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Scope and Limitations of Dalmatian Politics Regarding the Balkan Wars (1912-1913)

Unresolved position of Croatia in the Habsburg Monarchy, difficult economic and social situation that resulted in massive overseas emigration, especially from Dalmatia, were undermining the hopes that Croatian problems could be successfully addressed within the Habsburg Monarchy. The last relevant political force on Croatian territory, the Croatian Party of Rights, attempted to unite into a single party in 1911. Thus united party was supposed to, at least in theory, enter into closer relations with the Greater Austrian circle led by Archduke Francis Ferdinand and participate in the reorganization of the Monarchy when he came to the throne. However, the introduction of marshal law in Northern Croatia in 1912 and the outbreak of the Balkan Wars disabled their plans. The Balkan Wars were met with incredible euphoria in Dalmatian political circles. It turned out that the "small" Balkan nations can defeat the "great" Ottoman Empire. The successes of Serbia were seen particularly favourably and, in the eyes of a large part of Dalmatian political elite, Serbia became the new Piedmont—the country that would unite and free the South Slavs. At the same time, the pro-Serbian circles in Dalmatia denied Croatian ethnic independence and claimed that the Croats and the Serbs were one nation. The euphoria crushed the unity of the Party of Rights, the last ma¬jor political group that opposed the union with Serbia. In 1913 the Party was split again into several smaller factions. Even before the outbreak of the First World War the Austrian military circles had estimated that Austrians had limited support in Dalmatia. After the Balkan Wars, most of the Croatian polit¬ical elite from Dalmatia saw Serbia as the force that would resolve Croatian position. At the time, the leader of the Dalmatian Party of Rights, don Ivo Prodan, had not yet accepted the Yugoslav idea, which he would do by the end of 1918. However, the rural population that constituted most of the Dalmatian population was not actively involved in the political life of the province. The ideological matrix of Yugoslavism had never been accepted by wider layers of the population, which was proved by the first elections, with universal suffrage, in the Kingdom of SHS (Yugoslavia), when the greatest number of rural population voted for the Hrvatska republikanska seljačka stranka [Croatian Republican Peasant Party], radical opponents of Yugoslav ideology.

Dalmatia ; Balkan wars ; nationalism ; Ottoman Empire ; Party of Rights

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