V o V ^V^ * o * o ' ^ . ^ fir" V vP J \V ^ °W 4 ^'- #*% : .« ? : j>% '-WW' ^% » c ' y* & . ^, A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY THE FIGHT OF THE SLOVENES, THE WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGO- SLAVS, FOR NATIONAL EXISTENCE v BY BOGUMIL VOSNJAK, LL.D. LATE LECTURER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAGREB (CROATIA) MEMBER OF THE JUGOSLAV COMMITTEE New York Chicago Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinburgh • \ Copyright, 1919. by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY ^ *1 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 17 N. Wabash Ave. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street $ /. 6 ynjJ^ FEB 14 : '""^ I CI.A5 1.5644 INTRODUCTION. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION is to be credited with the outburst of nationality which, surviving its overthrow, became a marked characteristic of the nineteenth century and has become a factor with which statesmen of the twentieth century must reckon. Submerged peoples who had lost their sense of importance and to whom the traditions of the past were without influence upon their present, awoke to the fact that they too had a right to exist, that they should in some way be consulted as to their destiny, if they were not to be their own masters, and that they should be united in some way and at some time with peoples of a kindred origin, although they had long ceased to have any political connection with each other and were in fact living under different governments. The spirit of subject-races and subject-peoples which had so long lain dormant asserted itself. Americans are especially familiar with the at- tempt of the Hungarians to free themselves from Austrian domination, although the Magyars have unfortunately shown themselves unwilling to grant to others what they heroically sought for themselves. The world knows by heart the aspirations of the 5 6 INTRODUCTION. Italian peoples, largely realized in a united Italy and likely to be more completely achieved in the immedi- ate future. The world also knows by heart the long- ings of the German peoples for unity and rejoiced when a united Germany took its place in the sun, al- though that expression did not then carry the odium which to-day attaches to it. What has been done can be done again. What one people has accom- plished another may hope to do. As the old cock crows, the proverb has it, so the young one learns. In the last forty years the feeling of nationality has expressed itself most strongly in the Balkan peninsula, for centuries under the boot and spur of a ruthless master. Among the people of the peninsula the Serbs have emerged and to-day govern them- selves as an independent kingdom. The Monte- negrins, Serbs by race and Montenegrins by loca- tion, are likewise a kingdom. Two kingdoms in- deed, but one people. To the north and the west of Serbia and Montenegro, the Croatians and the Slo- venes. The former are Serbs, differing from them only in speech (the literary language is identical) and in religion, although they have been politically separated for a thousand years and more. They are said to number a little less than 4,000,000. To the northwest of the Croatians are the Slovenes, ap- proximately 1,500,000 souls, extending to the coast in the neighborhood of Trieste and Istria, a region in which they had been a predominating element within a century or two of the fall of Rome. INTRODUCTION. 7 Mr. Asquith has truly and happily said that many things are possible to-day which were unthinkable before the outbreak of the great war of 1914. One of these possibilities is a union of the three Slavic peoples known, because of their situation to the south of Germany and Austria, as the Jugo or South- ern Slavs. They are, as a matter of fact, but differ- ent branches of one and the same race, anxious to be a united people under a government of their own choice, forming a unitary State rather than a Feder- ation of States. With this movement, for it has ceased to be a mere aspiration, the people of the United States must have a peculiar sympathy, inas- much as we of this part of the world believe that, ir- respective of origin, of party, or of religion, "gov- ernments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Or, expressed in other terms, we believe in the principle of self-determination and its application to the con- crete case. Dr. Vosnjak's little book shows how these peoples, particularly the Slovenes, deserve more than sym- pathy at our hands, and how the union of the Jugo- slavs would be, as can be understood from a glance at the map, a "Bulwark" not only against the Ger- many of to-day, but against the Germany of to-mor- row. James Brown Scott. Washington, D. C. PREFACE ONE of the primary causes of the World- War was Germany's determination in the inter- ests of Pan-Germanism to crush the Jugo- slavs; and from this point of view the cataclysm of 1914 was merely the crisis in the long and dogged struggle which has been waged for centuries be- tween Germanism and the Jugoslavs, and of which European public opinion has