Herzegovina

“ To convey an accurate idea of a province so little known as the Herzegovina, it will be best to enumerate the various physical features by which it is distinguished. Thus the highest and most important mountains are Dormitor in the district of Drobniak, on the Montenegrin frontier, and Velesh, which forms a rugged background to the plain of Mostar, the highest point being 6,000 feet above the level of the sea. ”

“ The Old Bridge, Mostar.
Herzegovina, since 1878, has been under the titular dominion of the Turkish Sultan, but the administration of Austria-Hungary. Pg 51It is bounded on the north and east by Bosnia, south by Montenegro, and west by Dalmatia, and only just touches the Adriatic at Sutterina. Some districts, those of Niksich and Domitor, have been placed by the Treaty of Berlin under the Government of the Prince of Montenegro.
The greater part of the population belong to the Greek Church. Then come about 70,000 Mohamedans, some Roman Catholics, Jews, and Gipsies. ”

“ The Servians have always been ambitious, and they wish their country to become great and powerful.
[6]
Now look at your map again, and find the river Save, which joins the Danube at Belgrade, [7] the capital of Servia. South of the Save you see a country marked Bosnia, [8] and, still farther south, another country marked Herzegovina. [9] You are sure to notice that these two countries stand between Servia and the Adriatic Sea, and that they belong to Austria. Both Bosnia and Herzegovina are inhabited by Slavs, who hate being under Austria, and are eager to join their kinsmen the Servians. ”

“ The Bosnian Crisis.—In 1908 the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary and the revolution in Turkey brought about an acute crisis. Many Serbs still hoped for the realization of the so-called “Great Servian Idea,” i.e. the union in a single empire of Servia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Old Servia (Stara Srbiya) or the sanjak of Novibazar with north-western Macedonia—all countries in which the population consists largely, and in some cases almost exclusively, of Orthodox Serbs. ”

“ The Vali, the only man capable of coping with the difficulties of the situation, had just left for the Herzegovina. Bosnia was bereft of troops, for the Seraskier at Stamboul, disregarding the earnest warnings of the Vali, had persisted in withdrawing the regulars stationed in the province till hardly any were left, and of these every available man, except those absolutely necessary for garrison duty, had now been dispatched to the Herzegovina. ”

“ Even though the girl from Herzegovina is not to be found in all province, though the girl is a princess and her horse a wonderful Arabian, the like of which can only be seen in the Sultan’s stables, the whole vision has such a charming Slav type and strong individuality that it makes a permanent impression. ”

“ The Austrian occupation of Herzegovina and Bosnia was naturally very displeasing to the Montenegrins, crushing several of their grand hopes. That Montenegro for years carried on intrigues in the Herzegovina, incited the Christian population to revolt, and encouraged them to look forward to the day when they should be subjects of Prince Nikita, is notorious. The Principality was ever a place of refuge for Herzegovinian fugitives ”

“ Our reply was: we would not give up Galicia to Poland, Transylvania and the Bukovina to Roumania, and Bosnia together with Herzegovina to Serbia, in return for [Pg 173] a vague promise of the closer relations of those states with the pitiful remains left to us of the Monarchy. ”

“ The clue towards solving the mystery is, I think, to be found in the abundance, in the interior of Bosnia and the Herzegovina, of just the same stones engraved as Turkish amulets and talismans, to which attention has been called already. In parts of the Herzegovina these stones are accounted so cheap that they are worn for merely ornamental purposes. Some of the rayah women, who had taken refuge in Ragusa from Nevešinje and the neighbouring districts of the Herzegovina, wore broad belts studded like ephods with suchlike stones. ”

“ In Herzegovina, where at the moment of Turkish conquest the Bogomiles were proportionally more numerous, and where their attitude, in contradistinction to their Turcophile manifestations in Bosnia, had been one of open defiance to the conqueror, their calamity must have been even more overwhelming; and if the Turks bore so hardly on their Jayczan benefactors, what mercy could have been meted to the Bogomilian defenders of Mostar? ”

