CHAPTER VI.

SERBIA.

I. Serbian Self-reliance—Characteristics of the Serb People—The Power of the Folk-song—Race Consciousness.

II. History of the Southern Slavs.

III. The Birth of a Nation—Prince Miloš—“The Great Sower”—Alexander Karagjorgjević—Michael Obrenović—King Milan—Fall of the Obrenović Dynasty—King Peter—The Restoration of Serbia’s Prestige.

IV. Serbia and Austria—A Campaign of Calumny—Annexation of Bosnia-Hercegovina—The Balkan Wars—Serbia rehabilitated—The Tragedy of Serajevo.

I.

The free and independent kingdom of Serbia is undoubtedly the most important of the Southern Slav States, although she has only three and a half million inhabitants, and is shut in on all sides by her six neighbours—Austria-Hungary, Roumania, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania and Montenegro. In 1817 she was freed from the Turkish yoke, and in less than 100 years she has developed into a sturdy, self-reliant state, efficient in an intellectual, economic and military sense in spite of constant upheavals at home and abroad. For all she is and has achieved Serbia is indebted only to herself, to the capabilities, valour and perseverance of her own children. Russia was her only foreign protector. The Serb is a straight-dealing, industrious man, and, like all the Southern Slavs, essentially poetic. Judged by the standard of modern _school_ education the average Serbian peasant is perhaps not so very far advanced, and usually limits his accomplishments to reading and writing; but he is keenly observant, and his natural gifts and mother-wit are so great as to warrant a very different forecast for his future than exponents of German “Kultur” have so far predicted. Like the Russian and the Croat, the Serb is above all things a farmer, who loves his bit of black earth, and cultivates it with care; and from this love of the soil spring his pleasures, his shrewd philosophy, his large charity towards man and beast, and, above all, his love of truth and justice. Shall not all the world be just, even as the earth is just when she bestows or withholds her gifts? From time immemorial the Serb has had a great feeling for family ties and the bond of the community. The love he bears his own homestead he extends to that of his neighbour, and then in a wider sense to his whole country. Where his love of country is concerned, political and economic considerations take a second place. The Serb loves his country as a bridegroom his bride—passionately, often unreasonably, but never with calculation. He desires his beloved land for himself—to keep it untouched by strangers. In spite of considerable business capacity he is not aggressive, and does not covet his neighbour’s possessions. But, should his neighbour dare to move his fence even one inch over the boundary, or purposely let his cattle stray into his meadow, then the Serb becomes fierce, wrathful and unforgiving. The Serbian farmer has no need to study history in order to learn where his neighbours have removed his landmarks. His history lives in his songs and ballads, and goes back a thousand years. These poems tell him everything. Every one of his beautiful folk-songs is a piece of history, a bit of the past; and they sink deeper into his heart than any historical education. The _dates_ of his power, past splendour and decline are meaningless to him; but the sad, deeply-moving legends in his folk-songs, telling of his triumphs and his tragedies, plaintively thrilling with love of country, and his tempestuous ballads of heroism and revenge—_these_ have fostered his sense of patriotism, his yearning for his downtrodden brothers, and his thirst for retribution. These folk-songs have been handed down from one generation to another, and to this day they have been preserved in all their pristine purity of text and melody in the souls and memories of the Serbian people. It is not necessary at a time of foreign menace to appeal to the Serb people with elaborately-worded proclamations and inflammatory speeches. The refrains of their songs suffice, and they take up arms as one man. But the cause must be in harmony with the traditions of the past. They fight like lions when they go to battle with their ancient songs upon their lips. Thus did they war with the Turks—thus they are warring now against Austria.

To the Serb the love of his language is second only to his love of country. The most beautiful and melodious of all the Slav tongues,[8] rich in idiom and soft in modulation, it is specially fitted to be the medium of folk-poesy. This language, which is identical with that of the Croats (thence the name Serbo-Croat tongue), has been the sacred and abiding link between the Serbs and their still enslaved brothers in Turkey and in Austria. The Serbian peasant is in the habit of calling every one who speaks to him in a foreign language a “Schwabo”;[9] but should the stranger address him in Serbian, or, indeed, in any of the Slav tongues, he will say: “Pa ti si naš” (Thou art one of us). Undoubtedly, apart from their national music, this bond of union has been one of the strongest factors in the preparation of the future, for through it the Serb can freely communicate with his brothers beyond the frontier. Those dear familiar sounds tell him that his brothers still live and share his speech, his songs and his yearnings. This explains the unanimous enthusiasm of the _whole_ nation in the Balkan War, as well as in the present second war of liberation. They are not the soldiers of the king who have gone to war, but the soldiers of an _ideal_. The miracles of valour these men have performed are not the exploits of a war-machine, but of a great heart, in which hundreds of thousands of hearts beat as one.

