Author:
Frederico Benvinda, MA
PhD Student in Contemporary History at
the Lisbon School of Arts and Humanities (FLUL)
Resarcher at the Centre for History
of the University of Lisbon (CH-UL)
Contact: fbenvinda@campus.ul.pt
Fig.2 - Cover page of Almanach Republicano para 1876 (VIDEIRA, Carrilho (dir.), Almanach Republicano para 1876, Year 2, no.1, Lisboa, Nova Livraria Internacional, 1876.). The cover depicts the Republic holding a laurel wreath in her left hand and flag on her right hand reading: “Liberty, Justice, Solidarity” while standing on a fasces over discarded crowns and chains . The two sheet of paper on the ground read “Tyranny” and “Privilege”.
José Carrilho Videira’s (1845-1905), Portuguese republican author and publicist, position on Serbian independence is linked to that of Victor Hugo (1802-1885). On the 30th of August 1876, the French pacifist and poet published an article entitled “Pour la Serbie” in the newspaper Le Rappel. Carrilho Videira published a Portuguese translation of it under the title “Pela Sérvia” in his Almanach Republicano para 1877.
The article referenced the Batak Massacre of May 9, 1876, when Ottoman bashibazouks massacred and raped thousands of civilians in the Bulgarian city of Batak. The massacre took place in response to Bulgarian uprisings against Ottoman power that followed the start of a revolutionary movement in Bosnia in 1875. These disturbances would eventually lead to the Russo-Ottoman war (1877-1878), that ended with the Congress of Berlin (1878).
"To kill a man is a crime; to kill a people is a question"
In response to the “Bulgarian Horrors”, as William Gladstone (1809-1898) named them, Victor Hugo argued all governments, since they followed “raison d’état” instead any moral code, tended towards barbarity. The Great Powers were particularly susceptible to this pitfall, since they all shared a desire for expansion but considered the violence associated with it acceptable as long as it served the national interest. The article published in Carrilho Videira’s Almanach sums up this position with the aphorism: “To kill a man is a crime; to kill a people is a question.”
However, the article’s author countered, “crimes are crimes”. Moreover, a crime committed within Europe was a crime committed by Europe itself. Consequently, if it was found that a “beastly”, meaning, uncivilized state was committing crimes against other Europeans, it followed that such state (the Ottoman Empire, in this case) should be eliminated from the continent, since it did not adhere to the values of “European nationality”. Hence, it was argued that, in order to maintain peace in the continent and allow the Balkan nations under the rule of the Ottoman Empire to flourish, the “United-States of Europe”, based upon “free thought, free trade, fraternity” should be formed. This “continuous federation” should, however, it was argued, be headed by France.
In the article “Centenário de Voltaire”, also authored by Victor Hugo and published in 1878 in Carrilho Videira’s Almanach Republicano para 1879, the goal of the author’s and the editor’s position was revealed. The future formation of the United-States of Europe was meant to solidify France’s position vis-à-vis Germany as the nation that had achieved a “true victory” over the victor of the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1871).
Sources and bibliography:
BELL, Walter F., “Russo-Ottoman War, 1877-1878” in HALL, Richard (ed.), War in the Balkans – An Encyclopedic History from the Fall of the Ottoman Empire to the Breakup of Yugoslavia, Santa Barbara, ABC-Clio, pp.252-254.
CRAMPTON, R. J., A Concise History of Bulgaria, 2nd edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
GLENNY, Misha, The Balkans – Nationalism, War and the Great Powers (1804-2012), Toronto, House of Anansi Press, 2012.
HOWARD, Douglas A., A History of the Ottoman Empire, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2017.
HUGO, Victor-Marie, “Centenário de Voltaire” in VIDEIRA, Carrilho (dir.), Almanach Republicano para 1879, Ano V, Lisboa, Nova Livraria Internacional, 1878, pp.88-100.
HUGO, Victor-Marie, “Pour la Serbie” in Bordiaux (ed), Le Rappel, 30th of August 1876, Paris, [s.n.], p.1.