Located in Southeast Europe on the Balkan Peninsula, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Serbo-Croatian: Bosna i Hercegovina, Боснa и Берцеговина) is also referred to as Bosnia informally and as Bosnia-Herzegovina at times. It shares borders with Montenegro to the southeast, Croatia to the north and southwest, and Serbia to the east.
Its only sea connection is through the town of Neum. The coastline is 20 kilometers (12 miles) in length along the Adriatic Sea toward the south. Bosnia experiences scorching summers and chilly, snowy winters due to its mild continental climate. The topography is mostly flat in the northeast, somewhat hilly in the northwest, and mountainous in the middle and eastern sections. The smaller, southern area, Herzegovina, is largely hilly and enjoys a Mediterranean climate. The major city and capital is Sarajevo.
Evidence indicates that permanent human settlements, including those of the Butmir, Kakanj, and Vučedol cultures, were constructed during the Neolithic era, however, the area has been occupied since at least the Upper Paleolithic. Following the early Indo-Europeans, a number of Celtic and Illyrian civilizations settled in the region.
The South Slavic peoples that presently live in the region are descended from people who came between the sixth and ninth centuries. The Banate of Bosnia was founded in the twelfth century, and by the fourteenth, it had transformed into the Kingdom of Bosnia. It was absorbed by the Ottoman Empire in the middle of the fifteenth century, and it stayed under their dominion until the late nineteenth century. The Ottomans introduced Islam to the area.
The nation was absorbed into the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in the late 19th century and remained so until the Great War. Bosnia and Herzegovina was a component of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during the interwar years. It was given full republic status in the newly established Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia following World War II. After Yugoslavia broke apart in 1992, the republic declared its independence. The Bosnian War ensued, lasting until late 1995 and culminating in the signature of the Dayton Agreement.
Three major ethnic groups live in the nation: the biggest is made up of Bosniaks, followed by Serbs and Croats. Jews, Roma, Montenegrins, Albanians, Ukrainians, and Turks are among the minorities. The legislature of Bosnia and Herzegovina is bicameral, and the presidency is composed of three members, one from each of the three main ethnic groups. However, since the nation is so dispersed, the power of the central government is extremely constrained. It consists of three independent units: the Brčko District, which is run by a municipal administration; the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina; and Republika Srpska.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is ranked 74th on the Human Development Index and is classified as a developing nation. Agriculture and industry are the main drivers of its economy, with tourism and the service sector following. In recent years, there has been a notable surge in tourism. The nation provides free elementary and secondary education, as well as a system of universal healthcare and social security.
It is a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean, which was founded in July 2008, as well as a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Partnership for Peace, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Central European Free Trade Agreement. Since April 2010, Bosnia and Herzegovina has been a candidate for membership in both NATO and the EU.
Meaning and Origin
In De Administrando Imperio, a politico-geographical handbook written by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII in the mid-10th century (between 948 and 952), a form of the name “Bosnia” is first preserved and widely acknowledged. It describes the “small land” (χωρίοv in Greek) of “Bosona” (Βοσώνα), where the Serbs reside. Bosnia was also identified as a part of Baptized Serbia in the DAI (χωριον βοσονα, tiny area of Bosnia). This guidebook section is devoted to the realms of the Serbian prince; Bosnia is considered a distinct territory, but one that depends heavily on Serbs.
The Bosna River, which flows through the center of Bosnia, is said to be the source of the land’s name. The philologist Anton Mayer suggests that the name Bosna may have originated from the Illyrian *”Bass-an-as”, which may have been derived from the Proto-Indo-European root bʰegʷ-, which means “the running water”. The Slavic immigrants in Bosnia “adapted the Latin designation… Basante, to their own idiom by calling the stream Bosna and themselves Bosniaks,” according to English medievalist William Miller.
The term “Herzog” is derived from the German word for “duke,” and the name Herzegovina means “Herzog’s [land]”. The origin of the title comes from Stjepan Vukčić Kosača, a Bosnian nobleman who lived in the 15th century and was known as the “Herceg [Herzog] of Hum and the Coast” (1448).
The Bosnian Banate had taken control of Hum, also known as Zachlumia, an early medieval principality, in the first part of the fourteenth century. The area was known as the Sanjak of Herzegovina (Hersek) when the Ottomans assumed control of it. Up to the short-lived Herzegovina Eyalet’s establishment in the 1830s, when it reappeared in the 1850s, it was a part of the Bosnia Eyalet. Following this, the administrative region came to be known as Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was the official name of the nation upon its first proclamation of independence in 1992. However, with the Dayton Agreement of 1995 and the new constitution that went along with it, the official name was changed to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Past Events
Earlier times
Given that one of the earliest cave paintings was discovered at Badanj Cave, Bosnia has been home to people since at least the Paleolithic. Significant Neolithic cultures, like the Butmir and Kakanj, existed beside the Bosna River between approximately 6230 and 4900 BCE. The Illyrians were an ethnic group that originated in what are now Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Albania. They were known for their unique culture and art style.
Into kingdoms, Illyrian tribes developed starting in the eighth century BCE. The Enchele, who ruled Illyria in the eighth century BCE, was the first kingdom to be mentioned. Pleurias (337 BCE) was regarded as the monarch of the Autariatae.
Originating as a tribe from the Neretva River region, the Kingdom of the Ardiaei lasted from 230 BCE until 167 BCE. The most prominent Illyrian dynasties and kingdoms were those of Agron of the Ardiaei, who established the final and most well-known Illyrian monarchy, and Bardylis of the Dardani. In addition to ruling the Ardiaei, Agron also reigned over other tribes.