been so curiously ig- norant. In this struggle the Serbs and Croats were more fortunately placed than their brothers the Slovenes, who, being the most westerly of the Jugoslavs, were compelled to bear the brunt of the German attack. In the early Middle Ages the Slovenes were first among the Jugoslavs to found an independent State, and though they were also fated to be the earliest victims of German conquest, they nevertheless con- tinued to form a strong ethnical barrier, beyond which Serbs and Croats, sheltered from the tyran- nical influence of the Holy Roman Empire, could develop their social and national characteristics. But it was not until the nineteenth century, when Pan-Germanism began to expand towards the south- ern seas, that the Slovenes became in truth the Bul- wark of their race, and the severity of their struggle warned the rest of the Jugoslavs that their fate too 9 10 PREFACE was hanging in the balance. Owing to their north- westerly position the Slovenes form the true na- tional, political, and economic rampart of Jugoslav- dom, and like outposts on exposed ground they watched the advance of the gigantic foe whose pur- pose it was to destroy the Jugoslavs and enslave Italy. For the dire menace of the German peril was always felt in the Slovene north sooner than in Zagreb (Agram) or Belgrade or in the cities of Lombardy. As the book had to be written in a foreign coun- try, the author was obliged to draw mainly on his personal knowledge and memory, and the material at his disposal unfortunately, was not as extensive as it would have been in his own country. For this and other reasons the book does not pretend to deal exhaustively with Slovene life in all its aspects. Only a historian of literature could adequately in- terpret Slovene intellectual life to the American pub- lic, and illustrate the value of Slovene literature to the nation and to humanity ; for the Slovenes boast a considerable number of men of letters worthy of a niche in the world's pantheon of literary genius. And only a master of word-painting could do jus- tice to the beauty and charm of the Slovene lands in language of sufficient wealth and beauty. The author is conscious of being neither a poet nor a literary expert, and has therefore contented himself with sketching in broad outlines the origin and history of the Slovene people, in an endeavor to PEEFACE 11 acquaint the American people with a small and un- known ally, but one whose pluck and perseverance has long and sturdily withstood Pan-Germanism on the shores of the Adriatic. The chapters in this book were written in spring, 1915 — with the exception of Chapter XII, which was written in spring, 1916 — with the object of bringing the Slovenes nearer to American readers, and to un- fold to them a new national world and its past and present, its aims and aspirations. It may come as a surprise to some readers to realize that German methods have been at work for a thousand years in the Slovene lands, and to trace the connection be- tween the events and conditions described in these pages and some of the burning questions of the hour. It is almost an article of religious faith with the Slovenes that the present crisis will decide their fate. They feel that it is a question of now or never, and that the long, grim struggle must at last lead to com- plete national independence, or else end in national extinction. But the end of this struggle cannot be a matter of indifference to the world, for by the national death of the Slovenes an extremely important strip of territory would become German. In that case Germany would be the real gainer, as German Gov- ernment tactics and German social ideals would tri- umph where to-day the Slav democratic ideal is still holding its own against fearful odds. 12 PREFACE My book is not conceived in a spirit of hate or controversy. It is merely intended to throw an im- portant light on the life-or-death struggle waged by a poor but self-reliant and courageous people who are coming forward at this great moment in history, convinced of the justice and integrity of their cause. B.V. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. NATIONAL STRUGGLE OF THE SLOVENES OC- CASIONED BY THE POLITICAL ATTITUDE OE GERMANY 15 II. POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OE THE SLOVENE LANDS 20 III. THE MOST WESTERN BRANCH OE THE JUGOSLAVS AND ITS NEIGHBORS 29 IV. THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OE THE SLOVENES 66 V. A CHAPTER OE THE OLD SLOVENE DEMOC- RACY 95 VI. THE ERENCH IN THE SLOVENE LANDS . . . •• 115 VII. POLITICAL RENASCENCE OE THE SLOVENES I25 VIII. THE STRUGGLE EOR THE CONSTITUTION ... 141 IX. THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 151 X. THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIAN EOREIGN POLICY . l66 XI. THE STRUGGLE AGAINST PAN-GERMANISM 1?$ 13 14 CONTENTS OHAPTBB PAGE XII. SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 1 88 XIII. SLOVENE ECONOMICS 236 XIV. THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 251 XV. THE STRUGGLE FOR INTELLECTUAL LlEE . . 263 XVI. THE GREAT AIMS OE A SMALL PEOPLE .... 