Aportes al
esclarecimiento del origen de la Primera Guerra Mundial
Studia Croatica - Edición Especial
Buenos Aires, 1965
Dominik Mandic
TODAY the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina have no natural boundaries
of their own and they do not geopolitically constitute an independent and
closed unit. These two provinces, as a political unit, are the result of their
historic-cultural development which was initiated during the reign of Banus Culinus, at the end of the
12th century and was finally completed in our own time.
The relief and land formation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the
Middle-European mountain ranges, which we call the Alps. In the Western part of
Middle-Croatia, the Alps mountains take on specific
shapes and form some characteristics of their own. From the center
of this region, the mountain chains extend across both Bosnia and Herzegovina
in southeasterly and northwesterly
directions. They terminate in the East, at the Drina river
and in the southeast at the Lake of Scutari, which is on the frontier between
the present Montenegro and Albania. Between the Croato-Bosnian
mountains, numerous fertile valleys have been formed.
Rivers wind their way through these valleys and roads have been built,
connecting the Croatia-Pannonia regions with those of Dalmatia. All these
provinces, Croatia-Pannonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Dalmatia are
terrestrially closely united in one geographical body. The same geopolitical
forces influenced and continue to influence the inhabitants of the regions.
The deep and precipitous river-bed of the Drina, together with the
mountainous chains of the Podrinje and the nearby
mountains of Bosnia and Herzegovina, strikingly divide the Middle Balkan region
from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The mountain chains of Serbia extend from North to
South and Southeast, which is just the opposite of the mountains of Bosnia and
Herzegovina. The rivers with their valleys follow the same pattern, that is,
the Kolubara and Morava rivers flow in a northerly
direction while the Vardar river flows southeasterly.
These geographical reasons had induced the wise Roman emperors,
Diocletian, Constantine the Great and Theodosius the Great, to designate the
frontier between the Roman Western and Eastern Empires, along the Drina river.
During the entire period of the Middle Ages,
the Drina river had served as the dividing line between the Croatian and
Serbian countries. Bosnia therefore never did belong to the state of Serbia
except for the very short span of twelve years. Caslav
Klonimirovic forcibly annexed Bosnia from 948 to 960.
This incident was recorded by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus.
The Croats lived
north of the Carpathian Mountains before they moved to the South and settled in
the present regions. This move took place during the siege of Constantinople by
the Avaro-Persians in 626 and during the reign of
Heraclius I the Byzantine emperor. He asked the Croats for help and invited
them into Dalmatia. The Croats, after several years of bloody fighting, had
defeated the Avars and pushed them to the north of
the Danube. They then settled, as Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus
writes, in Dalmatia, Pannonia and Illyricum which means: between the Adriatic
Sea in the South and the Drava and Danube rivers in the North, and betwen the Rasa river in Istria in the West, the Drina river in the East and the Vojusa
river in the Southeast which is present Albania.
When the Croats
reached the shores of the Adriatic Sea, they were composed of seven clans which
shared the same racial origin and spoke the same Croatian language. According
to Slavic customs, these seven clans were jointly ruled by five brothers and
two sisters; the highest authority was always invested in the eldest brother.
The principal Croatian clan, namely, the clan that was under the immediate
jurisdiction of the supreme governor of the Croats, had colonized the regions
along the Adriatic Sea between the Cetina and the Zrmanja rivers, and inland up to the Vlasic and Borja Mountains. This indicates that the inland regions: Duvno, Hlivno, Glamoc, Grahovo and the entire Bosanska Krajina, except the Posavina, were inhabited by this principal Croatian clan.
The rest of the clans had settled on the West, the North and on the East of
this principal and strongest clan. One of these clans had colonized Zahumlje and Travunja.
Herzegovina was known in the Middle Ages, by these two
last names. The other clan had settled in Bosnia between the Vranica and the Vlasic Mountains in the West and the Drina river in the East.