Iron began to supplant bronze in the 7th century BCE, and only jewelry and art pieces continued to be fashioned of bronze after that. The tribes of Illyria, influenced by the civilizations of Hallstatt to the north, developed somewhat distinct regional capitals. The Daesitiates tribe, most usually connected to the Central Bosnian cultural group, occupied portions of Central Bosnia. The Autariatae tribe is connected to the Glasinac-Mati civilization of the Iron Age.
The worship of the dead played a significant role in their lives, as seen by the elaborate burial rituals and settings they chose, as well as by how well cared for they were. Cremation and shallow graves were the long-standing customs in the northern areas of the country. In Herzegovina, on the other hand, the deceased were interred in massive stone or earth tumuli, also known as gromiles, which reached monumental proportions of more than 50 m wide and 5 m high. The Japodian tribes were known for their love of adornment, which included spiral bracelets, diadems, and helmets made of bronze foil, as well as heavy, gigantic necklaces made of yellow, blue, or white glass paste and massive bronze fibulas.
The earliest known Celtic incursion occurred in the fourth century BCE. They introduced new fibula varieties, the pottery wheel technology, and various bronze and iron belts. Their effect on Bosnia and Herzegovina is little because they only stopped there on their route to Greece. Many Illyrian tribes were driven from their ancestral areas by Celtic migrations, but some Celtic and Illyrian tribes blended together. Although there is a dearth of specific historical data for this time period, it generally seems the area was home to a variety of people who spoke different languages.
The Illyrian Daors tribe had significant Hellenistic effects in the Neretva Delta in the south. Daorson in Ošanići, close to Stolac, served as their capital. Daorson was encircled by massive, five-meter-tall stone walls made of enormous trapezoid stone blocks in the fourth century BCE. These walls were comparable in size to those of Mycenae in Greece. Daors created one-of-a-kind bronze sculptures and coins.
The Illyrian Daors tribe had significant Hellenistic effects in the Neretva Delta in the south. Daorson in Ošanići, close to Stolac, served as their capital. Daorson was encircled by massive, five-meter-tall stone walls made of enormous trapezoid stone blocks in the fourth century BCE. These walls were comparable in size to those of Mycenae in Greece. Daors created one-of-a-kind bronze sculptures and coins.
The Romans and Illyrians began fighting around 229 BCE, although Rome did not fully conquer the area until AD 9. According to the Roman historian Suetonius, one of the hardest conflicts Rome had fought since the Punic Wars took place right in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was Bellum Batonianum, the Roman expedition against Illyricum. An effort to enlist Illyrians gave rise to the struggle, and the rebellion (6–9 AD) lasted for four years until being put down. Roman soldiers were encouraged to retire in the Illyrian area during the Roman era when Latin-speaking immigrants from the entire Roman Empire settled among the Illyrians.
Dalmatia and Pannonia joined the Western Roman Empire after the Roman Empire broke apart between 337 and 395 AD. In the year 455 AD, the Ostrogoths took control of the area. Then it was passed between the Alans and the Huns. Emperor Justinian I had retaken the region for the Byzantine Empire by the sixth century. The Balkans were overrun by Slavs in the sixth and seventh centuries. The South Slavs absorbed elements of the Illyrian culture, as placenames, rituals, and other practices attest to.
Middle Ages
The Early Slavs, who were made up of small tribal units from a single Slavic confederation known to the Byzantines as the Sclaveni, raided the Western Balkans, including Bosnia, in the sixth and early seventh centuries (during the Migration Period). Meanwhile, the related Antes, roughly speaking, colonized the eastern portions of the Balkans.
The tribes known by the ethnonyms “Serb” and “Croat” are defined as a later, second migration of various people in the second quarter of the 7th century, who may or may not have been very numerous. These early tribes, whose precise identity is up for scholarly debate, eventually became more numerous than the Slavs in the surrounding areas.
The Croats “settled in an area roughly corresponding to modern Croatia, and probably also including most of Bosnia proper, apart from the eastern strip of the Drina valley” whereas Serbians “corresponding to modern south-western Serbia (later known as Raška), and gradually extended their rule into the territories of Duklja and Hum”.
In Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus’ De Administrando Imperio, written in the middle of the 10th century, Bosnia is also thought to have been described for the first time as a territory (horizon Bosona) at the conclusion of a chapter titled Of the Serbs and the country in which they now reside.
Scholars have read this in a variety of ways, and Serb national ideologists have particularly utilized it to support their claim that Bosnia was historically a “Serb” region. Some academics have argued that Bosnia’s inclusion in the chapter simply stems from the Grand Duke of Serbia, Časlav, temporarily ruling the country at the time. They have also noted that Porphyrogenitus makes no specific mention of Bosnia as a “Serb land” elsewhere.
In reality, there are differing opinions on how to translate the crucial clause that contains the term Bosona (Bosnia). Over time, Bosnia came together under the leadership of a single king who identified as Bosnian. In the eleventh century, Bosnia and other regions joined Duklja, although it kept its own aristocracy and institutions.
Due to political circumstances, the Kingdom of Hungary and the Byzantine Empire fought over the region during the High Middle Ages. In the early 12th century, there was another change of power between them, and Bosnia found itself independent of both, becoming the Banate of Bosnia (governed by local bans). Ban Borić was the first documented ban in Bosnia. The second was Ban Kulin, whose reign initiated a dispute with the Bosnian Church, which the Roman Catholic Church deemed heretical.
