This article examines the causes and repercussions of the flight of two-dozen Orthodox Christian merchants from Ottoman Bosnia to Habsburg Croatia in 1873. The seemingly minor event quickly escalated from an isolated border incident to a full-blown diplomatic crisis-defused only with the merchants' repatriation, the recall of a Habsburg consul, and the removal of the Ottoman provincial governor and other officials. After outlining the course of events and increasing Ottoman-Habsburg tensions, the article turns to the refugees' efforts to affect the outcome of emerging crisis. Although ultimately of little influence, the refugees' sophisticated invocation of international legal norms reflected a largely conservative trust in the international system's ability to rectify perceived violations of treaty terms-a belief that quickly vanished after the outbreak of the Eastern Crisis in 1875.