Many people, and especially Germans, have said that the Serbs are dirty, lazy and dull. As regards the last of these accusations I am ready to admit that such Germans as have come in contact with the people may be excused for this impression. The Serbian peasant regards the “Schwabo” with extreme distrust. His natural shrewdness teaches him the wisdom of appearing as dull as possible before the unscrupulous exploiter he knows so well. It would be no advantage to him to inspire confidence in that quarter, and, as a matter of fact, the Serbian peasant has often got the better of the apostles of “Kultur” by this little deception. English and French travellers, who have had dealings with the Serbs, have spoken of them in most flattering terms. As regards the other two indictments, they are only absurd. The Serbian peasant works very hard indeed. If we consider the results of his labours, which can be gauged by the considerable export of farm-produce and cattle, and remember that in so poor a country as Serbia the farmer has not all the latest agricultural improvements at his disposal, it becomes obvious that he has achieved marvels by the industry of his bare hands. The dirt commented upon by his critics is nothing more than the honest dirt of the soil on his hands and clothes; but if the immaculate “Michels” had taken the trouble to glance round his house they could not have failed to notice that in cleanliness and neatness most Serbian farm-houses compare very well with the average farm-house of Western Europe. A guest of gentle birth receiving hospitality in a Serbian farm-house will certainly find nothing to complain of in the way in which he is fed and accommodated, and his wants considered. Of course there are cases of dirt and idleness in Serbia, but then where shall we find a country quite free from these...?

A prominent characteristic of the Serb is his race-consciousness. Russians, Poles, Csechs, and Bulgars are Russians, etc., _first_ and only Slavs in a general sense. But the Serbs and Croats are as much Slavs as they are Serbs and Croats. Possibly this has not always been so. Perhaps, from being more oppressed and beset by foes than any of the other Slavs, these nations have come to look upon their sense of race as a sheet-anchor to which they clung, at first with hope, and then with heart-felt love. To a Russian, Slavdom is the symbol of his protectorate, but to a Serbo-Croat it is the breath of life.

* * * * *

II.

[10] In prehistoric times, the south-eastern tracts of the Balkan Peninsula were inhabited by Armenians, who were eventually compelled to retreat to Asia Minor, about 700 B.C. The next inhabitants were the Phrygians, who possessed a well-developed civilization, and penetrated very far westward; but with the invasion of the Thracians from the north, the Phrygians were likewise forced to migrate to Asia Minor and only a few scattered groups were left between the Danube and the Balkan Mountains, where they remained until the Roman invasion. Unlike the above-mentioned Semitic races, the Pelasgians and Lepese, who formed the aboriginal population of Greece, were of pure Indo-European stock. They were eventually conquered by the Hellenes, and the illustrious Greek nation sprang from the intermingling of these three tribes.

The dawn of history shows the great Peninsula of Eastern Europe divided between three tribes. The Greeks dwelt south of Heliakmon and Olympus, the Thracians west of the Tekton valley in the eastern portion of the Peninsula, and the Illyrians west of the Pindus. Their territory extended north as far as the site of modern Vienna, and south to the Gulf of Corinth. Of these three peoples the Greeks alone attained to a high degree of civilization and culture. They founded several colonies on the narrow coast-line of Macedonia, but the greater part of the Peninsula to the west of the Vardar remained Illyrian, and, to the east of the Vardar, Thracian. Only the wealthier classes and the royal family from which Alexander the Great traced his descent migrated into these countries from Grecian Thessaly in search of conquest.