The national and
political unity of the Croats was upheld and preserved by the common language, Cakavstina; they were ruled by the same supreme governor;
they had a joint national assembly which convened very often and they had a
common military defence against the outside enemy. In spite of all these common
institutions which denote the national unity of the Croats, each clan had its
own governor with its own autonomous government.
To prove that the
Croats, when they had arrived in the South, had also taken Bosnia and
Herzegovina as their permanent homeland, it is sufficient to analyze their
social and aristocratic customs and practices. One will unmistakably discover
that they are identical with those of the Croatian provinces, and at the same
time different from those of the neighboring Serbs
who live East of the Drina river. Since earliest
times, Bosnia, as an autonomous unit, had for its governor the "Banus", and because of this name Bosnia was called Banus' Bosnia ("Banovina Bosna"). This title, "Banus",
was specifically Croatian and was unknown either to the Serbs or, for that
matter, to any other nation of Medieval Europe. This points out most evidently
that Bosnia had been colonized by the Croats since its earliest times. Who else
would have used the purely Croatian title "Banus"
for its governor and called Bosnia Banus' country (Banovina) but the Croats themselves.
The most ancient
written documents testify that the Croats settled in Bosnia and lived there
during the entire Middle Ages. An old Croatian chronicle, which originated in
the eighth century, relates this about the first Croatian ruler: "And his
kingdom was Bosnia and Valdemin (Val-de-vino or Vinodol, near the present
city of Rijeka) and extended to Polonija, (Polina, the old Apollonia near Valone) his
kingdom was bounded by the sea and extended inland".
The Croatian
chronicle known by the name Methodos and written in
753, mentions that the provinces which composed the Croatian kingdom of that
time were: White Croatia, Red Croatia and Bosnia. The authors of the chronicle,
"Kingdom of Croats" (Kralievstvo Hrvata), written between 1074 and 1080, and also the
chronicle of the Dioclean Priest (Chronica
Presbyteris Diocleatis),
written between 1149 and 1153, allege the same thing.
The Byzantine writer, John Cinnamus,
describing the military expedition of Emmanuel Comnenus
which had taken place in 1153. had this to say about Bosnia: "Bosnia is not
subordinate to the governor of Serbia. She is entirely independent; her people
have their own way of living and she governs herself". Therefore, it is
obvious that the nation of Bosnia in the 12th century was different from that
of the Serbs. The people of Bosnia in this era had their own autonomous
government with its own specific customs and practices. That the nation of
Bosnia could have been none other than the Croatian people,
is proven by the fact that in Bosnia and in Rasa of neighboring
Serbia from the eleventh century to our own day there were no other Slavic
nations but the Serbs and the Croats.
When the Croats
arrived in the South, they practiced Iranian-Slavic paganism At
the request of Byzantium Pope John IV (640-642) Catholic missionaries were sent
to the Croatian Provinces. These missionaries had converted the supreme
governor of Croatia, Porga, and also a great many of
the clan that was under his immediate authority, to the Catholic faith in 640.
This had induced Pope John IV to renew the old archdiocese of Salona and transfer its see to the nearby city of Split (Spalatum). This pontiff also gave all the rights of the old
archdiocese of Salona to the newly established archidiocese of Split. The newly founded archdiocese
included in its jurisdiction all the districts of Croatia with present day
Bosnia and Herzegovina and covered all the territory extending from the
Adriatic Sea to the Danube River in the North, and to the Drina River in the
East.
During the reign of
the Bulgarian emperor Peter (927-969), a Bulgarian Orthodox priest known by the
name, Bogomil, began to teach a new heresy which was called after him,
namely, Bogomilism. The main characteristic of the
new heresy was religious dualism, advocating a double principle: the principle
of good and the principle of evil. This heresy had rapidly spread all over the
neighbouring countries, Croatia included. When Bosnia and Herzegovina had come
under the dominion of the Bulgarian emperors between 990 and 1018, they had
founded a separate diocese of Bogomilism in Bosnia
for all the Croatian territories. This diocese had been known by the name of
the Croatian Church, Ecclesia Sclavoniae. By the end
of the 13 th century and at
the beginning of the 14th, the majority of the inhabitants of Bosnia and
Herzegovina had become followers of Bogomil's heresy.
