The Political, Ecclesiastical and National Unrest in Herzegovina and Neighbouring Bosnia during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars (1789-1814)

Abstract

The author presents the complexity of the unrest in Herzegovina, neighbouring Bosnia and in other border regions (Dubrovnik, Dalmatia, Croatia and Serbia) at the turn of the nineteenth century, starting with the major tenets of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, the subsequent unrest and its consequences in all of Europe. In this part of Europe, which was practically unknown to the average European of the time, direct and indirect consequences of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars and their attendant phenomena spread rapidly throughout Europe, the Ottoman and Russian Empires. As the French Revolution was losing its attraction for civil circles at the beginning of the nineteenth century, a military and organisational genius, Napoleon Bonaparte, emerged in its wake, becoming the worthiest bearer and disseminator of the legacy of the French Revolution, French civilisation and its imperial hegemony that inundated 108 Europe and attempted to abolish its old state, political, social and religious order (l'ancien régime).1 The perception of the spirit and nature of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars in these countries will be shown as very complex and more antagonistic than acceptable. Keywords: French Revolution; Napoleonic Wars; Ottoman Empire; Dalmatia, Dubrovnik; Boka; Herzegovina; Bosnia; Nikola Ferić; Petar I. Petrović; Dadić family; Rizvanbegović family