Vanished kingdoms of Europe 3: Illyria

Nations in, or adjoining, the Balkans in 2020

The Balkan Peninsula, better known as ‘the Balkans’  (since it isn’t, strictly speaking, a peninsula) has almost become a byword for ethnic and internecine strife. For a brief interlude in the past few hundred years it comprised a single, troubled nation of south Slavs* – Yugoslavia, emergent from the Treaty of Versailles - held together by the authoritarian dictator Tito. His death in 1980 was followed by more tragic violence, and a new term ‘balkanization’ entered the lexicon, as local wars and international diplomacy moved the region to new national borders that we recognise today.

The word balkan has its origins in Ottoman Turkish language, meaning ‘chain of wooded mountains’, and for hundreds of years most of the region was part of the great Ottoman Empire. Confusingly the Ottomans referred to it not as Balkans, but as Rumelia – land of the Romans – since, going back further in time it had formed part of the Roman, and then Byzantine, empires.

The term Balkans became preponderant and accepted only during the 19^th century, a paltry two hundred years ago. For millennia before that its western portion, with ever shifting borders,  was known as Illyria.

Illyria was the fictional country setting for Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, though it seems there is no evidence that Shakespeare knew of the real Illyrian lands, which today comprise parts of Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro. Illyria existed through the Greek and Roman eras, disappearing during the Ottoman times, only to resurface in the 19^th century as a kingdom after the Napoleonic wars. It’s another tortuous story.

 

Illyria pre Illyricum. The Zone of influence of the Illyrian tribes

1. Ancient. Earliest mention of Illyria as a land goes back to Greek antiquity, when the northwestern part of the Balkans we recognise today was inhabited by tribes of Illyrian people from about the 10th century BC onward by late bronze age tribes, the Illyrians. At the height of their power, their frontiers extended from the river Danube to the Adriatic sea, and to the east to the Šar Mountains (today in Kosovo and Albania). The Illyrians comprised numerous autonomous tribes, occasionally banding together under strong leadership. In this latter guise their chosen leader, Queen Teuta made the mistake of antagonising the Romans by attacking Sicily, a mere 400 miles away across the Adriatic. This resulted in a series of attacks from Rome, which finally subjugated the country when the last Illyrian king, Genthius, surrendered in 168BC

2. The Roman Era of Illyricum.The Romans created a new province, named Illyricum, in their own style, stretching from modern day Albania in the south to Slovenia in the north and to the River Sava in the east, i.e. covering more of the southern Balkans than Illyria. The Roman Empire was still expanding, and as it moved further to the east, to Constantinople and beyond, Illyricum was divided into Dalmatia, covering most of the Adriatic coast and mountains and Pannonia, more inland and to the north. Illyricum disappeared completely over the next five hundred years, as the Roman Empire split into east and west and struggled to protect its borders. The Goths and Visigoths invaded from the north, and then from the 6^th and 7^th centuries the slav tribes penetrated further into the whole Balkan region.

3. Middle Ages and the Ottomans. The old Illyria was now predominantly Dalmatia, and a number of regional power shifts made their mark.

The Province of Dalmatia at the height of the
Roman Empire

 Byzantium, as the eastern remnant of the great Roman Empire, held an irregular and diminishing control over the region from its capital in Constantinople. Newer powers, Venice - across the Adriatic - and Hungary - to the north of the Danube - moved on Dalmatia from time to time and exerted control. Following the scourge of the Black Death in the mid 14^th century the hold of Byzantium faded away completely, and the depopulated region was significantly weakened, enabling the burgeoning Ottoman Empire to spread westwards into Europe. Through the fifteenth century they gradually took control of most of the Balkans, although most of the mountainous lands were theirs in name only. It was the might of the Habsburg Empire that held the western borders against the Ottomans in their surge against the various forms of Christendom. For two centuries Dalmatia was little more than part of a buffer zone between the two great forces.

4. The Napoleonic Wars. As the impact of the French Revolution reverberated around the world, the 19^th Century saw a return of ‘Illyria’ to the map of Europe. Napoleon’s 1797 adventures against Austria and into Italy created his Cisalpine Republic in north Italy. He then seized Dalmatia after his victory at the Battle of Wagram in 1809, and in the Treaty of Schönbrunn created the Illyrian Provinces, which also included chunks of the Tyrol and other areas around Venice and Trieste. Napoleon thus denied the Austrians access to the Adriatic, and strengthened his own position to enable further eastwards expansion of his own growing empire. His ultimate defeat in 1814 resulted in the provinces reverting to Austrian rule after the Treaty of Vienna in 1814

For those five years 1809-14, the Illyrian Provinces were autonomous jurisdictions of France. Napoleonic systems and codes were introduced, with an imposition of French language, culture and law.  Napoleon introduced a greater national self-confidence and awareness of freedoms, as well as numerous political reforms. Out of this was born, later in the 19^th century, the Illyrian Movement, a South Slav nationalist campaign.

The last incarnation of Illyria was as a 'Kingdom of Illyria', under Austrian rule from 1814 until its eventual demise. Yet another shift of borders took place, losing Dalmatia, and gaining the southern Austria province of Carinthia, and the Istrian peninsula which included the ports of Trieste and Fiume (see below). Its first city was Ljubliana, today Slovenia’s capital. In 1849 it reverted to Austria, but in the 1868 ausgleich  (forming the Austria-Hungary Dual Monarchy) Fiume was given to Hungary, creating an exclave that allowed Hungarian access to the Adriatic to match Austria’s access via Trieste.  

5. World War One  In the build up to declaration of war, French support for the slav cause was influenced by their historical links through the Illryian provinces. (See WW1 Post 8/11/2014) At the end of the war the fates of Trieste and Fiume (today the Croatian city of Rijeka) were the focus of the strong Italian Nationalist movement that forced PM Orlando and Foreign Minister Sonnino to walk out of the Versailles Peace Conference (See WW1 post 28/6/2019). Twenty years later, WW2 saw terrible atrocities as fascist Italian nationalism, supported by Germany ran up against partisan Yugoslavs, whose communist leader was Tito.

Illyria, as a country, as a concept, has something of an idyllic sound to it, like ‘elysian’ or ‘ambrosia’, but far from it. At its birth Illyria may have neighboured Ancient Greece. In its final form the nearest neighbour was Germany. In the Post Tito events of the 1980s and 1990s the cultural, ethnic and religious patchworks within the Balkans re-surfaced. Every country in the Balkans has a bit of Illyria in its history.

*Also included Albania Greece and Bulgaria, although the latter was not part of a peninsula