After the failure of the Crusades of 1225 and those of 1235-1239, the Popes
sent the Dominican Fathers, and a little later the Franciscan Fathers to Bosnia
to bring the Bogomils back to the Catholic Church.
Father Gerardus Eudes,
General of the Franciscan Order, on the request of Pope Benedict XII
(1334-1342) had established a special Franciscan unit, Vicaria
Bosnae. From that time on, the Franciscan Order had
been sending its best missionaries to Bosnia. This practice continued until
Bosnia fell under the rule of the Turks. Many missionaries distinguished
themselves as Bosnian Vicars: Among them are: Father Peregrinus
of Saxonia, the first Bosnflan
Vicar; Father John and Father Berengary, both of Aragonia (Spanish), Father Deodatus
de Ruticinio and the well known musician, Father
Nicholas ( Frelsch ), Father Andrew and Father Mathiaas, the latter was Bosnian Vicar 1411-1419 (English),
Father Bartholomaeus of Alvernia,
Vicar 1367-1407, Francis of Florence, Vicar 1350-1360, Father John of Padua,
Father John Ristori St. Jacob of Marchia
Vicar 1435-1439 Bl. Bernardine of Aquilla
(Italian), Blessed Nicolas Tavelic, John Korculanski, Vicar 1432-1435, Francis and Philip of
Dubrovnik (Croatian) and many others.
Due to the solicitous
work of the numerous, capable and holy Franciscan missionaries, as Pope
Boniface IX writes in his letter of March 7, 1402, 500.000 followers of Bogomilism had been brought back to the Catholic Church
("quingenta milia personarum infidelium").
Just prior to the conquest of Bosnia by the Turks, the population of Bosnia and
Herzegovina was as follows: 800,000 Croatian Catholics; Croats of the Bogomilism heresy between 80,000 & 90.000: Non-Slavic Vlachs between 12,000 and 15,000; and the Serbs between
10,000 and 15,000. The Serbs lived in Podrinje which
had been taken away from the old Serbia by the Bosnian ruler Tvrtko I and annexed to Bosnia between
1363-1366.
First of all, it is
true that the Moslems from the Near East had never settled in groups in Bosnia
and Herzegovina. There had been only individuals who did so. The present
Moslems in Bosnia and Herzegovina are descendents of the Bosnian natives who
are ethnically Croats; their ancestors were the followers either of the
Catholic faith or of Bogomil's heresy.
It is fair to state
that at the beginning, the Turkish authorities in subjugated Bosnia,
did not use force in converting the local population to Islam. Mohammed II, the
Conqueror, at the plea of Father Angjeo Zvizdovic, superior of the Bosnian Franciscan Fathers,
issued the famous imperial order known as Ahd-name on
May 28, 1463. In it he granted to the Franciscan Fathers and their faithful
freedom in exercising their religious obligations, and safety and protection to
their lives and property. To this order he added a clause: "as long as you
remain faithful and obedient to my office and order".
According to the
official minute book of the Turkish government (Defter) of 1489, written
twenty-five years after Bosnia had been conquered, 25,068 Christian families,
1,332 Christian widows, 4,026 Christian unmarried adults, 4,485 Moslem's
families and 2,348 unmarried adults were living in Sandzak
of Bosnia, which at that time was located between Novi Pazar
and the Sana river and between the Ivan Planina
Mountain and the city of Maglaj. At this time, the
average Bosnian family had at least eight members which means
that the Christian population of Sandzak of Bosnia
was 205,902 or 84.42 % of all the inhabitants. The rest of the population were
Moslems, that is, 38,228 or 15.58 %. Almost all of these first Moslems were
converts from the Bogomil heresy.
During the first
years of the 16th century, the relationship between the Bosnian Catholics and
the Turkish government had totally changed. At that time the warfare between
free Croatia and Islamic Bosnia or more accurately between the Turkish empire and the Christian West, had considerably intensified.
