OTTOMAN ADMINISTRATION IN BOSNIAHERZEGOVINA AND THE GREAT POWERS INTERVENTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY

In 1463, Ottoman empire ruled Bosnia-Herzegovina after they have defeated Serb in Kosovo war. Before this, Bosnia-Herzegovina was ruled by Christian governments such as Christian Catholic and Orthodox. The Ottoman came to Bosnia-Herzegovina and brought with them the islamic religion to the Bosnian people. Most of them welcomed Islam and converted to muslim while others remained as a Christian. Ottoman ruled Bosnian people according to the islamic law and muslim culture. The people of Bosnia-Herzegovina who included the Christians accepted the new civilization with a full heart and colaborate with each other for economic reasons. Although the Islamic law was practised in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ottoman government gave freedom to his Christian subjects to practise their own culture and religion. It lasted until 1856. This was the time when the great powers insisted Ottoman government to introduce the western law in the Ottoman empire including in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Unfortunately, the Muslims and the Christians who practised the islamic law for ages, couldn’t adjust themselves with the new western law. This caused turbulance in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the reformation failed. The significant reason was that the great powers who were very prejudice with the islamic law have tried to induce a western law where the Ottoman subjects were not ready to accept. The implimentation of the western law has no benefit to the Bosnian people or to the Ottoman empire but they were only for the interest of the great powers. The objective of this working paper is to discuss the western influence towards the Bosnia-Herzegovina society which had created a conflict to the Ottoman government in Bosnia-Herzegovina.