In this capacity he came into focus of the life of this region which, by its cultural and national consciousness, showed a stubborn opposition to the German "Kulturträger". In the spring of 1909, because of the Bosnian Crisis caused by the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary, Šantić had to escape to Italy together with Nikola Kašiković and Ćorović. In 1910, the Šantić family bought a country house in the village Borci, near Konjic from Austro-Hungarian baron Benko who built it in 1902.