THE ETHNIC ROOTS OF THE CROATIAN AND BOSNIAN SERBS

Abstract

Autor nastoji dati odgovor na pitanje kome pripadaju Srbi Bosne i Hrvatske. Da bi riješio to veoma složena pitanje, govori najprije o prvim obrisima srednjovjekovnih Vlaha Romana kao posebnoj postslavenskoj romanskoj skupini iz koje se oblikuju poznati balkanski i starohrvatski Vlasi. Seobe balkanskih Vlaha u Bosnu i zemlje Hrvatskoga Kraljevstva čvrsto povezuje uz tursku agresiju, a završnu fazu vlaške kolonizacije od Drave do Jadranskog mora uz vojne potrebe Habsburgovaca. Srbizaciji Vlaha u tijeku XIX. stoljeća daje presudno značenje u zatiranju staroga vlaškog korijenja. Polazeći od različitih povijesnih procesa zaključuje da današnji Srbi Bosne i Hrvatske pripadaju skupini balkanskih Vlaha, zagonetnom svijetu Balkana.The author attempts to trace the roots of the Croatian and Bosnian Serbs. In order to solve this complex puzzle of the historical science, he talks first about the initial appearance of the medieval Romance speaking Vlachs as a separate post-Slavic Roman group from which the Balkan and old-Croat Vlachs had been formed. He establishes a firm connection between migration of the Balkan Vlachs and the Turkish aggression in which they form a substantial element. The second portion of the article deals with the Turkish conquests in Croatiaand with the geography of the Balkan Vlachs enclaves from the Drava River to the Adriatic, since the Turkish colonization is followed by that of Austria which from the second part of the 16th to the end of the 17th centuries brought Vlachs from the Turkish Empire to the lands of the Croatian Kingdom. In a long history of the Balkan Vlachs from Romance speaking to present day Croatian and Bosnian Serbs, the author considers their serbization as a fundamental question. He establishes that the pre-Turkish Serbian state and its institutions had no time to »serbicize« Vlachs, since it soon fell under the Turkish dominance; that process was not finished until the 19th century. Furthermore, the process of serbization, of Vlachs has been accomplished through the Serbian Orthodox Church in Dalmatia and the Military Frontiers (Vojna Krajina), i. e., in the territories of the Croatian Kingdom, together with Bosnia, where Vlachs found their final domicil. The Church had the most decisive role in the serbization process of Vlachs in the initial and middle phases; in the final phase, the most significant role was played by the newspaper Srbobran in the 80\u27s and 90\u27s of the 19th century. On the basis of the preceding analysis, the author concludes that present day Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia ethnically do not make part of the Serb nation