Ilija Garašanin

Ilija Garašanin , in Serbe Cyrillique ИлијаГарашанин (born with Garaši close to Aranđelovac the January 28th 1812 - died with Grocka close to Belgrade the June 22nd 1874) was a Serb politician . Representative of the prince then president of the Council of Ministers like historian, it played a big role in the businesses of the Serbia. He is sometimes called “the Serb Bismarck”.

Ilija Garašanin was the son of a Serb peasant, who made deals by exporting cattle and pigs in Austria. By its intelligence and its prosperity, he exerted a certain influence on the country. He wanted to give to his son best possible education. Thus, it sent it to study in Hungary, initially in a Greek school then in a German school. The Ilija young person showed an extremely gifted pupil.

In 1837, Prince Miloš Ier Obrenović appointed it colonel and commander-in-chief of the Serb regular army which it had just created. A little later in the same year, the prince made of Ilija Garašanin the chief of the military police force.

In 1840, after the abdication of Prince Miloš, Garašanin had to be exiled with Istambul. It remained there until in 1842.

Of return in Serbia, it was named Minister of Interior Department of the prince Alexandre Karađorđević. Starting from this date and until in 1867, year when it withdrew businesses, Ilija Garašanin was going to play a paramount role in the life of its country.

April 22nd 1852 until the March 24th 1853, it was Representing of the Prince and Foreign Minister. Its project was to replace Russian protectorate on the Serbia by a protection ensured by the whole of the European powers. He was opposed thus vigorously to the war which opposed the Russia to the Ottoman Empire and to the western powers. This hostility led the prince Menshikov to require his resignation of the prince Alexandre Karađorđević.

In spite of this resignation, Ilija Garašanin succeeds in obtaining the neutrality of Serbia in the Crimean War. It is with its initiative that the France, at the time of the conference of peace which was held in Paris 1856, proposed that the constitution of 1839, granted to the Serbia by its Turkish suzerain and its Russian guard, is replaced by a more modern and more liberal constitution, drawn by a European international commission. But in spite of its efforts, Ilija Garašanin could not obtain the agreement of all the powers.

As a Minister of Interior Department, Garašanin persuaded the prince Alexandre Karađorđević to convene the National Assembly, which had not occurred for ten years. This assembly meets in 1858 but its first decision was of détrôner prince Alexandre and to recall to the capacity the old prince Miloš Obrenović.

Died of his/her father, in 1860, the prince Michel III Obrenović succeeded to him on the throne. He entrusted to Ilija Garašanin the load of President of the Council and that of Foreign Minister. Ilija Garašanin remained according to the October 21st 1861 until the November 15th 1867. The Prince and his Minister agreed to establish a more preserving constitution. But especially, in 1867, they succeeded in obtaining the departure out of Serbia of the last Turkish garrison .

Ilija Garašanin prepared a general rising of Balkans against the Othomans. It establishes secret agreements with the Romania, the Bosnia-Herzégovine, the Albania, the Bulgaria and the Greece, and more especially still with the Montenegro. But its plan could not succeed. In 1867, it was abruptly isolated capacity, undoubtedly because it was opposed to the marriage prince Michel with Katarina Konstantinović. Its reference raised a wave of protest. The June 10th 1868, prince Michel was assassinated.

Ilija Garašanin passed the last of its life, with the variation of the political life, in its field of Grocka.

Ilija Garašanin was preserving as regards interior policy. He considered that the bureaucracy was for the administration the only means of being effective.

On the plan of the foreign affairs, he was the first Serb statesman to maintain the independence of the country, as well vis-a-vis the Russia as vis-a-vis the Austria-Hungary. As of 1844, Ilija Garasanin had also written a confidential program ( Nacertanije ) having for objective to join together all the Slaves Balkans within a Grande Serbia. Animated by the memory of the medieval empire of Stefan Dušan, this program is not foreign with the establishment, in 1918, of the Royaume of Serb, the Croats and the Sloveniens, who, in 1929, will become the Yugoslavia.

External bond

Short note on Ilija Garašanin

Internal bond

List of the heads of government of Serbia

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