Eastern and Central Europe (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

510 SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE

kingdom under King Tvrtko in 1377.

Following Tvrtko’s death in 1391, the

country was absorbed into the

expanding Ottoman Empire. When the

Austro-Hungarians took over from the

Ottomans in 1908, they sought to unite

the country’s ethnic and religious

groups as loyal Habsburg subjects.

However, this attempt at homogeneity

was resisted by nationalists seeking

independence from Austria, and led

the radical Bosnian Serb Gavrilo

Princip to assassinate the Austro-

Hungarian heir Franz Ferdinand and

his wife in Sarajevo in 1914. It was

this event that triggered World War I.

Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the

newly formed Kingdom of Serbs,

Croats and Slovenes in 1918. During

World War II, the Nazis established a

puppet state in Croatia which grew to

include Bosnia and Herzegovina. After

the war, the country was reintegrated

into Yugoslavia, and enjoyed a

relatively peaceful and prosperous

period. As the Yugoslav regime slowly

collapsed throughout 1990–91, Bosnia

and Herzegovina voted for

independence, but despite inter-

national recognition it soon fell prey to

inter-ethnic violence. The republic’s

largest ethnic group, the Bosnian

Muslims, were challenged by ethnic

Serbs and Croats who did not want to

become part of an independent

Bosnian state. The Bosnian Croats

claimed an area of the country for

themselves, while the Bosnian Serbs

created Republika Srpska (the Serb

Republic) within the borders of Bosnia

and Herzegovina. The army of the

Republika Srpska, and, to a lesser

extent, the Croatian army, carried out

ethnic cleansing in the form of mass

exterminations and deportations.

In 1995, the Dayton Agreement

brought an end to the conflict.

Since then, thousands of EU soldiers

have maintained the peace, but

despite sharing a common gov-

ernment, Bosnia’s ethnic groups still

cooperate poorly.

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

There are three official languages

spoken in Bosnia and Herzegovina:

Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian –

German is a common second

language. With a multi-ethnic compo-

sition, the country’s cultural heritage is

truly diverse. Orthodox Christianity

and Islam have combined with Austro-

Hungarian and Catholic traditions to

create a unique culture.

Depiction of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand

KEY DATES IN THE HISTORY OF

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

AD 445 The region is conquered by Ostrogoths

1189 Signing of the Kulin Ban Charter trade

agreement between Bosnia and Dubrovnik

1377 Bosnia becomes a kingdom under

King Tvrtko I

1463 The Ottomans conquer Bosnia and

Herzegovina

1908 Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia

and Herzegovina

1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated,

sparking World War I

1918 Bosnia and Herzegovina becomes part of

the kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

1945 Bosnia and Herzegovina becomes part of

a new federal Yugoslavia

1990 Collapse of Yugoslav regime

1992 Bosnia and Herzegovina is recognized as

an independent country

1995 Dayton peace accord signed by Croatia,

Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina

2006 Constitutional amendment for EU

integration rejected in Parliament