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The High Stakes of Small Numbers: Flight, Diplomacy, and Refugee Return on the Habsburg-Ottoman Border 1873–74

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2020

Jared Manasek
Jared Manasek*
Affiliation:
Economics, History, Political Science, Pace University, Pleasantville, New York
*
JMANASEK@pace.edu
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Abstract

This article examines the causes and repercussions of the flight of two-dozen Orthodox Christian merchants from Ottoman Bosnia to Habsburg Croatia in 1873. The seemingly minor event quickly escalated from an isolated border incident to a full-blown diplomatic crisis-defused only with the merchants' repatriation, the recall of a Habsburg consul, and the removal of the Ottoman provincial governor and other officials. After outlining the course of events and increasing Ottoman-Habsburg tensions, the article turns to the refugees' efforts to affect the outcome of emerging crisis. Although ultimately of little influence, the refugees' sophisticated invocation of international legal norms reflected a largely conservative trust in the international system's ability to rectify perceived violations of treaty terms-a belief that quickly vanished after the outbreak of the Eastern Crisis in 1875.

Keywords

RefugeeAsylumHabsburgOttomanBosniaCroatiaInternational lawEastern Crisis
Type
Article Commentary
Information
Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 51 , May 2020 , pp. 60 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Emily Greble and Daniel Unowsky for inviting me to participate in this forum, the anonymous reviewer, and Emily Greble for her thoughtful comments on an earlier draft of this article. Thank you as well to Patrick Fiska for his help. I am grateful also for research funding and support from Pace University.

References

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2 Andrássy to Zalusky, memorandum, 14/26 July 1873, in Actenstücke aus den Correspondenzen des kais. und kön. gemeinsamen Ministeriums des Äussern über orientalische Angelegenheiten (vom 16. Mai 1873 bis 31. Mai 1877) (Vienna, 1878), 13–20Google Scholar. See also Hriščana, Odbor Prebjeglijeh [Committee of the refugees who fled], “Memorandum to the Christian Guaranteeing Great Powers Regarding the Situation and Suffering in Bosnia,” Chronicle of Matica Srpska 116 (1874), 143–58Google Scholar.

3 Article IX is the most relevant. Hertslet, Edward, The Map of Europe by Treaty; Showing the Various Political and Territorial Changes Which Have Taken Place since the General Peace of 1814, 4 vols. (London, 1875), 1:1255Google Scholar.

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6 Mollinary to Andrássy, 29 July 1873, Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv [HHStA], Vienna, MdA IB, Karton 36, 659.

7 Committee to Andrássy, 18/30 Aug. 1873, NUB BiH, Mapa 107, br. 6.

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25 See, for example, Protocol, 21 June 1873, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 36, 8871, Beilage; Dragančić to Andrássy, 17 June 1873, HHStA, GKA Konstantinopel GesA, Karton 345, no. 12; Andrássy to Zalusky, memorandum, 14/26 July 1873, in Actenstücke, 13–20.

26 Protocol, 21 June 1873, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 36, 8871, Beilage. Ekmić, 29 May 1873, NUB BiH, Mapa 107, br. 6/11.

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30 Some minor cases did not rise to the consular level. Examples are in HHStA, MdA PA XXXVIII, GK Sarajevo, Karton 220-2.

31 Vukanović to Andrássy, 2 July 1873, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 36, 9127/1893.

32 Ludolf to Teodorović, Konzept, 30 June 1873, HHStA, GKA Konstantinopel GesA, Karton 345, no. 1551.

33 Szlavy to Andrássy, 24 June 1873, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 36, nos. 380 and 1558.

34 Dragančić to Andrássy, 17 June 1873, HHStA, GKA Konstantinopel GesA, Karton 345, no. 12.

35 Andrássy to Ludolf and Teodorović, Konzept, 26 June 1873, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 36, no. 374.

36 Teodorović and Ludolf to Andrássy, 27 June 1873, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 36, no. 6377/521 and 61661/984; Andrássy to Szlavy, Konzept, 30 June 1873, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 36, no. 382.

37 Vukanović to Andrássy, 2 July 1873, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 36, 9127/1893.

38 Andrássy to Mollinary, 30 July 1873, in Actenstücke, 8.

39 Andrássy to Mollinary, 29 July 1873 in Actenstücke, 7‒8.

40 Andrássy to Szlavy, Konzept, 30 June 1873, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 36, no. 382.

41 Andrássy to Mollinary, no. 401; Andrássy to Szlavy, Konzept, 5 July 1873, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 36, nos. 293 and 294.

