Illyrian movement
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Illyrian movement (Croatian: Ilirski pokret) was an organization of Croatian intellectuals from the first half of 19th century, which aimed for Croatian national establishment under Austro-Hungarian rule and sought for linguistic and ethnic unity among South Slavs.
In the 19th century, Zagreb was becoming an important political, economical and cultural center. However, Croats felt uneasy with rising Hungarian nationalism at the period, which pursued reduction of the Croatian autonomy and increased Magyarization. In December 1832, a group of young Croatian writers gathered in Zagreb and established a movement for national renewal and unity of all South Slavs in the Monarchy. They selected the Illyrian name instead of "Slavic", as they supported the theory of Illyrian origin of Slavs [[Citing sources citation needed]].
The most important focus of Illyrians was the establishment of standard language as a contrapunct to Hungarian, and promotion of Croatian written literature and official culture. Ljudevit Gaj has written the Croatian ortography and grammar (Kratka osnova horvatsko-slavenskog pravopisanja – Brief basics of the Croatian-Slavonic orthography) in 1830, and count Janko Drašković was the author of political and economic program, titled "Dissertation".
Illyrians issued the first Croatian newspaper, "Novine hrvatsko-slavonsko-dalmatinske" edited by Ljudevit Gaj and magazine "Danica" printed in Gaj's "National print" (Narodna tiskara), establishing Croatian journalism. Composer Vatroslav Lisinski wrote the first opera in Croatian, "Ljubav i zloba" (Love and malice).
The movement's plea for unity among the Slavs, particularly South Slavs, also found supporters among prominent Serbs of the time, most notably Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, the reformer of Serbian language. Illyrians on Croatian side and Vuk and Đuro Daničić from Serbian side signed the "Vienna agreement" 1850 which in effect proclaimed southern Shtokavian dialect to be the standard common language of Serbs and Croats, with Serbian Cyrillic and Croatian as equal letters. The agreement was the basis of subsequent formation of Serbo-Croatian language.
The encounters
However, the movement naturally was not endorsed by Hungarians and pro-Hungarian nobility. In 1843, use of Illyrian name was banned, and struggles in Croatian Sabor were so harsh that they caused unrest on Zagreb streets. On July 29 1845, a bloodshed took place on Marko's square, later known as "July victims".
Aftermath and criticism
Illyrian movement was the first and most prominent Pan-Slavic movement in Croatian history. As such, it formed the basis for common Serbo-Croatian language, and the Croatian support for creation of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918 was to an extent driven by Illyrian ideas. The ultimate failure of idea of Serbo-Croatian unity, ended in bloody Yugoslav wars, and increasing Croatian nationalism during that time span, to an extent affected the criticists of Illyrians as pan-Slavic idealists who attempted to sacrifice Croatian identity for an idealistic Illyrian idea.
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