The Herzegovinian Rebellion (
Bosnian: ''Hercegovački ustanak'',
Cyrillic: Херцеговачки устанак) is a name used for the most famous of the rebellions against the Ottoman Empire in Herzegovina that took place in 1875. This particular event was precipitated by the harsh treatment of the mainly Catholic
Croat and Orthodox
Serb serfs under the
Bosniak begs and
agas of this then-Ottoman province of Bosnia.
The reforms announced by 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 turned to more repressive measures against their Christian subjects. Tax demands on Christian peasants continued to grow.
[Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 29 June 2007 http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-42681]
In lower Herzegovina, in the Gabela and Hrasno district, under the leadership of don Ivan Music, Catholic Croats have, ignited by overtaxing, rebelled against Turkish authorities on
June 19. The Serb uprising began around the village of Nevesinje, on
July 9 in eastern Herzegovina, and is thus called the Nevesinje gun (Невесињска пушка). After that, the rebellion of the whole Christian population in Bosnia and Herzegovina followed. More than 150,000 people took refuge in Croatia. The repressive force was applied both by the new Bosnian governor and by local landowners using their own irregular troops. They couldn’t put down the uprising. The unrest soon spread to other areas of what was then called Turkey in Europe (notably Bulgaria). The atrocities against Christian population increased anti-Turkish sentiment in Europe and stucked
Montenegro,
Serbia,
Romania and
Russia into war against
Ottoman Empire (1876-1878).
These wars ended with a peace deal struck at the
Congress of Berlin. The congress decided that Bosnia and Herzegovina, while remaining notionally under Turkish sovereignty, would be occupied and governed by Austria-Hungary.
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