The Balkans eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 396 pages of information about The Balkans.

The Balkans eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 396 pages of information about The Balkans.

The news of Napoleon’s defeat at Leipsic (October 1813) arrived just after that of the re-occupation of Belgrade by the Turks, damped feu-de-joie which they were firing at Constantinople, and made them rather more conciliatory and lenient to the Serbian rebels.  But this attitude did not last long, and the Serbs soon had reason to make fresh efforts to regain their short-lived liberty.  The Congress of Vienna met in the autumn of 1814, and during its whole course Serbian emissaries gave the Russian envoys no peace.  But with the return of Napoleon to France in the spring of 1815 and the break-up of the Congress, all that Russia could do was, through its ambassador at Constantinople, to threaten invasion unless the Turks left the Serbs alone.  Nevertheless, conditions in Serbia became so intolerable that another rebellion soon took shape, this time under Milo[)s] Obrenovi[’c].  This leader was no less patriotic than his rival, Kara-George, but he was far more able and a consummate diplomat.  Kara-George had possessed indomitable courage, energy, and will-power, but he could not temporize, and his arbitrary methods of enforcing discipline and his ungovernable temper had made him many enemies.  While the credit for the first Serbian revolt (1804-13) undoubtedly belongs chiefly to him, the second revolt owed its more lasting success to the skill of Milo[)s] Obrenovi[’c].  The fighting started at Takovo, the home of the Obrenovi[’c] family, in April 1815, and after many astonishing successes against the Turks, including the capture of the towns of Rudnik, [)C]a[)c]ak, Po[)z]arevac, and Kraljevo, was all over by July of the same year.  The Turks were ready with large armies in the west in Bosnia, and also south of the Morava river, to continue the campaign and crush the rebellion, but the news of the final defeat of Napoleon, and the knowledge that Russia would soon have time again to devote attention to the Balkans, withheld their appetites for revenge, and negotiations with the successful rebels were initiated.  During the whole of this period, from 1813 onwards, Milo[)s] Obrenovi[’c], as head of a district, was an official of the Sultan in Serbia, and it was one of his principles never to break irreparably with the Turks, who were still suzerains of the country.  At the same time, owing to his skill and initiative he was recognized as the only real leader of the movement for independence.  From the cessation of the rebellion in 1815 onwards he himself personally conducted negotiations in the name of his people with the various pashas who were deputed to deal with him.  While these negotiations went on and the armistice was in force, he was confronted, or rather harassed from behind, by a series of revolts against his growing authority on the part of his jealous compatriots.

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The Balkans from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.