“ It was originally peopled by Latin Christians, and was the residence of their bishop, who afterwards emigrated to Narona. On the Turkish conquest, Mostar became the seat of residence of the Viziers of Herzegovina; and just as before the dukes of St. Sava had exercised an authority almost independent of their suzerains, the kings of Bosnia, so now the Viziers of Herzegovina succeeded in defying their Bosnian superiors, the lieutenants of the Grand Signior at Travnik. ”

“ Herzegovina differed from other branches of the Slavs at the downfall of the Servian empire, inasmuch as it secured to itself, for a long time, rights of popular self-government, its population feeding cattle on the mountains, as far as possible from the towns where the Turks, here as elsewhere, kept each other in countenance. ”

“ It is always more cruel to be deprived of an anticipation than of a reality. Turkey gave up Bosnia and Herzegovina with her usual fatalistic indifference. Her sovereignty had been only a fiction after all. But Servia saw in the action of Austria-Hungary a fatal blow to her national aspirations. The inhabitants of the two Turkish provinces on her west were Servian: Bosnia-Herzegovina formed the centre of the Servian race. Montenegro on the south was Servian. Dalmatia on the west was Servian. Croatia on the north was Servian. Everything was Servian to the Adriatic Sea. ”

“ One cannot wonder that Coinica was chosen as the meeting-place of the lords spiritual and temporal of Christian Bosnia. The situation on the one pass which connects the heart of Bosnia and her present capital with the duchy, and the magnificent bridge which here spans the Narenta, make it the key to the Herzegovina ”

“ The Publicans on this occasion consisted of one Christian and two members of the renegade Mahometan aristocracy of the Herzegovina, who here vie with the Fanariote Greeks for this shameful office. These gentry, as is their wont, rated the harvest at far higher than its real value, and when the peasants refused to comply with their exorbitant demands, let loose their bloodhounds, the Zaptiehs, and robbed, beat, and imprisoned whom they would. The Knezes or village elders tried to complain to the Kaïmakàm, but being insulted and threatened with imprisonment, fled to Montenegro. ”

“ And now a combination of unforeseen circumstances conspired to rescue the Porte from the pressing danger which threatened it. The neutrality preserved by Servia, or rather its Prince, Alexander Guirgievitch, infected not only the Bulgarian Christians, but even the Montenegrins themselves, who actually overran Herzegovina and a portion of the Bosnian frontier during the absence of the Mussulman Spahis of those districts. ”

“ The Roumanians of Hungary, who number more than three millions, and almost six millions of Jugoslavs are forgotten, while Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are part of the Jugoslav people, are separated from their own people. ”

“ This land is composed of the three provinces of Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia. All this territory is inhabited by the same race that peoples Serbia and Montenegro—the Serbs. In fact, the Slavic population reaches up all along the coast to Trieste, and even a little beyond. For this reason it is in this direction that we shall see the Serbians and the Montenegrins invade Austrian territory, after their initial success in repulsing the Austrian invasion. ”

“ But there has never been a minute since the annexation of 1908 that the statesmen of the Ballplatz have not been nervous about the Servian propaganda in Bosnia and Herzegovina. To keep Catholic Croatians and Orthodox Servians in {149} antagonism with each other and with the Moslems, to prevent the education and economic emancipation of the Orthodox peasants, and to introduce German colonists and German industrial enterprises everywhere, has been the Austro-Hungarian program. ”

“ Of its sincerity in wishing to bring this about the Porte will find it difficult to convince the Christian malcontents, so deeply rooted is their mistrust. Secret agents are not wanting to check any spirit of wavering which may show itself in the insurgents. In the meanwhile both Bosnia and Herzegovina are being rapidly exhausted. Even in peaceable times, the people of the Herzegovina had to draw their supplies of grain from Bosnia, while the import trade of both provinces more than doubled the export in value. ”

“ In 1908 the Emperor Francis Joseph annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina at the suggestion of the German Emperor and made preparations for a war against Serbia, which was only averted by the withdrawal of Russian support from Serbia under a German ultimatum. ”

