Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina

History

Background

After the fall of the Medieval Kingdom of Bosnia in 1463, Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina persisted through a succession of conflicts involving the Habsburg Empire and Republic of Venice, as well as the Kingdoms of Hungary and Croatia prior to their incorporation into the Ottoman Empire.

There were prior periods of Habsburg rule in today's Bosnia, such as in Bosnian Posavina between the Treaty of Požarevac of 1718 and the Treaty of Belgrade of 1739.

In the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire experienced a rise of nationalism and underwent a period of decline.

Following wars of independence by the Kingdom of Hungary against Habsburg rule, Austria-Hungary was formed with the Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1867. It was the final constitutional phase of the Habsburg Empire.

Following the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), in June and July 1878 the Congress of Berlin was organised by the Great Powers, which resulted in a reorganisation of borders in south-eastern Europe.

The Treaty of Berlin caused Bosnia and Herzegovina to nominally remain under sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire, but was de facto ceded to Austria-Hungary, which also obtained the right to garrison the Sanjak of Novi Pazar. According to article 25:

The provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be occupied and administered by Austria-Hungary. The government of Austria-Hungary, not desiring to undertake the administration of the Sanjak of Novi-Pazar, which extends between Serbia and Montenegro in a South-Easterly direction to the other side of Mitrovitza, the Ottoman administration will continue to exercise its functions there. Nevertheless, in order to assure the maintenance of the new political state of affairs, as well as freedom and security of communications, Austria-Hungary reserves the right of keeping garrisons and having military and commercial roads in the whole of this part of the ancient vilayet of Bosnia. To this end the governments of Austria-Hungary and Turkey reserve to themselves to come to an understanding on the details.

Occupation

The Austro-Hungarian Army engaged in a major mobilisation effort to prepare for the assault on Bosnia and Herzegovina, commanding by the end of June 1878 a force of 82,113 troops, 13,313 horses and 112 cannons in the VI, VII, XX, and XVIII infantry divisions as well as a rear army in the Kingdom of Dalmatia. The primary commander was Josip Filipović; the forward XVIII infantry division was under the command Stjepan Jovanović, while the rear army commander in Dalmatia was Gavrilo Rodić. The occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina started on 29 July 1878 and was over on 20 October.

The Ottoman army in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time consisted of roughly 40,000 troops with 77 cannons, that, when combined with local militias, totalled around 93,000 men. The Austro-Hungarian troops were occasionally met with ferocious opposition from elements of both Muslim and Orthodox populations there, and significant battles occurred near Čitluk, Stolac, Livno and Klobuk. Despite setbacks at Maglaj and Tuzla, Sarajevo was occupied in October 1878. Austro-Hungarian casualties amounted to over 5,000 and the unexpected violence of the campaign led to recriminations between commanders and political leaders. Fierce resistance from Muslims was expected as Austro-Hungarians realised their occupation meant that Bosnian Muslims would lose their privileged status based on their religion.

Tensions remained in certain parts of the country (particularly Herzegovina) and a mass emigration of predominantly Muslim dissidents occurred. However, a state of relative stability was reached soon enough and Austro-Hungarian authorities were able to embark on a number of social and administrative reforms which intended to make Bosnia and Herzegovina into a "model colony". With the aim of establishing the province as a stable political model that would help dissipate rising South Slav nationalism, Habsburg rule did much to codify laws, to introduce new political practices, and generally to provide for modernisation.

Ethnic relations

The Austro-Hungarian administration advocated the ideal of a pluralist and multi-confessional Bosnian nation. Joint Imperial Minister of Finance and Vienna-based administrator of Bosnia Béni Kállay thus endorsed Bosnian nationalism in the form of Bošnjaštvo ("Bosniakhood") with the aim to inspire in Bosnia's people a feeling that they belong to a great and powerful nation' and viewed Bosnians as "speaking the Bosnian language and divided into three religions with equal rights.". Between 1861 and 1869, Topal Osman Pasha, an Ottoman Grand vizier, had striven to do the same.

