When did Austria - Hungary annex the de jure Ottoman province of Bosnia and Herzegovina ?
The uprising was precipitated by the harsh treatment under the beys and aghas of the Ottoman province ( vilayet ) of Bosnia — the reforms announced by the Turkish Sultan Abdülmecid I , involving new rights for Christian subjects , a new basis for army conscription , and an end to the much - hated system of tax - farming , were either resisted or ignored by the powerful Bosnian landowners .