Migration Weariness

The office of the Serbian Commissioner for Refugees came up with a secret solution "for the accommodation, or rather the allocation of refugees in certain areas, with the aim of achieving a more even and rational distribution of accommodation and care," causing great agitation in Vojvodina. The Democratic Union of Vojvodina Hungarians (DZVM) protested over the "settling" of some 30,000 Serbs in northern Backa, thus bringing to mind numerous organized or spontaneous settlements in the area of the Danube, Sava, Drava and Morisa rivers.

If we take a look at the times which have left us numerous historical data and facts concerning events in Vojvodina, then it must be said that a greater ethnic confrontation between the Hungarians and the Serbs took place during the 16th century, when before and after the Turkish invasions northwards, the people wandered around between Buda and Belgrade. It is only towards the end of the 17th century that we can speak of settling; after the Turks had been pushed south following their defeat before Vienna in 1683, and after Habsburg Emperor Leopold I broke the back of the Hungarian aristocracy which renounced its electoral rights at the Assembly in Pozun in 1687. Leopold I issued a proclamation on April 6, 1690 calling all Christians and Albanians in the Balkans to rise against the Turks, underscoring that they all came under his authority according to state (Hungarian) law. Leopold I also sent a letter to Serbian Patriarch Arsenije III Carnojevic, promising his people protection, the honoring of earlier privileges, freedom of religion, exemption from higher taxation and levies, the free possession of property on condition that they "did not leave their fields and homes." History has long since marched over this Imperial proclamation, which in a way, legalized the Great Migration of the Serbs from the south to the north, and the promise of a free choice of the Voivoda (duke) led to the name of Vojvodina.

It may sound a bit cynical, but the first organized settlement of Serbs in southern Pannonia started with a late call for an uprising, when the Austrian breakthrough to the south had been stopped and when Patriarch Arsenije III had already "fled" to Belgrade from the Patriarchate in Pec. This settlement was based on a document which apart from the choice of Voivoda, did not offer the Serbs anything which they had not already enjoyed under the Turks.

The Emperor's first protectionist diploma and later confirmations of privileges to the Serbs did not make any mention of territorial autonomy. The Serbs asked for territory in 1694 at the Assembly in Baie and assessed that it should be the land between the Drava and Sava rivers known under the name of Lesser Wallachia. Without going into depth and detail regarding the position of Serbs in the Habsburg Empire, we must recall the Serbs' demands at the Assembly in Timisoara (Temisvar) in 1790. In today's language, the demands asked for territorial autonomy, personal autonomy, a ministry for minorities, a representative in the highest body of authority and separate local bodies of authority. This was all very well, but even then the Serbs' reliance on Imperial benevolence and privileges and insistence on autonomy, prevented them from struggling for civil rights in Hungary (from which the excorporatia of Banat was demanded.) Demarcation has always been difficult in Vojvodina, at all levels, and never it never came cheaply.

The question always cropped up as to who had been there first, and with what rights. Today, as for centuries, the division between the indigenous population and the newcomers in the province still exists. In the practical and not only the philosophical sense of the word, all are settlers in Vojvodina. The Serbs are not the only settlers in Vojvodina. The direct descendants of Hungarians, Ruthenians, Romanians, Slovaks, Germans and Romanies are all settlers. In short, all the citizens of present-day Vojvodina.

Parallel to the settling of Serbs, the Viennese Court was carrying out the organized settling of Germans in Vojvodina. It is easy to say today that the idea had been to drive a German wedge between the Hungarians and Turks (some say between the Serbs in Banat and those in Backa.) There were other political and especially economic reasons, and this is borne out by the fact that even the French and Spanish settled here. The indigenous Serbs and Romanians fled from these newcomers because they were obliged to help them in building their hearths. In 1723 the Court Chamber in Vienna ordered the "Zupans" (Prefects) of the neighboring districts to prevent the fleeing of "nationalists" (Serbs and Romanians.) When the Serbs and Romanians cited their right to emigrate, haiduk guards (nationalhaiducken) were placed along the border to stop them. German principalities recruited adventurers and other riffraff for settlement, transporting them by rafts down the Danube. They were not welcomed in Banat. There is a well-known case when the boatmen unloaded a convoy in Perlez claiming they had arrived in Timisoara. The combination of non-arable land and an unhealthy climate resulted in many dying of hunger, malaria and other illnesses. Craftsmen have left it on record that the puderfabrikanten (wig-makers; peasants wore wigs in those days) fared worst. Maria Theresa's successor Emperor Joseph II was obsessed with the Physiocrats. During his 1784 visit to Vojvodina, the Emperor did not allow the Serbs to leave their fields in favour of German settlers because they, as the indigenous inhabitants, were better farmers. Every Serbian household was worth three times more than a German one, Emperor Joseph II used to say. Later, the opposite case was true. When 400,000 Germans were banished from Vojvodina in 1945, those who moved into their houses found prosperous and well-organized households (at the beginning of the 18th century the Court decreed that every settler's house must have a covered lavatory at the bottom of the yard.)

Joseph II loved farming and in 1781 issued an Edict on Tolerance which opened the doors for settling in Vojvodina to Catholics, Reformists, Protestants, Calvinists, Nazarenes, Evangelists, Uniates etc. The Edict on Tolerance was necessary because when French and German settlers came to live side by side in Banat, in the villages of Saint Hubert, Charleville and Soltour, Latin was adopted as the official language in order to avoid bickering over language.

After the catastrophe at Mohac in 1526, the Hungarians practically disappeared from the area of present-day Vojvodina. There are very few of them in Banat, as the Emperor did not allow them to settle there. At the beginning of the 18th century Hungarian land-owners gradually began to settle the area, and Hungarian settlers arrived in Senta in 1745. The settling was aimed at returning the Hungarian national character to northern Backa. The Hungarians and Germans were incompatible to such a degree that they refused to cooperate in defending the village of Karavukov from floods in 1772. The Hungarians moved to Bogojevo where they lived in harmony with the Serbs.

At the end of this informal history of settling in Vojvodina (one in which every historian will find much to object to), let us return to the "settling" announced by the office of the Serbian Commissioner for Refugees. It is possible that Vojvodina is not tired of settling, but the people living there are probably tired of the political force and favoritism which follows them. An antagonism between the indigenous inhabitants and the newcomers has always existed here. In the 18th century a newcomer wine-grower had the right to sell wine from Archangel Michael's Day until Christmas (a quarter of the year), while the indigenous settler did not. The same holds true today -- a so-called autonomist cannot be a bank manager, editor-in-chief or God forbid, the director of the local television station.