By ALEXANDER MÁRKI, Professor of University.
Translated from t h e Hungárián by Dr. MARIA PELL.
Even at the time of the Conquest of Hungary (896—900), the Magyars extended their raids to the shores of the Adriatic. Stephen, the first Hungárián King, (1001—38) cherished the hope of advancing the frontiers of his empire to the sea. This expansion however only became possible after the intervening territory of Croatia-SIavonia had been occupied by St. Ladislaus (1077—95). It w a s Kálmán, called „Könyves" (Bookish) (1095—1116) who realised the ambition of his ancestors and in 1096 took possession of the sea-board with its principal ports Zara, T r a u , Spalato etc. of which the most important w a s Zara Vecchia — a port which for centuries bore the Hungárián náme of Tengerfehérvár (Fehér-vár on Sea).
Dalmatia, however, w a s recognised as Hungárián territory neither by the Venetians nor by the Greeks. T h o u g h the Venetians lent ships to the Hungarians and were not averse to transporting Hungárián cargoes, they nevertheless waged war on the Hungarians. T h e only markét for Venetian wares southvvard and eastward of the Adriatic w a s Hungárián territory, for, at that time not only Croatia and Dalmatia but alsó Bosnia belonged to Hungary. In 1181 „the whole littoral" w a s under the rule of the Hungárián „Bán" (Governor).
On the 24th of Nov. 1202 the Venetians, with the help of the Crusaders, seized Zara, but they were excommunicated by the Popé w h o alsó compelled them to pay an indemnity to Hungary. Andrew II., (1204—1235) with a view to protecting his sea-board from further attacks of this kind, planned the creation of a navy, but was compelled to relinguish his project. In the Crusade which he led to the Holy Land, he had to content himself with transporting his troops on Venetian ships. He w a s the first Hungárián king w h o sailed with an army from a Hungárián port for a campaign on an other continent. Twenty three
T H E HISTORY O F H U N G Á R I Á N R U I . E ON T H E A D R I A T I C . 1 7
years later, when the Tartars, in their endeavour to extend their empire from the Yellow Sea to the Adriatic, invaded Hungary, the Hungárián King Adalbert IV. (1241) took refuge on the Adriatic Islands. Owing his rescue to the hospi-tality of the Islanders, he bestowed on them great privilegies, by which they were to be, in future, independent of the Venetians and Greeks. In 1276 however, the Venetians again declared that the Adriatic belonged to the Republic.
When the national dynasty of the Árpád family became extinct with the death of King Andrew III. in the year 1801, the inhabitants of the littoral joined the dynasty of the Anjous of Naples, in the hope that the rulers of the Tyrrhenic and of part of the Jonic, would assist them in creating a Hungárián navy and thus free them from the tutelage of Venetia. But although the sea was freed from the piracy of the Croat Brebiris by the united efforts of the two states, Venetia still laid claims to the whole seashore, so that the Hungárián King Louis the Great, (1342—1382) was compelled to declare war against Venetia (1346). He forced the Republic in a Treaty signed on Feb. 18, 1358, to surrender the coast from Quarnero to Durazzo, and in a supplementary treaty, Venetia undertook to build in her docks and to deliver to Hungary a fleet of 24 galleys. But Venetia not only failed to fulfil her obligations, but by blocading the Dalmatian coast alsó prevented King Louis from equipping on his own shores a navy which h e needed to fight against the T u r k s both in the Adriatic and on the Black Sea (the Eastern frontier of his empire). Louis on the other hand demanded the freedom of the sea (mare liberum). After a war of three years, in which he w a s assisted by Genoa, Louis forced Venetia to concede his demand for the freedom of the sea. According to the Peace-Treaty of Torino (Aug. 8, 1381) Venetia w a s to pay on St. Stephen's day each year the sum of 7000 ducats to the Hungá-rián King, in Zara (the capital of Dalmatia, then belonging to Hungary); the subjects of the t w o countries were to enjoy freedom of communication by sea and by land, but Venetian warships were not to enter Hungárián ports.
When Sigismund, the son in law of Louis, succeded to the throne, the inhabitants of the littoral were again inclined to favour the Anjous of Naples, because, with the support of the Neapolitan fleet they might really have acquired the hegemony of the Adriatic. A pretender of the family Anjou, Ladislaus of Naples, however, sold for a hundred thousand ducats all the coastal fortresses and cities together with the adjacent islands and alsó the sovereign rights over Dalmatia to the Republic of Venetia, on 9 June 1409, and the Venetians w h o had completed the transaction in bad faith, immediatly seized possession of the purchased property. In response to this act of aggression Sigismund declared war on the Venetians and defeated them in the battle of Motta. In negotiating
for peace, Sigismund demanded that the Venetians should restore Dalmatia to his empire and should pay him an indemnity of 6000 ducats. He continued the war, but found himself compelled to gi.ve the towns of Szepes County in pledge to Poland in return for the money he required for the payment of mercenaries.
