Ante Starčević ( ; 23 May 1823 – 28 February 1896) was a Croatian politician and writer. His policies centered around Croatian state law, the integrity of Croatian lands, and the right of his people to self-determination. As an important member of the Croatian parliament and the founder of the Party of Rights he has laid the foundations for Croatian nationalism. He has been referred to as Father of the Nation due to his campaign for the rights of Croats within Austria-Hungary and his propagation of a Croatian state in a time when many politicians sought unification with other South Slavs.
Biography Life Starčević was born in the village of Veliki Žitnik near Gospić, a small town in the Military Frontier within the Austrian Empire, to a Catholic Croat father Jakov and Orthodox Serb mother Milica (). Starčević's formative years were influenced by his uncle Šime Starčević, a Catholic priest with strong Illyrian sympathies who supported the brief Napoleonic occupation of Dalmatia and compiled an Illyrian–French dictionary. From the age of thirteen to sixteen, his educational foundation was formed by Šime's teachings, including Latin and the Shtokavian Croatian dialect.
In 1845, he graduated from Classical Gymnasium in Zagreb. He then briefly continued his studies at the seminary in Senj, but soon moved to Pest in 1845 to attend a Roman Catholic theological seminary, graduating in 1846. Upon his graduation Starčević returned to Croatia and continued studying theology in Senj. Rather than becoming a priest, he decided to engage in secular pursuits and started working at Ladislav Šram's law firm in Zagreb. He then tried to get an academic post with the University of Zagreb but was unsuccessful, so he remained in Šram's office until 1861 when he was appointed chief notary of Fiume County. That same year, he was elected to the Croatian Parliament as the representative of Fiume and founded the original Croatian Party of Rights with Eugen Kvaternik. He was also a member of the committee of Matica ilirska, a Croatian cultural society connected with the Illyrian movement, in the Historical Society and in the editorial board of Neven, a literary magazine. Starčević would be reelected to the parliament in 1865, 1871, and from 1878 until his death.
In 1862, when Fiume was implicated in participation in protests against the Austrian Empire, he was suspended and sentenced to one month in prison as an enemy of the regime. In 1871 he was arrested again following the Rakovica revolt that was launched by Kvaternik, which sought independence from Habsburg rule. The revolt drew both Serb and Croat peasants but was quashed after three days by Imperial troops. Despite having nothing to do with the rebellion, the authorities imprisoned Starčević and abolished the Party of Rights. He spent 75 days in prison; after his release he worked as a clerk in the law office of his relative, David Starčević. The two were first cousins once removed: David's grandfather (also named David) and Ante's father Jakov were brothers. Regardless, David referred to Ante as "uncle", and Ante referred to David as "nephew" and historiography generally accepted those labels.
In his old age, he moved to Starčević House (), built for him by the Croatian people in 1895. He died in his house less than a year later, aged 73. According to his wish, he was buried in the Church of St Mirko in the Zagreb suburb of Šestine. His bust was made by Ivan Rendić. On his deathbed, he requested that no monuments be raised to his honor, but his statue was put up in front of Starčević House in 1998.
Political activity
By the 1850s Croatian ideologies of national identity were split between Yugoslavism, which grew upon the Illyrian movement and advocated for unity between South Slavs as a way to sustain the Croatian nation, and exclusive Croatian nationalism. Starčević and Kvaternik rejected the Yugoslav framework and deemed that a revolution like the French Revolution was necessary to liberate Croatia from Austrian control.
As the chief notary in Fiume in 1861, Starčević wrote "the four petitions of the Rijeka county". He pointed out that Croatia needed to determine its relationships with Austria and Hungary through international agreements. He demanded the reintegration of the Croatian lands, "the large kingdom of Croatia of old" (the medieval Kingdom of Croatia), the homeland of one people, "with the same blood, language, past and (God willing) future".
His desire for independence from Austria became the basis for his founding of the Party of Rights with Kvaternik. The party's initial slogan was: "" (). Along with Kvaternik, he viewed Austria as the "sworn historic enemy" of the Croats, and did not accept Hungary's governing authority over Croatia. In achieving political goals, the party rejected any cooperation with Vienna or Budapest, or Serbs. The party therefore did little work in the parliament and gained a reputation for being difficult and unreasonable.
Starčević advocated the resolution of Bosnian issues by reforms and cooperation between the people and the nobility. Starčević believed that Bosniaks were "the best Croats", and claimed that "Bosnian Muslims are a part of the Croatian people and of the purest Croatian blood".
With the speech he held in the Parliament on 26 June 1861, Starčević initiated the campaign aimed at rehabilitation of Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan, executed in 1671 by Leopold I for the Magnate conspiracy.
From his first writings of 1861, until his last speech, Starčević tried to prove that the main and lasting thing was to get rid of Austrian intimidation and that for the Croatian people there was no life or happier future "until it's no longer under Austria-Hungary." He took up the hostile stance towards the "mindset called Austria, in which governments and rulers (...) conspired against the peoples."