On the one hand, these policies attempted to insulate Bosnia and Herzegovina from its irredentist neighbours (Eastern Orthodox Serbia, Catholic Croatia, and the Muslim Ottoman Empire) and to marginalise the already circulating ideas of Serbian and Croatian nationhood among Bosnia's Orthodox and Catholic communities, respectively. On the other hand, the Habsburg administrators precisely used the existing ideas of nationhood (especially Bosnian folklore and symbolism) in order to promote their own version of Bošnjak patriotism that aligned with loyalty to the Habsburg state. Habsburg policies are thus best described not as anti-national, but as cultivating their own style of pro-imperial nationalism. This policy had mixed results. Overall, most Serb and Croat politicians ultimately ignored or opposed the policy, but Serb and Croat politicians also tried and failed to secure the allegiance of Bosnian Muslim constituencies. At the same time, Austro-Hungarian officials actively promoted Bosnia and Herzegovina as new and flourishing crownlands. Habsburg officials publicised numerous exhibits on Bosnian history, folklore, and archaeology, with artists like Alphonse Mucha presenting the Bosnian pavilion at the Paris Exposition of 1900.

The idea of a unified South Slavic state (typically expected to be spearheaded by independent Kingdom of Serbia) became a popular political ideology in the region at this time, including Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Certain Muslim circles in Bosnia and Herzegovina published the newspaper Bošnjak ("Bosniak"). This newspaper caused fierce discussions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia. The newspaper supported Kállay's policy, whose goal was to strengthen Austro-Hungarian rule in occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although Kállay's policy was not widely accepted even amongst Muslims, Bošnjak nevertheless represented the national aspirations of some Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Uprising of 1882

In 1882, an uprising broke out against the Austro-Hungarian military and administrative occupation authorities. It was a joint uprising of Serbs and Muslims against the new Austro-Hungarian government in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The main reason for the uprising in 1882 was the unresolved agrarian issue, taxes and the imposed military obligation on the local population. In social terms, the vast majority of the rebels were poor peasants. On the night of January 11, 1882, a group of armed peasants attacked the gendarmerie barracks in Ulog. The uprising soon spread to northeastern Herzegovina and southeastern Bosnia. The centre of the 1882 uprising was in Ulog, where the rebel government was created. In the period January–February, the rebels led by Stojan Kovačević and Salih-Salko Forto tried to attack Foča and Trnovo (south and southeast of Sarajevo). Their main goal was the liberation of Sarajevo, which still has not recovered from the great fire of 1879. However, their units, poorly armed and operating separately, were unable to achieve success in the fight against superior enemy forces. In April 1882, Austro-Hungarian troops suppressed the uprising. They were about 10,000 infantry and four batteries. Sporadic sabotage and guerrilla actions lasted until November 1882.

Annexation

Even though Bosnia and Herzegovina was still part of the Ottoman Empire, at least formally, the Austrian-Hungarian authorities had factual control over the country. Austria-Hungary waited for a chance to incorporate Bosnia and Herzegovina formally as well. Any action concerning Bosnia and Herzegovina depended on international opinion, which Austrian-Hungarian authorities were aware of. They used the Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire to finally annex Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Young Turk movement had gained support in mass protests throughout the Ottoman Empire during 1908, with the intention to restore the suspended Ottoman constitution. The Austrian-Hungarian authorities were afraid that the revolution could spread to Bosnia and Herzegovina, as it had support from the Bosnian Muslims and the Serbs, who supported the autonomy of Bosnia and Herzegovina within the Ottoman Empire. On 7 September 1908, the SNO and the MNO demanded that Bosnia and Herzegovina accept the constitution as part of the Ottoman Empire.

On 5 October the Emperor Franz Joseph announced the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and ordered the Minister of Finance to compose a constitution for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The annexation was announced in Sarajevo two days later, on 7 October. This annexation led to an international crisis, which was solved on 26 February 1909 when the Ottoman Empire recognised the annexation having received material compensation and on the Austrian-Hungarian garrisons leaving the Sanjak of Novi Pazar. By this, Bosnia and Herzegovina was formally under the Austrian-Hungarian sovereignty. On 21 March 1909, the German Empire sent an ultimatum to the Russian Empire to recognise the annexation, which Russia did immediately. Soon, the Kingdom of Serbia recognised the annexation on 31 March, the Kingdom of Montenegro doing so on 5 April.