He appointed the admiral of Genoa, Doria Ugotini, to act as Hungárián admiral.
Hampered by the affairs of the Germán Román Empire and of the Church, Sigismund concluded an armistice vith the Venetians on 12 Aug. 1413.
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quently by the Peace-Treaty of Triest he ceded the best parts of .Dalmatia to Venetia. The Hungarians withdrew their troops, but yet they did not renounce their rights to the seashore.
At this epoch ihe neglect of the sea and the failure to create a fleet capable of resisting the growth of Turkish naval power, were of disastrous consequence to the whole of Europe. In 1489, King Matthevv, who was desirous of recovering at least that part of the coast which had come into the possession of the Habsburgs, entered into negotiations wiih the Emperor Frederic III. with a view to surrendering Vienna and the other Austrian territories which he had seized from the Emperor, in return for the cession of Trieste and Fiume. But
King Matthew died within a year, before completing the transaction, and his successor, Ulászló II. had no interest for the Adriatic. The French delegate Louis Hélien, in a pamphlet written in the year 1510, expressed his indignation at the conduct of Venetia, emphasising the fact that the Republic had robbed the Hungárián King of 3 0 0 islands, 10 episcopal towns and two countries {Dalmatia and Liburnia) i. e. the whole Hungarian-Croatian seashore. The Crusade proclaimed against the T u r k s in 1514 — which had alsó the object of recovering the seashore — ended in the Peasants' Revolt. 12 years later in the battle of Mohács, fought against the T u r k s (1526), Hungary lost his position of supremacy and later, in 1541, when the Turks captured Buda, she lost alsó her territorial integrity. Although dismembered, the country still imposed on the King by the Acts of Parliament of 1608, 1630 and 1638 the obligation to „never concede that the natural boundaries of Hungary at the Adriatic should be destroyed cr alienated" and a Law of 1649 urged him to re-annex the Fiume district.
T h e Hungárián seashore the greatest part of which had been occupied two centuries earlier through cunning and purchase by Venetia, was in 1670 the .acknowledged property of Turkey. It w a s for this reason that Venetia joined in the league against the T u r k s for the deliverance of Hungary. The Peace-Treaty of Karlóca (1699) however, secured only small stretches of the seashore to the two states. A Hungárián memoir urged Leopold I. to secure somé ports of the Adriatic together with freedom of navigation, not to cede the Adriatic com-merce to the Venetians, and to make treaty with Genoa for the transport of nierchandise from Buccari, Carlopago and other places.
Duke Francis Rákóczy II., the leader of the Hungárián insurrection planned a Hungárián—Venetian alliance and warned the Republic that the Emperor would not content himself with the recovery of Dalmatia, but (as indeed hap-pened 90 years later) would alsó occupy Venetia and so Austria would acquire the supremacy in the Adriatic and in Italy. Nevertheless, Venetia allied with Austria and in addition to her Dalmatian seashore, acquired the territories of Bosnia and Hercegovina, through the Treaty of Pozserovác on 21 July 1718.
T h e Hungárián King had to content himself with the seashore from Carlopago to Fiume.
Henceforth the Habsburgs bestowed more care on the Quarnero (the northeast part of the Adriatic). Charles III. declared Fiume which w a s still under Austrian rule, for free port and had a road built from Károlyváros to Fiume
T H E H I S T O R Y O F H U N G Á R I Á N R U L E ON T H E ADRIATIC. 1 9
for ihe transportation of Hungárián products. T h e most important port of the Hungárián 'seashore w a s still Buccari, the centre of the cattle trade, and the naval base was Porto Ré.
It w a s Queen Mária Theresia who on 6 Aug. 1776, with all ceremonies reannexed Fiume together with the districts of Buccari and Vinodoli to Hungary.
