PRE-REBELLION TURMOIL IN BOSANSKA KRAJINA: AFFAIRS INVOLVING MERCHANTS FROM BANJA LUKA AND GRADIŠKA

Abstract

The affairs involving Serbian merchants from Banja Luka and Gradiška represent a small yet highly intriguing episode in the history of the Serbian national movement in the Eyalet of Bosnia on the eve of the Great Eastern Crisis. The feudal oppression endured by the peasantry in the lead-up to the 1875 uprising became unbearable. The Christian population was also subjected to harsh tax exploitation and the arbitrary rule of local aghas and beys. Between 1871 and 1874, several Serbian merchants from Banja Luka and Berbir (Gradiška) crossed the Sava River on multiple occasions, seeking refuge in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and attempting to draw the attention of European powers to the position of the Christian population in the Eyalet. These events should be viewed within the broader socio-political context of the Eyalet of Bosnia and the connections that Serbian merchants - as a significant part of the national elite - established with the institutions of the Principality of Serbia during the preparation of plans for national liberation and unification. The flight of these Serbian merchants was not solely political in nature but also aimed at securing protection for their personal economic interests.