The regions of former Yugoslavia which were divided in the pure Serbian regions - under Ottoman rule - and in the regions that passed to the Ottomans in 1521 and to the Austrians in 1718 received a considerable number of Greeks. The conditions that determined the migration of the Greeks are those already mentioned, that is the ones that favoured the migration of Greeks in other parts of the Austrian territories from the 17th and particularly during the 18th century.

The settlement areas of the Greeks in these regions were numerous. As far as the pure Serbian regions are concerned, the Greeks settled in Nis, Kragujevac, Krusevac, Valjevo, Pozarevac, Smederevo, Belgrade, Sabac and other cities of secondary importance. As for the regions that were brought under the Austrian rule after 1718 we find Greeks in Zemun, Mitrovica, Vukovar, Sremski Karlovci, in the cities of Pancevo and Vrsac that belong to the Banat region, while there are also Greeks in Slavonski Brod, Karlovac, Osijek and Zagreb which belong to Croatia. All these Greek colonies - the most distinguished were Belgrade's and Zemun's - flourished in the course of the 18th century and the early 19th century while from 1840 onward they started to decline like the other centres of the Greek diaspora.

The communities

Privileges - Community organization - Church foundation

The first privilege to the orthodox Balkan people (mainly Serbs but also Greeks and Vlachs) that had come to the Yugoslavian regions was conferred in 1690 (April 26th) by the Austrian emperor Leopold I on the demand of the orthodox people. The privilege guaranteed protection and solidarity in all cases while it defined that no one could disturb or subjugate them. One year after (April 11, 1691) a new imperial decree appointed Ioannis Monastirlis as sub-voivod of the orthodox migrants.

There is insufficient evidence on the creation and organization of Communities in the cities where Greeks and Vlachs had settled. For most of these cities we can suppose that these settlers were organized in a Community with the right of self-administration according to the prototype of the other Greek Communities of Austria-Hungary. Specifically, we have information on the Greeks of Zemun. There was a three-category ranking of the habitants of the city based on their economic position in citizens, taxpayers and protected taxpayers. The Greek Austrian subjects belong to the first two categories while the Greek Ottoman subjects were ranked in the third category. As Zemun was declared in 1749 as a free autocratic-royal military county, with only small military obligations toward the state, its habitants obtained the right to self-administration. Thus, among the habitants of Zemun which were assigned high offices were many Greeks and Vlachs (e.g. I. Kyritsas, K. Petrovic and P. Morphis obtained the office of Mayor of the city). As for the administration of justice, the Greek Ottoman subjects belonged to the local tribunals but enjoyed particular treatment as far as civil matters are concerned. The disputes between Greeks Austrian subjects and the Turkish authorities of Belgrade were judged by the military administration of Zemun.

The foundation of a church for the Greek settlers

From the beginning of their settlement in the Yugoslavian regions the Greeks tried to have their own churches or at least obtain permission for the liturgy to be done in Greek. Their religious life was linked to that of the other orthodox people (Bulgarians, Romanians, Serbs) and the orthodox people of the cities to the north of the Sava river belonged to the metropolis of Karlovac while those of the south Yugoslavian regions belonged to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. It is true that the Greeks had at least one orthodox church in each city they settled.

The first orthodox church was founded in Zemun and was consecrated to Saint Nikolaos. The erection of this temple began in 1745 and the works were completed in 1752. Later, in 1780, a second orthodox church was founded in the city of Zemun, consecrated to the Birth of the Virgin Mary. Finally, the Greek migrant Theodoros Apostolou undertook all the expenses for the erection of the chapel of the Archangels in the lazaretto of the city.

The Greek settlers of other cities managed to found their own church or chapel also. The Greeks of Vrsac had the temple of Saint Nikolaos; Smederevo and Rumas had their own Greek orthodox churches whereas the Greeks of Cakovo and Belgrade attended the liturgy in the same churches with the Serbs but succeeded in obtaining permission that the liturgy be done in Greek.

Demographic trends

The Greeks and Vlachs of the former Yugoslavian regions came mainly from Macedonia but also from Epirus, Thrace and Thessaly. More specifically, they came from the cities of Kozani, Siatista, Vlasti, Kleissoura and Selitsa. Belgrade received Greeks from Andrianoupolis, Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Serres, Katranitsa, Kastoria, Belvedo, Blatsi, Moschopolis and Melenoiko.

The number of settlers in these colonies was significant in comparison to the number of settlers in other countries at that time; the members of the colonies increased steadily during the 18th century. Zemun became the most important Greek colony. In 1764, Zemun had 200-250 Greeks, in 1816 they reached 800 and in 1823 the Greek colony of Zemun numbered 1000 members. However, from the mid-19th century the number of Greeks in Zemun and other Yugoslavian cities decreases sensibly.

