- Flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina
For most of the 20th century Bosnia and Herzegovina was a part of the country of Yugoslavia. Throughout history, the area has been home to many different peoples. At times, tensions between these peoples has flared up into armed conflict. When Yugoslavia fell apart in the early 1990s the various ethnic groups of Bosnia and Herzegovina were drawn into a war with their neighbors. After the war ended in 1995 the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina worked to rebuild their country. The capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina is Sarajevo. GeographyBosnia and Herzegovina is located on the western side of the Balkan Peninsula in Central Europe. It is bordered on the north, west, and south by Croatia, on the east by Serbia and Montenegro, and on the southwest by the Adriatic Sea. The country occupies a total area of 19,741 square miles (51,129 square kilometers). Bosnia, the larger of the two regions, occupies the northern and central parts of the republic. Herzegovina occupies the south and southwest. - The Drinja?a River begins in the mountains of eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. It flows into …
Bosnia and Herzegovina is largely mountainous. The Dinaric Alps lie in the west, the Bjelasnica Mountains occupy the south, and the Majevica Mountains lie toward the east. The country's major rivers include the Sava, which forms the northern border with Croatia, and the Bosna, from which the country takes its name. The country is also drained by the Drina and Neretva rivers and their tributaries. In Bosnia, the weather is generally mild but can be bitterly cold in winter. Herzegovina, by contrast, has very hot summers. Plants and animalsAbout half of Bosnia and Herzegovina is forested with pine, beech, and oak trees. The country's rich and varied wildlife includes bears, wolves, wild pigs, wildcats, chamois, otters, foxes, badgers, and falcons. PeopleMany ethnic groups live in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Of these, the major groups are Bosniacs (Muslims), Serbs, and Croats. Bosniacs constitute about two fifths of the population, Serbs about one third, and Croats about one fifth. These three peoples speak the same language, Serbo-Croatian, though it is now known as Serbian, Croatian, or Bosnian, depending on the speaker's ethnic group. The Serbs are mostly Orthodox Christians, while the Croats are Roman Catholic. The Bosniacs are descended from Slavs who converted to Islam during the long period of Turkish (Ottoman) rule. Until the mid-1990s, the Bosniacs were referred to as Muslims. EconomyBosnia and Herzegovina was one of the poorest regions of Yugoslavia. The country's economy was severely damaged during the civil war of the early 1990s, but it made a slow recovery during the last half of the decade. The Yugoslav state encouraged the development of industry, and manufacturing and mining remain the single most important part of the economy. The country's industries produce textiles, cement, vehicles, appliances, steel, coal, iron ore, and other metal products. Less than one fifth of the country's area is used for farming. Important crops grown in Bosnia and Herzegovina include corn (maize), wheat, potatoes, cabbages, plums, grapes, mulberries, figs, pomegranates, melons, oranges, lemons, rice, and tobacco. Livestock such as cattle and sheep is raised, and nearly one fourth of the country's land is devoted to pasture. HistoryThe land that is now Bosnia and Herzegovina was settled in the 6th and 7th centuries by several groups of Slavic peoples. Despite brief periods of independence, the region was controlled by many different states, including the Serbs, Croats, Hungarians, Venetians, and Byzantines. The Ottoman Empire conquered Bosnia in 1463. Under Ottoman law only Muslims were allowed to own property. Much of the native population, mainly landowners, converted to Islam. The Serbs and Croats who remained Christian were peasants, and they had few rights except religious freedom. In the 18th and 19th centuries, ethnic tension grew between the prosperous Muslim landowners and the Serbian and Croatian Christian peasants. In 1875 Bosnian Christians rose in revolt against Turkish rule with the support of Serbia, which hoped to gain control of the region. Austria-Hungary formally annexed the area in 1908. Ethnic tensions continued to deepen, and Bosnian Serbs began to agitate against Austro-Hungarian rule. In June 1914 a Bosnian Serb killed Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo, triggering a war between Serbia and Austria-Hungary that turned into World War I. After the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of a new Serbian-controlled kingdom named Yugoslavia in 1929. After World War II, in 1946, Yugoslavia became a Communist state. Yugoslavia's rulers managed to control the region's bitter ethnic conflicts for nearly half a century. However, when the Communist government was forced to resign in 1989, the tensions between Serbs, Croats, and Muslims reemerged. Bosnian Croats and Muslims wanted an independent, multinational republic; the Bosnian Serbs, however, refused to separate from Yugoslavia, which by then was dominated by Serbia. Shortly after the Bosnian people voted for independence in early 1992 the different groups went to war against each other. Serbs seized much of the north and east, Croats took the west, and Muslims held onto cities in the center and northwest. After more than three years of bitter fighting and failed peace efforts, the warring parties agreed on a peace settlement in November 1995. The fighting uprooted more than 2 million people from their homes and killed more than 200,000 people. In the end, Bosnia and Herzegovina had gained its independence. In September 1996 Muslims (Bosniacs), Serbs, and Croats went to the polls to elect three leaders; three presidents were chosen, one for each of Bosnia's three dominant ethnic groups. Population (2001 estimate), 3,922,000. |