Szili Ferenc: Kivándorlás a Délkelet-Dunántúlról Horvát-Szlavónországba és Amerikába 1860-1914 (Kaposvár, 1995)

Résumé

nationalism, this time we encounter the practice of the Serbo-Croatian nationalism. Liberalism was not implemented in Croatia-Slavonia at all, because it did not have any traditions. In the issue of education, conflicts came to a head from 1904 when the Julian-schools were established. Nationalism weaved its way through the religion, economy, administration, that is, every aspect of life. Both the governmental bodies and the chief officials of the local administration were nationalists and anti-1 lungarians. Thus nationalism was not exclusively the ..product" of the Hungarian ruling class since it was tangible throughout the Carpathian-basin. Nevertheless, the cohabitation of the nationalities had positive effects too. The Croat, Serb and Shockatz population had the opportunity- to get familiar with the culture and the naturally higher level of production system of the Germans and Hungarians who emigrated to Slavonia. Both the native population and the immigrants were mutually influenced by the customs of dressing, eating and conduct. Through the cohabitation, they developed a feeling of interdependence and mutual respect, they learned things from each other. They showed an example, not in one case, of how to live in peace. It is not they but the rabblerousers of nationalism that are responsible for the conflicts between nations, and these were generally fired knowingly. At the beginning of the century part of the Hungarians who had settled in Croatia-Slavonia set out for America. In 1907 the chief of police of Sopron justified this with the following in one of his reports sent to the Secretary of the Interior; „When asked, the emigrating Hungarians usually named as the reason for their emigration partly the unfavorable and harrassing conduct of the Croatian authorities, partly the deep hatred of the much more uneducated Croats living in the area, and partly the fact that they were not able to maintain their 1 lungarian identities even if they lived in close settlements because they could not send their children to Hungarian schools and thus besides remaining illiterate and totally uneducated they became croatified too." The German nationality took an important part in the emigration too. On account of the traditional order of inheritance, the land was inherited by the firstborn son, the others usually learned a trade. The Germans, who had a higher level of production culture and besides this, they were widely known as hard-working people, belonged to the pioneers of emigration. In proportion to their number, more of them took part in the emigration than the Hungarians both throughout the country and in the region. Lor many people emigration not only meant taking on a job in a foreign country but also the final settlement. Nearly all of them took their families to Slavonia, they were motivated by the acquisition of land. Quite a few of them made good, or at least they rose to the level of becoming fairly well-off farmers. These people not only made their own living better, but also settled the future of their children, at least economically. Nonetheless, they ignored the foreboding clouds of storm of politics and nor did they take notice of its perspective dangers. They would at no cost leave the land they had acquired, therefore they couldn't but undertake the disparaging lot of ethnic minorities. The emigration to America is different from this, the majority of people went overseas so as to find work. But even among these there were some who consciously wanted to make a fortune. They sold land, borrowed loans, and in many cases, the family and the relations raised the necessary amount of money for the trip. Among