History History

Homo sapiens settled definitively in Greece and Bulgaria around 50,000 years ago, then spread to the rest of Europe via the Danube and the Mediterranean. The settlement of Bosnia-Herzegovina thus began around 30,000 BC with tribes settling both in the north on the Save (Danube basin) and in the south (near the Adriatic). Among the oldest sites are Kadar Hill along the Sava River and Velika Gradina (on Lake Prozor-Rama) in Herzegovina, where one of the world's earliest metalworking workshops was found. Herzegovina is also home to one of the oldest human monuments in the Balkans: the cave of Badanj, near Stolac. It is decorated with a mural engraving made about 14 000 years ago.

Bosnia-Herzegovina abounds in sites from this period which are, unfortunately, not highlighted but which fascinate archaeologists. The Neolithic revolution (agriculture, sedentarization) arrives in Bosnia-Herzegovina around 7000 BC. The territory is then dominated by two societies: the culture of Starčevo, originating from the Danube, and the impresso-cardial, originating from the Adriatic (and which will spread in the south of France). From the meeting of these two societies is born the culture of Kakanj (6200-4900 BC) with six sites in central Bosnia that have delivered beautiful monochrome ceramics in various forms that can be seen at the National Museum in Sarajevo. At the same time, in the region of Tuzla (Eastern Bosnia), the exploitation of one of the oldest salt mines in Europe began, at Donja Tuzla, around 5300 B.C. But it is above all the Butmir culture (5100-4500 B.C.) that experienced the strongest development, with 35 sites around Sarajevo and in Central Bosnia, notably those of Butmir (Ilidža) and Okolište (Visoko). This society is distinguished by its refinement, producing ceramics whose decoration has a disturbing resemblance to the Minoan art found in Crete three thousand years later. Then emerge new cultures covering mainly the south of the country and Dalmatia (Croatia): the culture of Danilo (4700-3900 BC) and the culture of Hvar-Lisičići (3500-2500 BC).

The third millennium B.C. was marked by the arrival of Indo-European peoples, among them the Illyrians who colonized the entire Adriatic coast. On the Bosnian territory, they mixed with the local tribes and the Celts. From the ^seventh century, they established relations with the Greeks and organized themselves into small kingdoms. The southern half of the country was then occupied by seven Illyrian peoples. The Hellenized tribe of Daorses is the only one to have left important vestiges: the cyclopean walls of Daorson, their capital, near Stolac.

Romans and Illyrians established contacts from the ^4th century B.C. But relations became strained in the following century, when the Ardians of the Neretva turned into pirates of the Adriatic. Equipped with a powerful fleet, they disrupted trade and seized territories as far as Greece. Rome retaliated by launching the Illyrian Wars (229-127 BC). This series of three conflicts takes place mainly in the current Albania and ends with the annihilation of the Ardians. The Bosnian territory passes little by little under control of Rome and, in 32 BC, it is integrated into the province of Dalmatie. But from the year 6 of our era begins a revolt directed by two tribal leaders of Bosnia: Baton the Dæsitiate and Baton the Breuce. This "war of the Batons"(Bellum Batonianum) is short and little known. It is however one of the most important conflicts led by Rome which mobilizes up to fifteen legions facing a million Illyrian and Pannonian warriors. After several defeats in Croatia and Serbia, the troops of Emperor Tiberius sacked Bosnia-Herzegovina to starve the insurgents and obtained their surrender in the year 9. The return to peace, however, resulted in little development. If the Romans created the mining city of Argentina (Srebrenica) and some garrison towns, they did not build any major infrastructure (paved road, theater...). The only notable remains are those of the colony of Aquae Sulphurae, in Ilidža, and the villa rustica of Mogorjelo, near Čapljina. The Roman presence, however, leads to an early arrival of Christianity, as early as the end of the ^first century.

