Bosnia figured in all Croatian national-political conceptions of the 19th century as an important part of Croatian or a wider South Slavonic historical, political and national territory. This paper examines the position of Bosnia in the first exclusively Croatian national-integrational ideology formulated by the Party of Rights’ founders Ante Starčević and Eugen Kvaternik at the turn of 1860s. The ideological system of these influential political thinkers and ideologues was based on the notion of a Croatian “state right” stemming from the presumable existence of continuous Croatian statehood since the Middle Ages. They were convinced that Croats have an unalienable right to form an independent nation state within its alleged historical borders. In their opinion the original Croatian state was founded in the 7th century and encompassed most of the Slavonic South including Bosnia. Therefore they refused any other nation’s claim to this land which they believed to be a historical part of Croatia. In accordance with the notion of a Croatian “state right” and the concept of the political nation they also considered all inhabitants of Bosnia to be Croats. This paper deals with all aspects of the ideology of Starčević and Kvaternik related to Bosnia and Bosnians. It is based on the analysis of their books, brochures, articles, speeches and correspondence.
The paper characterizes a position of Bosnia in Croatian national ideology of the initial period of Croatian national integration marked by the Illyrian movement of 1830s and 1840s. A primary goal of Croatian national politics in the 19th century was a restauration of a territorial integrity of the Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia a Dalmatia. Western regions of Ottoman Bosnia were considered to be an integral part of Croatian kingdom by Croatian politicians and ideologues (Turkish Croatia). Bosnia simultaneously figured in all Croatian national-integrational conceptions including Illyrism as a part of Croatian or a wider South Slavonic national territory. However, the role of Bosnia in Croatian politics and national integration in the 19th century has not been paid much attention in historiography so far. The study is based on the analysis of contemporary treatises, proclamations, brochures, articles and programmatic manifestos of political nature, as well as on the interpretation of literary works published by adherents of Illyrism.
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