Of course, the Croatian Catholics of Bosnia along with the Franciscan Fathers
had shown a great love and sympathy for their free brothers, and they
manifested it by helping them in their struggle against the Turks. In any case,
by then the Turks had fundamentally changed their liberal attitude toward the
Catholics of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the first Statute-book for the Sandzak of Bosnia, written in 1516, the Turks had made the
following decree:
"Churches are buitt in some places where they did not exist even during
the reign of the infidels. Such newly built churches are to be demolished;
those infidels and their pastors, who attend those churches and who spy upon us
and our movements and report them to the authorities of the infidel countries ,are to be severely punished and grave physical
tortures are to be applied to them".
Whit this new law,
the Bosnian Catholics and their spiritual leaders the Franciscan Fathers, had
been officially proclaimed as enemies of the Ottoman empire.
This law had also initiated bitter persecutions of the Catholic Church in
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A suspicion was also
intensified in the Turkish authorities by the fact that the Bosnian Catholics
and the Franciscan Fathers recognize the Roman Pontiff as their supreme
spiritual leader. Since the Popes had been the chief inspirers of the military
expeditions against the Turks, they had been considered in Constantinople as
the principal enemy of the Ottoman empire. The Turkish
authorities also resorted to economic sanctions against the Catholics by
imposing upon them heavy taxes from which the Moslems were exempt.
To save themselves
from persecutions and economic destruction, a great number of the Croatian
Catholics in Bosnia and Herzegovina began to immigrate to the free regions of
Croatia, and many of them moved to the other free countries of Europe. A much
larger number of them remained in Bosnia. This was especially true of the
peasants. They usually embraced Islam only in an outward manner, wishing in
their hearts to stay faithful to their Christian faith. Therefore, it is no
wonder that by the middle of the 16th century, we encounter in Bosnia numerous
so called Poturs, that is, Half-Turks, who used to
have their children both circumcised and baptized. They manifested their
Islamic affiliation outwardly and at the same time tried at home to live up to
the Christian teachings. Bosnian Bishop Balicevic, in
his report of 1600 to the Holy See, confirms this. "There are many Moslems
who firmly believe in Christ and Baptize their Children, but they are afraid to
profess their faith publicly" (credunt in
Christum firmiter, tamen minime publice audent predicare timore poene"). The
Apostolic Visitator, Masarechi
in the year 1624, affirms that the Bosnian Franciscan Fathers baptize the
children of Moslems. The Bosnian Franciscan Fathers had gone so far as to ask
the Holy See in 1625 to grant them permission for this practice. It was given
to them. Dominic Andrias OFM, bishop in central
Herzegovina, had asked the Holy See in 1628 for instructions on how to deal
with the Moslems who were crypto-Catholics. ("Turcarum eandem fidem occulte profiteri
volentium").
According to the
statistical data which was gathered by Profesor Omer
L. Barkan fron the official
minute-book of the Otoman empire
for the span of time between 1520 and 1530, there were 135,480 Moslems in Sandzak of Bosnia and 221328 in the entire region of Bosnia
and Herzegovina. This great numerical increase of Moslems from 1489 to 1530
came partly from the members of Bogomil's church. The
number of the Croatian Catholics, who became Moslems, was between 120,000 and
150,000. Persecutions considerably accelerated the conversion of Croatian
Catholics in Bosnia and Herzegovina to Islam. Some of them accepted it
completely and some of the first and second generation only outwardly. The
Apostolic Visitator Peter Masarechi
in 1624 gave to the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome, the
following report on the population of the Bosnian Pashaluk:
900,000 Moslems; 300,000 Catholics and 150,000 Greek Orthodox.
There are a great
number of written documents on the conversion, be it real or pretended, of the
Croatian Catholics in Bosnia and Herzegovina to Islam which date from these
years. We will quote just a few.
Jerolim Zlataric,
Bosnian nobleman, wrote in 1599: "In that province there are a great
number of the Poturs who used to be Christians (Catholics).
They embraced Islam for fear of the enemies, but they are neither good
Mohammedans nor good Christians".