In 395, faced with the invasions that threatened the Roman Empire, it was divided in two: in the west, the Western Roman Empire was led by Rome; in the east, the Eastern Roman Empire, known as Byzantine, had Constantinople as its capital. Although the Bosnian territory was theoretically under the control of the Western Empire, the latter proved incapable of repelling the Visigoths who swept through the country (375), followed by the Huns (422-452). After the fall of Rome (476), the territory was ravaged by the Ostrogoths (478-480), then welcomed the first Slavic peoples, including the Croats (around 520). In 535, the Byzantine general Belisarius managed to take back the southern part, which he placed under the jurisdiction of the diocese of Ravenna (Italy). This explains why Herzegovina and the Tropojle became lands of Latin and Catholic influence. But the northern part came under the control of the Lombards and Avars in 567. The Byzantine emperor Heraclius managed to re-establish his authority there. In 610, he invited other Slavic peoples, including the Serbs, to settle there in order to counter a new Avar invasion. This strategy turned against him: in 626, the Avars and the Slavs besieged Constantinople and nearly brought down the Empire. The Byzantine Church succeeded in re-Christianizing the Serbs, who remained attached to Orthodoxy. But they were organized into principalities that were unable to unite. So much so that Bosnia was invaded by the Carolingian Empire (around 810), the Bulgarian Empire (870), the Kingdom of Croatia (960), and then again by the Bulgars (997). When the Byzantine emperor Basil II managed to reconquer the Balkans in 1018, his expansion was stopped by the kingdom of Hungary, which had occupied the western part of present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina since the year 1000.

The term "Bosnia" appeared in the ^9th century. The idea of an independent Bosnian state emerged two centuries later. The territory was then disputed between the Byzantine Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. However, due to the difficult terrain, these great powers only had limited authority. Thus, in 1154, Hungary granted quasi-independence to Bosnia led by a Croatian nobleman, Ban Borić. When the Byzantines took over in 1166, Banat was entrusted to another Croatian nobleman, ban Kulin. This one becomes emancipated and takes the decision to welcome in Bosnia the Christian revolutionary movement of the Bogomils, driven out of the rest of the Balkans for "heresy". This provoked the anger of the Christian sovereigns, but Kulin managed to avoid war until his death in 1204. However, in 1238-1241 the Bosnian Crusade took place. Ordered by the pope and led by the Hungarians, it led to massacres in central Bosnia. In reaction, the Banat broke with Rome. In 1252, the Bosnian Church was founded. This schism and the adoption of the Bosnian Cyrillic alphabet in the ^thirteenth century reflect the desire for emancipation that animated the Bosnian Banat.

Since 1267, the Bosnian bans have been vassals of the Kingdom of Hungary. But in 1366, the ban Tvrtko Kotromanić refused to swear allegiance. He took advantage of a succession dispute in Hungary to be crowned king of Bosnia on 26 October 1377 in Visoko. Tvrtko ^I not only gave independence to his country, but also offered him new territories. While the kingdom was limited to central Bosnia, he annexed Herzegovina, eastern Bosnia and a portion of Montenegro. In 1390, he extended his territory to a part of the Dalmatian coast. This extension was little contested: the neighboring states were weakened by the lightning advance of the Ottomans in the Balkans. At his death in 1391, in the royal fortress of Bobovac, Tvrtko left a rich country, thanks to the silver mines of Fojnica and Srebrenica, and united, despite the three religions that coexisted (Orthodoxy, Catholicism and the Church of Bosnia). But his thirteen successors will get lost in a series of internal conflicts. In 1388, the Ottomans launched the first raids against the kingdom, then gradually nibbled away at the territory without meeting any real resistance. In May 1463, after the surrender of the city of Jajce, Stjepan Tomašević, the last king of Bosnia, was beheaded.

