The Herzegovina uprising () was an uprising led by the Christian Serb population against the Ottoman Empire, firstly and predominantly in Herzegovina (hence its name), from where it spread into Bosnia and Raška. It broke out in the summer of 1875, and lasted in some regions up to the beginning of 1878. It was followed by the Bulgarian Uprising of 1876, and coincided with Serbian-Turkish wars (1876–1878), all of those events being part of the Great Eastern Crisis (1875–1878).
The uprising was precipitated by the harsh treatment under the beys and aghas of the Ottoman province (vilayet) of Bosniathe reforms announced by the Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I, 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.
The rebels were aided with weapons and volunteers from the principalities of Montenegro and Serbia, whose governments eventually jointly declared war on the Ottomans on 18 June 1876, leading to the Serbian-Ottoman War (1876–78) and Montenegrin–Ottoman War (1876–78), which in turn led to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) and Great Eastern Crisis. A result of the uprisings and wars was the Berlin Congress in 1878, which gave Montenegro and Serbia independence and more territory, while Austro-Hungary occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina for 30 years, although it remained de jure Ottoman territory.
Background
In the early 19th century, most of the Balkans was under Ottoman rule. Christian communities of Serbs and Greeks, under Ottoman control for four centuries, rose up and succeeded in obtaining autonomy by means of the Serbian Revolution of 1804–17 and Greek War of Independence of 1821–29, establishing the Principality of Serbia and the Hellenic Republic. The weakened Ottoman central powers was evident in separatist provincial lords (pashas) as seen in Pazvantoğlu, Ali Pasha, Gradaščević (who led a Bosnian bey rebellion in 1831–32) and Muhammad Ali. Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II succeeded in abolishing the problematic Janissaries in 1826, in his reform work. Beginning in the 1830s, the Ottoman Empire seemed to many European observers to be on the verge on collapsing.
The tax-paying lower class (rayah, made up of Christian and Muslim peasants) in the Bosnia Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire experienced harsh economic conditions in the previous century. Bosnian Muslim beys sometimes took as much as half of each peasant's crop annually, besides various taxes on farm products and animals for which Christian peasants were responsible. Furthermore, tax farmers (mütesellim) levied additional taxes on the remaining yield. The failure of the 1874 crop and plight of peasants and external influence in Pan-Slavism and Pan-Serbism and also Austrian aspirations on further South Slavic lands were leading causes of the ensuing rebellion.
Other notable preceding Serb peasant rebellions in the region were the Herzegovina Uprising (1852–62) and Pecija's First Revolt (1858).
Preparations
In Herzegovina
The Serbian leaders of the people of Herzegovina: Jovan Gutić, Simun Zečević, Ilija Stevanović, Trivko Grubačić, Prodan Rupar and Petar Radović, at the end of August and beginning of September 1874, met and decided to start preparing a rebellion. They began collecting weapons and ammunition and establishing safe-places. With the assistance of Montenegro in the uprising, it was to begin in springtime 1875. The group entered in talks with Montenegrin ruler Nikola I Petrović, but he was unwilling to break and risk the unreadiness of Russia in its war with the Ottomans. The preparations continued; and in Bileća and Trebinje region, serdar Todor Mujičić, Gligor Milićević, Vasilj Svorcan and Sava Jakšić lead the revolt in these regions. Lazar Sočica led the Piva tribe in Old Herzegovina.
The Ottomans heard of the talks between Nikola I and tried to capture the ringleaders, who fled into Montenegro in the winter of 1874. In 1875, Austria was drawn in, who with its interests in Bosnia and Herzegovina, asked the Ottomans to give the ringleaders amnesty. The Ottomans agreed to enter discussions with Austria.