In 1203, Kulin called a council of local church officials to reject the heresy and convert to Catholicism in response to Hungarian attempts to utilize church politics surrounding the matter as a means of regaining sovereignty over Bosnia.
That said, long after Kulin’s death in 1204, Hungarian ambitions remained unaltered, only to fade following a failed invasion in 1254. The people living there were referred to as Dobri Bošnjani (“Good Bosnians”) at this period. Although they occasionally appeared in outlying places, the designations Serb and Croat were not used throughout Bosnia.
From that point on until the early 14th century, the Šubić and Kotromanić dynasties engaged in a power war that shaped Bosnian history. When Stephen II Kotromanić assumed the position of Ban in 1322, the dispute came to a conclusion. By the time of his death in 1353, he had succeeded in annexing sections of Dalmatia and Zahumlje as well as regions to the west and north. After a protracted battle with aristocracy and intra-family turmoil, his aspirational nephew Tvrtko replaced him and took complete control of the nation in 1367. With the crowning of Tvrtko as the first Bosnian King in Mile, near Visoko, in the Bosnian heartland, in the year 1377, Bosnia had become a monarchy.
However, after his passing in 1391, Bosnia experienced a protracted period of decline. Throughout the early part of the fifteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was a serious danger to the Balkans as it began its invasion of Europe. Following the Ottoman Empire’s invasion of Bosnia in 1463, the Kingdom of Bosnia finally came to an end after decades of political and social unrest.
In medieval Bosnia, at least among the nobility, there was a widespread understanding that they were part of the same ethnic group and shared the same state with Serbia. Due to variations in political and socioeconomic development, this knowledge waned with time, although it persisted in Herzegovina and the regions of Bosnia that were under the control of the Serbian state.
Ottoman Empire
Bosnia’s history entered a new chapter with the Ottoman invasion, which also brought about significant changes to the nation’s political and cultural environment. Bosnia was absorbed by the Ottomans into the Ottoman Empire as a province with its own historical name and intact territory. The Ottomans brought about a number of significant modifications to Bosnia’s socio-political structure, such as a new system of land ownership, a restructuring of the administrative divisions, and an intricate system of social stratification based on religion and class affiliation.
After the Ottomans left, a constant stream of people left Bosnia; many of the vanished villages in Bosnia are noted in the Ottoman registers; those who remained eventually converted to Islam. During the early Ottoman rule, a large number of Catholics in Bosnia emigrated to nearby Catholic countries.
The evidence suggests that rather than large-scale Muslim colonies from outside Bosnia, the early Muslim converts in Ottoman Bosnia during the 15th and 16th centuries were among the indigenous who stayed. Numerous Orthodox individuals in Herzegovina had also converted to Islam. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Muslims are thought to have reached a state of absolute majority by the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In 1624, Pjetër Mazreku, an Albanian Catholic priest, wrote that the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina was 450,000 Muslims, 150,000 Catholics, and 75,000 Eastern Orthodox.
In the pre-Ottoman era, there was little Orthodox Church activity in Bosnia proper. Ottoman policies directly contributed to the introduction of an Orthodox Christian community in Bosnia. Orthodox Christians (Orthodox Vlachs and non-Vlach Orthodox Serbs) from Serbia and other places moved to Bosnia and Herzegovina starting in the fifteenth century.
The Ottomans permitted the construction of several Orthodox churches in Bosnia because they preferred Orthodox Christianity to Catholicism. In Bosnia, a significant number of Vlachs also converted to Islam, while others (mostly in Croatia) became Catholics.
Bosnia’s demographic composition saw multiple changes due to the empire’s conquests, repeated conflicts with European countries, forced economic migrations, and diseases over the four centuries of Ottoman control. Due to a lack of strong Christian church organizations and ongoing rivalry between the Orthodox and Catholic churches, a native Slavic-speaking Muslim community emerged and eventually grew to be the largest of the ethno-religious groups, while the Indigenous Bosnian Church completely vanished (ostensibly due to conversion of its members to Islam). They were known as kristianlar by the Ottomans, while the Orthodox and Catholics were referred to as “unbelievers” or gebir or kafir.
Official imperial decrees and the whole of Ottoman regulations safeguarded the Bosnian Franciscans and the Catholic populace overall; yet, these typically had little influence beyond limiting the arbitrary rule and actions of the influential local elite.
Bosnia went through a period of general well-being and was partially freed from the burdens of being a frontier province as the Ottoman Empire maintained its dominance in the Balkans (Rumelia). Ottoman explorer Evliya Çelebi saw the establishment and growth of several cities, including Sarajevo and Mostar, which became regional hubs of trade and urban culture in 1648.
Many pieces of Bosnian architecture, including the nation’s first library in Sarajevo, madrassas, a school of Sufi philosophy, a clock tower (Sahat Kula), and bridges like the Stari Most, the Emperor’s Mosque, and the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, were built within these cities thanks to the financial support of various Ottoman Sultans.
In addition, a number of Bosnian Muslims had a significant impact on the political and cultural history of the Ottoman Empire during this period. In the battles of Mohács and Krbava Field, a significant portion of the Ottoman ranks consisted of recruits from Bosnia. Meanwhile, a great number of other Bosnians advanced through the Ottoman military hierarchy to hold prominent positions in the Empire.
