Review article
https://doi.org/10.22586/ss.24.1.1
The Phenomenon of National Indifference in Slavonia at the Economic Exhibition in 1864
Dora Tomljanović
Abstract
This paper has analysed the political and economic interconnectedness in the social flow of the elite in civil Croatia and Slavonia using the example of the First Dalmatian-Croatian-Slavonian Economic Exhibition in Zagreb in 1864. As a consequence of the initial title of the exhibition “Croatian States”, suggested by the exhibition board, in the periodicals a conflict between the representatives of Slavonian regionalism and the Croatian national ideology was articulated. The interpretation of Slavonian regionalism was addressed in studies on national indifference as a reaction to Croatian nationalism where it was determined that the main participants of the polemic were polarized with regard to identity. The development and the response to the exhibition has been addressed. The response to the exhibition has been analysed on the basis of the exhibition catalogue and it has been determined that it provided precise statistical information on the number of exhibitors which led to the conclusion that it was necessary to revalorize the given source.
The idea of “awakening” the national unity of the Triune Kingdom came about mainly due to the title of the exhibition “Croatian States” the program of which was published in the newspaper Pozor. In Narodne novine this title was not accepted by a part of the elite of Slavonia, the leader of which was Andrija Torkvat Brlić, former representative of Parliament. By claiming that the title determined the existing regional specificity of Slavonia, Torkvat Brlić prompted the population of Slavonia to boycott the exhibition. In this kind of atmosphere, a polemic between the newspapers Pozor and Narodne novine arose with respect to the exhibition; it grew from being an issue concerning the title into an ideological-political-intellectual conflict concerning issues such as state-judicial relations of the states of the Triune Kingdom as well as the national identification of the Serbian population in Slavonia. The objective of this paper is to define the conflict as a reaction of the Slavonians to the national agitation from Zagreb through the prism of the theoretical framework of national indifference.
Keywords
Economic Exhibition,; 19th century; Triune Kingdom; national identity; national indifference; regionalism
Hrčak ID:
323169
URI
Publication date:
8.12.2024.
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