274 NATIONAL STRUGGLE OF THE SLOVENES OCCASIONED BY THE POLITICAL ATTITUDE OF GERMANY THE Great War has brought the Jugoslav question into prominence, and the greatest event of a generation is indissolubly bound up with the Jugoslav struggle for existence. Yet America at present knows very little of the most western branch of the Jugoslavs (Southern Slavs), which, though caught as in a wedge between Ger- mans, Magyars, and Italians, yet dares to look for- ward to a happier future. If it is true that Amer- ica has only recently discovered the Serbs and Croats, it is fairly safe to say that as yet she knows not enough about the Slovenes. And yet for cen- turies the Slovenes have opposed German aggres- sion in the cause of democracy and the equal rights of nations — in short, for the same ideas which im- pelled the Allied Powers to take up arms on behalf of Belgium and Serbia; only with this difference, that the conflict between German brutality and the Slovenes was confined to the narrow borders of home politics far removed from the general knowl- edge of the world, whereas the World- War is being fought out in the full light of public opinion. Hitherto the Slovenes have attracted very little interest, and yet they occupy an important geo- 15 16 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY graphical position in the Slav world, as their terri- tory lies close to the very heart of Austria and they constitute the only obstacle between Germany and the Adriatic. They are the western branch of the Jugoslavs nation, numbering about one and a half millions, and forming the bulk of the inhabitants of Styria, Carniola, Carinthia, Gorica-Gradiska, Istria, and Trieste — that is to say, of six of the kingdoms and principalities represented in the Vienna Reichsrat. More than any other Slav na- tionality, excepting the Czechs, they have become imbued with Western civilization and Western ideas, and it would be a great misfortune, not only for the Slav race but for Europe, if this sturdy, industrious, and intelligent young people were con- demned to be Germanized or Italianized through oversight or neglect on the part of the statesmen whose task it will be to formulate the terms of the world-peace. At the end of the war Jugoslavs will be con- fronted by the great task of reconciling and fusing the ideas and ideals of the Slav races in the East with those of the Latin and Anglo-Saxon races in i the West. And the solution of this problem will be greatly helped by strengthening such Slav ele- ments as by their nature form the link between East and West. By instigating the World- War, Germanism has shown itself a champion of race-hatred and racial conflict, and certainly not an element of culture THE SLOVENES' NATIONAL STUGGLE 17 capable of uniting the nations of Europe in peace- ful progress. Europe has learnt to its cost what immense sacrifices and efforts will be necessary if the spectre of German world-rule is to be laid for ever. Experience is proving the danger of having allowed Germany to become so great that German organization and German "discipline" could im- peril the peaceful relations between the States of Europe, and the issue of the present war can only assure us the blessing of peace in the future if all the natural obstacles to German aggression are ade- quately supported and strengthened. From this point of view the case of the nations who have had to fight for their very existence with Germany has become a world problem, and it is from this point of view that this book on the Slovenes has been written. The history of the Slovenes is the story of a desperate struggle for national existence. From the days of Charlemagne till the World-War this struggle has been waged without peace, armistice, or hope of reconciliation, and it can only end in victory or national extinction. Germany has de- nied the right of existence to the Slovenes, who have had to fight in turn for their language, their land, civil and democratic freedom, social existence, and the chance of development. The watchword of the Slovenes is, "War to the knife against Germanism," and for centuries noth- ing has stirred the soul of the nation so deeply as 18 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY the hope and expectation of seeing the detested German Junkerdom finally crushed by the Allied Powers. Thus would the Slovenes be rid of their worst enemy, and they might reasonably look for- ward to a freer and happier future. In speaking of the fate of the Slovenes, we might mention principles of government as practiced by Germany. Here we find clumsiness, absurd ped- antry, brutal illiberality, and fatuous pettiness. And a people so wanting in statecraft, so lacking in tact and political fisdom, have the ludicrous au- dacity to call themselves Lords of the World! In the treatment of the languages problem in Austria by the Germans and their puppets, the Austrian Government provided an exhibition of ridiculous incapacity. Years ago, the Government regarded it as decidedly unpatriotic if a German candidate for an official position in a district of mixed nationality showed himself