The Roman invasion was followed by considerable colonial development. Under the sound administrative policy of the Romans a certain level of civilization penetrated to the greater part of the Peninsula, and a Latinized dialect became the general language. The Thracians very speedily became Romanized, as did most of the Illyrians; the Hellenes alone retained their national distinction. The Illyrians eventually disappeared from Macedonia; but their kindred tribe, the Albanians (Skipetars, Arnauts) remain there to this day, although they show a strong admixture of ancient Roman and Slav blood. The _Roumanians_ are the product of a lingual and racial mixture of Thracian, Roman and Slav elements.

The Great Migration broke up the Roman Empire (476 A.D.) and Europe was re-distributed—the resulting racial boundaries having for the most part persisted to this day. The Germanic tribes set their mark on the North and West, and the Slavs on the East of Europe. In 525 A.D. the Slavs under the name of “Εκλανεοι” are mentioned as dwelling on the lower Danube. From that time, and for a century, they waged fierce warfare against the Eastern Empire, until the latter became exhausted, and the Balkan Peninsula was left open to the invaders from the north.

In the first half of the seventh century, during the reigns of the Emperors Phokas (602-610) and Heraklies (610-642) the Slav hordes over-ran the countries of the upper and lower Danube like a flood from Venice to Constantinople, sweeping southward as far as Cape Matapan. The aboriginal inhabitants fled before them and took refuge in mountain fastnesses, islands, and walled towns. Christianity eventually tamed these wild hordes, and peaceful intercourse was once more established. Constantinople, Adrianople, Seres, Salonika, Larissa and Patras were the centres whence the light of Christendom and Greek culture penetrated to the Slavs.

Who and what manner of people were the Slavs? The Roman historian Jordanis (551 A.D.) already distinguishes the “Sloveni,” as he calls them, from the rest of the Slavs, whom he calls “Veniti.” He speaks of an innumerable Slav people (“Venetharum natio populosa”) divided into many tribes, of which the chief were the “_Russi_,” (“_Anti_”) between the Dniestr and Dniepr, and the “_Sloveni_” on the lower Danube. It is true that a number of different tribes were included under this name, just as to-day it is used to designate the whole Slav race (“Slavyane” in Russian, “Slovane” in Csech). Strictly speaking only the Southern Slavs have a right to this name, and until well into the nineteenth century they styled themselves “Sloveni” in addition to their local appellations of Croat, Serb, Bulgar, etc. With the formation of local states, the local names came more into use, but in literature and folk-poesy the name “Sloveni” is invariably adopted. As a matter of fact, the local names arose from the political and historical distribution of the race.

The geographical position of the Balkan Peninsula, as well as the two currents of civilization which flowed in upon the Southern Slavs from either side, prevented the formation of a United Southern Slav State. They split up into several lesser states, which soon lost their freedom, and submitted to foreign rule. Carniola was the first to fall a victim, for she passed under German rule as early as the eighth century.

Towards the end of the seventh century the Finnish tribe of the _Bulgars_ conquered the Slav tribes north and south of the Balkan range and incidentally adopted the Slav language as their own. They merely retained their original name, and their distinctive, coldly methodical genius for organization—a racial characteristic which is totally absent in the other Southern Slavs. In a short time the Bulgars also conquered the Slav tribes in Macedonia, Epirus and Thessaly, and subjugated the whole country as far as the Morava. In the ninth century the Bulgarian Empire reached from the Carpathians in Hungary to the Pannonian Valley, and, as a matter of fact, Budapest, the capital of Hungary, was founded by the Bulgars. The Bulgarian Tsar Boris was baptized by the apostles Cyril and Method, who also introduced the Slav liturgy in Bulgaria. The Slav dialect spoken between Constantinople and Salonika was adopted as the literary language, and the _Glagolitza_ (Glagolithic alphabet) and eventually the _Cyrillitza_ (Cyrillic alphabet) were introduced. This fact is of world-wide importance, for on this foundation rests the whole subsequent intellectual development of Russia and the Balkan Peninsula—in fact, of Eastern Europe. Under Simeon the Great (893-927) Slav literature reached its zenith—its golden age. The Moravian monks, who were driven out by Svatopluk, found a hospitable welcome in the monasteries around the Lake of Ochrida, and developed great literary activity. The Southern Slav monasteries sent monks and books to Russia, and thus they became the first instructors of their mighty brothers in the North. Still later, the Macedonian Empire was founded and the Emperor Samoilo resided in Ochrida. He, however, was soon overthrown by the Byzantine Emperor Basil II. in the Battle of Belassitza (1018). But the Bulgarian Empire recovered again under Tsar Ivan Asen II. (1218-1271) and had reached the zenith of its power when it was shattered for centuries by the invading Turks (1391).

