Introduction to Bosnia-Herzegovina
- Population: 3,531,149 (2013 census)
- Official Languages:Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian
- Capital City: Sarajevo
- Main religions: Islam, Serbian Orthodoxy, Catholicism
- Bosnia – Herzegovina has a 25km stretch of sea
- Approx. 50% of the land is moutainous
- Bosnia-Herzegovina is made up of two entities – The Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska
The History of Bosnia-Herzegovina
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SLAVIC HERITAGE
The Slavs spread to inhabit the Balkans during the 6th century. South Slavic ethnic groups lived mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a minority present in other countries of the Balkan Peninsula, including Serbia, Montenegro, and Croatia. Bosnia eventually became contested between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Byzantine Empire.[/column]
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OTTOMAN RULE
After the death of Tvrtko I, and the subsequent collapse of the Kingdom of Bosnia, Murat I began his conquest of Bosnia. The Ottomans brought significant changes to the region, particularly with the introduction of Islam. By the early 1600s, almost two thirds of the population was Muslim. [/column]
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OTTOMAN EMPIRE FALLS
The Turkish revolution of 1908 to overthrow the Sultan’s autocratic power resulted in the imminent demise of Ottoman rule. Upon hearing that the Turk troops were marching on Istanbul, Abdul Hamid II surrendered. He was confined to captivity in Salonica until 1912, when he was returned to captivity in Istanbul.[/column]
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FIRST BALKAN CRISIS
Following Bulgaria’s declaration of Independence from the Ottoman Empire, on the 6th of October 1908, the Austro-Hungarian Empire announced the annexation of Bosnia. As a direct violation of the Treaty of Berlin, this led to political uproar. The reaction towards the annexation of Bosnia would later prove to be a contributing cause to World War I.[/column]
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BALKAN LEAGUE
An alliance was formed against the Ottoman Empire by Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia. The League managed to obtain control over all European Ottoman conquests. However, the differences between the allies soon resurfaced and the League promptly disintegrated. Soon thereafter, Bulgaria attacked its allies, instigating the Second Balkan War.[/column]
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FRANZ FERDINAND KILLED
In June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated, alongside his wife. Shot dead by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb, the political motive behind the assassination was simple: to break off Austria-Hungary’s South-Slav provinces, so that they could become part of Greater Serbia or Yugoslavia. The attack led to the outbreak of World War I.[/column]
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EMPIRE COLLAPSES
At the end of World War I, Emperor Franz Joseph I’s Austro-Hungarian empire collapsed. This was owing to the growing opposition parties who supported the separatism of ethnic minorities, and opposed the monarchy as a form of government. In 1918, Bosnia became part of The Kingdom of Croats, Serbs and Slovenes, later renamed The Kingdom of Yugoslavia.[/column]
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BOSNIA ANNEXED
Following the collapse of Yugoslavia, the Independent State of Croatia was formed in 1941, and Bosnia was subsequently annexed. However, during World War II, the Croats became divided with one side supporting the Independent State of Croatia, and the other the creation of communist Yugoslavia.[/column]
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TITO LIBERATES BOSNIA
In 1941, German forces allied with Hungary and Italy, launched an invasion of Yugoslavia. Josip Broz Tito called for all citizens of Yugoslavia to unite against the opposition. Tito’s Partisans succeeded in liberating the territory. As an aftermath of World War II, Tito assembled the provisional government of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia in Belgrade.[/column]
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FALL OF COMMUNISM
In 1989, revolutions began which would eventually overthrow communist states across Europe. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, communism was abandoned in Yugoslavia and war broke out at the development of five successor states: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.[/column]
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The Break Up of Yugoslavia
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After attempts to negotiate peaceful transformation of Yugoslavia into a confederal state, with the individual republics holding primary authority, Croatia and Slovenia declared independence on the same day. Serbs in the responded by declaring the region the ‘Republic of Serbian Krajina’. Croats were driven out of the area by force, until a ceasefire was signed in January 1992, in which UNPROFOR was deployed to police this area.
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Unrest builds in Bosnia between those in favour of a multi-ethnic independent Bosnia and nationalist minorities. Radovan Karadžić, leader of the Serb Democratic Party, warned the Bosnian parliament in October 1991: “Don’t think that you won’t take Bosnia and Herzegovina into hell, and the Muslim people maybe into extinction. Because the Muslim people cannot defend themselves if there is war here.”.
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The SDS party forbade Serbs to vote in the referendum and erected road-blocks to prevent ballot-boxes entering the areas of Bosnia it controlled and , federal army planes dropped leaflets supporting the boycott. Of the 64% who did vote (including thousands of Serbs), 99.7% voted yes to ‘a sovereign and independent Bosnia-Herzegovina, a state of equal citizens and nations of Muslims, Serbs, Croats and others who live in it’.
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Yugoslav Army forces, directed from Belgrade, and local Serb forces, combine and lay siege on 5 April 1992, one day before Bosnia is recognised by the EC as an independent nation. The siege will prove to be the longest siege in modern military history. Serbs in Bosnia declare an independent Republika Srpska, unleashing a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” and violence across north west and eastern Bosnia.
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The state comprises of Serbia and Macedonia alone. This meant that the Serb dominated Yugoslav army needed to at least appear to withdraw from Bosnian soil. Bosnian Serb members of the Yugoslav National Army were transferred to the army of the ‘Serb Republic”, under the command of General Ratko Mladić. This exercise had the desired effect of causing Western politicians to miscategorise the conflict as a ‘civil war’.
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[button url=https://goo.gl/forms/NoBczUeS1UTfwsHH2]Take the Quiz[/button]
Additional reading or viewing
[button url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdS9M7oSVOg]Death of Yugoslavia BBC documentary[/button]