conversant with the non-German tongue of the district; whereas it surely would seem more suitable to send a Ger- man official, who only knew German, to an ex- clusively German district. But the German mind cannot entertain the idea that a native population has any conceivable claim to having its administra- tion carried on in its own language. The behaviour of the Germans in Posen, Schles- wig, and Alsace-Lorraine affords ample proof of their iincompetency to deal with a civil popula- tion possessing a separate language. Not strong THE SLOVENES' NATIONAL STRUGGLE 19 enough to exterminate the non-German nationality, their aggressive intolerance has only roused intense opposition, and has made the Germans the worst hated of all nations in the world. It is amazing that the Germans in Austria should have been equally short-sighted. The Slavs have contributed greatly towards safe-guarding the Em- pire against the Turks, and surely had a full claim to a just share in it, seeing that they formed the majority of the population. Moreover, the Aus- trian Slav tongues are closely related, they boast an important literature, and are sister-tongues of the Russian language, which is spoken over more than one-sixth of the globe; good reason, one would suppose, why a German official should study the language of his district and thereby greatly facili- tate his official duties. The clumsy tactlessness of the Germans renders them quite unfit for the creation of a great colonial Empire, and it is to be hoped that the world-peace will reduce them once more to the position of a con- tinental nation which is content to grow potatoes and speculate on metaphysics. A nation that has proved itself incapable of creating a regime of civil liberty at home, has no right to compel other nations to submit to a yoke of blind obedience to an aristo- cratic and military bureaucracy; but if Germany were to become a world-Power, she would still re- main incapable of evolving either Home Rule or any other form of independent Constitution for even the most civilized nations which had the misfortune to fall under her sway. II POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SLO- VENE LANDS DURING the course of centuries the Slovenes have lost quite half their national territory, but the true interest of their case lies in the historical importance attaching to their fate. With the German encroachment upon Slovene territory from the north-west, and Magyar inroads from the north-east, the bridge that linked up the Northern Slavs with the Jugoslavs was broken down. This ancient fact has acquired renewed political and diplomatic importance through the World- War, and it will be one of the problems of European diplo- macy to restore this lost connection between North- ern Slavs and Jugoslavs. In the seventh century the Slovenes and their kins- men, the Serbs and Croats of to-day, migrated into the lands south and west of the Danube, and if they had been guided by a judicious policy when settling in their new home, they might easily have developed into one of the Central Powers of Europe. The heritage then occupied by the western Jugoslavs comprised present-day Styria, Carniola, Carinthia, Gorica-Gradiska, eastern Friuli, eastern Tyrol, the Lungau in Salzburg, all Upper and Lower Austria south of the Danube, and all Pannonia west of the Danube. Thus the Slovenes were masters of a 20 POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE LANDS 21 large tract of country, practically the whole of the later Habsburg possessions, and at least one-fourth of Hungary. As this territory reached as far as the Danube, the Slovene lands bordered on Czech terri- tory on a frontier in the north-west. Besides their brother-Slavs, the Czechs, the Slovenes had the Ba- varians as their neighbors in the north, and the Lom- bards of Northern Italy in the south-west. Many of the place-names in the Austrian Alpine provinces are Slovene to this day. The word "windish" (i. e. "Slovene") which occurs frequently in the place-names of the Tyrol, Salzburg, Lower Austria, and even of Bavaria, is always proof of a former Slovene settlement. Unfortunately as settlers the Slovenes proved themselves neither judicious nor far-sighted. In- stead of occupying the marshes, and thus protecting the country against possible attacks, they preferred to concentrate in the hilly interior, leaving the gates open to foreign invaders. Their descendants have had bitter cause to rue this neglect, for if the early settlers had been wiser, Slovene territory would never have dwindled as it has actually done. Origi- nally extending from the Inn, the Erno, and the Danube right down to the Adriatic, it has now shrunk to barely half its former size, to the incal- culable detriment of the whole Slav race. At one time the Czechs were neighbors cf the Slovenes, not only in the north-west but also in the north-east. In proposing to unite Bohemia with 22 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY the Jugoslavs by a strip of territory extending southward from the neighborhood of Pozun (Press- burg), Denis, who has delved more deeply into Slovene