Jesuit Father, Bartul Kasic, after having
visited Slavonia and the Southern parts of Hungary, relates this to Pope Paul V
in 1613: "Many Christians (Catholics) in these regions and also in Bosnia
have become Mohammedans".
Atanazije Jurjevic
(Georgiceo), after his long journey all over Bosnia
in 1626 writes: "The number of the Moslems and the Orthodox exceeds
considerably the number of the Catholics. It is necessary to note here that
there are a small number of the Mohammedans who are working on farms and who
are able to speak the Turkish language. If they were not afraid of the fire
(persecutions), almost all would become Christians, knowing very well that
their ancestors had been Christians (Catholics)".
Croatian historian
Ivan Tomko Mrnavic,
originally from Bosnia, writes in 1627: "Speaking in general there are two
thirds of the population in Bosnia Mohammedans and almost all of them converted
from Christianity to Islam".
Bosnian Bishop Nikola
Ogramic, OFM, in his report to the Holy See in 1675
on the district, Bijela, located in the Northeast
portion of Bosnia writes that there are only 995 Catholics in the entire
district, and adds: "the rest of the population are mostty
Moslems and Orthodox who just a white ago used to belong to the Catholic
faith".
It must also be
mentioned that one group of the present Moslems in Bosnia and Herzegovina are
the descendents of Croatian slaves. They were enslaved and brought into Bosnia
and Herzegovina where they forced to exchange their Christian faith for Islam.
According to the Venetian historiographer Sanudo,
over 600,000 were Croatian Caholics from Croatia had
been captured by the Turks and sent into captivity in Turkey. These captives
had been sold as slaves at the markets of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Skoplje in Macedonia. As slaves they had been dispatched to
the Near East and North Africa. Of course, a large number of them remained in
Bosnia and were forced to embrace Islam.
A much larger number
of today's Moslems in Bosnia and Herzegovina are descendents of the Croats
living in Slavonia, Vojvodina, Lika,
Dalmatia and Montenegro who had accepted Islam as their religion. When these
provinces were liberated from the Turkish dominion during the Viennese Wars of
1683- 1699 and thereafter and when they came unter the rule of Christians, the Croatian Moslems from
these provinces took refuge in Bosnia.
The Serbs did not
participate in spreading Islam in Bosnia. The Serbs, pressed by the Turks, did
not retreat toward the West into Bosnia. Instead, they started to move toward
the North across the Danube into present day Vojvodina
and Southern Hungary. Moreover, the Turks during the first centuries of their
rule over Serbia did not persecute the Greek Orthodox Church to wich all the Serbs belonged. This church was on the
territory of the Ottoman empire and was favored by it because of the close cooperation between the
Patriarch of Constantinople and the Orthodox Vlachs
with the Turkish government. According to the research of Profesor
Omer L. Barkan on the statistics of the population of
Serbia during the period of time from 1520 to 1530, that is two complete
generations after Serbia was subjugated by the Turks in 1459, there were only
4,307 Mohammedan families compared to 169,916 Greek Orthodox families in the
Serbian Sandzaks. Most of there
Mohammedan families came from the outside either as soldiers or craftsmen. Only
a very small number of the Orthodox Vlachs in Bosnia
embraced Islam.
According to our
research on the origin of the present Moslems in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the
composition of Islam's followers can be expressed in the following manner: 10
to 12% came from the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Croatians of the Bogomil
sect; 70 to 75% from the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Croatian Catholics; 12 to 13%
from the Croatian Moslems of the neighbouring Croatian provinces; 2 to 3% were
of Turkish ethnic origin and 1 to 2% were of Vlach
ethnic origin.