These included admirals like Matrakçı Nasuh, generals like Isa-Beg Ishaković, Gazi Husrev-beg, Telli Hasan Pasha, and Sarı Süleyman Pasha, administrators like Ferhad Pasha Sokolović and Osman Gradaščević, and Grand Viziers like the powerful Sokollu Mehmed Pasha and Damat Ibrahim Pasha. A number of Bosnians became Sufi mystics and intellectuals, including Muhamed Hevaji Uskufi Bosnevi and Ali Džabić, as well as poets who wrote in Turkish, Albanian, Arabic, and Persian.
But by the late 17th century, the nation was being beset by military calamities from the Empire, and Bosnia was once more designated as the westernmost province of the Empire following the Great Turkish War’s conclusion in 1699 with the signing of the Treaty of Karlowitz. The 18th century was characterized by many plague outbreaks, multiple military setbacks, and multiple uprisings inside Bosnia.
In Bosnia, where local aristocracy stood to lose a great deal from the proposed Tanzimat reforms, mistrust of the Porte’s attempts to modernize the Ottoman state developed into animosity. Husein Gradaščević, who supported an autonomous Bosnia Eyalet free from the authoritarian rule of Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II, who persecuted, executed, and abolished the Janissaries and diminished the role of autonomous Pashas in Rumelia, ultimately failed in his partially successful revolt due to these factors, as well as frustrations over territorial and political concessions made in the northeast and the plight of Slavic Muslim refugees arriving from the Sanjak of Smederevo into Bosnia Eyalet. Mahmud II despatched his Grand Vizier to conquer Bosnia Eyalet; he was only able to do it with Ali Pasha Rizvanbegović’s reluctant help. Related rebellions were extinguished by 1850, but the situation continued to deteriorate.
By the mid-1800s, new nationalist movements had emerged in Bosnia. Bosnia saw a rise in Serbian and Croatian nationalism soon after Serbia’s early 19th-century split from the Ottoman Empire, and both nationalists asserted irredentist claims to Bosnia’s territory. For the remainder of the 19th and 20th centuries, this trend grew.
Widespread peasant insurrection in Herzegovina began in 1875 as a result of agrarian dissatisfaction. A number of Balkan republics as well as Great Powers became involved in the conflict as it quickly grew, which resulted in the Congress of Berlin and the Treaty of Berlin in 1878.
Austria-Hungary
The Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Gyula Andrássy secured the occupation and governance of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. He also secured the authorization to establish garrisons in the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, which would continue to be governed by the Ottomans until 1908, when the Austro-Hungarian troops withdrew from the Sanjak.
Despite the fact that Austro-Hungarian officials and Bosnians rapidly reached a deal, tensions persisted, and a large-scale exodus of Bosnians took place. Soon enough, a semblance of peace was established, allowing the Austro-Hungarian government to start implementing a series of administrative and social changes that they hoped would turn Bosnia and Herzegovina into a “model” colony.
There were several major issues with Habsburg control in Bosnia. By contesting the former claims to Bosnia made by the Serbs and Croats, and by promoting the identification of Bosnian or Bosniak identity, it attempted to weaken the influence of South Slav nationalism. By creating and growing businesses, codifying laws, and building new governmental structures, the Habsburg rule also attempted to facilitate modernization.
Plans to annex Bosnia were initiated by Austria-Hungary, but the matter was not settled until the annexation crisis of 1908 because of international disagreements. The status of Bosnia and its ties with Austria-Hungary were impacted by a number of external factors. A violent coup in 1903 overthrew the previous administration and installed a hardline anti-Austrian one in Belgrade. The Ottoman Empire’s uprising in 1908 then sparked worries that Bosnia and Herzegovina may be explicitly returned by the government in Istanbul. These reasons compelled the Austro-Hungarian government to look for a long-term solution to the Bosnian issue as soon as possible.
Utilizing the unrest inside the Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungarian diplomacy attempted to get temporary Russian consent for modifications to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s status. On October 6, 1908, the annexation declaration was released. In March 1909, the Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was forced upon the Russians and their client state, Serbia, in defiance of protests from throughout the world.
The first constitution of Bosnia was declared by Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph in 1910. This resulted in the easing of previous regulations, and elections, the establishment of the Bosnian parliament, and the emergence of new political life.
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb and member of the revolutionary movement Young Bosnia, was the catalyst that ignited World War I. Bosniaks who served in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Infantry (known as Bosniaken) of the Austro-Hungarian Army lost more soldiers per capita at the end of the war than any other ethnic group in the Habsburg Empire. However, overall, Bosnia and Herzegovina came out of the war relatively undamaged.
The Schutzkorps, an auxiliary force that the Austro-Hungarian government formed, had little bearing on the empire’s anti-Serb repression strategy. Schutzkorps, who were primarily recruited from the Muslim (Bosniak) community, was assigned to track down rebel Serbs (the Komitadji and Chetniks).
They gained notoriety for persecuting Serbs, especially in Serb-populated areas of eastern Bosnia, where they partially retaliated against Serbian Chetniks who had attacked the local Muslim population in the fall of 1914. Approximately 5,500 Serb inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina were jailed as a result of the actions of the Austro-Hungarian government. Of them, between 700 and 2,200 perished in prison, and 460 were put to death. Approximately 5,200 households of Serbs were driven out of Bosnia and Herzegovina by force.