The central Southern Slav (Serbian) countries—Illyria, Moesia, and Dalmatia—for a long time remained broken up into separate counties. Not before the twelfth century did Rasa become the centre of a Serbian state, founded by Stefan Nemanya (1165), to whom the Serbs owe the famous Nemanya dynasty. After their victory over the Byzantines at Kossovo the Serbs penetrated further and further south towards Macedonia. Under Dušan Silni (1331-1355) Serbian power reached its meridian. He organized the nation into a state and gave the people good laws. In his time Serbia reached from the Save and the Danube to the Gulf of Corinth, and from the Adriatic to Mesta on the frontiers of Thrace and Macedonia. After the battle of Belbushde (1330) even the Bulgars had to acknowledge the supremacy of Serbia. The Serbian Metropolitan of Petcha was made Patriarch, the National Serb Church was founded, and, in the Macedonian town of Skoplye, Dušan Silni proclaimed himself Tsar of the Serbs, Bulgars and Greeks. With an army of 100,000 men he marched on Constantinople in order to establish his throne there, and to be revenged upon the Greeks who had a few years previously called the Ottoman Turks to Europe.[11] But he died on the way,—it is said that he was poisoned by a Greek.

Architectural and literary monuments from the age of the Serbian rulers in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries still clearly show traces of the high degree of culture that had spread from Byzantium, Venice and Florence. But these are merely sparks which the Serbian discriminative genius and natural ability would doubtless have kindled into a bright flame had not the advent of the Turks frustrated the great plans of Dušan Silni. Constantinople would have remained in the hands of a Christian people who love art and progress. No other nation was so well fitted as the Serbs to infuse new life into the culture of the ancients. The presence of this sane and strong young nation would have saved the humanists their flight from Byzantium.

After the death of Dušan Silni the great Serbian Empire crumbled into a large number of small states, whose rulers played a dangerous game, and intrigued one against the other, whilst the Turks were conquering Thrace. The Macedonian despots became vassals to the Turks, and only a few countries like Zeta, Bosnia, and the empire of Prince Lazar (the Serbia of to-day) maintained their independence. So long as these countries were free, the Ottoman invasion of Europe was delayed, because in the Kossovo polje (the field of Kossovo) Serbia held the key of Europe. The Turks knew this and constantly prepared their attacks accordingly. On Vidovdan (St. Vitus Day, 1387) 100,000 Serbs and 300,000 Turks met in battle on the Kossovo. The battle was fierce and the losses on both sides were enormous. The Serbs lost their Prince Lazar and all their nobility; the Turks the greater part of their army and their Sultan Murat I. In Europe the report spread that the Serbs had been victorious; in Florence and Paris all the bells were rung for joy, and a service of thanksgiving was held in Notre Dame, which was attended by Charles VI. with all his Court.

Murat’s successor, Bayazit did not penetrate further; he permitted the Serbs to retain their own laws, but they had to acknowledge him as their suzerain. In 1459 Serbia was finally crushed and fell completely under Turkish rule. Soon after (1463) the same fate befell Bosnia and Hercegovina. Only the mountain fastnesses of Montenegro remained unconquered.

III.

