with the
Russians. Along with this future foreign interference in the affairs
of the Balkans came the Germanizing and centralizing "reforms" of Maria
Theresa and Joseph II, whose result was to cripple still further the few
constitutional and historical rights which remained to the Jugo-Slavs.
But these "reforms" had nevertheless salutary effects upon the nation
of peasants. The enlightened despots, spurred on by the loss of
Silesia--which was at the same time a great loss in revenue as well as
prestige--sought to make good the loss by the economic betterment and
education of the peasantry. How else could an agrarian state increase
its revenue and supply able-bodied men for the numerous armies which
the overarmaments of Frederick II had brought upon central Europe?
[FN: Emphasis on this fundamental fact of Habsburg history in the
eighteenth century cannot be too strong. The writer of this paper
hopes soon to present archival proof of the far-reaching results of the
seizure of Silesia. The documents are to be found in the archives of the
_Hofkammer_ and _Ministerium des Innern_ in Vienna.] Centralization and
Germanization really helped to awaken the Slavs. Enlightened despotism
gave them the weapons of political struggle--education and economic
resources.

Of the Jugo-Slavs, the Serbs of Hungary were the first to achieve
national and cultural consciousness. In the absence of a native
nobility, but with unusual economic opportunities at their command, they
developed a wealthy middle class--a rare thing among Slavs before the
middle of the nineteenth century. This class came into contact with
nationalized western Europe and found that the bulwark against national
oppression was education for the masses. The nation must be educated and
must be economically sound in order to undertake the political struggle
against the Germans, the Magyars, and the Turks. That was the background
of Dositej Obradovi[c]'s literary labors as he raised spoken
Serbian ultimately to the literary language of the Jugo-Slavs and of
Karad[z]i[c]'s efforts which resulted in that wonderful collection of
Serbian national poems, and which clinched for all time the literary
supremacy of the _[S]to_ dialect. Serbian Hungary was the starting place
for Kara George's revolution which brought partial freedom in 1804 and
autonomy in 1830 and thus planted the germ of the modern Greater Serbia.
Napoleon's Illyria, created in 1809, joined for the first time Slovene