Yugoslavian Kingdom
Bosnia and Herzegovina became a part of the South Slav Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later called Yugoslavia) after World War I. During this period, social and economic turmoil over property redistribution and the emergence of many political parties that often switched alliances and coalitions with parties in other Yugoslav areas were the two main tendencies defining political life in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The main ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina addressed the principal ideological battle of the Yugoslav state—between Serbian centralization and Croatian regionalism—differently, and their approaches varied depending on the general political climate. The Bosnian Muslims benefited little from the political changes that were implemented in the newly formed Yugoslavian kingdom; according to the results of the final land ownership and population survey carried out in Austria-Hungary in 1910, Muslims owned 91.1% of the land, Orthodox Serbs owned 6.0%, Croat Catholics owned 2.6%, and others owned 0.3%. After the reforms, 1,175,305 hectares of agricultural and forest land were taken away from Bosnian Muslims.
Even though the country’s original division into 33 oblasts removed traditional geographic features from the map, politicians from Bosnia, like Mehmed Spaho, made sure that the six oblasts that were separated from Bosnia and Herzegovina matched the six sanjaks from the Ottoman era and, therefore, the country’s traditional border as a whole.
However, with the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929, administrative districts were redrawn into banates or banovinas, deliberately avoiding all ethnic and historical boundaries, and eliminating any remnants of a Bosnian state. Tensions between Serbs and Croats over the composition of the Yugoslav state persisted, with little to no thought given to the idea of a distinct Bosnian partition.
The division of Bosnia and Herzegovina between Croatia and Serbia was facilitated by the Cvetković-Maček Agreement, which established the Croatian banate in 1939. However, Yugoslav leaders were obliged to refocus their efforts due to the growing danger posed by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany. On April 6, 1941, Germany eventually invaded Yugoslavia after a period of appeasement attempts, the ratification of the Tripartite Treaty, and a coup d’état.
World War II (1941–45)
Following the German invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during World War II, the Ustaše-led Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a Nazi puppet dictatorship, gained complete control over Bosnia and Herzegovina. By establishing many execution camps, the NDH authorities began a campaign of annihilation against Jews, Romans, Serbs, and dissident Croats. Later, they also targeted Josip Broz Tito’s partisans. Using a range of weapons, the dictatorship murdered Serbs in rural areas in a methodical and horrific manner. Due to the extent of the bloodshed, almost every sixth Serb in Bosnia and Herzegovina experienced a massacre, and almost all Serbs in the region had a family member who died in the conflict, primarily at the hands of the Ustaše.
The event left a lasting impression on the collective memory of Bosnian and Herzegovina’s Serb population. During the conflict, an estimated 209,000 Serbs—or 16.9% of the country’s population—were murdered on Bosnian and Herzegovina territory.
The Ustaše acknowledged Islam and Catholicism as the two national religions, but they believed that the Eastern Orthodox Church, a representation of Serb identity, was their biggest enemy. Despite being predominantly composed of Croats, Muslims made up about 12% of the Ustaše military and public service authorities. Džafer Kulenović, the chairman of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization and Vice President of the NDH, was a Muslim.
A large number of Serbs themselves took up weapons and joined the Chetniks, a nationalist movement that sought to create a ‘Greater Serbian’ state inside the Kingdom of Yugoslavia based on racial homogeneity. The Muslim communities of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Sandžak were the main targets of the Chetniks’ genocidal campaign against ethnic Muslims and Croats, as well as the persecution of numerous communist Serbs and other Communist supporters.
The Chetniks methodically slaughtered Muslim villages after capturing them. Approximately 30,000 Muslims—mostly civilians—were slain by the Chetniks out of the 75,000 Muslims who perished in Bosnia and Herzegovina throughout the conflict. Croat massacres were similar in nature but on a lower scale. Between April 1941 and May 1945, somewhere between 64,000 and 79,000 Bosnian Croats perished. Approximately 18,000 of these were slain by the Chetniks.
Some Muslims were members of the Nazi Waffen-SS. Massacres of Serbs in northwest and eastern Bosnia, including Vlasenica, were carried out by these groups. The Resolution of Sarajevo Muslims was signed on October 12, 1941, by 108 well-known Muslims in Sarajevo. It denounced the Ustaše’s organized persecution of Serbs, distinguished between Muslims who took part in these persecutions and the Muslim community at large, provided information about the persecution of Muslims by Serbs, and demanded security for all citizens of the nation, irrespective of their identity.
Under the direction of Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslav communists formed the Partisans, a multiethnic resistance group that battled the Chetniks as well as the Axis, in 1941. Bosnia and Herzegovina was restored as a republic within the Yugoslavian federation in its Habsburg boundaries on November 29, 1943, during a founding conference held in Jajce by the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ), led by Tito. 64.1% of all Bosnian partisans in Yugoslavia during World War II were Serbs, 23% were Muslims, and 8.8% were Croats.
After the Partisans achieved military victory, the Allies offered to assist them, which led to the accomplishment of the Maclean Mission. However, Tito turned down their assistance and instead depended on his own soldiers. Bosnia and Herzegovina saw the brunt of the combat during all of the antifascist movement of Yugoslavia’s main military offensives against the Nazis and their local allies.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than 300,000 people—more than 10% of the population—lost their lives in World War II. Following the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina was formally recognized as one of the six component republics of the newly formed Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was established under the 1946 constitution.
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Socialist (1945–1992)
Bosnia was chosen as the foundation for the growth of the military defense sector after the war because of its strategic location in the center of the Yugoslav Federation. This led to a massive concentration of military forces and weapons in Bosnia, which played a crucial role in the conflict that broke out when Yugoslavia broke apart in the 1990s. But for the most part, Bosnia’s life under Yugoslavia was extremely affluent and peaceful, with high employment, a robust industrial and export-oriented economy, a solid educational system, and social and medical security for all Bosnians and Herzegovina citizens.
