A Brief History of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country with one of the richest history in the world. It was called Illyricum in ancient times when the Illyres or Illyrians (warlike Indo-European tribes) replaced the Neolithic population. Celtic migrated to the country and disposes some Illyrians and mixed with the natives in the 4th and 3rd centuries. Romans conquered the country in the late 2nd and 1st centuries B.C. Christianity entered the region in the end of the 1st century. The region of Dalmatia and Pannonia were included in the Western Roman Empire when the Roman Empire splits. The Ostrogoths conquered the region in 455 and embraced other tribes like the Alans and Huns. Emperor Justinian and the Byzantine Empire conquered the land in the late 6th century. Then Slavs invaded the Eastern Roman Empire in the 6th and 7th centuries settling it now as Bosnia and Herzegovina and the surrounding lands.

The first notable Bosnian ruler was Ban Kulin that strengthened the country’s economy over nearly 3 decades and maintained peace and stability through out the country. The Ottoman Empire conquest of Europe in the first half of the 15th century posed a major threat to the Balkans. Bosnia fell in the year 1463 followed by Herzegovina in the year 1482. It marked a new era in the country that introduced another cultural, political, and religious framework.

Austria-Hungary was given the mandate to occupy and govern Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 after the nearby countries fought, which aided by the Russians, the Ottoman Empire. The country was officially one of the 6 constituent republics that were established at the end of the war. The establishment was the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes that later changed to Yugoslavia. When the Germany occupied Yugoslavia in the World War II, Bosnia and Herzegovina were made part of Nazi-controlled Croatia. Bosnia and Herzegovina declared there independence from Yugoslavia in Dec. 1991.