There were neither
Serbs nor followers of the Greek Orthodox Church in Herzegovina until the end
of the 12th century when the dynasty of the Nemanjici
came into power in Serbia. There were none in Bosnia until the middle of the
15th century when Bosnia was subjugated by the Turks. The Nemanjici
rulers were the first to spread the Orthodox faith by force among the Croatian
Catholics in Herzegovina. During the Turkish rule over Herzegovina this work
was continued by the Serbian Orthodox patriarchs and the other clergy. Since
the Catholic clergy was almost non-existent in Herzegovina they were very
successful in their work. The Croatian Catholics in Bosnia practically shared
the similar fate as those in Herzegovina. The Serbian Orthodox Patriarchs,
bishops and priests resorted very often to force in spreading their creed among
the local Catholics. A certain amount of the Croats of the Bogomil
sect in Bosnia and Herzegovina embraced the Greek Orthodox faith also.
1. Conversion of
Croatian Catholics to the Orthodox Faith.
The forcible
conversion of the native Croatian Catholics to the Orthodox faith was initiated
by the Serbian Prince Miroslav. He was appointed by
the Byzantine emperor Emmanuel Comnenus in 1174 to
rule Zahumlje, which is in central Herzegovina. Pope
Alexander III, in his letter of June 7, 1181, complains that Miroslav did not allow the Catholic bishops to be
consecrated. Moreover, he refused to receive the Pope's delegate and letter.
Serbian King Stjepan Uros
II Milutin, 1282-1321 acted more fiercely by seizing
a great many parishes, monasteries and churches from the Catholic clergy and
placing them in the hands of Orthodox priests. By the middle of the 16th
century when the Turks initiated fierce persecution of the Catholic Church, a
much larger number of the Croatian Catholics in Herzegovina embraced the
Orthodox religion. During these persecutions the Catholic clergy with a certain
amount of their faithful left Herzegovina; the majority of the Croatian
Catholics, who remained in the country, were forced to accept the Orthodox
faith.
From the 16th century
until the end of the 18th century, a large number of Croatian Catholics in
Bosnia were also forced to embrace the Orthodox religion. Most of these
conversions were the result of force used by the Patriarchs of Constantinople
and Pec (Serbia) who considered themselves as the
only legitimate representatives of Christianity in the Ottoman empire. These Patriarchs tried by all means in their power
to put the Croatian Catholics of Bosnia and Herzegovina together with their
spiritual leaders, the Franciscan Fathers, under their own jurisdiction. There
are many written documents in Latin and in the Turkish language existent in the
archives in Bosnia, Constantinople and Rome which testify to this. As a result
of this situation, the Franciscan reporter Pautus de Rovigno writes in 1640 that Orthodox bishops were worse
enemies to the Catholics than the Turks themselves ("nostri
capitalissimi nemici, peggio che Turchi").
About one third of the present Serbs in Bosnia are the descendents of the
native Croats. One group of them are of Bogomil's
sect, but they are predominantly Croatian Catholics. These Serbs in Bosnia and
Herzegovina have reddish-white complexions.
2. Participation of
the Mooro-Vlachs in the Creation of a Serbian Ethnic
Group in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Most of today's Serbs
in Bosnia and Herzegovina have a strikingly dark, semiblack
complexion. They inherited these brownish or semi-black features from the
Balkan Vlachs of the Middle
Ages. All the historians are in agreement that these Vlachs
are not of Slavic ethnic origin. In the Middle Ages
they spoke their own language which derives in large part from the Roman Latin
language. Historians disagree on how they came into possession of their
brownish and dark complexions, or rather of which black or semi-black race
these Vlachs were descendents.
In our treatise on
"The Origen of the Vlachs" ("Postanak Vlaha"), published
in 1956, we have proven that the Medieval Vlachs are
the descendents of the Moors who lived in Africa. As war veterans, they settled
along the Danube in the Balkans and also in Middle Europe.
