Russo-Turkish War 1877

This series has twelve easy 5-minute installments. This first installment: Ottoman Oppression and Native Revolt.

Introduction
This war is important for two results: (1) the map of Balkan countries began to look like it is now and (2) The Ottoman Empire was reduced to being dependent on European powers while Russia regained power status lost in the Crimean War twenty years earlier. The racial and religious hostilities in the region were made apparent to the world in this conflict and were the same that were encountered by United States and by NATO in the conflicts of the 1990’s.

This selection is from Political History of Recent Times by Wilhelm Mueller (1852-1921) published in 1882. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Time: 1877-1878
Place: Balkans

In October of 1874 a collision between Montenegrins and Turks, resulting in a massacre, had taken place in Podgoritza. For this, in January, 1875, five Turks were condemned to death and twenty to imprisonment; but the Turkish Government re fused to permit the execution of the sentence unless the Montenegrins implicated in the disturbance were surrendered, to be tried by Turkish courts on Turkish soil. Prince Nikita insisted on the unconditional punishment of the culprits, and prepared for war; but finally, through the mediation of the consuls of the three empires, the Porte was induced to recede from its demands, and orders were issued to the Governor of Scutari, in whose juris diction the Turkish prisoners had been tried, to execute the sentence of the court. In the meantime, the prisoners had been allowed to escape, which did not prevent the Turkish Government, however, from reporting the sentence executed. The whole affair aroused such indignation in Montenegro that an informal kind of war might be said to have already begun, and events in Bosnia and Herzegovina soon fanned this hidden fire into an open conflagration.

Great distress prevailed in the last-named provinces on account of the bad harvest of 1874; but the tax-gatherers, instead of taking this into consideration, carried off everything they could lay their hands on. According to the Turkish system, a tenth of all produce belonged to the Government, but this at times was raised to an eighth or a seventh. As the farmer of the taxes must also make his percentage, it not unfrequently came about that one-third of the produce was levied instead of one-tenth. To this must be added house, land, cattle, tobacco, and pasturage taxes; while, besides all these, the Christian population, not admitted to military service, were taxed for this involuntary dispensation. All these taxes, rendered doubly burdensome by the oppressive and unjust mode of their collection, were liable at any time to arbitrary increase on the part of the Government. (For example, the house- tax had been suddenly raised from four dollars and a half to thirteen dollars and a half.) Some of the peasants, driven to desperation, offered resistance “to the tax-collectors, and were beaten or thrown into prison; others sent a fruitless deputation to the Governor, Dervis Pacha. Hundreds of families fled with what they could collect to Croatia, Dalmatia, Montenegro, and Serbia. In consequence of Prince Nikita’s intercession, amnesty was promised to all those fugitives who would return; but no sooner did some of them venture back than the promise was broken.

About this time occurred the Austrian Emperor’s trip to Dalmatia, and the report spread that the object of his visit was the acquisition of Bosnia and Herzegovina by purchase. This report, together with the outspoken sympathy of Serbia and Montenegro, increased the excitement, and on July 6, 1875, an insurrection broke out in Herzegovina. Orders had been given to collect the taxes in the village of Drashego, on the plateau of Nevesinye, by force. The revenue collectors and a mob of Muslims took advantage of the opportunity to plunder the inhabitants. The latter flew to arms and shot ten of the robbers dead. The news that a number of taxpayers had been shut into a house and burned alive added fuel to the flame. The women and children were at once dispatched to Dalmatia, and in a few days those parts of Herzegovina bordering on that province and on Montenegro were in open rebellion.

The war was prosecuted with the greatest cruelty on both sides. The Turkish forces were small and poorly equipped. The mountainous character of the country afforded great advantages for the prosecution of an irregular warfare, and Dalmatia and Montenegro assisted the insurgents with men and arms, so that at the outset the balance of success was in favor of the latter. This induced Dervis Pacha to accept the proffered mediation of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Mostar and open negotiations. The demands put forward by the rebels as the condition of laying down their arms were: a thorough reform of the system of taxation, the substitution of native for Turkish officials, and the establishment of a native militia for the maintenance of public order in the province. These demands the Porte was certain not to grant, except, perhaps, on paper.

According to the census of 1868 the Greek Catholics in Bosnia, including Herzegovina, numbered four hundred thirty-one thousand two hundred, the Roman Catholics one hundred seventy- one thousand seven hundred sixty-four, and the Muslims four hundred eighteen thousand three hundred fifteen. A large part of the Muslim population consisted of the territorial nobility (the oldest in Europe), who, although of Slavic origin, were yet fanatical adherents of Islam, having found it to their interest to change their religion after the conquest of the country by the Turks. These took no part in the rebellion, and even the Christian population did not rise in a body. The success of the insurrection seemed to depend upon the attitude of Serbia and Montenegro, and at the outset those two countries were induced by the consuls of the three empires to profess a strict neutrality. Nevertheless, the Herzegovinians did not lose heart, and by the beginning of August they had put into the field against the Turks twelve to fourteen thousand men. The latter made great exertions to suppress the rebellion before it should give rise to serious diplomatic intervention, or involve the Porte in a war with the principalities. Dervis Pacha was succeeded by Reouf Pacha, and thirty thousand or forty thousand soldiers were gradually collected in Herzegovina. Against such a force the insurgents could not hope to maintain the field but by means of a guerilla warfare they harassed the Turks at every point and, when winter brought about a cessation of hostilities, the latter had made no real advance toward the suppression of the revolt.

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