Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.58565/vda.3.1.17
Annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the pages of journals Velebit and Narodni List
Frano Bilić
orcid.org/0009-0005-4795-7525
Sažetak
The annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina refers to the political act of Austria- Hungary in 1908 by which it gained sovereignty over Bosnia and Herzegovina – a province under the Monarchy’s occupation since the Congress of Berlin in 1878. Namely, Austria-Hungary was given the right to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina
with the mission of restoring order in a war-stricken province. Even though Austria-Hungary took the rule over the province, it still remained under the Ottoman sovereignty for another 30 years. This all changed on the 5th of October 1908 when the Austro-Hungarian government announced the annexation. This act caused a serious international crisis which almost escalated into a war. Namely, the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina did not only provoke the Ottoman Empire, but also the Kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro who both wanted to expand to the Bosnian territory. The situation got even more serious after Russia allied with Serbia who was very close to declaring war upon Austria-Hungary. One careless move could have led to a new European war which would have had a great possibility of expanding itself into the rest of the world. The annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was also carefully monitored by the Croatian politicians who had their own claims on the Bosnian territory. One of the most prominent politicians of that time was Ante Trumbić – the key figure of the Croatian Party in Dalmatia. Strongly influenced by the policy of the “new course”, Trumbić ceased to publicly demand the unification of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatia to create and preserve a better relationship with the Dalmatian Serbs whom he needed for achieving his political goals. Nevertheless, he would notchange his opinion that Bosnia and Herzegovina should be unified with Croatia after the Monarchy carried out the annexation. The positions of Trumbić and his Croatian Party can be traced through the Party’s journals Velebit and Narodni List. The journals showed that Trumbić’s hopes that the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina would be in favour of the unification with Croatia were wrong. As it was expected, only the Bosnian Croats supported this idea while the Serbs and Muslims remained strongly against it. Despite that, Trumbić remained on the position that forming a third South Slavic entity in the Monarchy was the only way of securing a future for Croats, Serbs, and Bosnian Muslims. Trumbić formalized the mentioned goals in a resolution which was made public in January 1909. Among else, the resolution requested the unification of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia based on ethnic and historical rights. Regarding the annexation crisis, it reached its peak in the first three months of 1909. Austria-Hungary had managed to reach an agreement with the Ottoman Empire in February, but the relations with the Kingdom of Serbia only worsened. As both the Austro-Hungarian and the Serbian army were mobilized, a new European war seemed inevitable. And it most probably would have happened had it not been for the German diplomacy which persuaded Russia to stop supporting Serbia. Without its powerful friend, Serbia did not have enough strength to oppose the mighty Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The two sides reached an agreement at the end of March 1909, by which Serbia acknowledged the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, the animosity between Austro-Hungary and Serbia would continue in the following years and, as it is commonly known, in June of 1914 it would trigger the First World War. As for Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the annexation it formally became a part of the Monarchy. Unlike the rest of the provinces, Bosnia and Herzegovina was not incorporated neither with the Austrian nor the Hungarian half but received a status of corpus separatum. The annexation itself had a positive effect for the province as it enabled it to obtain a more liberal political system.
Ključne riječi
annexation; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Austria-Hungary; Ottoman Empire; Kingdom of Serbia; Croatia; Dalmatia; Ante Trumbić; policy of the “new course”; Croatian Party
Hrčak ID:
293982
URI
Datum izdavanja:
24.2.2023.
Posjeta: 567 *