Bosnia Herzegovin A Rough History

Nationalism was strong during the 19th century. The Slavic peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovinia no longer wanted to be a part of the Austria Hungary nation, but a part of Serbia. All the

After the First World War country was united with other Slav territories to form Yugoslavia. At the time, the population of Bosnia consisted of over 1,300,000 Serbs which were Orthodox Catholic Christians, million Muslim Bosnians and around 700,000 of Croats. They all were strong attached to this land by the historical and local claims. After the death of Josip Broz Tito, elections in 1990 brought nationalists to power in Slovenia, Macedonia and Croatia, which declared independence in 1991 and were recognised internationally. The Leader of Bosnia’s, Alija Izetbegovic called for independence too, and the country was recognised as independent by the USA and the EU in 1992. However, Bosnia’s Serbs weren’t happy because they wanted to be part of “Greater Serbia”. a Serbian named Slobodan Milosevic, a former Communist responded to Bosnian’s declaration of independence by attacking and bombarding the capital city, Sarajevo. Serbs shot down civilians in the streets, including over 3,500 children.

One of the youngest nations of Europe, Yugoslavia was created after World War I as a homeland for several different rival ethnic groups. The country was put together mostly from remnants of the collapsed Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. Demands for self-determination by Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, and others were ignored. Yugoslavia thus became an uneasy association of peoples conditioned by centuries of ethnic and religious hatreds. World War II aggravated these rivalries, but Communist dictatorship after the war controlled them for 45 years. When the Communist system failed, the old rivalries reasserted themselves; and in the early 1990s the nation was rent by secessionist movements and civil war. Within several years these conflicts

Also, during this time “Ethnic Fault Lines” were created resulting in stronger violence along these areas. Reference the attached map of Yugoslavia in the Cited Sources section to view the map of ethnic majorities within the Yugoslavian region. This is a perfect example of how all the ethnicities were spread out across the region and not simply contained to one area allowing for the violent ethnic fault lines. Along with the historical perspective of ethnic tensions causing nationalism in Yugoslavia, new evidence from historians have shown that the Bosnian Civil War was not a one-time deal in the area. This had been considered a very active region, in the case of violence, during the 20th century making some historians to think that this conflict was bound to happen as it had occurred various other times in the past. Historically, another reason for the ethnic tensions occurred due to the fall of Communism. Although this is somewhat indirect, different ethnicities side with different governmental views causing deeper tensions to rise after the vacuum of the major world power in the Eastern Europe region. As stated earlier, Slobodan Milosevic believed he could push his agenda without any international policing of his actions due to the recent fall of communism and power vacuum. On this note, governmental influences are also another way that nationalism caused the Bosnian Civil War.

On April 6,1992 the Bosnian War began,leading to the breakup of Yugoslavia. Serbian forces invaded Bosnia,throwing many people out of their homes and displacing them throughout the country. The actions of the soldiers traumatized the people of Bosnia in numerous ways, causing peril throughout the country.

In the year 1914, two gunshots had forever changed history. In this time, the countries of Europe had begun to rival in the topic of a greater territory. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had just won over Bosnia, causing considerable disagreement with the Bosnians (Nelson, 2015). Some Bosnian nationalists believed that Bosnia should be its own country, and not under the power of Austria-Hungary. Serbia also wanted the country of Bosnia under their rule due to the great population of Serbians living in Bosnia at the time. For this reason, Austria-Hungary disliked Serbia (Clare, 2002/2014). During this same time period, many other European countries wanted more land and began forming alliances. Serbia had allied with Russia, while Austria-Hungary was formed in alliance with Germany (Nelson, 2015). Despite all the conflict over land and the tension

The major domestic challenges to the new independent states were the deterioration of housing markets and balance sheets. Yugoslavia was formally a national state; prior to its collapse the Yugoslavian nation consisted of Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Yugoslavia broke apart and slide into civil war because of economic collapse, the deterioration of the culture, and the split of the nation’s religions. The West responded by recognizing the independence of different regions after Yugoslavia’s collapse. They also used NATO to stop invasions of these countries by their