Many multinational companies have operations in Bosnia: Coca-Cola (from 1975), SKF Sweden (from 1967), Volkswagen as part of TAS (a vehicle plant in Sarajevo), Marlboro (a tobacco factory in Sarajevo), and Holiday Inn hotels. Sarajevo hosted the Winter Olympics in 1984.
Bosnia was a Yugoslavian political outpost in the 1950s and 60s. A robust Bosnian political elite emerged in the 1970s, partly due to the influence of Tito’s leadership within the Non-Aligned Movement and the presence of Bosnians in Yugoslavia’s diplomatic corps. Politicians like Džemal Bijedić, Branko Mikulić, and Hamdija Pozderac upheld and safeguarded Bosnia and Herzegovina’s sovereignty while operating within the socialist framework.
Their efforts, which are now seen as some of the initial moves toward Bosnian independence, proved crucial during the chaotic time that followed Tito’s death in 1980. The republic did not, however, escape the era’s growing nationalistic atmosphere. The philosophy of tolerance started to lose its strength with the fall of communism and the beginning of Yugoslavia’s split, which gave nationalist factions in the society a chance to gain more traction.
Bosnian War (1992–1995)
Multiparty parliamentary elections were conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina on November 18, 1990. On November 25, a second round of voting resulted in a national assembly where a coalition of three ethnically oriented parties took over the position of communist leadership. After Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence from Yugoslavia, there was a major division among the people living in Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding whether to stay in Yugoslavia (which was favored by Serbs) or pursue independence (which was favored by Bosniaks and Croats).
On October 24, 1991, the three-ethnic coalition that ruled following the 1990 elections came to an end when the Serb members of parliament, who were primarily members of the Serb Democratic Party, left the central parliament in Sarajevo and established the Assembly of the Serb People of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On January 9, 1992, this Assembly created the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina over a portion of the country’s territory. In August 1992, it was renamed Republika Srpska.
The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the ruling party in the Republic of Croatia, announced on November 18, 1991, the creation of the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia in a distinct region of the country, with the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) serving as its armed branch. The Bosnian and Herzegovina governments proclaimed it unlawful but did not acknowledge it.
Following the proclamation of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s statehood on October 15, 1991, the majority of Serbs abstained from the independence referendums held on February 29 and March 1, 1992. In the independence referendum, 63.4% of people cast ballots, and 99.7% supported independence. On March 3, 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared their independence; on April 6, 1992, the world recognized them. On May 22, 1992, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was accepted as a member of the UN.
Leaders of Serbia and Croatia, Franjo Tuđman and Slobodan Milošević, are said to have reached an agreement in March 1991 on the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the intention of creating Greater Serbia and Greater Croatia.
Bosnian Serb militias began organizing across the nation after Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence. The government forces were ill-prepared for the conflict and lacked proper gear. The Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) came under increasing diplomatic pressure to leave the republic’s territory after Bosnia and Herzegovina was recognized internationally.
This official withdrawal took place in June 1992. The JNA’s Bosnian Serb members just adopted a new insignia, established the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), and resumed hostilities. With weapons and equipment from JNA stockpiles in Bosnia, reinforcements from volunteers and other paramilitary groups in Serbia, and substantial financial, logistical, and humanitarian support from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Republika Srpska’s 1992 offensives succeeded in taking control of a large portion of the nation.
The ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats from VRS-controlled territories coincided with the advance of Bosnian Serbs. There were built dozens of concentration camps where prisoners suffered from various forms of assault and maltreatment, including rape. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) declared the Srebrenica massacre of over 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in July 1995 to have been a genocide, marking the culmination of the ethnic cleansing. Though on a smaller scale, Bosniak and Bosnian Croat soldiers also perpetrated war crimes against people from various ethnic groups.
The majority of the crimes committed against Bosniaks and Croats took place during the Croat-Bosniak War, which was a sub-conflict of the Bosnian War in which the HVO and the Army of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) faced off. Following the signing of the Washington Agreement in March 1994, which combined HVO-held territory with that of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH), the Bosniak-Croat conflict came to an end. This resulted in the formation of a unified Bosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Recent History
Inspired by the Arab Spring, the demonstrations against the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the two entities in the nation, started in the northern town of Tuzla on February 4, 2014. Workers from a number of insolvent and privatized industries came together to demand action about unpaid wages, pensions, and jobs. Protests quickly extended throughout the Federation, with reports of violent fights in over twenty towns—the largest of which were Sarajevo, Zenica, Mostar, Bihać, Brčko, and Tuzla—having taken place.
The media in Bosnia said that there had been violent outbursts in Sarajevo, Tuzla in the north, Mostar in the south, and Zenica in the center of the country, injuring hundreds of people, including dozens of police officers. Though there wasn’t quite as much turmoil or action in Republika Srpska, hundreds of people did go up to support Banja Luka rallies against its independent government.
Since the end of the Bosnian War in 1995, there hasn’t been a public outcry over high unemployment and 20 years of political paralysis in the nation as huge as the current rallies.
In late 2021, Christian Schmidt of the Office of High Representative said that political and ethnic tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been rising, to the point that the country may split apart and descend into conflict once more. The European Union is concerned that this will cause the area to become even more divided.
