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The region covered by Bosnia-Herzegovina was part of the Roman Empire. By the 13th
century the region accepted Hungarian kings as overlords. In the 14th century Bosnia became
a kingdom and ruled Herzegovina. Both fell in the 15th century to the Turks, who combined
them. In 1878 Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia-Herzegovina, and in 1908 annexed it. In
1918 it was incorporated into what became Yugoslavia.
Bosnia-Herzegovina remained a part of Yugoslavia until 1992, when it seceded. Serbian
nationalists in Bosnia-Herzegovina opposed secession, and war broke out between them and
the country's Croats and Slavic Muslims.
The war raged throughout 1992 and by the end of that year Serbian nationalist, who were
backed by the Serb-led federal Yugoslav army, had occupied nearly 70 per cent of the
country. Nationalist Bosnian Croats also began seizing territory. All sides in the war engaged
in a policy of murdering or expelling from their territory (or territories they conquered)
people who were not of their ethnic group. The United Nations condemned such actions as
war crimes. Also in 1992, the United Nations sent forces to the country to protect civilians
and distribute relief supplies.
Fighting continued during 1993, despite various UN attempts to establish peace. In early
1994 forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), acting under UN
authorization, launched air strikes against Serb forces to protect civilians and UN forces from
attack. Serb sieges of some cities were lifted but the war continued. Later that year Bosnian
Croats and Slavic Muslims ceased hostilities against each other and formed a federation. The
Bosnian Serbs, however, continued to fight.
In July and August, 1995, several socalled safe areas (regions under the protection of UN
forces) were attacked by Bosnian Serb forces and some were captured. Shortly afterward
NATO launched an intense campaign of air strikes against Bosnian Serb military sites. In a
major offensive in September, Bosnian government troops recaptured a large section of
Serbheld territory. Shortly afterward, partly as a result of United States diplomatic efforts, a
cease-fire was signed.
In November, 1995, a peace accord was signed in Dayton, Ohio, ending the conflict that had
cost some 200,000 lives. The peace treaty called for a unitary Bosnian state made up of two
largely autonomous states (one Serb, the other Muslim and Croat). The treaty also called for
national elections and the deployment of a NATO peacekeeping force, which included troops
from the United States. National elections were held in September, 1996.
The European Union (EU) took control of peacekeeping operations in 2004.
Globaledge.com
The three constituent peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina are Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats, and
languages are Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian. Religions include Islam, Serbian Orthodoxy, Roman
Catholicism, Judaism, some Protestant sects, and some others.
For the first centuries of the Christian era, present-day Bosnia was part of the Roman Empire. After
the fall of Rome, it was contested by Byzantium and Rome's successors in the west. Slavs settled the
region in the 7th century. The medieval kingdom of Bosnia emerged in the 12th century and ended
in 1463, when Ottoman Turks conquered the region.
During Ottoman rule, many Bosnians converted from Christianity to Islam. Bosnia was under
Ottoman rule until 1878, when the Congress of Berlin transferred administrative control to Austria-
Hungary. Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia in 1908. While those living in Bosnia came under the rule
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, South Slavs in Serbia and elsewhere were calling for a South Slav
state. World War I began when Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Archduke Franz
Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Following the Great War, Bosnia became part of the South Slav state of
Yugoslavia, only to be given to the Nazi-puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during
World War II. Many atrocities were committed against Jews, Serbs, and others who resisted the
occupation from 1941-45. The end of the war saw the establishment of a Communist, federal
Yugoslavia under wartime leader Josip Broz Tito, with Bosnia and Herzegovina as one of six republics
in the Yugoslav federation.
After Tito died in 1980, Yugoslavia's unraveling was hastened by Slobodan Milosevic's rise to power
in 1986. Milosevic's embrace of Serb nationalism led to intrastate ethnic strife. Slovenia and Croatia
both declared independence from Yugoslavia in June 1991. By late September 1991, Bosnian Serb
Radovan Karadzic's Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) had declared four self-proclaimed "Serb
Autonomous Regions (SAO)" in Bosnia. In October 1991, the Bosnian Serbs announced the formation
within Bosnia of a "Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina" that would have its own constitution
and parliamentary assembly. In January 1992, Radovan Karadzic publicly proclaimed a fully
independent "Republic of the Serbian People in Bosnia-Herzegovina." On March 1, 1992, the Bosnian
Government held a referendum on independence. Bosnia's parliament declared the republic's
independence on April 5, 1992. However, this move was opposed by Serb representatives, who had
voted in their own referendum in November 1991 in favor of remaining in Yugoslavia. Bosnian Serbs,
supported by neighboring Serbia, responded with armed force in an effort to partition the republic
along ethnic lines. Recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina's independence by the United States and
the European Community occurred on April 6-7, and Bosnia and Herzegovina was admitted to the
United Nations on May 22, 1992.
