33.3 Europe: a.d. 1801 to 1900  (Page 2/27)

Early in the century Adamantois Korais created a new Greek literary medium, designed to emphasize connection with the classical tongue and to purify the language from heavy infiltration of Italian and Turkish words. (Ref. 139 , 8 )

Upper balkans

From a material standpoint the Balkans lagged behind most of Europe. Panes of glass were not commonly seen in Serbia until this century and were still a rarity in Belgrade in 1808. (Ref. 260 ) In 1804 Serbian highlanders, under the rich peasant Kara-george, rose against the local Turks. The fierce fighting continued for several years and was finally put down by Turkish armies. Karageorge fled to Austria, but in 1815 Milos Obrenovic led a new revolt and that one succeeded so that Serbia proclaimed autonomy in 1830. In 1859 the areas of Moldavia and Wallachia became united as Romania, independent of Turkey. A native king was soon disposed and a Hohenzollern became Carol I, recognized in Europe as the sovereign of an independent Romania. Later in the century nationalist ideas spread rapidly throughout the entire Balkan area, but linguistic groups were so mixed up that a division on that basis became impossible. Languages included Romanian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Macedonian, Greek, Albanian, Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian and Hungarian with still some other minor ones, so that many conflicting national claims were made. Russia tried to intervene again in 1877, but the great powers again made her back down. Both Serbia and Romania became truly independent in 1878, although Romania had been united since 1859. Bosnia rebelled between 1875 and 1878, when Austria was permitted to proclaim a "protectorate" over it as Bosnia-Hercegovina. The Bulgarians rose up against Turkish rule in 1876 and after initial defeat were finally helped to independence by Russia in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 and the subsequent Congress of Berlin. The Bulgarian state, however, was reduced to but a shadow of its former self. The remainder of Europe would not accept that situation immediately, so formal independence was not acknowledged until 1908. We have mentioned that Thessaly was added to Greece in 1881.

Greek merchant shippers constituted a limited area of transmission between the Orthdox Balkan Society and western Europe. On the cultural level, Karadjich and Obradovich used the peasant dialect of Herzegovina as the basis for literary Serbian, replacing the old standard, which was based on Church Slavonic. This allowed Serbian and Croatian languages to converge and made modern Yugoslavia a possibility. (Ref. 68 , 206 , 8 )

Italy

Napoleon transformed Italy into a kingdom, with himself as king, putting one of his family as viceroy of Italy and another as king of Naples. Pope Pius VII was kidnapped and held captive until Napoleon's downfall in 1814. Thereafter Italy became in part under Austria's control, part under the Bourbon Ferdinand and part under the House of Savoy. Minor revolts, which occurred in Naples and Piedmont in 1821 and in Parma, Modena and Romagna in 1830-31, had no national aims, but later uprisings were more forceful. In July, 1848 Charles Albert of Piedmont was decisively beaten by Austrians at Custozza in Venetia. This led to a closer union of Austria and Prussia, while Italy remained divided. Further war against Austria in 1858 and 1859, with French support, resulted in the union of Sicily, Naples, Umbria, Romagna and Marches with Piedmont-Sardinia under Camillo Benso di Cavour, prime minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia. He was one of the great European statesmen of those times. Victor Emmanuel II was king of Sardinia at the time and it was he, along with Cavour, who secured France's aid in throwing off the yoke of Austria.