The Tomičić Brothers – Lika’s Generals in the Austro-Hungarian Army

Abstract

Ante Starčević’s political activities propagated the Croatian national idea in Dalmatia. This paper is a concise overview of the political climate and the emergence of the Party of Rights movement (pravaštvo) in Dalmatia. The newspapers at that time in Zadar, the capital of the Austrian province of Dalmatia, are the primary sources for tracing the dissemination of the underlying ideas advocated by the Party of Rights. These newspapers served as direct mouthpieces of political groups and are therefore suitable for investigating the course of ideological currents. The author analyses
articles from editorial boards that imbued various ideologies to convey the views of Ante Starčević and his associated movement, Starčević’s ideas, leading up to the elections for the Croatian Parliament (Sabor) in 1884. Narodni list did
not fully accept the ideas of the Party of Rights due to divergences based on the political programs of Starčević and Strossmayer, the patron of the People’s Party (Narodna stranka) in Dalmatia. However, the paper equally supported
and agitated for Croatian opposition parties, both the independence advocates (neodvišnjaci) and the followers of the Party of Rights, within the electoral process, in opposition to Khuen’s ruling pro-Hungarian party. The newspaper Katolička Dalmacija, edited by Don Ivo Prodan, a Catholic priest, was transformed from a religious periodical in Italian to a publication distinctly clerically aligned with the Party of Rights in Croatian. The autonomist periodical Il Dalmata, in advocating its own autonomist and pro-Italian policies, gave a relatively negative assessment of the activities of Starčević’s followers. The Dalmatian public became more familiar with the ideas of the Party of Rights in the 1880s, a period when the Party’s popularity grew, and political fighting within the Croatian Sabor intensified.