Bosnia and Herzegovina Old History

By | January 2, 2023

Bosnia and Herzegovina is an independent nation in Southern Europe. With the capital city of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina 2020 population is estimated at 3,280,830 according to countryaah. The area that today constitutes Bosnia-Herzegovina was part of the Roman Empire. In the 1300s, Bosnia became independent and then the Turkish Ottomans took over. After 400 years in the Ottoman Empire, Bosnia ended up in the double-monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1878. The murder in Sarajevo of the monarch’s heir to the throne in 1914 became a sparking spark for the First World War, and after the war Yugoslavia was formed. During the Second World War, the country was invaded by the German-called Axis powers and Bosnia suffered severe civil disputes.

  • AbbreviationFinder.org: Comprehensive guide to and popular abbreviations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, covering history, economy, and social conditions.

Today’s Bosnia was conquered by the Romans in the centuries before the beginning of our era. The people groups that lived there were probably illiterate, Indo-European tribes who had long been in the Western Balkans. The Romans formed the province of Illyricum. After the division of the Roman Empire in 395, the province eventually ended up under Östrom, or the Byzantine Empire. For Bosnia and Herzegovina political system, please check computerminus.

Beginning in the 500s, Slavic people from the Northeast immigrated. In the following centuries, the supremacy of the area between Byzantine, Serbian and Hungarian princes changed.

the Ottoman Empire

In the 1300s, Bosnia became an independent kingdom, but it was quickly weakened by internal fighting and Turkish attacks. The Ottomans entered the country in 1463. Hercegovina was an independent duchy in 1448–1483 (the name comes from the German word for duke) but was eventually also suppressed by the Turks. These did not try to actively recruit the residents to Islam but were primarily interested in them as taxpayers and soldiers. However, most of the Bosnian nobility chose to move to Islam in order to retain their goods and rights. Some of the peasant population followed the example. At the beginning of the 17th century, a majority of the population was Muslim.

The Ottoman Empire weakened during the 19th century and after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, the European superpowers convened a congress in Berlin to draw up new borders in the Balkans. Congress decided that Bosnia and Herzegovina should be managed by the Habsburg double monarchy of Austria-Hungary “on behalf of the Turkish Sultan”.

In 1908 the double monarchy took over completely and in 1910 Bosnia and Herzegovina got a constitution which made the two parts a uniform administrative area with a provincial government in Sarajevo. But Austria-Hungary’s annexation of Bosnia was seen with the unblinking eyes of Serbs who wanted to create a South Slavic kingdom. In June 1914, Austro-Hungarian throne Franz Ferdinand was shot to death during a visit to Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a young Serbian nationalist. The shooting in Sarajevo led Austria-Hungary to declare war against Serbia a month later, which in turn triggered the First World War.

Yugoslavia is formed

During the war, the Serbian exile government negotiated with Croats and Slovenes to come together in a common state. When the Habsburg monarchy had collapsed, in December 1918 “Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes” was proclaimed under the reign of Serbia’s Aleksandar Karađorđević (Karadjordjevic). Thus, the foundation was laid for the South Slavic state, which in 1929 was renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (Yugo means South).

The country’s cohesion was threatened by internal contradictions, mainly between Serbs and the Croats who did not want to be ruled from Belgrade. In 1934, the Serbian king, by Croatian extremist nationalists, was murdered while on a state visit to France. However, the greatest threat to the country turned out to come from: in 1939, the Second World War broke out and two years later Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers and their supporters (Germany, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria). The country was split up and almost all of Bosnia fell under the so-called Independent State of Croatia, which with German support was ruled by the fascist organization Ustaša and its leader Ante Pavelić. Among other things, Ustaša engaged in the persecution of Jews, Romans, political opponents and the Serbian minority who would be forced to convert from Orthodox Christianity to Catholicism.

Internal battles

Two rival opposition groups in Yugoslavia fought against the occupiers and the Ustaša government: first the royalist and Serbian nationalist četnici (Chetniks) and the so-called partisans under Yugoslav Communist Party leader Josip Broz, aka Tito. The two resistance movements first tried to cooperate but soon began to fight each other. Tito wanted to create a socialist Yugoslavia after the war, while četnici wanted to restore the kingdom. The internal conflicts developed into a real civil war and the worst battles came to an end in Bosnia.

The partisans were most successful and supported by the Allies (Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union). The partisans entered Belgrade in September 1944 and, at the end of the war, formed government with Tito as prime minister. One tenth of the population of Yugoslavia had lost their lives. More victims had been harvested in the internal battles than in the fight against the occupying powers.

2010

December

The EU abolishes visa requirements

The EU decides that Bosnian citizens are allowed to enter the EU without a visa.

October

Elections in the nation, entities and cantons

October 3

In the election to the three-headed presidency, SDA’s Bakir Izetbegović secures the Bosnians’ place with 35 percent of the vote. He is the son of former president Alija Izetbegović and has held a conciliatory tone in the electoral movement and has emerged as more compromising than Representative Haris Siljadžić. Željko Komšić is re-elected to the Croatian seat (with close to 61 percent of Croatian voters), and Nebojša Radmanović to the Serbian (with 49 percent). In the election to the national parliament, the Socialist SDP and the Serbian nationalist SNSD receive the largest with 8 seats each (out of 42). SDA receives 7 mandates, SDS 4, SBB 4, HDZ BiH 3, HDZ 1990 2, SbiH 2 and other 4 mandates. The SDP becomes the largest party in the Federation and the SNSD becomes the largest in the Republika Srpska, where Prime Minister Milorad Dodik wins the presidential election.

June

Explosion towards police station

An explosive charge explodes at the Bugojno police station, seven miles southwest of Sarajevo. A police officer is killed and six people are injured. A man is later sentenced to 45 years in prison for terrorism.

Bosnian Serb sentenced in The Hague

Two Bosnian Serb former security officers are sentenced by the War Criminal Tribunal in The Hague to life imprisonment for genocide and other war crimes in Srebrenica. Five others receive shorter sentences.

January

Agreement with Croatia

Bosnia and Croatia sign an agreement to mutually recognize each other’s courts and sentences, to prevent criminals of dual citizenship from being punished.

Bosnia and Herzegovina Old History