Herzegovinian rebellion

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History of Herzegovina

Zahumlje (7th-11th century)

Travunia (7th-11th century)

Principality of Hum (12th-14th century)

Duchy of Herzegovina (14th-15th century)

Sanjak of Herzegovina (15th-19th century)

Pashaluk of Herzegovina (1833-1851)

Herzegovinian rebellion (1875)

The Herzegovinian Rebellion of 1875 (Croatian and Serbian: Hercegovački ustanak, Cyrillic: Херцеговачки устанак) is the most significant of the rebellions against the Ottoman rule in Herzegovina. The uprising was precipitated by the harsh treatment of the mostly Catholic Croat and Orthodox Serb population under the Bosnian beys and aghas of the Ottoman province of Bosnia.

The reforms announced by the Turkish Sultan Abdülmecid, involving new rights for Christian subjects, a new basis for army conscription, and an end to the much-hated system of tax-farming, were either resisted or ignored by the powerful Bosnian landowners. They frequently resorted to more repressive measures against their Christian subjects. The tax burden on Christian peasants constantly increased.^[1]

On June 19, 1875 the Catholic Croats in the Gabela and Hrasno district of lower Herzegovina, ignited by overtaxing, rebelled against the Ottoman authorities under the leadership of don Ivan Music. A Serb uprising (popularly known as Nevesinje gun or Невесињска пушка) started on July 9 around the village of Nevesinje in eastern Herzegovina. Subsequently, a general uprising of the entire Christian population in Bosnia and Herzegovina ensued. More than 150,000 people took refuge in Croatia. The Ottoman armed response came both from government troops under the recently appointed Bosnian governor and from the local landowners and their own irregular troops. The attempts to supress the uprising proved unsuccessful.

The unrest rapidly spread among the Cristian populations of the other Ottoman provinces in (notably Bulgaria). The atrocities of the Ottoman Empire in supressing unrest in the Balkan provinces eventually led to the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 , which ended in Turkish defeat, and the signing of the Treaty of San Stefano in March 1878, followed in July of the same year by the Treaty of Berlin, severely reducing Ottoman territories and power in Europe. The Congress of Berlin decided that Bosnia and Herzegovina, while remaining nominally under Turkish sovereignty, would be occupied and governed by Austria-Hungary.

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