Battle of Jajce (1878) | |||||||
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Part of the Austro-Hungarian campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina | |||||||
Battle of Jajce (Karl Pippich, 1890) | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Austria-Hungary | Bosnia Vilayet | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Duke William of Württemberg | ? | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Carniolan XVII. Infantry Division | Bosnian rebels | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
? some artillery batteries | c. 6,000 rebels | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
c. 600 killed hundreds of wounded | Unknown |
The Battle of Jajce was a military engagement between Austria-Hungary and Bosnian rebels supported by the Ottoman Empire that took place on August 7, 1878, as part of the Austro-Hungarian military campaign in Bosnia (Bosnia vilayet) in the for control of the strategic town of Jajce. This was one of the most extensive engagements of the entire campaign, in which the Austro-Hungarian Expeditionary Forces suffered more than six hundred casualties, [1] the heaviest losses during one day of the entire campaign.
At the end of the Russo-Turkish War during the Congress of Berlin, the Treaty of Berlin was established which in article 25 gave Austria-Hungary the responsibility to occupy and administer the Ottoman provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina indefinitely while it still stayed under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire. A campaign was organized to establish Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 29 July 1878 which saw mostly combat against local resistance fighters supported by the Ottoman Empire. The Austro-Hungarian army advanced into the country from the northern border towards the south, meeting little military resistance. The Austro-Hungarian command did not even count on significant resistance and could easily underestimate the combat situation, as happened during one of the first clashes like the Battle of Maglaj, [2] where part of the Austrian cavalry troops fell into a trap.
On August 7, the Austro-Hungarian army, consisting mainly of infantry units of the Carniolan XVII. Infantry Division under the command of Duke William of Württemberg, advanced towards the fortress town of Jajce on the Vrbas River, controlled by Ottoman-supported Bosnian rebels. Not far from the city, the cordon was ambushed by a force of about six thousand Bosnian insurgents, [3] mostly former soldiers of the Ottoman army of the Bosnian origin. Due to surprise and probably the complicated mountainous terrain, the Austro-Hungarian army achieved victory [4] at the cost of heavy losses, reported to be approximately six hundred dead.
After the battle town of Jajce was captured by the winners. [5] The action was one of the most significant clashes of the entire Austro-Hungarian military campaign, along with the Battle of Doboj on September 4 and 5 or the capture of Sarajevo in September 19. The whole campaign ended on October 20, 1878, when the last Bosnian partisan units operating in the mountains surrendered and the original Bosnian vilayet vanished. The subsequent presence of Austro-Hungarian power in Bosnia and Herzegovina persisted through the so-called Bosnian Crisis until the end of World War I, including the crucial assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country in Southeast Europe on the Balkan Peninsula. It has had permanent settlement since the Neolithic Age. By the early historical period it was inhabited by Illyrians and Celts. Christianity arrived in the 1st century, and by the 4th century the area became part of the Western Roman Empire. Germanic tribes invaded soon after, followed by Slavs in the 6th century.
The Herzegovina uprising was an uprising led by the Christian Serb population against the Ottoman Empire, firstly and predominantly in Herzegovina, from where it spread into Bosnia and Raška. It broke out in the summer of 1875, and lasted in some regions up to the beginning of 1878. It was followed by the Bulgarian Uprising of 1876, and coincided with Serbian-Turkish wars (1876–1878), all of those events being part of the Great Eastern Crisis (1875–1878).
Sarajevo is a city now in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Duke William of Württemberg was an Austrian and Württemberg General.
The Bosnia Vilayet was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire, mostly comprising the territory of the present-day state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with minor parts of modern Montenegro. It bordered Kosovo Vilayet to the south. Before the administrative reform in 1867, it was called the Bosnia Eyalet. In the late 19th century it reportedly had an area of 46,000 square kilometres (17,900 sq mi).
A series of military conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and various European states took place from the Late Middle Ages up through the early 20th century. The earliest conflicts began during the Byzantine–Ottoman wars, waged in Anatolia in the late 13th century before entering Europe in the mid-14th century with the Bulgarian–Ottoman wars. The mid-15th century saw the Serbian–Ottoman wars and the Albanian-Ottoman wars. Much of this period was characterized by the Ottoman expansion into the Balkans. The Ottoman Empire made further inroads into Central Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, culminating in the peak of Ottoman territorial claims in Europe.
