The Bosnian eyalet was governed by a vizier and administered through a network of junior pashas and local judges. In other ways, however, conditions in Bosnia were similar to those in the other Balkan lands under Ottoman rule. Land was distributed according to the Ottoman timar system, in which the holder of an estate had to report for military duty, bringing and paying for soldiers from his estate. A wide range of taxes was imposed, including a poll tax on non-Muslims. The system of military conscription was also introduced.

More Bosnians (and later, Albanians) converted to Islam than in any other part of the Balkan Peninsula. Conversion was gradual, and it took over a century for Muslims to become an absolute majority in Bosnia. In large part, the higher rate of conversion in Bosnia than amongst its neighbors was due to sectarian rivalries between its several churches — in particular the Bosnian, Roman Catholic, and Serbian Orthodox churches.

There were also economic and political incentives to convert: as a constituent province, Bosnia was a favored trade route, and when the cities of Sarajevo and Mostar prospered their Muslim populations grew. Conversion to Islam offered the opportunity to lead a fuller civic life.

For the bulk of the Ottoman period, Bosnia was a frontier province facing the Ottoman Empire’s most important enemies, Austria, Hungary and Venice. As a result, Bosnia suffered major wars every two generations.

The province was an important recruiting ground for Süleyman I the Magnificent’s campaign against Hungary between 1520-33, and the Habsburg-Ottoman conflict of 1593-1606 was sparked by fighting in the Bihac region of northwestern Bosnia. A Venetian-Ottoman war began in the 1640s and lasted until 1669, inflicting heavy damage on parts of western Bosnia.

In the Habsburg-Ottoman war of 1683-99, Austrian victories sent a flood of Muslim refugees (mainly converted Slavs) into Bosnia. In 1697, a small Austrian army under Prince Eugene of Savoy marched into the heart of Bosnia, put Sarajevo to the torch, and hurried back to Austrian territory, taking thousands of Bosnian Catholics along.

In the next major war of 1714-18 Austria joined forces with Venice. The 1718 Treaty of Passarowitz (Pozarevac) that ended the war allowed Venetian-ruled Dalmatia (southeast Croatia today) to extend its territory inland to what is now the southwestern border of Bosnia.

Austria invaded Bosnia again in 1736 but was repelled by local forces. At the subsequent peace settlement (the Treaty of Belgrade, 1739), Austria gave up its claim to the territory south of the Sava River. This settlement formed the basis of the northern border of modern Bosnia. Austria seized more territory after invading Bosnia again in 1788, but it gave up its gains at the peace settlement in 1791.

The chronic fighting weakened Bosnia, and there were frequent revolts against increased taxation for war. Forced conscription and recurrent epidemics of plague led to a decline in Muslim manpower for Ottoman campaigns, and in the 18th century there was a sharp rise in the rate of Christian population growth.

By the end of the century Muslims were probably no longer in the majority in Bosnia. Rural poverty grew rapidly as old feudal estates were converted into a form of private estates known as a ciftlik, in response to the imperial treasury’s need for cash instead of tribute.

Nevertheless, Ottoman Bosnia was not sunk in misery. Travelers to Sarajevo portray it as one of the wonders of the Balkans, with fountains, bridges, schools, libraries, and mosques. Fine mosques were also built in towns such as Foca and Banja Luka. A thriving intellectual community in Bosnia produced works of poetry, philosophy, and theology, and the cities of Sarajevo and Mostar, where urban culture flourished, enjoyed a large degree of autonomy under elected officials. Real local power passed increasingly into the hands of a type of hereditary official (unique to the Bosnian eyalet) known as a kapetan.

As the Ottoman hold on Bosnia decayed from within, Ottoman viziers turned to stirrings local rivalries as a means of divide and rule, and briefly partitioned the province to create a separate eyalet of Herzegovina between 1831-51. Though Bosnia & Herzegovina were re-unified in 1851, public alienation from the Ottoman Empire continued to grow, and in 1875 a peasant uprising in Herzegovina sparked Serbian and Montenegrin declarations of war that were joined by Russia and resulted in the defeat of the Ottomans.

At the Congress of Berlin that followed in 1878, Bosnia & Herzegovina were placed under Austro-Hungarian administration.

Once under Austrian control, Bosnia was declared a “crown land” and was governed by a special joint commission. The Ottoman administrative divisions of Bosnia were preserved, and Ottoman laws were supplemented or only replaced gradually. This policy was widely criticized for doing too little to resolve tensions between Bosnian landlords and peasants, that had sparked the 1878 uprising.

In other areas, however, Austrian rule was very active. A public works program was initiated, and by 1907 Bosnia had a well-developed infrastructure, including an extensive railway and road network. Mines and factories were developed, and agriculture was promoted with model farms and training colleges. Three high schools and nearly 200 primary schools were built, although compulsory education was not introduced until 1909.

While Bosnia & Herzegovina experienced on the ground integration of its infrastructure, politically the impact of growing nationalist movements in its neighborhood — Croatia and Serbia - was divisive. By the mid-19th century the Catholic and Orthodox people of Bosnia had begun to identify themselves as “Croats” and “Serbs.”

At the same time, the Muslim intelligentsia’s campaign for greater powers over Islamic institutions, which was primarily aimed at internal reform, served to knit together the Muslim community. By the end of the first decade of the 20th century, Bosnia & Herzegovina’s three major religious groups, Muslims, Serbs, and Croats, had formed separate cultural organizations that began to function as embryonic political parties.

Austro-Hungarian administrators responded by increasing autonomy in religious affairs for Muslims and Serbs, but the measure was too little too late. Nationalist sentiments had already been provoked by the announcement that Bosnia would be fully annexed by Austria-Hungary in October 1908.

Bosnia’s annexation led to the spread of revolutionary groups and secret societies dedicated to the overthrow of Habsburg rule, such as Mlada Bosna (“Young Bosnia”), that were especially active in Bosnian schools and universities and received covert backing from Serbia. Tensions were heightened by the First Balkan War of 1912-13, and after Serbia expanded southward, driving Turkish forces out of Kosovo, Novi Pazar, and Macedonia.

In May 1913 the military governor of Bosnia declared a state of emergency, dissolved the parliament, banned Serb cultural associations, and suspended the civil courts. When the heir to the Habsburg throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, traveled to Bosnia to review a military exercise, he was assassinated in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, by a young Serb from the Mlada Bosna organization, Gavrilo Princip. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia one month later, and precipitated World War I.

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