In 1779 Fiume w a s incorporated as „corpus separatum" by the Article of Law XI. of that year. At that time the port w a s visited by 1953 ships which imported rice, oil, coffee, sugár, cotton, salt and pepper to the value of 895.072 florins, and exported wheat, tobacco, wool, wood and salted meat to the value of 978.234 florins. In 1797 the greater part of Dalmatia revolted against the Venetians and acknowledged the sovereignty of the Hungárián King by following his general's commands. By the Peace of Campoformio Francé awarded both Venetia and Dalmatia to Austria, the Austrian Emperor having a right to Dal-matia only in virtue of his quality of Hungárián King. The Hungárián Parliament did not then protest against this award, but, in 1807, when Dalmatia had already
been two years under French rule, the Parliament made a declaration to the effect that Fiume belonged to Hungary. The Hungárián Parliament, however could not prevent Fiume being attached to and governed by Francé together with the Hungárián seashore and Croatia, in accordance with the Peace of Viennea concluded Oct. 14, 1819. All these territories became free after the w a r of 1813 and were re-awarded by the Congress of Viennea to Francis I., the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, who, however reunited Fiume and the seashore to Hungary only on July 5, 1822. T h e Hungárián mercantile fleet, comprising the ships of the Hungárián coast, of Dalmatia (then injustly under Austrian goverment), and the Croatian military territory, possessed already in 1837, 72 large ocean-going vessels and a large n u m b e r of coasting vessels — altogether a totál of 1481 ships, of 36,780 tonnage. Ten years later, the traffic in the port of Fiume for that year w a s : 5320 arrivals and 5369 departures of ships carrying 120,862 tons of merchandise valued at 5 millión florins. Fiume had in 1837, 36 ships and ten years later 79 big s h i p s ; there w a s one year in which 26 ships were built. For the strengthening of the Hungárián navy the seashore government elaborated excellent plans in which alsó the inhabitants of the Hungárián Plain took great interest, their attention being drawn to the sea by Kossuth; for the new epoch created new needs. Moreover Kossuth, as governor of Hungary fighting for its freedom, made a treaty with Venetia in Ancona on the 20-th of May 1849, to obtain help in organising a Hungárián navy. But both land were defeated and Fiume togethei with the seashore became an Austrian province. At last after the Compromise Agreement between Austria and Hungary (1867), Fiume and the seashore were reannexed to Hungary by the Article of Law XXX. of 1868; as Croatia and alsó Dalmatia de jure were then joined to Hungary, the Hungárián seashore extended de jure from Fiume to Spizza, but de facto Dalmatia remained under Austrian administration and constituted an independent customs district.
Fiume and the seashore were governed from 1867 to 1870 by a Royal Commissioner and later by a Governor. The first Governer, Eugen Zichy
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2 0 A T E N G E R .
immediatly set about regulating the harbour of Fiume. T h e work of building w a s directed by Anton Hajnal according to plans revised by the French engineer, Pascal. At the end of the century the country's first modern harbour was complete, and fully equipped with moles, piers, docks, warehouses, landing-stages, elevators, lighthouses etc. In the neighbourhood of the port there arose a number of great factories, notably : the State Tobacco Factory, the Whitehead Torpedo Factory, starch-, sugár- and paper mills, oil refineries etc. Of vitai importance for the development of the Hungárián navy were the docks of the „Danubius"
Company, fitted up for the building of the largest cruisers and dreadnoughts.
The railway line between Fiume and Budapest w a s opened for traffic in the year 1873. This mountain railway is one of the most magnificent of its kind on the Continent and w a s built with a view of accelerating and cheapening the transport of Hungary's agricultural products to the sea-board.
In Fiume w a s the sole Naval Academy of the country, here alsó was the preparatory school for the mercantile service which afterwards developed into
the Mercantile Academy, and here, at a later date, w a s founded the so- called Export Academy. Bv an Article of Law of the year 1868 the mercantile law of Hungary and her Crownlands was established independent from the law of Austria. Hungárián ships soon began plying to all the most important ports of the world. In the course of 35 years, beginning from its foundation in 1881, the Hungárián Adriatic Navigation Company acquired a fleet of 3 3 ships of
105,000 ttinnage. In 1913, the Hungárián Orient Navigation Company had estab-lished a regular service between Fiume and Australia. In 50 years the traffic oí the seashore increased in value from 44 millión crowns to 400 millions crowns per annum, so that the sum of 300 millión crowns invested during this period in the building of the sole great Hungárián port w a s productive of rich returns.
T h e Hungárián seashore was not spared by the world-war of 1914—18.
In the revolutionery atmosphere after the war, the National Council of Croatia, on Oct. 20, 1918 proclaimed its adherence to Yugoslavia. It laid claim to Fiume, but at the same time acknowledged that Hungary w a s entitled to a seaport which she could use without restraint. However, the volunteers of d'Annunzio
— and later on the Italian Government — took possession of the seashore, and this was severed from Hungary by the Peace-Treaty of Trianon, 4 June 1920.
T h u s after a labour of eight hundred years, Hungary, deprived of two thirds of her territory, remained without áccess to the sea.
T h e English nation, which has shores extending many thousands of miles on all oceans of the world, is best of all qualified to judge whether a country, which before the Treaty of Trianon possessed a territory greater in area than England, merits a few kilometres of sea-board on the Adriatic, after a struggle extending over 800 years ? 1
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