Sarting from medieval Serbian history, that is, from the first state entities to the dispersion of Serbs towards north–west, this article introduces and explains two non particularist ideologies (the Greater Serbian ideology and the Illyrian one) by comparing the thoughts of the linguist and Serbian language reformer Vuk Stefanović Karadžić with those of the Croat politician and linguist Ljudevit Gaj up to the evolution of Croatian–born Illyrianism into Franjo Rački and Josip Juraj Strossmayer’s Yugoslavism.