The roman army was
composed of hirelings, who, for the most part, came from Dalmatia. Gaul and Mauretania. Toward the end of the Roman Empire many
of them were recruited from Germany also. Soldiers of the same ethnic and
language group were organized in the Roman army in separate military
contingents so that they might better understand one another during the
fighting and thus be more successful in their efforts. Military service lasted
for twenty-five years. All war veterans, after serving their military term,
received Roman citizenship and property in some place near the camp where they
served for the last time. This was done by the Roman authorities during the
reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54 A. D.) and continued until the fall of the
Western Roman Empire in 476. The original brass military
diploma which dates from the middle of the second century, A. D., mentions
Moorish soldiers in Moesia which is the Serbia of today. The other
military diploma of 158 A. D. speaks of the Moorish soldiers from Africa in
Dacia, which is the today's Rumania, and also of the auxiliary troops of the Dacian Moors. The Roman document, Notitia
Dignitatum which dates from the beginning of the
fifth century, mentions several Moorish battalions in the Balkans and the
Moorish military colony Ad Mauros which was located
on the Inn River near Vienna. In the present Besarabia,
the city Maurocastrum was in existence. According to
the document Notitia Dignitatum,
2 500 to 5,000 Illyrian Moorish soldiers in the five separate military units
had served in the Near East. From this document we must deduce that in the
beginning of th‡ fifth
century at least 100,000 descendents of the Moors lived in Illyricum, which is
in the present Balkans.
Writing about the
settlement of the Bulgarians in 681 A. D., the old Croatian chronicles mention
the Mooro-Vlachs as the "Black Latins" ("Morovlachi.
hoc est Nigri
Latini"). Old Russian and Hungarian chronicles
mention the Vlachs by the end of the ninth century,
and place them in the Carpathian Mountains. Byzantine writers hardly mention
the name of the Vlachs before the end of the ninth
century. They usually call them the Mooro-Vlachs.
This name was given to them because of the Mauretanian
origin.
The principal
settlements of the Medieval Mooro-Vlachs, sometimes
simply called the Vlachs, are found in the Carpathian
Mountains north of the Danube; in the Balkan Mountains, which is present
Bulgaria; around the Pind Mountains in Greece; near
the Kopaonik Mountains in Serbia and also in the
immediate vicinity of the Durmitor Mountains in
Montenegro.
The Mooro-Vlachs spoke the Roman Language which they learned
from the Romans while serving their military term. They lived in segregated
groups among the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea to the inland. During the Middle Ages the Serbs were forbidden by state law to marry Vlach girls. The Medieval MooroVlachs
led a nomadic way of life, their primary occupation being the raising of
cattle, horses and sheep. They had a great number of horses which resulted in
their being engaged in transporting various merchant goods from the cities on the
eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea to the island. During the Middle
Ages, the Mooro-Vlachs once more embraced the
military service and fought on behalf of various rulers.
The Mooro-Vlachs began to emigrate
into Herzegovina during the Bulgarian rule from 990-1018. From the eleventh to
the thirteenth century the great merchant center,
Dubrovnik, had attracted a great many Mooro-Vlachs
from all over the central Balkans. They settled close by in Eastern
Herzegovina, where they formed numerous colonies. Prior to the Turkish
occupation, the Mooro-Vlachs were of the Catholic
faith.
The Vlachs started to move into Bosnia along with the Turks as
their auxiliary military troops. The Turkish documents and chronographers speak
of this. Benedikt Kuripecic
in 1530 writes that the majority of the population in Bosnia was of the
Catholic faith: "The ancient Bosnians of the Christian religion". He
has this to say about the Vlachs: "The other
inhabitants (of Bosnia) are Surrfen tSerbians) and are called Vlachs
by the local population, and lve
catl them Zitten or Martholosen. They came from Smederevo
and Greek Beograd". General Ivan Lenkovic
informed King Ferdinand I in 1551 that the Turks brought several thousand MoorWlachs into Western Bosnia from the interior of the
European section of the Turkish Empire.
3. The Participation
of the Bulgarians, Albanians, Greeks and Armenians in Creatin
the Serbian Ethnic Group in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A great number of
Bulgarians, Greeks, Albanians, Armenians and other national groups of the
Orthodox faith came into Bosnia and Herzegovina along with the Turks. These
groups settled in the cities and towns. Their principal occupation was either commerce, craftsmanship or employment in the local
Turkish government. By the end of the eighteenth century and at the beginning
of the nineteenth centuw, the majority of religious
communities of the Orthodox faith in Sarajevo, Banja
Luka Travnik, Zvornik Foca, Mostar and elsewhere were
composed of Bulgarians and also of the other non-Slavic ethnic groups of the
orthodox region. These foreigners, having and associating with the native
Croats of Islam and of Catholic and Orthodox faith learned the native tongue.