When Serbia began her life as an independent State, she was still bleeding from the many wounds inflicted upon her through centuries of slavery, and first of all these wounds had to be tended. The Serbian nation, intellectually and economically bankrupt from long Turkish misrule, was in the position of a merchant—an honest fellow, but robbed to his last farthing, whose ruined shop is being restored to him, and who is expected to work up the old business to its former prosperity out of these ruins. Years had to elapse ere the people got accustomed to the new order of things, and, out of the welter of beginnings, found the way to sound civic development. In those days Serbia fell a victim to every political infantile disease, but on the other hand she was inspired with a poetic, truly Slav patriotism. Their golden freedom, which they had so long yearned and fought for, and had now at last won, affected the nation not as a political event but as a great _family festival_, in which all the members were united in love and joy. They _revelled_ in their new-found freedom; the sordid considerations of the day were put off till the morrow, or left to the care of a small body of “cold-blooded” men. Civic law and order, and regularity in the administration—unheard of under Turkish rule—were first looked upon as purely miraculous, and then tacitly accepted as the inevitable consequences of freedom. The idea of a _free State_ is only of theoretical value to the Serbs, the main thing for them is that they should be a _free people_. As a free people they followed their leaders—not as superiors, but as children obey their fathers. With childlike simplicity they gathered round their rural magistrate to hear his instructions, and in the same spirit they assembled under the ancient plane-tree in the Topchider Park to hear Miloš, their first Gospodar and Prince, dispense wise counsel and even-handed justice. But in these council-meetings between ruler and people was sown the seed of the true constitution of the State, and, like the empire of Dušan Silni in days gone by, modern Serbia has grown up out of her own people. And this is why Serbia is an _eminently nationalistic_ state, free and independent of foreign influence. Perhaps in some ways this has been a drawback, but it has also been a great source of strength to Serbia. The intimate connection between the reigning house and the people proved a bulwark against foreign attempts at denationalization, and gave Serbia the necessary strength to keep herself free from Germany’s corroding influence to this day.

In every way the patriarchal state of Prince Miloš proved the best possible preparation for Serbia’s political future. She matured slowly, like an apple in the sun, and fortunately was not compelled to ripen unnaturally. Moreover, the inborn gifts of the Serbian people, which I have already mentioned, proved a great help to this process. They began to see that poetry has its limitations, that a free people must become an organized state, and that political order, though it cannot be set in verse, is the only guarantee of prosperity to the nation. Of course, legal decisions and taxes were vexatious matters, but their good effect on the community was recognized. The law expressed the will of the people and was no longer resented as an imposition.

It was fortunate for the young State that _Dositij Obradović_, the greatest educational genius of Serbia, had lived before this critical time. He laid the foundations of a national educational system—that most necessary discipline for a young nation—and was beyond doubt one of the greatest men the Southern Slavs have produced in modern times. In Serbia he is called “_the great sower_.” He truly sowed the seed of enlightenment, not only in Serbia but wherever Serbs and Croats live. Dositij Obradović has not educated individuals, but whole generations, and through them the entire nation. And if the modern State is synonymous with civilization, then Dositij Obradović was the true founder of Serbia. He sowed the seed, all others have only been reapers.

Prince Miloš, who abdicated in 1839, was succeeded by his son Milan Obrenović II. He died, however, within a month of his accession. His successor and younger brother, Michael, was soon involved in serious differences with the Senate, and had to quit the country in 1842. Serbia now elected Alexander Karagjorgjević, son of the Black Kara-Gjorgje, who headed the insurrection against Turkey in 1804. In spite of his great gifts as a statesman, he failed to maintain himself on the throne on account of his leanings towards Austria. The nation, who instinctively scented their ancient enemy, mistrusted him, and matters finally came to a crisis in 1858. The Serbian Skuptchina (Parliament) formally deposed Alexander and again elected an Obrenović to the throne of Serbia. This was Miloš Obrenović, whose short reign was not remarkable for any striking events. His son Michael succeeded him in 1860.

_Michael Obrenović_ was a brilliant, broad-minded, noble-hearted man. He found the national harvest already well grown, and courageously continued the work of his early predecessors. He thoroughly understood his people, with all their gifts and limitations, and, above all, he realized that the moment had arrived for Serbia to become “westernized” without sacrificing her national qualities. He “Europeanized” the State and made it respected at home and abroad. The educational system made great strides and was modernized in his reign. The finances of the country were placed on a sound basis, agriculture was developed on modern, rational lines, and industrial enterprise and foreign trade made their first appearance. Under the strong guiding hand of their prince, the organization of the _army_ kept pace with the economic development of the nation. He initiated Serbian foreign policy[12] and was the best and wisest diplomat of his country. His policy towards Russia resulted in the Russian protectorate, which has proved so powerful to this very day, but it also aroused the jealousy of Austria. Above all things Michael Obrenović was a Serb, and his Slav policy was not only carried on in the interests of the nation, but dictated by his heart. He evolved the idea of a Serbia with a seaboard on the Ægean as well as the Adriatic. He knew that the future of his country will never be secure until all Serbs and Croats are united, and the ways open which will permit of a corresponding economic prosperity. Serbia’s demand for a seaboard is _not_ mere aggression, but the recognition of a vital problem which will be disposed of as soon as her minimum requirements are satisfied.

