Andric painted Bosnia as a country of compulsive hatred, whose people espouse the ideas of destruction and self-destruction, but he also always said that the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Bosnia was an occupier more civilised than Ottoman Empire, which had ruled Bosnia for several centuries.
Andrić je Bosnu prikazivao kao zemlju kompulzivne mržnje, u kojoj je narod prigrlio ideje destrukcije i autodestrukcije, no uvijek je govorio i kako je Austo-ugarska monarhija u Bosni bila civiliziraniji okupator od Otomanskog Carstva, koje je više stoljeća vladalo Bosnom.