History of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia constituted part of the Roman Empire in the first centuries of the spread of Christianism throughout Europe. After the fall of the Empire the territory was initially contested between Byzantium and the western successors of the Romans. Progressive settling of Slavic populations from the Northeast started in the 7th century and ended in the foundation of counties and duchies neighboured by two distinct Kingdoms in the region: Serbia and Croatia.
Until obtaining independence in 1200, Bosnia was governed by local rulers under the authority of the northern Kingdom of Hungary. The period of independence – during which three different Christian cults developed in the area (Catholicism, Orthodoxy and a Bosnian schismatic church) – came to an end in 1463 with the arrival of the Turks.

During the Ottoman domination, many Bosnians abandoned their Christian faith on behalf of Islamism. Not few of the converted rose to the highest ranks of the ruling elite and were even assigned relevant offices within the Empire. On the other hand, all non-Muslims were allowed - under the “Millet” system – to continue professing their faiths and freely trading with the West, but were prevented from covering public charges.

The Eyalet of Bosna – as the province was named – lasted until 1878 when, at the Council of Berlin, the Great Western Powers agreed on the fate of the Ottoman Empire: while Bosnia-Herzegovina was subjected to the Austro-Hungarian rule, the Kingdoms of Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro regained independence after 500 years.
The assassination in Sarajevo of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire by a nationalist Serb determined the explosion of World War I that ended in 1918 with the reunion of the South Slavic territories under the name of Kingdom of Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. Bosnia and Herzegovina was not to reappear until the end of World War II.
Marshal Josip Broz Tito emerged as the real leader of the newly constituted state of Yugoslavia that he organised in a federal system: Bosnia Herzegovina saw its pre-1918 borders restored within the Federation.

The end of Yugoslavia
Official talks of a “national question” in the Yugoslav academic circles were among the first signs of a general resurgence of nationalist movements in the mid-Eighties. While on the Serb side the newly appointed leader Milosevic put forward requests for further sharing of the economic burden by the northern republics of Slovenia and Croatia, the latters' nationalist elites took the first moves that would lead to the disintegration of Yugoslavia.
Slovenia declared and obtained independence virtually with no fighting, while the same declarations issued by Croatia and mostly Bosnia and Herzegovina dragged the remains of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in a four years lasting war.
Bosnia and Herzegovina declaration of sovereignty (October 1991) was followed by a declaration of independence in 1992, based on a referendum largely boycotted by Bosnian Serbs. Ethnic Serbs responded in fact with armed resistance supported by the Yugoslav National Army (JNA), in the attempt to divide the country into two different states differentiating each other on ethnic lines.
Conflict came to an end on December 1995 when the General Framework Agreement for Peace (GFAP – Dayton Agreement) was signed by the representatives of the three warring parties (Izetbegovic for Bosnia, Tudjman for Croatia and Milosevic for Serbia).

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