By the middle of the nineteenth century all of them, due to the work of the
Serbian Orthodox Church among them, began to consider themselves Serbs.
4. Colonization of
Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Ethnic Serbs.
The first immigrants
of the ethnic Serbs started to move into Herzegovina during the reign of the
Serbian dynasty Nemanjici at the end of the twelfth
century. They came in very small numbers since Herzegovina was more densely
populated, and its cultural level higher than Serbia. The government officials
in Herzegovina were native Croats. Most of them were of the Catholic faith, and
some were those who adopted the Orthodox religion.
A certain amount of
Serbs had settled in Bosnia and Herzegovina looking for better jobs, when the
Bosnian Banus Tvrtko I in
1363 occupied the region of Podrinje which was
formerly a part of the Serbian kingdom and inhabited by the Serbs. In order to
prove that the ethnic Serbs had never immigrated either to Bosnia or
Herzegovina in great numbers, it is sufficient to refer to the fact that they
had never formed any community on the territory of those provinces speaking the
Serbian ekavski speech. The largest number of ethnic
Serbs settled in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Austro-Hungarian occupation
(1878-19l8), and during the first (1919-1940) and second (1945- ) Yugoslavia,
either as soldiers, government officials or farmers. The colonization of Bosnia
by the ethnic Serbs was considerably intensified after 1945 when the Serbian
labourers were settled in the industrial centres of Bosnia.
Under the influence
of the French revolutions of 1789, 1830 and 1848 strong nationalistic movements
came into existence all over Europe. The Balkan countries were no exception. In
the first half of the nineteenth century, at first on the territory of the
Austro-Hungarian empire and later in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, a strong and planned propaganda campaign was inaugurated among the
members of the Orthodox church. Its sole aim was to convince them that they
were Serbs. This campaign was executed primarily by the teachers of the Serbian
parochial schools and the athletic organization Sokol,
but above all by the Orthodox clergy. In 1863, under the guidance and
sponsorship of the Serbian minister Ilija Garasanin, special committees were created in Sarajevo and
in other cities all over Bosnia and Herzegovina with the sole purpose of
teaching systematically the Croats of the Orthodox faith, the Vlachs and the other non-Slavic ethnic groups of the
Orthodox faith, that they should call themselves Serbs since they belonged to
the Serbian Orthodox religion. Among the Vlachs, who
previously called themselves Rumanians, this process was accomplished not long
ago.
According to our
research, the ethnic origin of the present Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina can
be given in percentages as follows: 2 to 3% from the ancient Croats of Bogomil's sect; 30 to 32% from Croatian Catholics who were
forced to change to the Orthodox religion; 50 to 52% from the non-Slavic Mooro-Vlachs; 6 to 7% from the Bulgarians, Greeks,
Armenians, Albanians and other non-Slavic ethnic groups; 8 to 10% from the
Serbian immigrants from Serbia.
During the migration
of the European nations, the Croats settled in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They
settled permanently in these two provinces and are there even today. At the
beginning they were pagans. Since the eleventh century, however they were
either of the Catholic faith or members of the heretical sect called Bogomil's sect. With the Turkish occupation of Bosnia in
1463, the native Croats began gradually to embrace Islam, while the Mooro-Vlachs of the Orthodox faith began to colonize Bosnia
and Herzegovina. In spite of all these adverse factors, the Croats of the
Islamic and Catholic religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina steadily kept in the
ethnic majority of 90%. During the first half of the nineteenth century,
however the number of Croats of the Islamic religion considerably decreased as
a result of wars and various epidemics. Nevertheless, Croatian Moslems and
Catholics still constitute the steady and solid ethnic majority of 55 to 58% of
the population in Bosnia and Herzegovina.