Geographical
Located in the western Balkans, Bosnia and Herzegovina has borders with Serbia (302 km or 188 km) to the east, Montenegro (225 km or 140 mi) to the southeast, and Croatia (932 km or 579 mi) to the north and west. The village of Neum is surrounded by a 20-kilometer (12-mile) stretch of shoreline. Between latitudes 42° and 46° N and longitudes 15° and 20° E is where it is located.
The two claimed territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose borders were never established, are the source of the nation’s name. Historically, before the Austro-Hungarian domination, several regions of Bosnia were not included in the official name.
The majority of the nation is mountainous, with the center of the Dinaric Alps included. While it borders the Adriatic Sea to the south, the northeastern portions extend into the Pannonian Basin. Generally running southeast to northwest, the Dinaric Alps rise in elevation as they approach the south.
At 2,386 meters (7,828.1 ft), the summit of Maglić near the Montenegrin border is the highest point in the nation. Zelengora, Volujak, Kozara, Grmeč, Čvrsnica, Prenj, Vran, Vranica, Velež, Vlašić, Cincar, Romanija, Jahorina, Bjelašnica, Treskavica, and Trebević are some of the other notable mountains. The majority of the Dinaric chain of mountains in Bosnia is made up of limestone, including Mesozoic limestone. However, there are also reserves of iron, coal, zinc, manganese, bauxite, lead, and salt in some places, particularly in the north and center of the country.
In all, Bosnia and Herzegovina has around 50% forest cover. The majority of Bosnia’s forest regions are located in the east, center, and west. Herzegovina’s predominant terrain is karst, and the country has a drier Mediterranean climate. Extremely fertile agricultural land along the Sava River is found in Northern Bosnia (Posavina), and the corresponding area is widely cultivated.
This agricultural area is a portion of the Pannonian Plain, which extends into Serbia and Croatia, its neighbors. Just 20 kilometers (12 miles) of the nation’s coastline are located in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, surrounding the town of Neum. Despite the fact that Croatian peninsulas around the city, Bosnia and Herzegovina is granted a right of access to the outer sea under international law.
The major city and capital is Sarajevo. Other important cities are Zenica in the center of the nation, Mostar, the biggest city in Herzegovina’s southern section, Tuzla, Bijeljina, Doboj, and Brčko in the northeast, and Banja Luka and Prijedor in the northwest, known as Bosanska Krajina.
Major rivers in Bosnia & Herzegovina are seven:
- The greatest river in the nation, the Sava, has a natural border with Croatia to the north. 76% of the nation’s land is drained into the Danube and subsequently the Black Sea. The International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) counts Bosnia and Herzegovina among its members.
- The Sava is tributary to the Una, Sana, and Vrbas. They are in the Bosanska Krajina region’s northwest.
- The longest river entirely enclosed inside the nation is the Bosna River, which bestowed its name upon it. It travels from its source close to Sarajevo through the center of Bosnia to Sava in the north.
- The Drina flows across Bosnia’s eastern region, forming a natural boundary with Serbia for the most part.
- The Neretva is Herzegovina’s principal river and the only one that empties into the Adriatic Sea from the south.
Variety of Life
Bosnia and Herzegovina is shared by the Adriatic province of the Mediterranean Region and the Illyrian province of the Circumboreal Region. It is a part of the Boreal Kingdom from a phytogeographic perspective. The four ecoregions that makeup Bosnia and Herzegovina’s area are the Illyrian deciduous woods, the Pannonian mixed forests, the Dinaric Mountains mixed forests, and the Balkan mixed forests, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). With a mean score of 5.99/10 on the 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index, the nation was ranked 89th out of 172 countries worldwide.
Population
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s population was 4,369,319 in 1991, but it had decreased to 3,764,425 in 1996, according to a World Bank Group census. The nation’s demographics have changed as a result of significant population movements that occurred during the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s. Political differences prevented a census from being conducted between 1991 and 2013.
A census was supposed to take place in 2011, then in 2012, however, it wasn’t until October 2013. 3,531,159 individuals were counted in the population overall in the 2013 census, a 20% decrease from 1991. Politicians from the Republika Srpska and the Serbs dispute the 2013 census results since they contain non-permanent citizens of Bosnia (see Ethnic groupings below).
Ethnic groups
The three ethnic “constituent peoples” of Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats, as well as a few other minor communities including Jews and Roma, reside in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosniaks make up 50.1% of the population, followed by Serbs (30.8%), Croats (15.5%), and others (2.7%), according to statistics from the 2013 census released by the Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Ethnic composition in Bosnia and Herzegovina as of 2013:
The other respondents either did not answer or did not declare their ethnicity. Politicians who identify as Bosnian Serbs and the statistics agency of Republika Srpska dispute the census findings. The census is under controversy because Republika Srpska officials object to the inclusion of non-permanent Bosnian residents in the results.
In May 2016, Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union, ruled that the Bosnian statistical agency’s census methodology complies with international guidelines.
Languages
The constitution of Bosnia does not designate any official languages. In contrast, the Dayton Agreement specifies that it is “done in Bosnian, Croatian, English, and Serbian,” which scholars Hilary Footitt and Michael Kelly characterize as the “de facto recognition of three official languages” at the state level.
The Constitutional Court confirmed Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian nationalities’ equality in 2000. It was decided that the language provisions of the state constitution could not coexist with those of the Federation and Republika Srpska because those constitutions only recognized Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian as official languages at the entity level, respectively, for the Federation and Republika Srpska.