history than any other modern writer, touched upon one of the Slav peoples' most impor- tant geographical and political problems. The Mag- yar wedge which now divides the Northern Slavs from the Jugoslavs did not exist in the early days of Slav settlement when Bohemian territory bordered upon the Slovene. To this day the counties of Szala and Vas as far as Szopron are largely inhab- ited by Slovenes, and so the distance between the most northerly of the Jugoslavs (in Szopron) and the most southerly of the Northern Slavs, the Czechs in Pozun (Pressburg) is scarcely greater than the distance between Vienna and Pozun. Dur- ing the centuries of Slovene independence, before the Magyars came into the country and settled on the shores of the lake of Balaton, western Pannonia was the centre of Slovene political power and intel- lectual life. Thus far east did the Slovene sway ex- tend, and to this day Nagy Kanizsa and many other important towns in Hungary bear Slovene names. A map of the Slovene lands of to-day forms a melancholy contrast to a historical map of a few hundred years ago. German aggression from the north and Magyar aggression from the east have woefully encroached upon the borders of the Slo- venes, by sheer force of numbers pressing more and more heavily upon the most western of the Jugo- POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE LANDS 23 slavs and gradually ousting them from their inheri- tance. In this respect the Italians have been far less dangerous neighbors. At present Slovene territory extends about as far towards the west as does the territory of the Czechs farther north. It reaches its north-western extrem- ity in sv. Mohor on the Zila, north of Pontafel, and is bounded on the west by a line drawn from sv. Mohor down to Resia on Italian soil, and then east of Cedad (Cividale) and as far as Kormin (Cor- mons). From Kormin (Cormons) the Slovene boundary runs to the south of Gorica (Gorizia) and along the Soca (Isonzo) almost as far as Gradiska, and then along the southern slope of the Kras (Carso) down to the sea. In the south the Adri- atic forms the boundary via Trieste and Koper and as far as Pirano, where the Croat element begins to predominate, and mingles with the Slovene element on the coast. In Istria Slovenes and Croats live side by side, and it is not necessary to define a boundary between the two branches of the Jugoslav race. Towards the east a boundary is provided by the political frontier of Croatia, extending north- wards from Reka (Fiume) as far as Radgona (Radkersburg) in Styria, the inhabitants of Zum- berak (Sichelburg) being more Croat than Slovene. North of Radgona (Radkersburg) the linguistic continuity of the Jugoslav territory extends only as far as St. Gothard on the Raab, but a few scattered Jugoslav communities exist in Vas and Szala, as has 24 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY already been stated, and there is an isolated Slovene- speaking district near Szopron. No Jugoslav can think without bitterness of the northern racial boundaries, for it is there that the Jugoslavs have lost most ground, and that the full force of the German attack has told most heavily on the Slovene people. The northern frontier has al- ways been the vulnerable point in Jugoslav territory, and nowhere has the national struggle been waged more violently or with heavier losses than in the fruitful wine country of Styria, and the Alpine for- est-land of Carinthia. In this connection it is in- teresting to note that none of the maps dating from the days of Austrian Absolution betray any attempt to belittle Slovene territory. In its dealings with the various national problems of the Dual Mon- archy, the absolutism of a bygone age was far more just than the German National fanaticism of to-day. In the fifties of the nineteenth century the official linguistic boundary ran considerably farther north than it does now. On the old maps it is traced as passing between the districts of Maribor and Graz in Styria, and therefore coincides with the true di- viding line between German and Slovene linguistic territory. Beyond a doubt, therefore, Austria was in those days more generously disposed towards a nationalist policy, but this tolerance vanished as soon as the various nationalities were handed over to Prussianism. At present the official northern linguistic boundary runs from Radgona (Radkers- POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE LANDS 25 burg) on the Mur, through Spielfeld and Arvez (Arnfels) to Labod (Lavamund) in Carinthia. From there it passes north of Velikovec and Klagen- furt, through the historically famous Gosposvetsko Polje to Blatograd (Moosburg), thence through the Vrbsko and Osojsko Lakes to Beljak (Villach), till it reaches the north-western limit of Jugoslav lin- guistic territory in sv. Mohor (Hermagor) in the Zila valley. ; This territory includes the crown lands of Carin- thia, Styria, Carniola, and the Austrian-Illyrian lit- toral. Roughly speaking, it is bordered on the north by the rivers Mur and Drave, in the west by the Soca (Isonzo), in the south by the Adriatic, and in