Prelude to Sarajevo: the Serbian Question in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1878–1914

Abstract

The Serbian question in Bosnia-Herzegovina was the major obstacle to the stabilization of the semi-colonial, repressive and anti-democratic rule of Austria-Hungary. From the occupation after the Congress of Berlin (1878) until the First World War, the politics of systematic suppression of the Herzegovinian and Bosnian Serbs, especially of their freedom of religion political rights, and cultural development, provoked growing national demands. This conflict of interests, combined with intensified international crisis in the Balkans directly led to the Austrian-Serbian war in 1914.