Bosnia-Herzegovina was made up of three main ethnic groups, Bosniak Muslim, Serb, and Croat (Bosnia-Herzegovina). Before Bosnia declared independence from Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia had a history of political, economic, and cultural conflict. Towards the end of World War II, Tito, a communist, ran Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia’s government fell apart and each nation had its own self-rule to be apart of the

In the early nineteen hundreds relation between Bosnia and Austria-Hungary where high and tense. Bosnia was part of Austria-Hungary but many Serbs in Sarajevo (the capital of Bosnia) believed that they should be ruled by Bosnia. On top of that the serbs in Sarajevo wanted Bosnia to become their own country and separate from Austria-Hungary.

INTRO Serbia was consumed by nationalism, two major wars within the span of ten years destroying their economy and causing tensions to rise. Austria- Hungary’s annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina had played a primary role in sparking the Bosnian Crisis less than a decade before, leading both countries to develop a fundamental distrust for the other, their relations becoming permanently strained. In 1914, the seemingly inevitable occurred- war broke out in the Balkans, prompted by the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, archduke and heir to the throne of Austria- Hungary. Gavrilo Princip, the assassin, was a known member of the terrorist group the Black Hands, a radical nationalistic Serbian group who sought independence for

President Josip Broz Tito always tried to keep everything in peace. He always wanted to keep “Brotherhood and Unity”. When he died in 1980, Serbia and Croatia started a conflict. The UN tried stopping wars in Yugoslavia with a peace treaty, but Serbia always thought that they were the strongest and didn’t accept the peace treaty. Serbia was always trying to take over land from Bosnia & Herzegovina. Macedonia on the other hand was the only part of Yugoslavia that achieves its independence without war.

Furthermore, these wars cannot be fully understood without a basic knowledge of the former Yugoslavia. Formally known as the Soviet Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, it was a federation that was comprised of six socialist republics: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. Additionally, two autonomous provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, were established in Serbia. Many different ethnic groups called Yugoslavia home, namely the Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bosniaks, Albanians, and Montenegrins. However, the presence of large ethnic minorities across republic lines made things complicated, especially with the advent of rising nationalism among these different peoples. The borders of the republics had originally been of little significance; Josip Tito, the beloved leader of the Communist Party in Yugoslavia, decided the borders with little opposition from anyone, as the federation was supposed to be a centralized “dictatorship of the proletariat”. Only with later decentralization and democratization would any concern for the individual republics and nationalities be voiced and nationalism become an issue. Tito’s death in 1980 seemed to suddenly remind all the Yugoslav peoples that they had in fact retained their separate ethnic identities and that the ethnic identity of Tito’s successor would certainly affect them, whether positively or negatively, and inter-republic relations began deteriorating quickly. Tito and his communist

The history of Bosnia was full of violence, anger and war. Bosnia was once the epicenter of former Yugoslavia. The state of Bosnia dates back to the Second Century and was quite different from current Bosnia. Second Century Bosnia consisted of Latin speaking settlers from Roman Empire and they were also Christians. (History of Bosnia and Herzegovina). The first ruler of Bosnia, in the high middle ages, was Ban Boric. The second ruler was Ban Kulin and he ruled in the late 1100’s. Ban Kulin was a well respected leader who ruled for three decades by keeping the peace and stability within the state. He was able to strengthen the economy by signing treaties with Venice and Dubrovnik. (History of Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Kosovo used to be part of Yugoslavia, but it was an autonomous province within Serbian borders. It had its own governing body, which could make its own decisions, but there was still tension between the Serbs and ethnic Albanians. After the break up of Yugoslavia, Albanians of Kosovo wanted independence, but Slobodan Milošević took away their autonomy, which led Albanian separatists to declare Kosovo independent, but it was not officially recognized (Chronology of Events

As one of the most troubled region of the Balkans in Central Europe, the Balkans were affected by strife and hostility. The problems in the Balkans not only affected the people living in this region, but also other large European powers that fueled many of the major conflicts and events of Europe at the time. The First Balkan War and its profound effects on European history will be discussed, while also exploring the future conflicts in both the Balkans and the rest of Europe.