Original scientific paper
SENJ AND SENJ CITIZENS IN PARTY OF LAW MOVEMENT IN 1880’s
JASNA TURKALJ
Abstract
The crisis in Senj’s economy in the 1870’s had influenced the political orientation of independent citizens who in the second half of the 1870’s sympathised with the ideas of Ante Starčević and his Party of Law which returned to the Croatian political scene in that period surviving the crisis after the Rakovica Uprising in 1871. During 1880’s Senj was known as a ‘tower’ of the Party of Law and their stronghold in Civil Croatia in which the ‘uprising’ ideas spread amongst the whole nation. Senj citizens chose the Party of Law candidate in elections of 1878, 1881, 1884 and 1887 (although those elections were annulated). The town of Senj was important to the movement of the Party of Law in the 1880’s for spreading ideas to the areas of the ex-Military Border and especially to the ex-Upper Military Border territory where people were more oriented to Senj in economical and traffic and transport senses. During elections for the Croatian parliament in 1883 in the ex-Military Border area, candidates from the Party of Law from Senj participated for the first time. They also campaigned for more Party of Law candidates in Lika-Krbava County. Pejačević and Khuen’s government put pressure on the town of Senj because of its sympathy for the Party of Law. Government commissioners had expelled members of the Party of Law in Senj illegally. They wanted to extinguish the spirit of the party from the town’s government and from the clerics and teachers. They tried to make a politically loyal town from this ‘Party of Law stronghold’. During Khuen’s government in Croatia in the elections in Senj the majority was won by the Popular Party, but Senj stayed loyal to the ‘Party of Law’.
Keywords
SENJ AND SENJ CITIZENS; LAW MOVEMENT
Hrčak ID:
17876
URI
Publication date:
29.12.2003.
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