The annexation caused unrest among the Muslim and Serb population. The Streifkorps (special counterinsurgency units) were reestablished in the context of demonstrations in Serbia and in Montenegro against the annexation. The Muslims could not believe the sovereignty of the Sultan could be overturned with a proclamation, and that they were now ruled by a Christian emperor. The MNO and the SNO refused to give any official statement about the annexation. In Budapest they held a meeting on 11 October 1908 they issued the Message to the People of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they stated that the people couldn't reconcile with the Austrian-Hungarian occupation in 30 years and asked for the people to remain calm and wait for the decision of the superpowers. Both parties announced that they would continue the struggle for the autonomy of Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, since all European countries had already recognised the annexation, the SNO and the MNO, who wanted to continue their activity as legitimate organisations, thus recognised the annexation; the SNO doing so in May 1909 and the MNO in February 1910. Unlike the Serbs and the Muslims, the Catholic Croats enthusiastically accepted the Austrian-Hungarian annexation. In an audience to Emperor Franz Joseph, the representatives of the HNZ, Pilar, Nikola Mandić and Antonije Sunarić expressed the gratitude of the Croat people to the Emperor for the annexation at the end of October 1908. However, Croat enthusiasm did not endure, as Bosnia and Herzegovina failed to be joined with Croatia as expected.

Politics

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, every major ethnic group was represented by its political party. The Muslims were represented by the Muslim National Organisation, the Serbs were represented by the Serbian National Organisation, and the Croats were represented by the two political parties, the Croat National Union and the Croat Catholic Association.

The Diet of Bosnia was established in 1910.

Parliamentary parties

Croat National Union (Hrvatska narodna zajednica)

Croat Catholic Association (Hrvatska katolička udruga)

Muslim National Organisation (Muslimanska narodna organizacija)

Serbian National Organisation (Srpska narodna organizacija; Српска народна организација)

Non-parliamentary parties

Muslim Progressive Party (Muslimanska napredna stranka)

Muslim Democracy (Muslimanska demokracija)

Serbian People's Independent Party (Srpska narodna nezavisna stranka)

Socialdemocratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Socijaldemokratska stranka Bosne i Hercegovine)

Demographics

The Austrian-Hungarian authorities encouraged the settlement of craftsmen, farmers and officials from their regions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, resulting in immigration from Germans, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Poles, Ukrainians, Croats, Slovenes and Italians. The settlers were to serve as modernisers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The religious and ethnic backgrounds of the immigrants were heterogeneous. Historian Marko Karamatić estimated that during the Austrian-Hungarian rule, around 95,000 Catholics, 18,000 Eastern Orthodox Christians and 20,000 other religious groups immigrated to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The immigrants to Bosnia and Herzegovina lacked Bosnian and Herzegovinian citizenship, and obtaining it was almost impossible.

The first group of settlers arrived from Germany to Brezike near Gradiška at the end of 1879 and in early 1880. Also, just before and immediately after the Austrian-Hungarian occupation, there was significant immigration from Croatia to the region of Bihać, mainly by ethnic Croatian Serbs. In the early 1880s, the Austrian-Hungarian administration organised the colonisation, starting with around 470 people from Tyrol and Trento. Large-scale immigration from other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire began in 1885. However, the immigration between 1878 and 1900 was very limited, and the number of settlers is conflicting. According to Stephan Burián von Rajecz, who administered the Austrian-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1878 and 1900, there were 10,093 immigrant farmers. A 1906 report on the administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina states that by the end of 1905, 9,660 farmers had settled in the region. Most of them were Poles (830 families), Rusyns (365 families), Germans (331 families), Czechs (107 families), Italians (87 families), Hungarians (86 families), Slovenes (10 families) and Slovaks (1 family). The majority were Latin Catholics (1,155 families), followed by Greek Catholics (365 families) and Evangelicals (207 families). The 1913 report gives a different figure, stating that by the end of 1905, there were 13,340 farmers.

