The Herzegovinian uprising began on June 19, 1875, with an attack by rebels—Croats—on an Ottoman garrison at the bridge over the River Krupa in Dračevo, near Čapljina. Near the location of the bridge, the remains of which were registered underwater a few years ago, a memorial was discovered in 1995.
The leader of the uprising of Herzegovinian Croats was Duke Don Ivan Musić, then parish priest in Ravno. He was elected the leader of the southern Herzegovina rebels—both Catholics and Orthodox—at a public assembly in Zaval, near Ravno.
Duke Musić, who had completed his theological studies, was also the first medical student from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He left his studies in Constantinople at the urging of his uncle, the then Herzegovinian bishop Fra Anđeo Kraljević.
The Herzegovinian Uprising started in Dračevo, at the bridge between Dračevo and Gabela. Twenty days after the Catholics rebelled, on July 9, the Orthodox also rose up near Nevesinje. By mid-August, the uprising spread into Bosnia. The Herzegovinian Uprising caused a crisis of global proportions, and the result was the Berlin Congress of 1878, during which, in order to resolve the crisis, the great powers decided to place Bosnia and Herzegovina under the administration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
(Dušan Musa)