The Ottomans seized Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1463. But as early as 1464, the Hungarian king Matthias Corvin took Jajce and founded Bosnian principalities that held until the 1530's. As for Bihać, it fell only in 1592, defended by Croatia, vassal of the Habsburgs of Austria. The latter even managed to control Bosnia for a time (1718-1739). However, the Ottomans put an end to the feudal system and organized the province into two regions: the sanjak of Bosnia and that of Herzegovina, which were entrusted to a local elite. This period was also marked by urban development with the creation of Sarajevo (1461) and the generalization of the sharia model, a commercial and religious complex installed in the heart of the cities, such as Baščaršija, in Sarajevo, and the district of the Old Bridge, in Mostar. The other striking fact is Islamization. About one-third of the population was converted, mainly to avoid haraç (a tax owed by non-Muslims) and devşirme (the raising of Christian children for the Ottoman army and administration). Out of pragmatism, the Ottomans granted a large degree of autonomy to other religions. In 1541, they welcomed in Sarajevo Jews expelled from Spain, who were often skilled craftsmen and merchants. They also relied on the Orthodox clergy to collect the harac. But this system gave rise to inequalities between Muslims (urban elite, landowners) and Christians (peasantry), but also among Christians, since Catholics were at a disadvantage compared to the Orthodox. The three major communities of the country were then established: the Serbs (Orthodox), the Bosnians (Muslim) and the Croats (Catholic). In the ^19th century, the Empire experienced a serious crisis. Unable to modernize, it aroused the anger of the population. The Bosnian landowners revolted in 1831-1832. At the same time, Greece became the first nation in the Ottoman Balkans to gain independence, giving rise to a rise in national sentiment among other Christian peoples. This led to the outbreak of the Great Eastern Crisis (1875-1878) with the Serbian uprising in Bosnia and Herzegovina and a series of wars in the peninsula. Cornered by the great powers, the Ottoman Empire had to sign the Treaty of Berlin (July 13, 1878) which recognized the sovereignty of Serbia, Romania and Montenegro. This treaty also entrusted the fate of Bosnia-Herzegovina to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Until 1908, Bosnia-Herzegovina remained officially Ottoman. But it was the Austro-Hungarians who governed the province from 1878. They launched a modernization program with the construction of railroads, sewage systems and public buildings, such as the Vijecnica in Sarajevo (1896), which adopted a neo-Moorish style that was supposed to blend into an urban landscape dominated by Islamic architecture. Everything was done to ensure continuity with the Ottomans and, above all, to promote a Bosnian identity: three religions, certainly, but one people. This includes equal political representation of the three major communities. If the Bosnians (37% of the population) adhere globally, the Croats (18%) feel disappointed by this Catholic empire that does not favor them more. As for the Serbs (43 per cent), they were all the more hostile to the Austro-Hungarians because they had stormy relations with the Kingdom of Serbia. Thus, it was the Serbian secret services that organized the assassination of the heir to the Habsburg throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. This event was the spark that ignited the First World War. The conflict led to the death of 10% of Bosnians and the disappearance of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In 1918, Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of Yugoslavia, initially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The Serbs, who had been the European people most damaged by the First World War (20% dead), ruled this constitutional monarchy with an iron fist, headed by a Serbian king. Muslims (Bosnians, Albanians, etc.), who represented 30% of the Yugoslav population, were relegated to the background. Deep agrarian reforms aroused discontent in Croatia and among Bosnian landowners. In 1929, the kingdom became a quasi-absolute monarchy, changed its name to become the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and a new administrative division made Bosnia-Herzegovina disappear. It was split into four entities: the Drina banovina (central Bosnia, eastern Bosnia, western Serbia), the Vrbas banovina (Bosnian Krajina), the Littoral banovina (Tropolje, western Herzegovina, north-western Dalmatian coast) and the Zeta banovina (eastern Herzegovina, Montenegro, central Serbia, south-eastern Dalmatian coast). While the regime hunted down communist and independence activists, illiteracy affected 80% of Bosnians. Anger grew, particularly among Croats. King Alexander ^I was assassinated on his arrival in Marseilles on 9 October 1934 by a Macedonian manipulated by the Croatian extreme right. A regency that was more and more pro-Nazi came to power.

Although Yugoslavia remained neutral at the beginning of the conflict, the coup d'état that overthrew the pronazi regime on March 27, 1941, led to the invasion of the kingdom by Germany in eleven days (April 1941). Bosnia-Herzegovina found itself occupied by the new independent state of Croatia, a pronazi state that persecuted Serbs, Jews and Roma. In August 1941, the Jasenovac-Donja Gradina concentration camp was established, where approximately 100,000 people died. Massacres also took place in towns and villages, carried out by German and Croatian soldiers, Ustasha (Croatian nationalists), and Bosnian auxiliaries. The position of the Bosnians, however, needs to be qualified. Presented by Croatian propaganda as "Aryans" or "Muslim Croats," several thousand of them enlisted in the SS Handschar division in 1943. But as early as 1941, a hundred Bosnian imams condemned the persecution of the Serbs. Many Muslims also came to the aid of the victims, even saving the Sarajevo Haggadah, a precious medieval book of the Jewish community. Above all, the Bosnians massively committed themselves to the side of the Serbs within the communist resistance led by Josip Broz, known as Tito (1892-1980). Bosnia-Herzegovina became the main theater of Yugoslav operations. The impressive monument of the battle of Sutjeska reminds us of the great confrontations that took place here from 1942. In the south of the country, where Tito had his headquarters, the partisans even had a train line connecting Bihać and an air base in Glamoč. Thus, Yugoslavia managed, almost without outside help, to liberate itself in May 1945. However, the final fighting was fratricidal, as the second resistance movement, the Chetniks (Serbian nationalists), allied with the Germans against Tito's troops. Of the 14.5 million inhabitants of Yugoslavia in 1939, one million died, one third of them in Bosnia-Herzegovina (about 170,000 Serbs, 75,000 Bosnians, 65,000 Croats, 10,000 Jews, 5,000 Roma and 4,000 members of minorities).

