Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
No war, no strife shall hold its sway;
Who long to see
That all men free
No more shall foes, but neighbours be.
Romantic Nationalism & the 1848 Constitution
The period of so-called Romantic Nationalism (1814-48), also known as the Vormärz
(pre-March) period in reference to the revolution that broke out across much of Central
Europe in March 1848, was one of intensive literary and cultural activity and led to the
promulgation of the first Slovenian political program. Although many influential writers
published at this time, no one so dominated the period as the poet France Prešeren
(1800-49). His bittersweet verse, progressive ideas, demands for political freedom and
longings for the unity of all Slovenes caught the imagination of the nation then and ever
since.
In April 1848 Slovenian intellectuals drew
up their first national political program under
the banner Zedinjena Slovenija (United Slove-
nia). It called for the unification of all historic
Slovenian regions within an autonomous unit
under the Austrian monarchy, the use of
Slovene in all schools and public offices, and
the establishment of a local university. The demands were rejected, as they would have re-
quired the reorganisation of the empire along ethnic lines. Slovenes of the time were not
contemplating total independence. Indeed, most looked upon the Habsburg Empire as a
protective mantle for small nations against larger ones they considered predators such as
Italy, Germany and Serbia.
The only tangible results for Slovenes in the 1848 Austrian Constitution were that laws
would henceforth be published in Slovene and that the Carniolan (and thus Slovenian)
flag should be three horizontal stripes of white, blue and red. But the United Slovenia pro-
gram would remain the basis of all Slovenian political demands up to 1918, and political-
cultural clubs and circles began to appear all over the territory. Parties first appeared to-
ward the end of the 19th century, and a new idea - a union with other Slavs to the south -
was propounded from the 1860s onward.
Josip Broz Tito was born in 1892 in Kumrovec, just
over the Štajerska border in Croatia, to a Slovenian
mother and a Croatian father.