the east by the Croatian political frontier, which is identical with that of the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages. From this it may be seen that Slovene liguistic territory extends for some distance into Italy, and that several counties in western Hun- gary are likewise inhabited by Slovenes. The home of the Slovenes is rich in beautiful and varied scenery. In the north it includes part of the Alpine world, with all the solemn grandeur of its rugged peaks — a world of wondrous beauty, which is reflected in the frank and kindly souls of its in- habitants. Farther southward, the Carinthian for- est-land with its far-flung range of wooded hills gives place, in Styria, to one of the richest wine- growing countries in the world. The rhythmic out- lines of the vine-clad hills, and the harmonious and 26 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY picturesque charm of this country are well expressed in the cheerful temperament of the Slovenes, and in that glad acceptance of life which is one of their chief characteristics. In Carniola the towering majesty of the Alps stoops to the lovely, hilly coun- try that unites Slovene territory with the kindred soil of Croatia. Here, in the Bela Kraine, the regu- lar outlines and sober green of the sunny vineyards bring a touch of subdued color, a note of satisfied repose into the tender beauty of the landscape. In Southern Carniola, where the mighty amphitheatre of the Kras looks down upon Trieste at its feet, the Slovene landscape assumes a new and sombre aspect. In the Kras country the cheery poverty and sunny temperament of the Slovene changes to a graver, al- most melancholy mood, and the rugged, unspoilt na- ture of the country seems reflected in the equally rugged simplicity of the minds of the natives. The rocky soil of the Kras hides a strange dark world of giant caves, full of weird shapes and fantastic out- lines. From the roof of this world of subterranean marvels the eye travels over a boundless horizon to the blue distance of the Adriatic. Down there on the coast, where capital and labor are bestirring themselves in one of the world's great seaport towns, Slovenedom breathes the crisp, salt air of the sea; and under that invigorating touch our people are concentrating all their strength in the hope that they may yet be united with their brother Jugoslavs, and in union with them win their rightful place among the nations. POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE LANDS 27 Towards the west the Karst descends to the Vi- pava Valley, beautiful under a southern sun, and rich in fruit-gardens and vineyards. These lead into Gorica, the most western of the Jugoslav lands, and the varied beauty of the landscape cannot fail to charm the traveller. Here lies the heart of the Slovene South, here under the glowing sun of Gorica, in the vineyards whose southern slopes mark the Italo-Slovene linguistic frontier, and from whose ridge is visible the first silvery glimpse of the sea, and here Slovene energy and Slovene patriot- ism were most highly developed. It is only natural that this country, so near to the very heart of Europe, should have been felt by Ger- manism as a formidable obstacle on the road to the south and the east. A strong Slovene element is quite equal to the task of shutting off Germany from the Adriatic. Pan-Germanism conceived it to be one of its first national duties to break down the Slovene barrier in order to occupy the hinterland of Trieste. It should never be forgotten that Bis- marck called Trieste "the point of the German sword." Nowhere does the German desire to de- stroy the independence of the smaller nationalities appear so openly as in these lands between the Alps and the Adriatic. The position of the Slovene country is analogous to that of Switzerland, and, like Switzerland, it is surrounded by countries and races of different languages. When the Great powers of Europe proclaimed the neutrality of 28 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY Switzerland, they did so because they considered an independent Switzerland essential to the welfare of Europe. Perhaps Europe will some day discover that it would greatly assist the cause of peace, and indeed fulfill one of the pre-conditions of peace, if the Slovene countries were definitely placed beyond the reach of German ambitions, and accorded unity with Jugoslavia. The Slovene question is a European question. In olden times this country was the great highway be- tween north and south, a land where north and south met and blended in quite a special fashion. Here, at the junction of three great, distinct civilizations, the German, the Italian, and the Jugoslav, the Great Powers ought to create civic liberty, and the possi- bility of free, untrammelled development in the fu- ture. Romans, Goths, Byzantines, Slavs, and Ger- mans have for centuries contended for this strip of land, but none have been able to retain their hold on it, until the Habsburgs succeeded in incorporating it for centuries in their agglomeration of States. But this is the age of nationalism. The highest power is no longer vested in dynasties, but in the nations, whose fate is bound up with the fate of the land, and the Slovens also must be accorded the right of deciding their own fate, and of crying "Halt!" to the aggressive schemes of Germany and Austria. Ill THE MOST WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS AND ITS NEIGHBOURS. 