“ Herzegovina, which lies south of Bosnia, in a parallelogram defined by Montenegro, Dalmatia, the Dinaric Alps, and an irregular line drawn from a point 25 m. west-north-west of Mostar to the bend of the river Narenta, differs in many respects from the larger territory. Its mountains, which belong to the Adriatic watershed, and form a continuation of the Montenegrin highlands, are less rounded and more dolomitic in character. They descend in parallel ridges of grey Karst limestone, south-westwards to the sea ”

“ And the change which has given Bosnia and Herzegovina to the master of Dalmatia, Ragusa, and Cattaro has, besides throwing back the frontier of the Turk, redressed a very old geographical wrong. ♦Union of inland and maritime Illyricum.♦ Ever since the first Slavonic settlements, the inland region of northern Illyricum has been more or less thoroughly cut off from the coast cities which form its natural{449} outlets. Whatever may be the fate of those lands, the body is again joined to the mouth, and the mouth to the body, and we can hardly fancy them again severed. ”

“ We found that we were on the high road which connects Sarajevo, with Mostar, the capital of the Herzegovina, but on the wrong side of the pass, and about seven hours’ walk from Coinica, the first town in the duchy of St. Sava, and our this day’s destination. We stopped on our way to refresh ourselves at a Han, of which I give a plan and elevation, in order to convey an idea of the ordinary cottage in this part of Bosnia: for the dwelling-houses are like the inns, except that their entrance arch opens on to the yard and not on to the road. ”

“ Economy Bosnia and Herzegovina Economy - overview: Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked next to The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as the poorest republic in the old Yugoslav federation. Although agriculture is almost all in private hands, farms are small and inefficient, and the republic traditionally is a net importer of food. Industry has been greatly overstaffed, one reflection of the socialist economic structure of Yugoslavia. TITO had pushed the development of military industries in the republic with the result that Bosnia hosted a number of Yugoslavia's defense plants. ”

“ Bosnia and Herzegovina's declaration of sovereignty in October 1991, was followed by a declaration of independence from the former Yugoslavia on 3 March 1992 after a referendum boycotted by ethnic Serbs. The Bosnian Serbs - supported by neighboring Serbia and Montenegro - responded with armed resistance aimed at partitioning the republic along ethnic lines and joining Serb-held areas to form a "Greater Serbia." In March 1994, Bosniaks and Croats reduced the number of warring factions from three to two by signing an agreement creating a joint Bosniak/Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. ”

“ The truth is that Montenegro cannot venture to help Herzegovina again as she did in 1862-3, unless she is sure that the stronger state of Free Servia will also take the field, and that the rising is more general than has frequently proved to be the case of late years. Discontents and small rebellions are almost perennial, and have never yet been sufficiently carefully prepared to be successful. ”

“ The sun is nice and warm, if you can get out of the wind which rises very decidedly every afternoon. I landed from the yacht in the morning, escorted by my guide. An elaborate programme was made out, and it was intended we should travel through Herzegovina and Bosnia, visiting Jajce, Bajnaluka, Bihac (pronounced Beehatch) , Novi, and Plitvice, where are wonderful lakes and cascades in continuation from one to the other. Part of the journey we carried out, but not all, as will be seen later on. ”

“ Thus it is that since the period immediately succeeding Omer Pashà’s conquest the state of the Christian population has suffered a relapse, while in the Herzegovina, more especially, as I have shown elsewhere, the tyranny of the old feudal caste has recrudesced, and the misera contribuens plebs of those countries has to bear a double burden of extortion, from the landowner who represents the old régime and the Turkish officials and middle-men who represent the new ”

“ The Bosniacs show themselves absolutely incapable of pomiculture; they plant their fruit-trees almost as close together as cabbages, and expect them to thrive. Our Consul produced magnificent peaches by simply planting the miserable Bosnian substitute properly.
We found that affairs here had taken a very serious [251] turn. On Saturday last Dervish Pashà, the Vali or Governor-General of Bosnia, had left to take the command in Herzegovina, where the revolt was making head. On Sunday—this country being now left without any competent head—the revolt broke out in Bosnia. ”