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Independent Bosnia (1878)

by Velid-aga Jerlagic

Overview
Flag According to Fachinger Collection

See also:

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Overview

I received a letter from Velid Jerlagic from Sarajevo. According to him, the flag that was used at that period was green with yellow (golden) crescent and star facing the fly.
Zeljko Heimer, 22 December 1997

Bosnia was virtually independent in 1878 for few months, after the Ottoman troops left, and before the Austrians came. The flag was in use for two months.
Velid-aga Jerlagic, 13 April 1998

Flag According to Fachinger Collection

by Jaume Olle', 18 November 2003

According Fachinger, the insurgent flag of 1878-79 is not green as reported by several sources. The Fachinger collection show a diferent flag labelled "insurgentenfhane 1878-79 unter ...." (next word is unreadable). The flag is red and white.
Jaume Olle', 18 November 2003

I don't know much about the uprising (other then short encyclopedistic entries that I reccount below), but the "clasical" sources all insist on the green and yellow flags. Possibly the white and red flag was used by one of thre groups (units) and could be considered a unit flag or something like that. It may be that the next word in the Fachinger's caption would be the name of the local leader who used the flag?
Of course, if there would be indication of the source, it would be easier for us to check or at least to know where to look for. In this way, we don't know if we should go searching though museums in Bosnia or somewhere else, or some written report or whatever.
The well known 1878 Berlin Congress gained Bosnia-Herzegovina to Austria-Huingary, after the series of uprisings of the Christians against the rulings Turks in 19the centuring, the last being in 1875. That one soon involved Serbia and Montenegro (in 1876) in helping the insurgents, but they were soon in very difficult position as the Turkish army was sucessful in fighting the uprising. In 1877 Rusia stepped in to hel the almost defeated Serbia, and crushed the Turkish might, ending with the peace in San Stefano. This was followed by the 1878 berlin Congress. Austria-Hungary was hopeing to have gained Bosnia peacefully, and sent troops mainly consisting of soldiers of neighbouring Slavic peoples, in order to show the liberators as of the same kin. However, the Muslim inhabitants that were loosing the privilegies they had, have started the vigorous uprising. It is from this uprising that the flags are. The uprising had several sucessful battles against the k.u.k. army and resisted for the whole three months.
Zeljko Heimer, 19 November 2003