1. THE relations of a small nation to several greater ones which are threatening its exist- ence is not an altogether commonplace sub- ject for study. The Slovenes had in turn to fight against the Lombards, the Friulians, the Germans, the Avars and the Magyars. Indeed it is a marvel that the outpost of the Jugoslav world still survives in view of its advanced and extremely precarious geographical position. The present world-war is the final episode in a struggle that has gone on for nearly thirteen centuries. On the side of the Slo- venes, the war has been mainly waged on the defen- sive. They are not, and never were an aggressive people, but only wish to defend the heritage of their fathers. But the sturdiness of their attitude of pure defence is a remarkable phenomenon in history. It cannot be sufficiently insisted upon that the Slovenes are not a separate Slav nation, but that from the dawn of their history they have shared a continuous territorial block with the Serbs and Croats and have freely intermingled with them. One of the most striking proofs of this is the fact that the heart of Carantania was occupied by the so- 29 30 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY called Croatian clan. But the racial unity of the Jugoslavs is also recognized in various ancient docu- ments of importance. Pope Pius II (vEneas Sil- vius) was fully aware of the national integrity of the various offshoots of the race. He called them by the one name "Schiavi" but remarks, that "this people" also goes by the name of Bosnians, Dal- matians, Croats, Istrians, Carnians. 1 The same va- riety of names is applied to the Jugoslavs of to-day. Pope Pius explains that the true frontier of this homogeneous people is denned by the Timavus at Monfalcone, which is the racial boundary of the Jugoslavs to this day. For him Istria is a Slav land, and one of the chapters of his book is called "De Istria hodie Schlavonia dicta." He points out that the people of Istria are of Slav origin and that only in the coast towns are the Slav and Italian lan- guages both in use. A generation later Herberstein, the great diplo- mat and traveller expressed the same view in his book "Rerum moscovitariam commentarii," which was published about the middle of the sixteenth cen- tury. An identical Slav idiom was spoken by a na- tion variously called Bosnians, Croats and Istrians on the Adriatic Coast and the mainland as far as Forum Julii (Cividale) ; and Carnians, Carniolians and Carinthians where they lived round about Graz and all along the river Mur down to the Danube. 1 Pii II, Pont. IV, Asiac Europeae elegantiss descriptio, 1531. WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 31 northern Adriatic littoral and the country between the Adriatic and Cividale were considered Slav in the days of the Renaissance, as well as the strip be- tween the Mur and the Danube. In fact the famous corridor of to-morrow the link between Czechs and Jugoslavs was by Herberstein declared to be Slav. With the Lombards the Slovenes are linked by most venerable mediaeval traditions. The Lombard realm had three capitals, viz : Beneventum, Spoleto and Cividale. A modern visitor to the last-named town still receives the impression of having come to a mediaeval Lombard city. It was here that the joint Lombard and Slovene life developed. To pro- vide a correct definition of the relations between the Lombards and Slovenes necessitates a few re- marks concerning the foundation of the Lombard (or Langobard) empire. The Lombards did not conquer Italy single-handed, but with the help of the tribes of the Gepidae, the Suevi, the Saxons and finally the Slovenes, who all eventually came in for a share in the spoils. The Lombards did not at- tempt to exclude their allies from a share in their newly-won power, and although they established Lombard law, Lombards and allies were both equal before the law. The "Edictum Rothari," the Lom- bard code of law was not intended to establish the supremacy of the Lombards themselves over their allies, but on the contrary, it was devised — so we are told — in consideration of "the constant oppres- sion suffered by the poor," and the wrong endured 32 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY Herberstein was very well acquainted with this part of the world, and his testimony proves that all the by the weaker, and was intended to protect all dwellers within the Lombard realm, whether Lom- bards by race or belonging to allied tribes. C. Hegel is quite right when he says that the unity of the Lombard army and Empire consisted far more in the exclusive predominance of Lombard law, than in any racial homogeneity. The non-Lombard tribes were quietly absorbed in this Imperial unit. They fought loyally by the side of the Lombards, who were too astute to treat them on a footing of absolute equality. The result was that these auxil- iaries — warrior settlers in a foreign land, cut off from the bulk of their race — became denationalized and identified themselves with the Lombards, and the rest of the native population. 