ABSTRACT
In the predawn hours of July 31, 1878, advance units of the Habsburg Imperial Army crossed into the Ottoman province of Bosnia and Herzegovina at four points from adjacent Austro-Hungarian provinces. The Imperial troops were charged with fulfilling the first part of the Empire’s mandate from the Congress of Berlin to “occupy and administer” the province that had been under Ottoman governance for over four centuries. The country acquired its distinctive triangular shape in 1865 owing to Ottoman administrative reforms that combined the previously separate areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina into the single, dually named province of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Commanders of the Austro-Hungarian units entering Bosnia naively expected that their troops would encounter no resistance and be greeted as liberators by the local populace. As the province-wide movement gained momentum and won additional supporters in Austria-Hungary, Kallay relented and in February 1902 authorized government officials to open negotiations with the protesters.