42 Ludolf to Teodorović, Konzept, 30 June 1873, HHStA, GKA Konstantinopel GesA, Karton 345, no. 1551. Teodorović to Andrássy, 2 July 1873, MdA IB, Karton 36, no. 1091/540.

43 Teodorović to Andrássy, 2 July 1873, MdA IB, Karton 36, no. 1091/540.

44 Ibid.

45 Ludolf to Andrássy, 1 Aug. 1873, HHStA, MdA, IB Karton 37, no. 72.

46 Mustafa Asim to Raşid, 11/23 July 1873, HHStA, MdA, IB Karton 37, no. 72, Beilage.

47 Ludolf to Andrássy, 4 July 1873, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 36, no. 4162/1085; Andrássy to Teodorović, Konzept, 5 July 1873, no. 296; Andrássy to Ludolf, Konzept, 5 July 1873, no. 299.

48 Teodorović and Ludolf to Andrássy, 27 June 1873, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 36, no. 6377/521.

49 Teodorović to Andrássy, 22 July 1873, HHStA, MdA, PAXXXVIII, Karton 201-2 Sarajevo, no. 33.

50 Dragančić to Andrássy, 17 June 1873, HHStA, GKA Konstantinopel GesA, Karton 345, no. 12.

51 Teodorović to Andrássy, 22 July 1873, HHStA, MdA, PAXXXVIII, Karton 201-2 Sarajevo, no. 33.

52 Teodorović to Ludolf, 6 May 1873, HHStA GKA Konstantinopel GesA, Karton 345, no. 14.

53 Teodorović to Andrássy, 22 July 1873, HHStA, MdA, PAXXXVIII, Karton 201-2 Sarajevo, no. 33.

54 Ibid.

55 Mollinary to Andrássy, 15 Sept. 1873, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 37, no. 911.

56 Zalusky to Andrássy, 3 Oct. 1873, in Actenstücke, 21.

57 Allgemeine Zeitung, 15 Oct. 1873, p. 5; Allgemeine Zeitung, 16 Oct. 1873, p. 3; Neue Freie Presse, 10 Oct. 1873, pp. 1–2.

58 Allgemeine Zeitung, 15 Oct. 1873, p. 5.

59 The paper also took as further evidence the fact Dragančić's name was South Slavic, which made him “already somewhat suspect.” Neue Freie Presse, 10 Oct. 1873, pp. 1–2.

60 Andrássy to Ludolf, 21 Oct. 1873, in Actenstücke, 30–33.

61 Neue Freie Presse, 13 Oct. 1873, Allgemeine Zeitung, 24 Oct. 1873.

62 Ludolf to Andrássy, 11 Aug. 1873, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 37, no. 8927/1722 ad. 512. Zalusky to Andrássy, 29 Aug. 1873, in Actenstücke, 12.

63 Mollinary to Andrássy, 5 Oct. 1873, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 37, no. 977.

64 Andrássy to Ludolf, 21 Oct. 1873, in Actenstücke, 30–33.

65 Ibid. and Ludolf to Andrássy, 27 Oct. 1873, in Actenstücke, 33.

66 Dragančić to Ludolf, 17 June 1873, HHStA, GKA Konstantinopel GesA, Karton 345, no. 12. Teodorović to Andrássy, 7 Aug. 1873, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 37, no. 507.

67 Ludolf to Andrássy, 5 Nov. 1873, in Actenstücke, 36.

68 Ludolf to Andrássy, 17 Jan. 1874, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 37, nos. 8959/2334, 34.

69 Teodorović to Andrássy, 28 Nov. 1873, HHStA, GKA Konstantinopel GesA, Karton 346, no. 27.

70 Refugees to Andrássy, 23 Jan. 1874, NUB BiH, box 107, 6/21 1873.

71 Mollinary to Andrássy, 8 Mar. 1874, HHStA, MdA IB, Karton 37, nos. 238, 106.

72 Hertslet, Article IX, 1:1255.

73 Among the relevant texts mentioned in the memorandum were the so-called Four Points note of August 1854, as well as the Austrian ultimatum and the Vienna Protocols of 1855 and the discussions during the Constantinople Conference at the end of 1855.

74 “The Treaty of Peace—Adjourned Debate (Second Night),” House of Commons Hansard Archives, accessed 13 Aug. 2019, https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1856/may/06/the-treaty-of-peace-adjourned-debate#column_126.

75 Andrássy to Zalusky, memorandum, 14/26 July 1873, in Actenstücke, 13–20.

76 Ibid. See also Andrássy to Ludolf, 21 Oct. 1873, in Actenstücke, 30–33.