Starčević saw the main Croatian enemy in the Habsburg monarchy. He believed in the ability of the Croatian people to govern themselves and that sovereignty grew from the nation, the people, and not from the ruler that governed "by the Grace of God". "God and Croats" was the essence of Starčević's political ideas. Under the influence of the ideas of the French Revolution, he fought against feudalism and advocated for the democratization of political life.Barišić 2000, pp.105-120 In politics, he relied on townsmen, wealthier peasantry, and intellectuals.
Ideology Starčević was at first a proponent of the Illyrian movement, later he adopted ideological views from the French period such as nationalism and liberalism. He developed his personal, as well as party ties around Croatian nationalism, liberalism in regards to freedom and liberties of peoples and nations, religious pluralism and parliamentary monarchism.ABM, Monarhizam kao ideologija i pokret u 21.st., Obnova magazine, no 8, p: 86Author: Leo Marić, Name: Made in Europe? Europski utjecaji na hrvatski nacionalizamAnte Starčević, svojim političkim spisima redovno rabi podjelu političkih sustava na monarhije, republike i despocije, pri čemu je on sâm zagovornik ustavne monarhije., (3.3.2019.), http://www.obnova.com.hr/radovi/autori/86-made-in-europe-europski-utjecaji-na-hrvatski-nacionalizam He espoused the idea of a Greater Croatia that would spawn modern-day Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia and viewed all South Slavs who inhabited the regions as Croats, regardless of their religion. For Starčević, Croatia included all the territory from the Alps in the north to Macedonia and the Bulgarian border to the south. The Bulgarians and Croats were the only South Slavic nations.
Literary and linguistic work
In addition to his political activities, Starčević was a theologian, philosopher and writer. He wrote literary criticisms, short stories, newspaper articles, political satire, philosophical essays and poems. He was also a translator.
His travelogue From Lika was published in Kušlan's magazine Slavenski Jug on 22 October 1848. He wrote four plays in the period 1851–52, but only the Village Prophet has been preserved.Dubravko Jelčić, Politika i sudbine: eseji, varijacije i glose o hrvatskim političarima, Školska knjiga, Zagreb, 1995., , pp. 20-21. His translation of Anacreon from Ancient Greek was published in Danica ilirska in 1853. He provided critical reviews of Ignjat Đurđević's various poems.
In 1850, inspired by Ljudevit Gaj, Starčević started working on the manuscript of Istrian Demarcation, a Croatian document from 1325. He transcribed the text from the Glagolitic alphabet to the Latin alphabet, analysed it and published it in 1852. In the foreword, Starčević elaborated his linguistic ideas, specifically that the mixture of all three Croatian dialects (Shtokavian, Chakavian and Kajkavian) and the Frontier dialect, with its 600-year history, was the Croatian language. Starčević accepted the etymological orthography and used the Ekavian accent for his entire life, considering it the heir of the old Kajkavian. He did not use assibilation, coarticulation nor assimilation, accepted in Croatian orthography since Ljudevit Gaj. His orthography was adopted by the Ustasha regime in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). His language is a "synthetic" form of Croatian, never used before or after him, most similar to the Ozalj idiom of Petar Zrinski, whom he probably never read.Lika i Ličani u hrvatskom jezikoslovlju, (Lika and Its People in Croatian Linguistics), Proceedings of the Scientific Symposium of Days of Ante Starčević
Starčević stated his opposition to the Vienna Language Agreement of 1850 in which Serb and Croat linguists agreed on a foundation of a Serbo-Croatian language based on the Shtokavian dialect. He also opposed the linguistic concepts of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić and published articles attacking his proposals. Starčević denied the existence of a Serb identity and therefore advocated for a Croatian language. His position mirrored Karadžić's from the opposite end, as Karadžić viewed all Shtokavian speakers as Serbs while Starčević viewed them all as Croats.
When Srbski dnevnik from Novi Sad published an article saying that "Croatians write in Serbian", Starčević wrote in response: "Instead of claiming that the Croats use anything else but the Croatian language, those writers who consider themselves Serbs (or whatever they like) would do well to write in the educated and pure Croatian language, like some of them are already doing, and they can call their language Coptic for all I care." He published the reply as an unsigned article in Narodne novine, the newspaper of Ljudevit Gaj, so the Serbian side attacked Gaj, wrongly attributing the article to him. Starčević subsequently proclaimed he was the author, not Gaj, who cared to maintain good relations with Serbia, distanced himself from his friend.
Starčević was the only Croatian politician from his era respected by writer Miroslav Krleža.Miroslav Krleža o hrvatskoj historiografiji i hrvatskoj povijesti Krleža used to compare Starčević's struggles to those of Don Quixote's. For Miroslav Krleža, Starčević has been the most intelligent Croatian politician. Krleža, however, did not pay much attention to political aspects of his works.
In 1869, he published an affirmative article on the Ottoman Empire and Islam.Krleža, Miroslav (1975). Panorama pogleda, pojava i pojmova. Oslobođenje.
Assessment Starčević promoted the "principle of nationality", according to which every nation must have a state. Starčević advocated Croatia's independence from the Austrian Empire and viewed Austria as a "sworn historical enemy", but did not support the use of force. For him, there was only one Croatian state right, which belonged to the Croatian people. This became the central constituent of his ideology. He saw the foundations of the new state in the ideas of the French Revolution, and supported universal suffrage.