Jovan Ristić

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Jovan Ristić, or Ristitch (Serbian Cyrillic: Јован Ристић) (1831-1899) was a Serbian statesman born at Kragujevac in 1831.

He was educated at Belgrade, Heidelberg, Berlin and Paris. After failing to obtain a professorship in the high school of Belgrade, he was appointed in 1861 Serbian diplomatic agent at Constantinople. His reputation was enhanced by the series of negotiations which ended in the withdrawal of the Turkish troops from the Serbian fortresses in 1867. Ristić gained an international reputation as foreign minister on two more occasions (1875, 1876–78) by promoting an expansionist policy that he hoped would make Serbia the nucleus for a strong South Slav state.

On his return from Constantinople he was offered a ministerial post by Prince Michael, who described him as his right arm, but he declined office, being opposed to the reactionary methods adopted by the prince's government. He had already become the recognized leader of the Liberal party. After the assassination of Prince Michael in 1868, he was nominated member of the council of regency, and on the January 2, 1869 the first Serbian constitution, which was mainly his creation, was promulgated.

When Prince Milan attained his majority in 1872, Ristić became foreign minister; a few months later he was appointed prime minister, but resigned in the following autumn (1873). He again became prime minister in April 1876, and conducted the two wars against Turkey (July 1876; March 1877 and December 1877; March 1878). At the Congress of Berlin he labored with some success to obtain greater advantages for Serbia than had been accorded to her by the Treaty of San Stefano. The provisions of the Treaty of Berlin provided Serbia with no more than 3,860 square miles of new territory and a proclamation of complete independence from Turkey. This, however, disappointed the Serbians, owing to the obstacles now raised to the realization of the national program. The Ristić government became unpopular. He was forced to resign when he refused to sign a trade agreement with Austria-Hungary that he believed would make Serbia economically dependent on that country.

In 1887 King Milan I (who had assumed the royal title in 1882), alarmed at the threatening attitude of the Radical party, recalled Ristić to power at the head of a coalition cabinet; a new constitution was granted in 1889, and later that year the king abdicated in favor of his son, Prince Alexander. Ristić now became head of a council of regency, entrusted with power during the minority of the young king, and a Radical ministry was formed.

In 1892, however, Ristić transferred the government to the Liberal party, with which he had always been connected. This step and the subsequent conduct of the Liberal politicians caused serious discontent in the country. On the 1st (13th) of April 1893 King Alexander, by a successful stratagem, imprisoned the regents and ministers in the palace, and, declaring himself of age, recalled the Radicals to office.

Ristić now retired into private life. He died in Belgrade on September 4, 1899. Though cautious and deliberate by temperament, he was a man of strong will and firm character. He was the author of two published works: The External Relations of Serbia from 1848 to 1867 (Belgrade, 1887) and A Diplomatic History of Serbia (Belgrade, 1896).