Page 169 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2026 Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes.../Composers’ Societies Past and Present...

Between Music and Politics: The Role of Composers in Musical Societies …
the Ban became responsible to the Parliament, the administration and
judicial authority were separated, and court process was reformed and
modernised (judicial branches were divided, the independence of the
judges – as well as jury trials – was introduced, and punishments were
modernised). Furthermore, administrative organisation was modernised,
a law on native affiliation was passed, the right to public assembly was
regulated, and freedom of the press was introduced. However, maybe the
most important reform was the educational one that introduced a man-
datory four-year education, which was also secularised by the same re-
form. The mandatory education was free and equally available to chil-
dren of both sexes, while new, contemporary, teaching techniques were
introduced. Furthermore, the University of Zagreb was founded in 1874
with faculties of law, theology, and philosophy. On top of that, numerous
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professional, cultural, and scientific societies were founded. Mažuranić
also devoted significant efforts to reincorporate the Military Frontier with
the Croatian Kingdom, but the Hungarian government refused to allow
it while he was in the position of Ban, which de facto forced him to resign
in 1880, while the Military Frontier was united with the Triune Kingdom
the following year, 1881. 29
The period of the 1860s and the 1870s, for the majority of which
Bans were nationally oriented politicians (namely, Josip Šokčević [1860–
1867] and Ivan Mažuranić), was the period of the stronger institutional-
isation of cultural life in which a number of initiatives for the advance-
ment of Croatian culture, education, and arts were taken. As early as
1860 (i.e. immediately after political life was restored after the period
of Neo-absolutism), Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer donated 50,000 for-
ints for the establishment of the South-Slavic Academy of Sciences and
Arts, and in 1866 he donated the same amount for the University of Za-
30
greb. In 1861 the Parliament officially accepted the initiative for the es-
tablishment of the Academy, and it started operating after the king also
approved that motion in 1866. Furthermore, in 1861 the Parliament offi-
cially established the National Theatre, granted the Music Institute per-

28 “Mažuranić, Ivan,” in Hrvatska enciklopedija, online edition, https://enciklopedija
.hr/clanak/mazuranic-ivan; Pavličević, Povijest Hrvatske, 280–1.
29 Pavličević, Povijest Hrvatske, 282–3.
30 “Strossmayer, Josip Juraj,” in Hrvatska enciklopedija, online edition, https://
enciklopedija.hr/clanak/strossmayer-josip-juraj.

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