Under the next Obrenović, the jovial Prince Milan (subsequently King Milan), Serbian policy occasionally deviated from the lines laid down by Prince Michael. Unfortunately, the good services which _King_ Milan undoubtedly rendered his country are overshadowed by his many serious mistakes. At first his genial personality and great popularity seemed to fit him very well for the continuation and completion of the work _Prince_ Milan had begun. But apparently his ambitions did not lie that way, for his reign presents a long record of discord at home and abroad. The party-spirit in civil and military affairs assumed formidable dimensions, and the State repeatedly barely escaped shipwreck. Milan was a spoilt man of the world. He preferred to live abroad and often left the administration for long periods wholly in the hands of the Cabinet of the moment, who, in the absence of the ruler, often found it most difficult to maintain their authority in the face of opposing factions. Abroad the king became acquainted with eminent foreign nobles and statesmen, and, as in most cases these were Austrians, he fell under the influence of the Monarchy. The tide of German pressure towards the East began to filter through into Serbia, and at times the official policy was frankly pro-Austrian. The King was still popular, but the people gradually lost confidence in him, and on several critical occasions he was fain to “save” himself by brilliant addresses to the people.[13] But the Royal blunders became increasingly frequent, and were further aggravated by intolerable domestic dissensions which finally led to the divorce of Queen Natalie. Fortunately Serbia possessed singularly able statesmen during the reign of King Milan, and it is solely due to their efforts that the country escaped public disaster. The present Serbian Premier, Nikola Pašić, already played a prominent part in those days, and repeatedly saved his King and country in times of imminent danger. But presently matters became intolerable, and King Milan abdicated in favour of his son Alexander, who was still under age. The reign of Alexander is the darkest period in the history of modern Serbia. During his minority the country was governed by a regency, and all went well; but when Alexander assumed the sceptre himself, the state began to crumble in its very foundations. Mentally deficient, and therefore dangerous in all his actions, he inaugurated a rule of autocracy, tolerated no opposition, and endowed every one of his mistakes with the distinction of a “supreme command.” The rift between King and people grew wider and more impassable, and finally became an abyss when he insisted on raising his mistress Draga Maschin to the position of legal wife and Queen of Serbia. But even this was not all. The new queen, with all the blind conceit of a _parvenue_, introduced the worst type of petticoat government at court and in politics, which showed itself in graft, corruption, unblushing exhibitions of contempt for the people, and insults to statesmen, scholars and especially to the officers of the army. When the scandal about the supposititious birth of an heir occurred, the wrath of the people turned to fury, and, in the night of May 28th, 1903, the garrison of Belgrade carried out the sentence of the nation upon the King and Queen.

* * * * *

The accession of the Karagjorgjević dynasty, who were really entitled to the crown, opens a new national and political era for Serbia. An old man was called to the throne, but a _grand seigneur_ of the best French school—a school which did not produce debauchees and Boulevard-trotters, but soldiers and statesmen of the first order. King Peter was a Western European in the best sense of the word. He was not only of the blood of the black Karagjorgje, the scion of a house of heroes, but an experienced soldier and statesman. During the long years of his exile he was an officer in the French army, and in virtue of his social position had every opportunity of garnering valuable experience both in peace and in war. All this time he was emphatically the “one who looked on” and watched the development of his country from afar—her struggles and her trials. Although he never resigned his pretendership to the Serbian throne he was often, surely very often, convinced that he himself would never be called to ascend it. But his heart and his love ruled with the Serbian people, and probably he felt the misfortunes of his country more keenly than any other Serbian. It is absurd to hold King Peter responsible for the murder of his predecessor. Any one privileged to know him would indignantly repudiate the thought. His accession to the throne was merely a consequence and in no way a cause of the Obrenović tragedy. But Europe was too horrified at the murder to discriminate at the time, and would accept neither reasons nor explanations proving the necessity of making a fresh start—and this quite apart from the circumstance of the murder. Europe regarded the _deed_ and not the _causes_ of the deed; and refused to search her own histories for similar deeds provoked by similar causes. Thus King Peter was confronted with a two-fold difficulty. On the one hand both he and his country had forfeited the sympathies of Europe, and on the other he succeeded to the government of a country demoralized by the previous reign, and torn by party dissensions. It was a most difficult situation, so many conflicting interests had to be reconciled! Truly a very weighty task for an elderly and perhaps already world-weary man.

