Understanding Colonial Archives: Reflections on Records from Habsburg Times in the Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The most important records of the Austro-Hungarian administrative history of Bosnia and Herzegovina are kept in the fonds of the Provincial Government in Sarajevo and of the Joint Ministry of Finance, Department for Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Vienna, both forming part of the collection of the Archiv...

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Main Author: Kasumović Amila
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: De Gruyter 2022-12-01
Series:Comparative Southeast European Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1515/soeu-2022-0038
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author Kasumović Amila
author_facet Kasumović Amila
author_sort Kasumović Amila
collection DOAJ
description The most important records of the Austro-Hungarian administrative history of Bosnia and Herzegovina are kept in the fonds of the Provincial Government in Sarajevo and of the Joint Ministry of Finance, Department for Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Vienna, both forming part of the collection of the Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo and together amounting to approximately 2000 shelf metres. The author looks here through the lens of “colonial archives” to assess the missed potential of the two fonds for writing the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, pointing out that historians have hitherto used them primarily to study political history and a few segments of socio-economic history, neglecting recent approaches to re-establishing archives’ value for research. Yet, as the author shows, the so-called “archival turn” would prove to be an asset in deepening the understanding not only of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Austro-Hungarian imperial history, but its history more generally.
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spelling doaj-art-157bc4fa5c624ba297d195480a2c86592025-08-20T02:42:59ZengDe GruyterComparative Southeast European Studies2701-81992701-82022022-12-0170466768510.1515/soeu-2022-0038Understanding Colonial Archives: Reflections on Records from Habsburg Times in the Archives of Bosnia and HerzegovinaKasumović Amila0Department of History, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and HerzegovinaThe most important records of the Austro-Hungarian administrative history of Bosnia and Herzegovina are kept in the fonds of the Provincial Government in Sarajevo and of the Joint Ministry of Finance, Department for Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Vienna, both forming part of the collection of the Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo and together amounting to approximately 2000 shelf metres. The author looks here through the lens of “colonial archives” to assess the missed potential of the two fonds for writing the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, pointing out that historians have hitherto used them primarily to study political history and a few segments of socio-economic history, neglecting recent approaches to re-establishing archives’ value for research. Yet, as the author shows, the so-called “archival turn” would prove to be an asset in deepening the understanding not only of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Austro-Hungarian imperial history, but its history more generally.https://doi.org/10.1515/soeu-2022-0038bosnia and herzegovinaaustro-hungaryarchival turncolonial archives
spellingShingle Kasumović Amila
Understanding Colonial Archives: Reflections on Records from Habsburg Times in the Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Comparative Southeast European Studies
bosnia and herzegovina
austro-hungary
archival turn
colonial archives
title Understanding Colonial Archives: Reflections on Records from Habsburg Times in the Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina
title_full Understanding Colonial Archives: Reflections on Records from Habsburg Times in the Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina
title_fullStr Understanding Colonial Archives: Reflections on Records from Habsburg Times in the Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina
title_full_unstemmed Understanding Colonial Archives: Reflections on Records from Habsburg Times in the Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina
title_short Understanding Colonial Archives: Reflections on Records from Habsburg Times in the Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina
title_sort understanding colonial archives reflections on records from habsburg times in the archives of bosnia and herzegovina
topic bosnia and herzegovina
austro-hungary
archival turn
colonial archives
url https://doi.org/10.1515/soeu-2022-0038
work_keys_str_mv AT kasumovicamila understandingcolonialarchivesreflectionsonrecordsfromhabsburgtimesinthearchivesofbosniaandherzegovina