It seems that there were often and strong oppositions between the Greeks and the Serbs. The principle reason for disputes were religious matters. Moreover, we know that the relations between the Greeks and Serbs of Zemun were harmonic until 1793 when the great dispute broke out because of the complaints of the Greeks to the authorities of the city. They complained about being offended by the Serbs and claimed that the Serbs interfered in the practice of their ecclesiastic duties and in their education matters. The dispute ended with a compromise in 1794; This constitutes a typical example of the Greek-Serbian oppositions that occurred in other Yugoslavian cities also, with the exception of Kragujevac where it seems that controversies with the Serbs were prevented. Despite these oppositions, the Greeks managed in many cases to make their influence felt in the local societies and to play an important role in the economic, social and political field (e.g. three Greeks became Mayors of Zemun). Some of the Greek eminent families were the Zaglas family in Smederevo, the Thomas, Koumanoudis, Boukouvalas, Christodoulou and other families in Belgrade and the Karamatas, Darvaris, Sollaros, Zikos families in Zemun.

Education

The Greeks who settled in the former Yugoslavian regions first showed interest in the foundation of Greek schools. In the first years of their settlement, when they did not have their own schools, their children were either educated by private tutors or were sent to the city schools that were common for all the orthodox people (Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians) and where the Greek language was taught. Unfortunately, there is inadequate information on the operation, the school syllabus and the regulation of the various Greek schools in the former Yugoslavia, with the exception of the schools of the thriving Greek colonies, such as those of Zemun and Belgrade.

The Greek school of Zemun, which was founded in 1794 after a strong opposition between the Greeks and the Serbs, was named "Hellenomousseion" and had three educational cycles: a) the simple Greek school or first school where children were taught reading, b) the Greek school or second school where students took the elementary grammar lessons and c) the third school where students improved their knowledge and were taught Rhetoric and other subjects. In 1802, the Greek school of Zemun numbered 88 students - boys and girls - while it quickly gained good reputation and Serbs and Hungarians from Zemun, Belgrade and other regions came to study in the "Hellenomousseion". The Greek school had a library and some of the most renown scholars of that time such as Euphronios Raphail Popovic, Ioannis Tourountzas and Dimitrios Birdas were teachers of this school until it closed in 1876.

There were Greek schools in Zagreb, Vrsac (founded in 1822), in Negotin, Sabac, Smederevo and Belgrade. The information we have on these schools refers to later periods which are not treated by this study.

Apart from the foundation of schools, the intellectual activities in the Greek colonies of the former Yugoslavia were of small influence and were mainly indicated in the philological and literary work of some scholars, such as Dimitrios Darvaris, Georgios Zachariadis and Triantaphyllos Doukas who took action in Zemun and wrote mostly pedagogical, religious and some manuals for merchants. In addition, they translated into Greek important German, Russian, Serbian and other Slavic books while they translated into Slavic ancient Greek writers. Finally, from the second half of the 19th century there are many bookstores and printing offices in Zemun. Among the most important ones are those of the Greek families Karamatas and Pouliou. However, there is no information on the intellectual activity of the members of the other Greek colonies of Yugoslavia.

Charity

The Greeks in the Yugoslavian countries invested large amounts of money that they had gathered in activities of public benefit, following in this way the prototype of the Greeks of the Hapsburg Empire. Thus, we have information according to which eminent Greeks (the couple Nikolaos and Eugenia Kikis) built a grand hospital in Belgrade. Others left great amounts of money for the maintenance of cultural institutes, for the relief of the poor, for poor girls' doweries, for the support of poor students of the University of Belgrade and for other acts of charity in most cities of Yugoslavia where Greeks had settled. At the same time, considerable amounts of money were sent by these Greeks to the unredeemed regions for the support of schools and other educational institutes mainly in the cities of western Macedonia.

Economy

Trade and Merchants

The Greek settlers of the former Yugoslavian regions were mainly merchants - as the Greeks of the rest of the Hapsburg monarchy - who had taken over the transit trade of these regions with the Ottoman Empire. These merchants can be categorized in three groups: a) the commission merchants who were involved in transit trade and worked mainly in Zemun where they had formed an association named the "Adelphotis ton speditoron tou Zemonos" (Brotherhood of the commission merchants of Zemun). It was via the commission merchants of Zemun that the products of the Turkish ruled Balkan countries and the Near East were diffused in central and western Europe. b) the wholesale dealers which held the whole import and export trade of Serbia while the cattle dealers who were involved in wholesale cattle trade, mainly cattle and pigs, between Serbia and central Europe held an important position among the wholesale dealers. c) the retailers which were occupied with retail trade. They sold their different products in trade fairs or in their own stores (textiles, colonial products, groceries, spices, ironware, haberdashery, etc.) in the cities.