But King Peter did not come to Serbia as a pretender who has at last gained the crown he has coveted; he came as the champion of the Serb ideal of the past—whose last representative had been Michael Obrenović,—the ideal of national expansion, of a Serbian future. He recognized his difficulties but attacked them without flinching. For the Serb nation—impulsive, tempestuous and sensitive—it was a blessing to pass under the guidance of a calm, wisely deliberate king. He went his way step by step, firmly, and without illusions. Amid the tumult of acclamations that greeted him in Belgrade his was probably the only heart heavy with care. He knew only too well that the violent _coup d’état_ was not the solution but merely the beginning of the problem. This consciousness and his patriotic ideal have been the ruling motives of his reign from the very first. One of King Peter’s first tasks was the rehabilitation of Serbia in the eyes of Europe. Unjustly enough the entire responsibility for the loss of Serbia’s prestige was laid to his charge, and it was uphill work to alter the opinion of Europe, but he refrained from protestations and excuses. He realized that Serbia must be regenerated in such a fashion as to win back the full confidence of Europe. By the wisdom of his policy and with the help of able statesmen—principally Nikola Pašić—he steered Serbia’s foreign policy back into a healthy, normal channel, and within a few years the country once more took her position as a well-ordered European State—apart from the calumnies and enmity of Germany and Austria. In fact, this successful reconstruction was proof in the eyes of Europe that the dynastic change was a necessity for Serbia, and that in the solution of the Balkan problem she might certainly be trusted to take her part of the burden as a civilized State. She proved her mettle soon afterwards in the first Balkan War, for in this war the ideal of the King—which he shares with his people—scored its first great success, when the hard-pressed nation displayed a high degree of valour, statesmanship and true nobility.

In his ten years’ reign King Peter has gone far to restore to Serbia her ancient glories. During his reign her politics have become more settled at home and abroad. Agriculture, trade and industry have improved and expanded. Literature and art have made miraculous strides, so that Serbia may fairly consider herself the equal of the Western nations; and the Serbian army has now demonstrated its excellent organization and great military value in three successive wars.

King Peter, whose short reign became so stormy towards the end, may look back on the results of his labours with the same calm assurance with which he took up the sceptre. He has quickened the new soul of Serbia, and although he retired shortly before the outbreak of the present war, and entrusted the sceptre to his son, his spirit still lives in his people and army and—please God—will lead them both to victory. IV.

