THE MISSION OF MAJOR JOVAN DRAGAŠEVIĆ IN BUCHAREST IN 1876

Abstract

This paper examines the 1876 mission of Major Jovan Dragašević in Bucharest, a topic that has not yet been the subject of a dedicated scholarly study. Drawing on unpublished archival materials and published sources, the paper reconstructs the circumstances, objectives, and course of this diplomatic and political mission, as well as its place within the broader foreign policy efforts of the Principality of Serbia on the eve of the First Serbo-Ottoman War (1876). Particular attention is devoted to the contacts between the Serbian government and Bulgarian revolutionary committees in Bucharest, as well as to the reasons why broader coordination between the Serbian and Bulgarian national movements did not occur. The research shows that internal divisions within the Bulgarian political movement, together with Romania’s policy of neutrality and the pressures exerted by the Great Powers, constituted significant obstacles to such coordinated efforts.