Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Croatian Politics – Politics and National Ideology

Biskup Josip Juraj Strossmayer vodeća je osoba Narodne stranke i najistaknutija osoba u političkom životu Hrvatske u drugoj polovici 19. stoljeća. Strossmayer i Narodna stranka pripadnici su tradicionalne društvene elite, sljednici hrvatskog preporodnog pokreta prve polovice 19. stoljeća i pokreta 1848. godine. Prikazan je sustav Strossmayerove nacionalne integracijske ideologije: hrvatska, slavenska i južnoslavenska ideja te političko djelovanje s ciljem ostvarenja samostalnosti Hrvatske u sklopu Monarhije i ostvarenja uloge Hrvatske u rješenju istočnog pitanja, napose položaja Bosne.Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer was the leading personality of the National Party and the most distinguished person in the political life of Croatia in the second half of the 19th century. He belonged to the traditional elite, the leading social layer in the polarised society of the Northern Croatia, and the holder of this social layer’s ideology. Elements of his national ideology were ethnic and political Croatism, and the idea of Slavism and South Slavism. The objectives of his political activity were the restoration of the territorial integrity (unification of Dalmatia with Northern Croatia), and the autonomy of Croatia within the Habsburg Monarchy. Strossmayer saw the solution of Croatia’s position – depending on the change of relations in Central Europe and the Habsburg Monarchy – either in the federalisation of the Monarchy or, in the dual system, in the restoration of links between Croatia and Hungary as two political territories with equal rights. This policy had suffered defeat by the conclusion of Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867, and of the unfavourable Croatian-Hungarian Agreement in 1868, followed by the revision of the Agreement in 1873, pursuant to which Croatia’s position was not changed for the better. After the defeat of his policy, Strossmayer withdrew from public political life, but continued to operate behind the scenes. Strossmayer’s idea of Slavism was connected with his ecumenism – the idea of getting Catholic and Orthodox Slavic nations closer. His idea of South Slavism rested on the (incorrect) notion of Croatian and Serbian being one and the same literary language. This notion further generated the idea of the ethnic kinship of the Croats and the Serbs with South-Slavic nations, and the idea of establishing a confederate state of all South-Slavic nations in distant future. This idea was formulated in a secret programme composed in 1874 in the circle around Strossmayer and the leadership of the National Party. Strossmayer believed that the mission of the Habsburg Monarchy was to liberate the South Slavs in the Balkans from the Ottoman Empire and to do so via Croatia due to its historical right to Bosnia, yet he sensed that the centralistic / dual Monarchy would restore German and Hungarian hegemony in the Balkans. He was therefore in 1867 prepared to support Serbia’s plans for securing autonomy for Bosnia within the long-term plan for joining with Serbia and the establishment of a South-Slavic state in the Balkans. In 1875, when the uprising in Bosnia and Herzegovina began, Strossmayer endeavoured to persuade Emperor Franz Josef for the Habsburg Monarchy to intervene in Bosnia via Croatia, but failed. He hence decided to support Serbia in its efforts (made in vain) to take possession of Bosnia by fighting a war against Turkey. Later, he intervened with European powers to accept the autonomy of Bosnia and Herzegovina under the patronage of Serbia; however, the Berlin Congress of 1878 entitled the Habsburg Monarchy to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the time of the conflict between Croatian and Serbian policies, which arose from the issue of whom did Bosnia and Herzegovina belong to, Strossmayer strongly disapproved of radical appearances by Croatian and Serbian politicians. He believed that in future, political relations in Europe and the Habsburg Monarchy would change and hence Croatia’s position in the Monarchy would change too, which would be a prerequisite for joining Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatia