Most notable among Bosnia and Herzegovina's charms is its lush, mountainous landscape, best seen from the vantage point of one of the national parks. To some, the country remains synonymous with the Yugoslav wars that ravaged the Balkan region in the 1990s; it still bears the legacy of this, having a fractured infrastructure and a countryside that remains littered with mines in some regions.
However, there are plenty of positives to take from Bosnia and Herzegovina's urban centres, especially the cosmopolitan capital of Sarajevo with its Turkish heritage and lively cafe scene. Elsewhere there are historic fortresses, splendid old mosques, monasteries and Catholic shrines to enjoy. But perhaps above all else, it is the reconstructed Ottoman bridge at Mostar that symbolises both the past and a positive new beginning for the country.
History of Bosnia and Herzegovina
In the time of the Roman Empire, modern-day Bosnia was part of the Roman province of Dalmatia. Then, after brief occupation by the Goths, the territory was ruled for the next six centuries as a semi-autonomous outpost of the Byzantine Empire. From 1180, when Byzantine rule came to an end, and by 1463, when the Ottoman Turks took control, Bosnia was more or less an independent state under a succession of strong rulers who expanded the territory southwards to take in the province of Hum (now Herzegovina). As a province of the Ottoman Empire, Bosnia & Herzegovina had two distinguishing characteristics: firstly, much of the population converted to Islam; secondly, as a frontier province, it was the first line of defence against incursions into the Ottoman sphere of influence. Consequently, the country suffered from repeated invasions, resulting in destruction and dislocation. Bosnia & Herzegovina also became susceptible to Turkish efforts to expand northwards (for example, the 16th-century Hungarian campaigns of Suleyman the Magnificent).
Under pressure from Austria, Ottoman rule began to weaken during the 18th and 19th centuries, until the Turks were finally expelled following the Russo/Serbian-Turkish war of 1876; Bosnia was assigned to the Austro-Hungarian Empire by the Congress of Berlin. An influx of non-Muslims from the north around this time brought Bosnia to something close to its present-day ethnic mix. The decision by Vienna to annex Bosnia fully in 1908 produced a destabilising chain of events contributing to the First Balkan war of 1912–13, then to the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, by a Serb revolutionary, Gavrilo Princip, in June 1914. This single event led directly to the outbreak of World War I. At the end of the war, with the approval of the victorious Great Powers, Serbia annexed Bosnia as part of the new 'Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes', which was renamed 'Yugoslavia' in 1929.
After Yugoslavia's dismemberment by the Axis powers during World War II, the area was incorporated into a so-called 'Independent State of Croatia', ruled by the fascist Ustasa movement, under the joint sponsorship of both Nazi Germany and its ally Italy, with the Vatican also giving its support. Among other things, this resulted in an Ustasa policy of genocide against the local Serbs (henceforth a numerical minority as a result), often supported and aided by the Slavic Muslims, who had strongly resented Serb rule before the war. Concomitantly, the area was also the major battleground of the Yugoslav civil war proper, between royalist Chetnik forces loyal to the exiled King Peter II and his government in London, and Partisans under the control of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, led by Josip Broz Tito. Following the Communist take-over in 1945, Bosnia & Herzegovina became a constituent republic of the new Yugoslav federation.
The ethnic rivalries characteristic of the region's politics were largely suppressed during Communist rule. However, they resurfaced once the Yugoslav federation began to unravel, from 1990 onwards. At the November 1990 elections, extreme nationalists were voted into power by each of the republic's three constituencies and, the following year, Bosnia & Herzegovina effectively fell apart as a functioning and recognisable polity. At the time, this was one aspect of the wider disintegration of the Yugoslav federation, as civil war took hold, first in Slovenia, then Croatia and, finally, in Bosnia.
With a population split almost equally three ways between Serbs, Croats and Muslims, Bosnia was always likely to be the centrepiece of the struggle for influence in former Yugoslavia between the two most powerful republics – Serbia and Croatia. In the initial stages, the Serbs were dominant, with their military forces taking control of two-thirds of the territory, as part of a wider plan to establish a 'Greater Serbia'. This essentially racial project started to go wrong when the United Nations imposed sanctions on Serbia, as evidence mounted of atrocities inflicted upon the civilian population. In the summer of 1995, NATO forces intervened, allowing the Croat and Muslim armies, discreetly armed and trained by Germany and the USA, to retake much of the Serb-occupied territory in Bosnia. Robust American diplomacy then produced a deal under which Bosnia was split almost equally between Serbs and a Muslim-Croat federation. This brought the war to an end, at an estimated cost of 200,000 lives. The long-besieged capital of Sarajevo became the seat of a new central government protected by a multinational military force, the Stabilisation Force (S-FOR). An international mediator, with wide-ranging powers, was installed to oversee the political process. (This post is currently held by the former British politician, Paddy Ashdown.) The Dayton Accord – named after the American city where the bulk of the pre-settlement negotiations took place – has been reasonably successful in returning Bosnia to normality; a number of war criminals on the Serb and Croat sides have been captured prior to trial before an international court in The Hague.
The first set of post-war elections under the terms of the Dayton Accord took place in October 1996. These brought victories for the main nationalist parties representing each of the three communities – the Party of Democratic Action (KCD) for the Muslims, the Croat Democratic Party (HDZ) and the Serb Democratic Party (SDS). These have since remained the dominant political forces in their respective territories, despite none-too-subtle efforts by the international community to promote more moderate political forces, which it is hoped will eventually guide the country towards reunification and ultimately NATO and EU membership. At the 2000 polls, effective opposition parties did emerge for the first time on both sides – Sloga on the Serb side mounted a serious challenge to the SDS, while in the Muslim-Croat Federation, the Croat Social Democratic Party did likewise to the Croat HDZ. The KCD remained pre-eminent as the main representative party of the Muslim population. However, the most recent polls, in October 2002, reaffirmed the dominant position of the three main nationalist parties – the SDS governs Republika Srpska while the KCD is the largest single party in the Muslim-Croat Federation. There has been some friction within the Federation but so far it has held together as a political entity. The 2002 elections were also notable for the fact that they were the first to have been organised domestically; previous polls had been administered and supervised by the international community. There was evidence of possible corruption from the Croat member of presidency, Covic, but he was promptly sacked by High Representative Paddy Ashdown in 2005 and replaced by Ivo Miro Jovic.
Unfortunately, the complexity of the Dayton arrangements and the bitter legacy of the war has created both a suspicion of change and widespread political apathy in both parts of the country. It could be some time before Bosnia's ethnic chasm can be overcome; in the meantime, the country faces economic stagnation and an isolated international position. Tens of thousands are still displaced and living in temporary shelter; many others are reluctant to return from exile.
Bosnia and Herzegovina Culture
Religion:
45% Muslim, 36% Orthodox, 15% Roman Catholic, 4% Protestant, Jews and other denominations.
Social conventions:
Bosnia and Herzegovina is characterised by its ethnic and religious diversity and visitors should respect the customs and traditions of the various ethnic and religious groups. The main ethnic groups are the Bosniaks (48%, also sometimes referred to as Bosnian Muslims), the Serbs (37.1%) and the Croats (14.3%). Visitors should be aware that drinking alcohol in public may be considered offensive by more orthodox Muslims. Visitors should avoid expressing opinions about the war or other sensitive issues.
Language in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The official languages are Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian. The Croats and Bosniaks use the Latin alphabet, whereas the Serbs use the Cyrillic.
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