2 It was different with the Slovenes. The Lom- bard Empire bordered on Carantania. Doubtless many of the Slovene auxiliaries were assimilated by the Lombards, but there was a constant flow of mi- gration which caused the Slovenes to retain posses- sion for centuries of the part of the country which they had conquered jointly with the Lombards and their Allies. The numerous Slovene place-names found between the Soca and the Tagliamento prove that the Slovenes were not as readily absorbed either by the Lombards or by the Romance population as 2 Hegel: Geschichte der Stadteverfassung von Italien. 1847. p. 495- WESTERN BEANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 33 were the other allied tribes. The typically Slav place-names all along the Tagliamento prove that in the Middle Ages it was this river that formed the racial frontier of the Slavs. It is very likely that the Slav aristocracy of Friuli, which is referred to in mediaeval records was a crea- tion of the Lombard Empire. We read e. g. of one Fraslaw (Brazlaw) of Maruzzo (Moravca). The names of the noble and of his fief are both typically Slav. Fraslaw was a kinsman of the Count Pala- tine Chazilo, whose castle was near Mosnica, the Italian Moggio, on the Bela canal. 3 He owned all the hill country in the Bela valley, above and oppo- site Mosnica as well as a strip of land on the Soca at Bovec. Careful historic research would doubtless add considerably to our store of knowledge of the rela- tions between Lombards and Slovenes. Considera- ble Lombard settlements existed in Friuli until the eleventh century and a few Germanic communities survived in Northern Italy as the sole relics of the one-time conquerors. But of the Allies of the Lom- bards, the Slovenes alone survived in considerable numbers. They gave their names to the mountains, rivers and villages, and these names remain the in- delible proof of an ancient history. 3 Zahn: Friaulische Studien, Archiv. fur Oesterreichische Geschichte, 1879. 34 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 2. The formation of a special Italian nationality by uniting all who shared the same civilization and literature by the tie of the common language as well is a comparatively recent development. The Slo- vene literary records preserved from the ninth cen- tury are drawn up in practically the same language as is spoken to-day. No such claim can be estab- lished for the inhabitants of Northern Italy or for the non-Slav elements of the Illyrian littoral. The latter are by no means a homogeneous racial element, nor were they one in the early Middle Ages. The two principal elements, the sparsely scattered Roman citizens and the Ladines, differed radically from each other. We refrain from using the at- tractive but quite incorrect term of "Latins." The Latin character of the Italians is not at all based on racial purity. The men who settled as colonists in the Adriatic coast towns were not de- scendants of Romulus and Remus, any more than a German Austrian can claim to be descended from Armin the Cheruscan. These colonists represented an exceedingly mixed stock, Imperial Rome knew nothing of Anglo-Saxon latter-day eugenic theories. All the races of the West and East were stirred up in this melting-pot of nations. ;We need only con- sider the emperors who hailed from the Eastern shores of the Adriatic. Their pedigrees would be most interesting. The bulk of the Roman urban WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 35 population on the Adriatic was surely not of purer stock than these emperors. Especially in later days, the nation of Imperial Rome was merely a vast community sharing lan- guage, law and institutions but differing in race and blood. The State language and the rule of Rome moulded it and welded it into one. Just as Austria is composed of Czechs, Magyars, Jugoslavs, Ger- mans, Italians, so the Roman Empire was a mosaic of nations. But there the parallel ends. In the Roman Empire, the centralization of power in Rome brought about a certain intermingling of the races and national sentiment merged in Roman cosmo- politanism. The more advanced phase of this so- ciological process has been denned by Gobineau as follows : "A Gaul of the Province was, if we con- sider the matter more closely, a man who had neither the manner of an Italian nor that of a Greek, nor that of an Asiatic, nor that of a Gaul, but some- thing of the manner of all of them together." (Es- sai III.) Mommsen gives a vivid picture of this crucible of nations. "Italy was full of Greeks, Syrians, Phoenicians, Jews, Egyptians and Roman provincials." Rome itself became a very Babel of races. The Graz professor Bidermann, 4 points out that even in classical time the true Roman type per- sisted only in a few families. He says : "It is a purely arbitrary, definition if we call these cosmo- 4 Bidermann : I