Borders and Contagion. Ottoman Administration of Bosnia Between Border Reinforcement and Health Protection (1866-1867)
Borders and Contagion. Ottoman Administration of Bosnia Between Border Reinforcement and Health Protection (1866-1867)

Summary/Abstract: This paper aims to highlight the role played and the measures taken by the administration of the Ottoman Vâlî Topal Osman Pasha during the cholera waves of 1866 and 1867 in the vilâyet-i Bosna. Through the study of Swiss, Ottoman, Italian, and French documents, the paper analyses the strategy and the nature of the sanitary measures taken by the imperial provincial administration and their use in border disputes between Austro-Hungarian Dalmatia, Ottoman Bosnia, and Montenegro. In this way, it will be possible to answer the following questions: What was the role of the Governor General Osman Pasha in the development and imposition of sanitary measures against the epidemics of 1866-7? Were they based only on medical knowledge or on the defence of local social and economic interests as well? And, finally, did these measures contribute in any way to the strengthening of the political-sanitary borders between Bosnia, Dalmatia, and Montenegro?

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