In March 1994, Muslims and Croats in Bosnia signed an agreement creating the Federation of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, ending a period of Muslim-Croat conflict. The conflict with the Bosnian Serbs
continued through most of 1995. Many atrocities were committed, including acts of genocide
committed by members of the Army of Republika Srpska in and around Srebrenica in July 1995,
where approximately 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed. The conflict ended with the
November 21, 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, which was formally signed on December 14, 1995 in
Paris.
Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the political and military leaders of the Bosnian Serbs, were
indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (http://www.icty.org/) in
The Hague in July 1995 on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity stemming from their
role in crimes against civilians throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina culminating in the Srebrenica
massacre. Karadzic was apprehended and transferred to the ICTY in The Hague by Serbian
authorities on July 21, 2008. Mladic was apprehended in Serbia on May 26, 2011 and transferred to
The Hague on June 1, 2011.
Bosnia and Herzegovina today consists of two Entities--the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
(FBiH), which is largely Bosniak and Croat, and the Republika Srpska (RS), which is primarily Serb. In
July 2000, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina rendered a decision whereby
Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs are recognized as constituent peoples throughout the territory of Bosnia
and Herzegovina. In March 2002, this decision was formally recognized and agreed on by the major
political parties in both Entities.
The most recent national elections took place in October 2010, electing new state presidency
members; state, Entity, and cantonal parliaments; and the RS presidency. The BiH presidency was
sworn in on November 10, 2010. The RS government was formed in December 2010, and the
Federation government was formed in March 2011. The BiH Council of Ministers was formed in
February 2012. The next municipal elections are scheduled to occur in 2012, and the next general
elections will take place in 2014. In October 2008, Bosnia and Herzegovina held municipal elections,
where mayors and members of municipal assemblies were directly elected (in all municipalities
except Mostar and Brcko District).
The international community retains an extraordinary civilian and military presence in Bosnia and
Herzegovina (BiH) stemming from the Dayton Peace Accords. The Dayton Accords created the
position of High Representative, an international official charged with overseeing implementation of
the civilian aspects of the agreement. The current High Representative (since March 2009) is
Austria's Valentin Inzko (www.ohr.int).
In December 1995, NATO deployed a 60,000-troop Implementation Force (IFOR) to oversee
implementation of the military aspects of the peace agreement. IFOR transitioned into a smaller
Stabilization Force (SFOR) in 1996. With the end of the SFOR mission in December 2004, the
European Union (EU) assumed primary responsibility for military stabilization operations.
Approximately 600 EU troops remain deployed in Bosnia (www.euforbih.org). NATO maintains a
small headquarters operation with responsibility to assist with defense reform.
Studylands.com
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country with one of the richest history in the world. It was called
Illyricum in ancient times when the Illyres or Illyrians (warlike Indo-European tribes)
replaced the Neolithic population. Celtic migrated to the country and disposes some Illyrians
and mixed with the natives in the 4th and 3rd centuries. Romans conquered the country in the
late 2nd and 1st centuries B.C. Christianity entered the region in the end of the 1st century.
The region of Dalmatia and Pannonia were included in the Western Roman Empire when the
Roman Empire splits. The Ostrogoths conquered the region in 455 and embraced other tribes
like the Alans and Huns. Emperor Justinian and the Byzantine Empire conquered the land in
the late 6th century. Then Slavs invaded the Eastern Roman Empire in the 6th and 7th
centuries settling it now as Bosnia and Herzegovina and the surrounding lands.
The first notable Bosnian ruler was Ban Kulin that strengthened the countrys economy over
nearly 3 decades and maintained peace and stability through out the country. The Ottoman
Empire conquest of Europe in the first half of the 15th century posed a major threat to the
Balkans. Bosnia fell in the year 1463 followed by Herzegovina in the year 1482. It marked a
new era in the country that introduced another cultural, political, and religious framework.
Austria-Hungary was given the mandate to occupy and govern Bosnia and Herzegovina in
1878 after the nearby countries fought, which aided by the Russians, the Ottoman Empire.
The country was officially one of the 6 constituent republics that were established at the end
of the war. The establishment was the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes that later
changed to Yugoslavia. When the Germany occupied Yugoslavia in the World War II,
Bosnia and Herzegovina were made part of Nazi-controlled Croatia. Bosnia and Herzegovina
declared there independence from Yugoslavia in Dec. 1991.