Bosanska Krajina is a geographical region, a subregion of Bosnia, in western Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is enclosed by several rivers, namely the Sava (north), Glina (northwest), Vrbanja and Vrbas. The region is also a historic, economic, and cultural entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, noted for its preserved nature and wildlife diversity.
Bosnia is the northern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, encompassing roughly 81% of the country; the other region, the southern part, is Herzegovina.
The Sanjak of Novi Pazar was an Ottoman sanjak that was created in 1865. It was reorganized in 1880 and 1902. The Ottoman rule in the region lasted until the First Balkan War (1912). The Sanjak of Novi Pazar included territories of present-day northeastern Montenegro and southwestern Serbia, also including some northern parts of Kosovo. In modern day terms the region is known as Sandžak.
The Ottoman Empire era of rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Herzegovina lasted from 1463/1482 to 1908.
Muhamed Hadžijamaković was one of the Bosnian Muslim leaders striving for the Bosnia Vilayet autonomy within the Ottoman Empire in the 1860s and 1870s.
Bosnia and Herzegovina fell under Austro-Hungarian rule in 1878, when the Congress of Berlin approved the occupation of the Bosnia Vilayet, which officially remained part of the Ottoman Empire. Three decades later, in 1908, Austria-Hungary provoked the Bosnian Crisis by formally annexing the occupied zone, establishing the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina under the joint control of Austria and Hungary.
The Bosnian-Herzegovinian Infantry, commonly called the Bosniaken, were a branch of the Austro-Hungarian Army. Recruited from within the two regions of the Dual-Monarchy having a significant Muslim population, these regiments enjoyed a special status. They had their own distinctive uniforms and were given their own numbering sequence within the Common Army (KuK).
Golub Babić was a Bosnian Serb guerrilla chief and one of the most prominent rebel commanders of the 1875–77 Herzegovina Uprising in the Ottoman Empire's Bosnia Vilayet.
Turkish Croatia was a geopolitical term which appeared periodically during the Ottoman–Habsburg wars between the late 16th to late 18th century. Invented by Austrian military cartographers, it referred to a border area of Ottoman Bosnia and Herzegovina located across the Ottoman-Austrian border from the Croatian Military Frontier. It went out of use with the Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The campaign to establish Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina lasted from 29 July to 20 October 1878 against the local resistance fighters supported by the Ottoman Empire. The Austro-Hungarian Army entered the country in two large movements: one from the north into Bosnia, and another from the south into Herzegovina. A series of battles in August culminated in the fall of Sarajevo on the 19th after a day of street-to-street fighting. In the hilly countryside a guerrilla campaign continued until the last rebel stronghold fell after their leader was captured.
The Krivošije uprising of 1869 was an internal conflict in the far south of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that broke out following the Austro-Hungarian government's decision to extend military conscription to the Serb tribe and region of Krivošije. It lasted from October 1869 until a formal peace accord was signed on 11 January 1870. The rebels managed to defeat the Austro-Hungarian army detachments sent against them and in the end the government conceded on all points of dispute.
Salih Vilajetović, known as Hadži Lojo was a Bosnian Muslim leader in Sarajevo in the 1870s.
At the end of the Russo-Turkish War during the Congress of Berlin, the Treaty of Berlin was established which in article 25 gave Austria-Hungary the responsibility to occupy and administer the Ottoman provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina indefinitely while it still stayed under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire. A campaign was organized to establish Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 29 July 1878 which saw mostly combat against local resistance fighters supported by the Ottoman Empire. The Austro-Hungarian army ultimately reached Sarajevo on 19 August 1878 and prepared to take the city.
The Battle of Maglaj was a military engagement between Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire that took place on 3–5 August 1878 as part of the Austro-Hungarian military campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Bosnian vilayet for control of the strategic town of Maglaj. The Austro-Hungarian expeditionary Force was surprised by the stiff resistance of the Bosnian Muslims when crossing the Bosnia River near the city, and managed to gain control of the area only after a secondary combat strike, after several more clashes the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was launched.