Great Serbian Migrations
Encyclopedia
The Great Serb Migrations , also known as the Great Exodus, refers mainly to two large migrations of Serbs
from the Ottoman Empire
to the Habsburg Monarchy
.
The First Serbian Migration occurred during the Great Turkish War
under Patriarch Arsenije III Čarnojević
, and came as a result of the Habsburg retreat from Ottoman territories in the Balkans, which were temporarily held by the Habsburgs between 1689 and 1692. The Second Serbian Migration took place in 1737–1739 under the Patriarch of Peć, Arsenije IV Jovanović, also parallel with the Habsburg withdrawal from territories that they held in the Balkans, which between 1718 and 1739 were known as the Kingdom of Serbia and Banat of Temeswar
.
act of 1630, by which the Habsburgs encouraged their settlement in the Military Krajina region.
in Belgrade
to cross the rivers (and to settle in Habsburg Monarchy), he recognized Patriarch Arsenije III Čarnojević
as their spiritual leader. The Emperor had recognized the Patriarch as deputy-voivode (civil leader of the migrants), which over time developed into the etymology of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina
(this origin of the name of Vojvodina is related to the fact that patriarch Čarnojević and subsequent religious leaders of Serbs in the Habsburg Monarchy had jurisdiction over all Serbs in the Habsburg Monarchy, including Serbs of Vojvodina, and that Serbs of Vojvodina accepted the idea of an separate Serbian voivodeship in this area, which they managed to create in 1848).
In 1694, Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
appointed Arsenije III Čarnojević
as the head of the newly established Orthodox Church in the Monarchy. The patriarchal right of succession was secured by the May Assembly of the Serbian people in Karlovci in 1848, following the proclamation of Serbian Vojvodina
during the Serbian revolution in Habsburg lands 1848-49. Serbs received privileges from the Emperor, which guaranteed them national and religious singularity, as well as a corpus of rights and freedoms in the Habsburg Monarchy
.
Most of the Serbs from this migration settled in the territory of present-day Hungary, while smaller part of them settled in the territory of present-day Croatia and present-day north-western Vojvodina (the rest of Vojvodina was still under Ottoman administration). This, however, did not resulted in a significant increase of existing Serb population in the territory of present-day Vojvodina. Serbs (together with Muslims) were recorded as a dominant population in Vojvodina long before the migration, i.e. in the time of Ottoman administration (16th-17th century).
.
The Second Serb migration from 1739 was of much smaller extent than the first one from 1690 and most of the refugees from the second migration settled in Syrmia.
Data that states that 37,000 families participated in this migration derives from a single source: a Serbian monastic chronicle which was written many years after the event and contains several other errors. Some researchers (for example Frederick Anscombe) maintain that the migrations never took place (or never in such a large scale), and describe the events as a "myth" created to lay claim to the territory of Kosovo
in the 19th century.
, Vojvodina
, and Croatia
(they settled as far in the north as the town of Szentendre
in Hungary, in which they formed the majority of population in the 18th century). To a smaller extent, they also settled in the town Komarno
in Slovakia.
The large Serb migrations from Balkans
to the Pannonian plain started in the 14th century and lasted until the end of the 18th century. The great migrations from 1690 and 1737-1739 were the largest ones and were important reason for issuing the privileges that regulated the status of Serbs within Habsburg Monarchy. The Serbs that in these migrations settled in Vojvodina and Slavonia increased (partly) the existing Serb population in these regions and made the Serbs an important political factor in the Habsburg Monarchy over time.
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
from the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
to the Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
.
The First Serbian Migration occurred during the Great Turkish War
Great Turkish War
The Great Turkish War refers to a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and contemporary European powers, then joined into a Holy League, during the second half of the 17th century.-1667–1683:...
under Patriarch Arsenije III Čarnojević
Arsenije III Carnojevic
Arsenije III Čarnojević was the Archbishop of Peć and Patriarch of Serbs from 1674 to 1691 and Metropolitan of Szentendre from 1691 to his death in 1706.-Family:Arsenije was born to the Cetinje clan of Old Montenegro...
, and came as a result of the Habsburg retreat from Ottoman territories in the Balkans, which were temporarily held by the Habsburgs between 1689 and 1692. The Second Serbian Migration took place in 1737–1739 under the Patriarch of Peć, Arsenije IV Jovanović, also parallel with the Habsburg withdrawal from territories that they held in the Balkans, which between 1718 and 1739 were known as the Kingdom of Serbia and Banat of Temeswar
Banat of Temeswar
The Banat of Temeswar was a Habsburg province that existed between 1718 and 1778. It was located in the present day region of Banat, which was named after this province...
.
Background
The influx of Serbs to the Habsburg Monarchy, constant since the fall of Serbian Despotate in the late 15th century, gained more momentum following the Statuta ValachorumStatuta Valachorum
Statuta Valachorum was the name for a number of laws enacted in the 17th century both by the king of the Habsburg Monarchy as well as the Parliament of Croatia , whose purpose was to...
act of 1630, by which the Habsburgs encouraged their settlement in the Military Krajina region.
First Migration
In 1690, Emperor Leopold I allowed the refugees gathered on the banks of the Sava and DanubeDanube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
to cross the rivers (and to settle in Habsburg Monarchy), he recognized Patriarch Arsenije III Čarnojević
Arsenije III Carnojevic
Arsenije III Čarnojević was the Archbishop of Peć and Patriarch of Serbs from 1674 to 1691 and Metropolitan of Szentendre from 1691 to his death in 1706.-Family:Arsenije was born to the Cetinje clan of Old Montenegro...
as their spiritual leader. The Emperor had recognized the Patriarch as deputy-voivode (civil leader of the migrants), which over time developed into the etymology of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
(this origin of the name of Vojvodina is related to the fact that patriarch Čarnojević and subsequent religious leaders of Serbs in the Habsburg Monarchy had jurisdiction over all Serbs in the Habsburg Monarchy, including Serbs of Vojvodina, and that Serbs of Vojvodina accepted the idea of an separate Serbian voivodeship in this area, which they managed to create in 1848).
