. The work was,
however, more difficult than had been anticipated; the Mahommedans offered
a strenuous resistance; military operations were attended with great
difficulty in the mountainous country; 200,000 men were required, and they
did not succeed in crushing the resistance till after some months of
obstinate fighting. The losses on either side were very heavy; even after
the capture of Serajevo in August, the resistance was continued; and
besides those who fell in battle, a considerable number of the insurgents
were put to death under military law. The opposition in the Delegations,
which met at the end of the year, was so strong that the government had to
be content with a credit to cover the expenses for 1879 of less than half
what they had originally asked, and the supplementary estimate of
40,000,000 gulden for 1878 was not voted till the next year. In 1879 the
Porte, after long delay, recognized the occupation on the distinct
understanding that the sovereignty of the sultan was acknowledged. A civil
administration was then established, the provinces not being attached to
either half of the empire, but placed under the control of the joint
minister of finance. The government during the first two years was not very
successful; the Christian population were disappointed at finding that they
still had, as in the old days, to pay rent to the Mahommedan begs. There
were difficulties also between the Roman Catholics and the members of the
Greek Church. In 1881 disturbances in Dalmatia spread over the frontier
into Herzegovina, and another expedition had to be sent to restore order.
When this was done Benjamin de Kallay was appointed minister, and under his
judicious government order and prosperity were established in the
provinces. In accordance with another clause of the treaty of Berlin,
Austria was permitted to place troops in the sanjak of Novi-Bazar, a
district of great strategic importance, which separated Servia and
Montenegro, and through which the communication between Bosnia and Salonica
passed. This was done in September 1879, an agreement with Turkey having
specified the numbers and position of the garrison. Another slight
alteration of the frontier was made in the same year, when, during the
delimitation of the new frontier of Montenegro, the district of Spizza was
incorporated in the kingdom of Dalmatia.

[Sidenote: Italy and the Irredentists.]

The congress of Berlin indirectly caused some difficulties