Language: Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian
Currency: Convertible Mark (BAM)
Calling Code: 387
Bosnia and Herzegovina, commonly called
Bosnia-Herzegovina, or simply Bosnia, is a European sovereign
country, with capital in Sarajevo, located at the confluence of
central and south-eastern Europe, and bordering Croatia, north, west
and south ; with Serbia to the east; with Montenegro to the east and
south, and with the Adriatic Sea (only 30 kilometers).
In
1992 the former Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina gained
its independence as Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as one of
the six constituent federal units of the former Yugoslavia that
emerged at the end of the First World War, and after the Bosnian War
was constituted as federal republic under the terms of the Dayton
Agreements (1995), which provided for its administration supervised
by a high representative elected by the Council of the European
Union. Its structure is decentralized and divided into two entities:
the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska.
At the moment, there is no expected date for the end of the European
protectorate over Bosnia and Herzegovina and the recovery of its
full sovereignty. It should be noted that Bosnia and Herzegovina is
the only country in Europe that is a member of the G-77, a group of
77 plus China.
Sarajevo |
Geography of Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina is a country in the Southern Eastern Europe located on the Balkan Peninsula. It is a former republic of Yugoslavia gaining its independence in the 90's after a Civil War. It consists of autonomous administrative units of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and Brcko District. It borders Croatia in the North and West, Serbia in the East and in the South East with Montenegro. It also has a small outlet to the Adriatic Sea. Bosnia occupies northern part of the country along the valley of the Sava River, Herzegovina in the South in the basin of the Neretva River. Srpska Republic lies in the North East, adjacent to Serbia. Safety while you travel in Bosnia and HerzegovinaIt is not recommended to make any comments about the recent Balkan War that resulted in break up of Yugoslavia. The memories is still very alive in the region and opinions very greatly on its outcomes and causes. Emergency NumbersOne emergency service 112 Ambulance 124 Fire 123 Police 122
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Political System of Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina is a republic. The head of the state is the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina that consists of three members of the constituent peoples. The term for the office in the Presidium is 4 years. Legislative body is Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It consists of two chambers: the House of Peoples and the House of Representatives. The supreme executive body is the Council of Ministers. Language of Bosnia and HerzegovinaThe official languages Bosnia and Herzegovina are Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian Religion of Bosnia and HerzegovinaThe predominant religions in the region are Islam, Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. Photo and videoBe advised that making photos and videos is allowed only in the areas where there is no sign prohibiting this. It is generally forbidden to make pictures of transport infrastructure, energy facilities, port facilities and military sites. |
The oldest inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina
were Neanderthals who lived here in the Early Paleolithic. In the
Bronze Age, Illyrian tribes settled on the territory of Bosnia and
Herzegovina. In the IV century BC e. Celts came here, which in time
partially merged with the more numerous Illyrians. Since the 1st
century AD e. - under the rule of Ancient Rome: as part of the
provinces of Upper, Lower Pannonia and Dalmatia. Since the VI
century - as part of Byzantium. In the VI – VII centuries it was
inhabited by Serbs. Bosnia as a tribal reign is mentioned in the X
century.
According to the Byzantine emperor Konstantin
Bagryanorodny, Serbs appeared in the Balkans in the 1st half of the
7th century. They occupied the territories of modern Serbia,
Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of Croatia. After
resettlement on the Balkan Peninsula, the first territorial
associations of the Serbs, like most of the southern Slavs, had
zhups. The Illyrians were assimilated by the Slavs or migrated to
the mountainous regions, where they continued to live under the name
of the Vlachs. Some time after the resettlement to the Balkans, the
Serbs formed several large communities, which then became state
entities. Between the rivers Cetina and Neretva there was the
Principality of Neretva with the nearby islands, which the
Byzantines called Pagania. The area between Neretva and Dubrovnik
was called Zahumye. The lands from Dubrovnik to the Bay of Kotor
were occupied by Travunia and Konavle. Further south, to the Boyana
River, was Duklja, which later became known as Zeta. Between the
rivers Sava, Vrbas and Ibar there was Raska, and between the rivers
Drina and Bosna - Bosnia. After the death of the Serbian prince
Caslav Klonimirovich, Bosnia fell away from his state. In 1018, it
nominally came under the rule of Byzantium. At the beginning of the
XII century, part of Bosnia as a result of wars fell into Hungary.
The Hungarian king received the title ramae rex (king of Rama, that
is, Bosnia), since the state lay mainly in the valley of the Rama
river. The king of Hungary appointed his governors, the bans, to
rule Bosnia.
Bosnian state
Bosnia, which originally arose
in the basin of the Bosnia and Vrbas rivers, as an integrated state
formation appeared, probably, in the X-XI centuries. At the head of
this state was a ban. At the beginning of the XII century, the
Duklian state collapsed, and Bosnia gained independence. After the
Byzantine-Hungarian war in the 1160s, Bosnia fell under Byzantium
for 13 years, after which it returned to the rule of the Hungarian
kingdom as a vassal. The country was divided into regions called
zhups [en] *. The first known church organization in Bosnia at the
end of the 11th century was the Catholic Bishop Archbishopric.
