Displaying a “Peaceful” Colonization within Europe: The Austro-Hungarian Representation of Bosnia and Herzegovina at Universal Expositions

Following the Berlin Congress of 1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina, two territories previously belonging to the Ottoman Empire, were placed under the military guardianship of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Although the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was part of the Balkan regional strategy intending to solve the problems created by the rising south Slavic nationalism and the resulting political instability, the Austro-Hungarian administration used every available instrument to justify it as a “cultural mission”. Furthermore, Benjamin von Kállay, the Joint Minister of Finance of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in charge of the occupied territory between 1882 and 1903, followed a complex policy agenda designed to secure the annexation of the provinces trough binding them to the new administration as the source of economic progress and political stability. Kállay imputed importance not only to the administrative and economic, but also to the nation building aspects of the modernization. The promotion of an independent Bosnian nationhood served multiple purposes from keeping the Serbian and Croatian territorial aspirations under control, to procuring the support of the Bosnian nobility. At the same time, by implication, it also enforced the image of an “Oriental” colony and thus emphasized the necessity of performing a cultural mission.

Seeking validation at both national and international level as an essential condition of legitimacy, Kállay recognized the opportunity provided by international and universal exhibitions, the most powerful mass media of the time. My research focuses on the sections of Bosnia and Herzegovina presented at a series of international exhibitions throughout Europe (Budapest 1896, Brussels 1897, Vienna 1898, Paris 1900) in order to justify the presence of the foreign administration in the occupied territories and to present its accomplishments. With the help of archival sources I will reconstruct these ephemeral exhibitions in order to show that their iconography was artfully designed to construct and convey such an image of the Bosnian nationhood that suited perfectly the politics of Austria-Hungary, the “benevolent guardian”.

Furthermore, I will point out that the Swiss Henri Moser, – son of a well-known horologist and industrial pioneer from Schaffhausen, who undertook four risky expeditions to Central Asia (1868/69, 1870, 1883/84, 1888/89), – proved to be an essential asset in this process. Being an expert on the “Orient” he could credibly convey an image of Bosnia and Herzegovina that was distanced from the Slavic cultural heritage and was deducted instead from the Islamic traditions of the region.