What caused the 1875 peasant revolt in Herzegovina?

The 1875 peasant revolt in Herzegovina was primarily caused by the severe economic hardships faced by Christian peasants under Ottoman rule. The uprising was triggered by a particularly bad harvest, which exacerbated the already difficult conditions imposed by local Muslim landlords, or beys and agas, who often repressed their sharecropping reaya more harshly than was common elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire.12

The immediate catalyst for the conflict was a revolt against state tax collectors that began among Christian peasants in the Nevesinje region of Herzegovina. This unrest was fueled by growing tax demands and the systemic exploitation inherent in the land tenure system of the time. The rebellion quickly spread to other areas of Bosnia, leading to a broader conflict that drew in neighboring Serbia and Montenegro, ultimately contributing to the regional crisis that resulted in the Congress of Berlin and the subsequent occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary.132