In 1694, Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
| style="float:right;" | Leopold I was a Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and King of Bohemia. A member of the Habsburg family, he was the second son of Emperor Ferdinand III and his first wife, Maria Anna of Spain. His maternal grandparents were Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria...
appointed Arsenije III Čarnojević
Arsenije III Carnojevic
Arsenije III Čarnojević was the Archbishop of Peć and Patriarch of Serbs from 1674 to 1691 and Metropolitan of Szentendre from 1691 to his death in 1706.-Family:Arsenije was born to the Cetinje clan of Old Montenegro...
as the head of the newly established Orthodox Church in the Monarchy. The patriarchal right of succession was secured by the May Assembly of the Serbian people in Karlovci in 1848, following the proclamation of Serbian Vojvodina
Serbian Vojvodina
The Serbian Vojvodina was a Serbian autonomous region within the Austrian Empire...
during the Serbian revolution in Habsburg lands 1848-49. Serbs received privileges from the Emperor, which guaranteed them national and religious singularity, as well as a corpus of rights and freedoms in the Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
.
Most of the Serbs from this migration settled in the territory of present-day Hungary, while smaller part of them settled in the territory of present-day Croatia and present-day north-western Vojvodina (the rest of Vojvodina was still under Ottoman administration). This, however, did not resulted in a significant increase of existing Serb population in the territory of present-day Vojvodina. Serbs (together with Muslims) were recorded as a dominant population in Vojvodina long before the migration, i.e. in the time of Ottoman administration (16th-17th century).
Second Migration
The fall of the Habsburg Kingdom of Serbia (1718–1739) to the Ottomans triggered the Second Serb migration into the (rest of the) Habsburg MonarchyHabsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
.
The Second Serb migration from 1739 was of much smaller extent than the first one from 1690 and most of the refugees from the second migration settled in Syrmia.
Number of migrants
Sources are providing different data regarding the number of people in the first migration:- Two statements from Arsenije himself survive. In 1690 he wrote "more than 30,000 souls", and six years later he wrote that is was "more than 40,000 souls".
- more than 60,000 people led by the Patriarch from Belgrade to the Kingdom of Hungary, according to Cardinal Kolonić (Kollonich) in 1703. Nevertheless, Kollonich may have been inclined to exaggerate the number of Serbs that had moved to the Habsburg territory.
- 37,000 families into Habsburg Monarchy, according to a manuscript at Šišatovac monasteryŠišatovac monasteryThe Šišatovac Monastery is a Serb Orthodox monastery situated on the Fruška Gora mountain in the northern Serbia, in the province of Vojvodina. The foundation of the monastery is ascribed to the refugee monks from the Serbian monastery of Žiča...
written by monk Stefan of Ravanica 28 years after the First wave. - 37,000 families, according to a book by Pavle Julinac, printed in 1765.
- 37,000 families led by the Patriarch, according to Jovan Rajić, published in 1794-5.
- 37,000 families led by the Patriarch, according to Johann Engel, published 1801.
- Émile Picot concluded that it was 35,000 to 40,000 families, between 400,000 and 500,000 people. "It is a constant tradition that this population is counted by families, not by heads" also insisting that these were large extended families (see ZadrugaZadrugaA zadruga refers to a type of rural community historically common among South Slavs. The term has been used by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia to designate their attempt at collective farming after World War II....
). - The Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, supports the figure of 37,000 families.
- Tatjana Popović, cites as many as 60,000 Serbian migrant families for the First Serbian migration alone.
- at least 30,000 people, according to Stevan K. Pavlowitch.
- 20,000-30,000 people, according to "Teatri europei".
Data that states that 37,000 families participated in this migration derives from a single source: a Serbian monastic chronicle which was written many years after the event and contains several other errors. Some researchers (for example Frederick Anscombe) maintain that the migrations never took place (or never in such a large scale), and describe the events as a "myth" created to lay claim to the territory of Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
in the 19th century.
Aftermath
Serbs from these migrations settled in parts of present-day HungaryHungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
, and Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
(they settled as far in the north as the town of Szentendre
Szentendre
Szentendre is a riverside town in Pest county, Hungary, near the capital city Budapest. It is known for its museums , galleries, and artists. Due to its picturesque appearance and easy rail and river access, it has become a popular destination for tourists staying in Budapest...
in Hungary, in which they formed the majority of population in the 18th century). To a smaller extent, they also settled in the town Komarno
Komárno
Komárno is a town in Slovakia at the confluence of the Danube and the Váh rivers. Komárno was formed from part of a historical town in Hungary situated on both banks of the Danube. Following World War I, the border of the newly created Czechoslovakia cut the historical, unified town in half,...
in Slovakia.
The large Serb migrations from Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
to the Pannonian plain started in the 14th century and lasted until the end of the 18th century. The great migrations from 1690 and 1737-1739 were the largest ones and were important reason for issuing the privileges that regulated the status of Serbs within Habsburg Monarchy. The Serbs that in these migrations settled in Vojvodina and Slavonia increased (partly) the existing Serb population in these regions and made the Serbs an important political factor in the Habsburg Monarchy over time.
See also
- SerbsSerbsThe Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
- Raci, Hungarian and German demonym for Serbs