The second phase of colonisation occurred between 1890 and 1905, when around 30,000 Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Italians, Ukrainians and Poles settled the areas of around the river Una, western Bosnian Posavina, Banja Luka, Prnjavor, and Derventa. By 1895, around 66,000 immigrants had settled in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The head of the Statistical Department, Johann Strauss, determined that of those, 56.42% were Latin Catholics, 34.51% Eastern Orthodox Christians, 4.99% Evangelicals, 3.80% Jews and 0.28% other religions. The valley of the river Bosna was colonised, with many new settlements established. By 1910, the number of immigrants grew to 114,591 had settled in Bosnia and Herzegovina, of whom 61,191 came from Central Croatia, Slavonia, Vojvodina, Slovenia, Serbia, and Montenegro. About one-third of these immigrants were ethnic Croats. After the Annexation crisis of 1908, immigration stalled, with many immigrants, especially Germans and Poles, wanting to return. Simultaneously, between 1878 and 1918, some 160,000 Muslims from South Slavic countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, left for Turkey. Serbs from Bosnia and Herzegovina also emigrated to Serbia in the same period.

Administration

Bosnia and Herzegovina was governed jointly by Cisleithania (Austria) and the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen (Hungary) through the joint Ministry of Finance. In the Ministry of Finance, there was the Bosnian Office which controlled Bosnia and Herzegovina over the Government based in Sarajevo. The Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina was headed by a governor, who was also a commander of military forces based in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The government was also composed of the governor's deputy and chiefs of departments. At first, the government had only three departments, administrative, financial and legislative. Later, other departments, including construction, economics, education, religion, and technical, were founded as well. There was also a Civil Adlatus, sometimes called civil governor, who headed the civilian administration. The first holder of this office was Baron Fedor Nikolić, a member of the Obrenović Dynasty.

In the 1910 Constitution, the Emperor proclaimed Bosnia and Herzegovina to be a unique administrative territory under the responsible leadership of the joint finance minister. With the implementation of the constitution, the position of Bosnia and Herzegovina did not change. It remained a corpus separatum administered by Austria and Hungary. The constitution implemented three new constitutions, the Diet of Bosnia, the National Council and the municipal councils. The Diet of Bosnia had very limited legislative powers. The main legislative power was in the hands of the emperor, parliaments in Vienna and Budapest and the joint minister of finance. The Diet of Bosnia only proposed decisions which needed to be approved by the parliaments in both Vienna and Budapest. The Diet also had no impact on the administrative-political institutions, the National Council and the municipal councils and did not have the right to participate in every decision-making; the Diet could participate only in decisions that mattered Bosnia and Herzegovina exclusively, while decisions on armed forces, commercial and traffic connections, customs and similar matters, were made by the parliaments in Vienna and Budapest.

The Austrian-Hungarian authorities left the Ottoman division of Bosnia and Herzegovina untouched, they only changed the names of divisional units, with the Bosnia Vilayet being renamed as Reichsland, sanjaks as Kreise and kazas as Bezirke, while nahiyahs were renamed as Exposituren. There were six Kreise and 54 Bezirke. Head of the Reichsland was a Landeschef, heads of the Kreise were Kreisleiters and heads of the Bezirke were Bezirksleiters.

Civil Adlatus

While the overall titular head in Sarajevo was the Governor, the day-to-day civilian administration, civil service, cultural affairs, and internal policies were directed by the Civil Adlatus (Zivil-Adlatus / Civilni adlat), sometimes called civilian governor. The Civil Adlatus answered directly to the Joint Ministry of Finance (Gemeinsames Finanzministerium) in Vienna. In April 1912, Governor Oskar Potiorek restructured the administration to centralize command. The semi-independent office of Civil Adlatus was abolished and replaced by the title of Deputy Provincial Governor (Landeschef-Stellvertreter).

Religion

The region, which had been Islamised in the 15th and 16th centuries, largely retained its minority-Muslim population (which dropped from 38.7% in 1879 to 32.2% in 1910), as Austria-Hungary's December Constitution guaranteed freedom of religion and the authorities made no active attempts at conversion.

The Emperor of Austria had the ability to appoint and dismiss religious leaders and to control religious establishments financially through agreements created with the Pope, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the Sheikh-ul-Islam.

The occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina led to great reforms of the Catholic Church in that country, after centuries in the Ottoman Empire. In 1881, Vrhbosna was elevated to an archdiocese, and the dioceses of Banja Luka and Mostar-Duvno were formed. Work began on the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Sarajevo in 1884 and was completed by 1889.