At the end of the XII century, the first heretics appeared under
the bathhouse Kulin, who united in the Bosnian church. In 1234, to
fight the heresy at the call of the popes, devastating campaigns of
Hungarian feudal lords began, who dreamed of subjugating Bosnia.
Ancient Bosnian literature was closely associated with the Bosnian
church. Stepan Kotromanich significantly expanded the state to the
west and north, including Hum. Ban Stepan Tvrtko was married in 1377
in the Serbian monastery of Mileshev at the tomb of St. Sava as
"king of the Serbs, Bosnia, Pomerania and Western countries." After
the death of Stepan Tvrtko, the central authority weakened, the
Bosnian ruler strengthened, primarily of such clans as Horvatini,
Kosachi and Pavlovich. The last king of Bosnia, Stepan Tomashevich
(the last ruler of a medieval Serbian state in 1459), under the
threat of a Turkish invasion of Bosnia, turned to Rome and Venice
for help, and refused to pay a devastating tribute to the country to
the Sultan. In response to this, in 1463, Sultan Mehmed II with his
army invaded Bosnia. In the same year, Stepan Tomashevich was
executed near the city of Egg, the Bosnian state ceased to exist. In
1482 Herzegovina was completely conquered.
Turkish period
For the sake of saving their own property, Bosnian feudal lords were
forced to convert to Islam, which in the second half of the 16th
century completely supplanted Christianity in the upper strata of
the population. Feudal-dependent peasants were called paradise.
Fortresses with military garrisons operated in many cities in the
Balkans, and by the sixteenth century the ethnic composition of
large cities had changed dramatically, the main population of which
were the Turkish colonists and Turchens, who eventually lost touch
with the national culture. The Islamization of the urban population
guaranteed more favorable conditions for trade and crafts. Unlike
Herzegovina and Serbia, in Bosnia, peasants massively converted to
Islam. The city of Sarajevo became a major trade and craft center of
Bosnia, cities such as Foca, Banja Luka, Livno, Mostar grew. At the
same time, a number of old trade and craft centers fell into decay.
In 1580, the Bosnian Eylet was created.
In the first half of the XIX century, the Bosnian
feudal lords of the country opposed the reforms carried out by
Turkey. To weaken the Bosnian opposition, the Turkish government in
1833 separated Herzegovina from Bosnia. The power of Turkey was
established only in 1851. In the first half of the 19th century, a
national liberation movement developed in the Catholic clergy was
developed in the country. Its result was the Bosnian-Herzegovinian
uprising of 1875-1878. In 1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina gained
autonomy over the San Stefano Peace concluded between Russia and the
Ottoman Empire after the end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878.
Soon, however, according to the Berlin treaty of the same year,
Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina from July to October
1878.
XX century
In 1908, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia
and Herzegovina. Part of the society of Bosnia and Herzegovina hoped
for the liberation of the country from the power of Austria-Hungary
and the creation of a state led by Serbia. In 1913-1914, the Serbian
nationalist organization Mlada Bosna was formed. Among its
participants was Gavrilo Princip, who on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo,
committed the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife
Sofia, which led to the outbreak of the First World War.
On
October 29, 1918, during the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the
Croatian Sabor in Zagreb proclaimed the State of Slovenes, Croats
and Serbs, whose authorities immediately announced their cessation
of participation in the war. On December 1 of that year, the state
merged with the Serbian Kingdom and Montenegro into the Kingdom of
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1929, the Bosnian-Herzegovinian
constituencies in the state under the new name of the Kingdom of
Yugoslavia entered the Vrba, Drinsky, Zeta, and Primorsky bans.
After the German attack on Yugoslavia on April 10, 1941, the Ustashi
proclaimed the "Independent Croatian State", which included the
lands of Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the end of May 1945, Bosnia was
liberated from the German Ustash invaders. During the war, about 407
thousand inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina were killed, many
settlements were almost completely destroyed, including the cities
of Bosanska Krup, Klyuch, Glamoch, Visegrad, Bihach, Bosanski Brod
and others.
In 1945, the People’s Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina joined the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, and
since 1963, the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina as part
of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In the 1960s, the
ratio in the number of Orthodox and Muslims in favor of the latter
changed. In 1961, I. Tito granted Muslims the status of a nation
(now Bosniaks). During the years of the existence of socialist
Yugoslavia, the republic especially strictly observed the principle
of “brotherhood and unity” of peoples, appointing equal numbers of
representatives of three nationalities to positions in government
bodies and institutions. In 1984, in the midst of a deep economic
crisis that erupted after the death of I. Tito, the XIV Winter
Olympic Games were held in Sarajevo.
After a referendum and
declaration of independence in the spring of 1992, a Bosnian war
broke out that swept the whole country. Muslims fought against the
Serbs or Croats depending on the region, sometimes they fought
together with the Croats against the Serbs. The conflict ended with
NATO military intervention and the signing of the Dayton Accords on
December 14, 1995, which provided for the preservation of a single
state consisting of two parts: the Muslim-Croat Federation and the
Republika Srpska.