Serbian relations with Austria have been an important, and indeed the decisive, factor in recent Serb history; and the events which are the outcome of these relations will either bring about the territorial consolidation of Serbia or her final ruin. Austria-Hungary was never a well-wisher of Serbia, although she has often brazenly posed as her benefactor. It has always been Austria’s aim to detach Serbia from Russian influence, and to bring her under the soul-saving protectorate of the Monarchy. The nearest road to Salonika lies through Serbia, and at all costs this route had to be secured. If only Serbia could be made dependent upon Austria-Hungary, it would be much better for the aims of Germanistic expansive policy; it would also paralyse the Southern Slavs in the Monarchy. Knowing that the Great Powers, especially Russia, would never permit an effective occupation of Serbia, Austria sought by intrigues in the spirit of Metternich to make her influence predominant in Serbia, also economically to weaken her as a state, by vexatious commercial treaties in the hope of rendering her more amenable towards the Monarchy. Serbia bravely resisted all these attempts and suffered considerable material loss; but she stood firm in the knowledge that she is the first and strongest fortress in the way of German pressure towards the East, and staunchly believed in the ultimate success of her cause. The brave little country had a mission to fulfil, not only in her own interest, but in that of the Slav race and the whole of Europe. Vienna and Berlin knew that Serbia was a very hard nut, but they felt confident of cracking it in the end. When open aggression failed, they put a good face on the matter, and assured the hard-pressed Serbs of their kind intentions. The occupation of Bosnia and Hercegovina was the first tangible proof of these kind intentions, for on that occasion Austria “delivered” two million Serbs and Croats from Turkish bondage. Unfortunately Serbia did not in the least appreciate this “benefit,” whereby a large number of her kindred were handed over to the tender mercies of Austria, whose solicitous care of her Southern Slav subjects was only too well known—in fact, instead of being grateful, Serbia never ceased to point out her own national and territorial claims upon Bosnia and Hercegovina. Naturally this insolent attitude on the part of Serbia provoked the animosity, and presently the official disfavour, of Austria. This disfavour was displayed on every possible occasion although it always wore a sanctimonious garb. Serbia was too weak and unprepared to retort aggressively upon this animosity; her defence was limited to diplomatic measures and the moral support of Russia. It was a marvellous achievement on the part of her statesmen that in the face of strong popular feeling they so long staved off an open rupture; and that they did not let the thirty-five years of misgovernment in Bosnia and Hercegovina, or the oppression of the Southern Slavs, drive them to a desperate decision. The influence of European diplomacy was doubtless very helpful; still, the Serbian people displayed admirable restraint under constant provocation. Germany and Austria, who are able to corrupt the greater part of their own Press, and even many foreign newspapers, and can command a whole staff of political agitators, never relaxed their campaign of abuse and calumny against Serbia, and everywhere represented her as an incapable, barbarous, and dangerous State. In this they were only too successful. Unfortunately the condition of Serbian home politics has often been deplorable, and in addition to this the murder of the King and Queen in 1903 provided ample material for biassing public opinion in Europe. On the whole Europe endorsed these calumnies and refused to listen to the counter-protestations of Russia and other Slavs, because the testimony of barbarians and troglodytes was obviously valueless. Serbia was frequently reduced to desperate straits. She was really defending the cause of civilization by stemming the tide of Germanism in the East—she was _preparing_ a great world-work, and her reward was merely contempt or a pitying smile. Without Russia’s moral support she must have been swamped by Austria long ago.

With the annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina in 1909 and the disgraceful circumstances that preceded it (which I shall touch upon in a later chapter), the mutual enmity between Austria and Serbia reached its height. War between Austria-Hungary on the one hand and Russia and Serbia on the other, seemed imminent, and was only averted by the intervention of European diplomacy, especially by the efforts of Sir Edward Grey. In a declaration dated March 31st, 1909, Serbia acknowledged the annexation as an accomplished fact, and promised henceforth to conduct her policy in a neighbourly and friendly spirit towards Austria. This was the last act of self-abasement extorted from the unhappy country, but by no means the end of hostile agitations. On the contrary, these only became more virulent, because Austria considered the annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina merely a prelude to the invasion of Serbia. Hence the necessity of representing Serbia as a menace to the peace of Europe, and especially to the position of the Monarchy as a Great Power. Serbia’s prestige declined still further. But suddenly a new contingency arose, and the _Balkan War_ of 1912 brought to light a series of glorious proofs of heroism, self-control, statesmanship, and military and national ability on the part of Serbia. The contempt of Europe was transformed into admiration, and Serbia suddenly found herself appreciated at her true value. This was a blow Austria could not forgive, and still less the fact that the criminal blunder of the second Balkan War, whereby she fondly hoped that Serbia would be crushed, proved unsuccessful. A strong and respected Serbia was a thorn in the flesh to Austria and a disquieting influence among her Southern Slav subjects. Henceforth the Viennese Foreign Office concentrated its efforts on the destruction of Serbia at all costs. First of all Serbia was confronted with a demand for such trade concessions as would render her economically dependent upon Austria, and the next commercial treaty was to have placed Austria in the position of a “most favoured nation.” In politics Austria had recourse to the invention of the spectre of a “Greater Serbia,”—an idea which hitherto had merely possessed intellectual significance, and whose representatives were a few hot-heads quite unconnected with Serbian official policy. To make this new propaganda convincing Austria employed a large number of _agents provocateurs_, whose masterpiece appears to have been the attempt upon the Archduke Francis Ferdinand at Serajevo, June 28th, 1914. Truly, when all the side-issues are taken into account, it seems more than likely that the _attempt_ at least was staged by Austrian agents. Was the assassination merely an accident?[14] It is to be feared that this is one of the unhappy mysteries which will never be fully cleared up.