Routes

The main land routes the Greek commission merchants followed led to the territories of the Hapsburg Empire and its large commercial centres. But as far as the Greek colonies in Yugoslavia are concerned, the itineraries of the Greeks ended in Zemun, Belgrade and the other Serbian cities and did not continue up to the heart of the Hapsburg Empire. The Greek merchants travelled in caravans and passed the night in khans or caravansaries. One of the well-known caravansary was that of Skopje.

Apart from the land routes the Greek merchants used the river transport network, particularly the Danube and its tributaries. The Greeks received in Zemun and Belgrade the products from the Danube and its tributaries and then transported them via land routes to the ports of the Adriatic or loaded them on ships that headed for the Black Sea.

Merchandise

The merchandise that the Greek merchants traded on the territories of Yugoslavia were all the eastern products that were imported in the Hapsburg monarchy, that is carpets, spices, wine, fibres, etc. At the same time, the Greek merchants promote the manufactured products of central and western Europe in the Balkan markets. When the merchandise arrived in Zemun the Greek merchants were obliged to transfer them to the lazaretto of the city for decontamination, (especially wool, cotton, silk, products made of animal hides and hairs which were susceptible to be infected by the plague) for fear that epidemics might be transferred. After decontamination, the products were accompanied by documents with a detailed report. Finally, the Greek merchants of Zemun carried out considerable wholesale cattle trade. They bought animals from Serbia and sold them in central Europe and Italy.

Trading techniques

The Greek merchants of Yugoslavia were wholesale dealers, commission merchants and retail merchants. The wholesale dealers often traded as commercial houses did. Some of the important Greek commercial houses in Belgrade were those of the Kikis family, the Thomas, the Boukouvalas, the Christodoulou family and others. The retail merchants employed assistants in their stores The cattle dealers employed strong men for guarding the animals from the bandits. The cattle dealers travelled mainly in groups leading large herds of animals; there was a person that knew well the roads and supervised the herd.

However, apart from trade, the Greeks of the former Yugoslavia exercised a series of professions related to trade, such as stock market and banking activities. Well-known banking houses in Zemun belonged to the Darvaris and Spirtas families. I. Koumanoudis was a great banker of Belgrade while Anastasios Popovic founded the first saving bank of Croatia in Zagreb. In addition, the Greeks were involved in postal services and shipping activities, particularly in Zemun where Greek shipowners either transferred products of others with their ships or used them for their own commercial activities. There were many craftsmen (silversmiths, tailors, shoemakers, furriers, confectioners, soap-makers, bakers, etc.), hotel owners (persons that ran khans and taverns all over the Hapsburg Empire) and finally manufacturers that were mainly occupied with sericulture and apiculture. In the beginning of the 19th century the Greek P. Spirtas opened the first factory in Zemun for the treatment of cocoons whereas the Greeks of Kragujevac founded the first beer factory in Serbia.

Mentality

The Greek merchants constituted the bourgeois class of the Yugoslavian cities and many of them managed to ascend to the highest class of the Yugoslavian society at that time by gathering very large amounts of money. Their riches were invested in the construction of impressive beautiful mansions and grandiose grave memorials. The Greek language was the language of the highest social class and the language of trade. Later, in an effort to communicate with their clients - the Yugoslavian people - the Greek merchants proceeded in learning the Serbian language and published many Greek-Serbian and Serbian-Greek reference books.

Political activity

We do not have adequate information on the political activity of the Greeks of the former Yugoslavia, their attitude towards the action of the European powers of that time and the War of Greek Independence. We know that in the course of the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1791, when the Austrians besieged Belgrade and the Turks threatened from the fortress of slaughtering the christian habitants, the Greek metropolite of Belgrade Dionisios Papagiannousis-Popovic managed with a ruse to give the fortress without bloodshed to the Austrians. The Austrians payed honours to the metropolite for his services. A little later the Greek cattle dealers supported the Serb rebellions in the uprising of 1804 by buying animals from them. The Greeks of Zemun were aware of the action of Rigas Pheraios and the preparation of the War of Greek Independence and some of them - the leading Ioannis Georgiou Tourountzias, Phylaktos Nikolaou, Georgios Athanasiou, Georgios Auxentiou and Konstantinos Georgiou-Kyritsas - became partisans of Rigas. In general, the partisans of Rigas in Zemun belonged to broad social classes and many of them possessed of economic power and strong social positions. Unfortunately, there is no information on the influence of the plans of Rigas on the Greek colonies of the Yugoslavian cities neither on the participation of the Greeks in the Philiki Etaireia and the movement of Alexander Ypsilantis.