Posted by stjepankljujic on October 3, 2003, 4:22 pm, in reply to "Re: We're on the same page" Serbian nationalism is very different from Croat nationalism. Part of it has to do with the national character of their religion
a Catholic who converts to Serbian Orthodoxy instantly becomes a Serb. Plus since Vuk Karadzic, the Serbs have believed that anyone speaking the stokavian dialect is a Serb regardless of religion. The Universal nature of Catholicism means that an Italian in Istra, regardless of his Catholicism, is still Italian. Plus, our literary and linguistic tradition encompasses three distinct traditions
stokavian, cakavian and kajkavian.
Hey Tomislav:
You know
I think we actually agree on most things. But I wanted to get your (and anyone elsess) thoughts on some stuffI brought up earlier.
The Serbian national mythology has been well documented and we should know better than to have anything to do with that rotten bunch. Its well known that the Orthodox religion was tolerated much better by the Turks
Catholicism was the enemy both spiritually as well as politically. The Orthodox church was based in Constantinople and could be easily reigned in while Catholicism was represented by Rome and by hated Austria. The Serb propaganda machine was always better and they have always been more united in both their identity as well as their goals. Its just really a shame that Croatia had a guy like Tudjman leading it who did everything to help the Serbs achieve most of their goals.
But it brings up some very interesting questions and Im going to go back to my earlier characteristics of nationhood.
1. Common territory
2. Common economic life
3. Common language
4. Common psychological makeup
5. Common cultural aspects
In fact, due to all of the obstacles (Turks, Hungarians, language etc) the early national movement in Croatia was actually Illyrian (read up on Ljudevit Gaj) which looked for a union of all Slavs and not necessarily exclusively Croatian. This did evolve later, I think mostly in reaction to the Serbs. It seems that as the Serbs further expand their definitions of Serbdom, we narrow our definitions of Croatness.
Based on the criteria above or anything I might have missed, what defines and unites us as Croats? What does it mean to be a Croat? What is our unifying mythology? Ill start the discussion by saying that I think the continuity of the Croatian Sabor provides a historical continuity. What do you think?
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