patriots to lead their
politics into less sentimental paths, and enter upon a campaign of
cold reasoning in place of poetic sentiment. This was all the more
necessary as the national cause was greatly endangered by several new
regulations. Following closely upon the prohibition of the Illyrian
name came an order for the introduction of the Magyar tongue in the
Croatian law courts. When the Croatian counties protested in Vienna
that Croatia was privileged to choose her own official language, and
that no one had the right to interfere with this privilege, they met
with a brusque rebuff. Up to now the Government had hardly dared to
attempt the Magyarization of Croatia, but now they decided to enforce
it in spite of the newly-awakened national consciousness. The Croats
now realized that it was a case of war to the knife. The Hungarian
Government proclaimed that all countries and nationalities subjected
to the crown of St. Stephen must be made one people, one state, and be
taught to speak _one_ language—in short, they were to become Magyars.
They were determined to break the national resistance of the Serbs
and Croats by force, or preferably, by corruption. In this enterprise
Hungary found an able assistant in Ban Haller. A “Magyar party” was
organized in Croatia with a view to reconciling the people to Magyar
demands, but, unfortunately, it consisted chiefly of adventurers and
social riff-raff; the work of Magyarization made no progress, but only
further incensed the Southern Slavs. One of the consequences of this
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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