As a consequence, all three languages were recognized as official in both organizations, and the language of their constitutions was altered. Although not officially recognized in the nation, the three standard languages are entirely mutually intelligible and together referred to as Serbo-Croatian. Utilizing one of the three languages has come to signify one’s ethnicity. “The three official languages of today’s Bosnian state…represent the symbolic assertion of national identity over the pragmatism of mutual intelligibility,” contend Michael Kelly and Catherine Baker.
Bosnia and Herzegovina recognizes the following minority languages: Albanian, Montenegrin, Czech, Italian, Hungarian, Macedonian, German, Polish, Romani, Romanian, Rusyn, Slovak, Slovene, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Jewish (Yiddish and Ladino). This is in accordance with the 1992 European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML).
Most of the Donauschwaben, or Danube Swabians, who immigrated to the region when the Habsburg monarchy wrested the Balkans from the Ottoman Empire, make up the German minority in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Following the two World Wars, there was a significant decrease in the population of German ethnicity in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a result of expulsions and forced inclusion.
According to the 2013 census, 52.86% of people identified as Bosnian, 30.76% as Serbian, 14.6% as Croatian, 1.57% as another language, and 0.21% did not respond to the question.
Religion
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a multireligious nation. Muslims made up 50.7% of the population, according to the 2013 census, followed by Orthodox Christians (30.7%), Catholic Christians (15.2%), Atheists or Agnostics (1.2%), and Other 1.2%. The remaining people either did not declare their religion or did not respond to the question. According to a 2012 study, 38% of Bosnian Muslims identified as Sunni, while 54% as non-denominational.
| Religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2013 census) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Religion | Percent | |||
| Muslim | 50.7% | |||
| Orthodox Christian | 30.7% | |||
| Catholic Christian | 15.2% | |||
| Other | 1.2% | |||
| Atheist | 0.7% | |||
| Agnostic | 0.3% | |||
| Not declared | 0.9% | |||
| No answer | 0.2% | |||
Urban areas
The urban area of Sarajevo, which includes the municipalities of Ilidža, Vogošća, Istočna Ilidža, Istočno Novo Sarajevo, and Istočni Stari Grad, is home to 419,957 people. With 555,210 residents, the metro region consists of the municipalities of Breza, Kiseljak, Kreševo, and Visoko as well as Sarajevo Canton and East Sarajevo.
Infrastructure
Move around
The primary international airport of Bosnia and Herzegovina is Sarajevo International Airport, sometimes referred to as Butmir Airport. It is situated in the Butmir district of Sarajevo, 3.3 NM (6.1 km; 3.8 mph) southwest of the city’s main train station.
After gaining independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1992, the Yugoslav Railways were replaced by railway operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These days, Republika Srpska Railways (ŽRS) in Republika Srpska and Railways of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ŽFBiH) in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina are in charge of operating them.
Telecommunications
In January 2006, the market for communications in Bosnia was completely liberalized. Although their regions of operation are their primary service areas, all three landline telephone operators are licensed to make both domestic and international calls nationwide. Additionally, mobile data services including 3G, 4G, and high-speed EDGE are offered.
Founded in 1943, Oslobođenje (Liberation) is one of the longest-running continually distributed newspapers in the nation. Numerous national newspapers are published in Sarajevo, such as Jutarnje Novine (Morning News) and Dnevni Avaz (Daily Voice), both of which were established in 1995.
Other local publications include the weekly newspapers BH Dani (BH Days) and Slobodna Bosna (Free Bosnia), as well as the Croatian Hrvatska riječ daily and Bosnian Start magazine. The most left-wing periodical was a monthly journal called Novi Plamen. The international news organization Al Jazeera runs a sister channel called Al Jazeera Balkans that is centered in Sarajevo and serves the Balkan area. With offices in Sarajevo, Zagreb, and Belgrade, the N1 platform has been a CNN International affiliate since 2014.
In terms of press freedom as of 2021, Bosnia and Herzegovina is rated 58th globally and second in the region after Croatia.
9,5.55% of the nation’s population, or 3,374,094 people, were online as of December 2021.
Education
Bosnia and Herzegovina has a long and rich history of higher education. Gazi Husrev-beg founded the first specialized higher education institution in 1531 as a school of Sufi philosophy. Then came many additional religious schools. A five-year curriculum for a Sharia law school was established in 1887 under the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The University of Sarajevo opened as the first nonreligious higher education facility in the city in the 1940s. Graduate degrees after a bachelor’s degree were made accessible in the 1950s. It was recently restored in collaboration with more than 40 other institutions after suffering severe damage during the war.
Other universities in the area are the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is regarded as one of the most esteemed creative arts academies in the area, and the University Džemal Bijedić of Mostar, University of Banja Luka, University of Mostar, University of East Sarajevo, University of Tuzla, American University in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Additionally, Bosnia and Herzegovina is home to a number of international and private institutes of higher learning, including:
- Sarajevo School of Technology and Science
- Sarajevo’s International University
- Bosnia and Herzegovina’s American University
- Graduate School of Business Sarajevo
- Burch University International
- Mostar’s United World College
The duration of primary education is nine years. General and technical secondary schools, sometimes known as gymnasiums, offer secondary education. Four years of study are usually required. Vocational training is a component of all secondary education programs. After completing their general secondary education, students can apply to any university or academy by passing the qualifying test required by the institution or agency in charge. Students who complete technical coursework are awarded a diploma.
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