ABSTRACT
South Slavs lived in both halves of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary and in Bosnia-Herzegovina, administered jointly by Austria-Hungary since occupation in 1878 and annexation in 1908. A majority of the almost 7 million Habsburg South Slavs were Roman Catholic, also including some Uniate communities. Some 2 million were Orthodox, and about a third, that is more than 600,000, of South Slavs in Bosnia-Herzegovina were Muslim. There was also a small Jewish minority and smaller communities belonging to various Protestant denominations. While Austria-Hungary’s annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908 turned Serbia back to its own ethnic nationalism, a surge of enthusiasm for Yugoslav nationalism continued in the monarchy’s South Slav population. Unsurprisingly, Serbian and Montenegrin (and Bulgarian) victories in the First Balkan War caused a virtual euphoria among Habsburg South Slavs. An independent state, they believed, would stand a better chance at a peace conference, especially if it united with a winning power, Serbia.
