ABSTRACT

South Slavs lived in both halves of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary and in Bosnia-Herzegovina, administered jointly by Austria-Hungary since occupation in 1878 and annexation in 1908. Their shares in the provincial population varied from an overwhelming majority in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia-Slavonia, Dalmatia, and Carniola, to a slight majority in the Adriatic Littoral, a plurality in southern Hungary (roughly today’s Vojvodina and Banat), and a significant minority in Styria and Carinthia. Importantly, the South Slav linguistic continuum did not end at the Southeastern border of Austria-Hungary but continued into neighboring Serbia, Montenegro, and further to Ottoman Macedonia and Bulgaria.