At the end of the war, Bosnia-Herzegovina became part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia led by Tito. It benefited from a large degree of autonomy in the same way as the other five socialist republics (Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro and Macedonia). If the Serbs were once again the main victims of the war, Tito intended not to repeat the mistakes of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and silenced nationalism. The Ustasha, Chetniks and "Muslim nationalists" (Bosnians and Albanians) were condemned, as were the Stalinists after the break with the USSR in 1948. Yugoslavia then opted for the collectivist model, moved closer to the Western bloc and guaranteed most individual freedoms. Religions were tolerated, but supervised, especially the Croatian Catholic clergy, which had collaborated extensively with the independent state of Croatia. Bosnians were granted "Muslim nationality," which guaranteed them the same rights as Serbs and Croats. The poorest republic in 1945, Bosnia-Herzegovina benefited from the tremendous Yugoslav economic boom: 10% growth per year from 1950 to 1965. Mostar, Konjic and Bugojno were the focus of arms factories, of which little remains today. But one can still visit Tito's bunker in Konjic and the huge underground air base in Željava, near Bihać. The country also built roads, hospitals, universities, cultural centers and large residential areas such as Novo Sarajevo and Mostar-West in the 1960s-1970s.

After Tito's death in 1980, Yugoslavia was in the grip of a serious financial crisis and nationalism resurfaced. The first troubles appeared in the Serbian province of Kosovo in 1981: the Albanians, who were in the majority, demanded the status of a republic. This encouraged the rise of Serbian nationalists in Belgrade, who also interfered in the affairs of Bosnia-Herzegovina. In 1983, they obtained the holding of a major trial in Sarajevo where fourteen Bosnian intellectuals were convicted, including the jurist Alija Izetbegović (1925-2003), author of an "Islamist" pamphlet. The following year, in February 1984, Sarajevo hosted the Winter Olympics. This will be the last symbol of unity of Yugoslavia. For everywhere, nationalists seize power, such as Franjo Tuđman (1922-1999) in Croatia and Slobodan Milošević (1941-2006) in Serbia. In 1990, after six years in prison, Izetbegović, for his part, became the president of Bosnia and Herzegovina and prepared for the termination of Yugoslavia. He is preceded by Croatia and Slovenia, which declare their independence in June 1991, causing the intervention of the Yugoslav army controlled by the Serbs. This is the beginning of the Yugoslav wars (1991-2001). In Slovenia, the first conflict was short (June 26-July 7, 1991), not very deadly (63 dead) and ended with the recognition of the independence of the country by Yugoslavia. But in Croatia, the Serbian inhabitants demanded the secession of certain regions. The war lasted four years (August 17, 1991-November 12, 1995), killed more than 22,000 people and spilled over into Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The deadliest European conflict since World War II began with the proclamation of independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina on April 6, 1992. On the same day, the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić (born in 1945) announced the creation of a Bosnian Serb Republic and ordered the bombing of the Bosnian capital. Already trained and equipped thanks to the capture of arms depots, his army of 80,000 soldiers began the day before to surround Sarajevo with the support of the Yugoslav army in order to force President Izetbegović to renounce independence. The longest siege in modern history will last three years, eight months and nine days, resulting in the death of over 8,000 people. On the other side, the Bosnian national army (mostly composed of Bosnians) had about 90,000 volunteers. But it was poorly equipped and trained. President Izetbegović thus had to resort to entrusting commands to convicts and unreliable gang leaders. Despite the deployment of 39,000 peacekeepers from the United Nations Protection Force (Forpronu) from June 1992, the conflict quickly spread to the rest of the country. Russia, allied with Serbia, did everything it could to limit the mandate of the peacekeepers in the Security Council.

The war changed dimension on 18 October 1992. First of all, the UN obtained that the Yugoslav army withdraw. But it left behind a large number of its officers and equipment to the Bosnian Serb army. The same day another conflict within the country began: the Croatian-Bosnian war. A Bosnian-Croat army of about 40,000 soldiers was formed and went into action in the south with the support of the Croatian army. A secret agreement has indeed just been reached between Presidents Milošević (Serbia) and Tuđman (Croatia) to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina between them. On the ground, the Bosnian-Serb and Bosnian-Croat forces practice "ethnic cleansing", driving out the inhabitants who are not of their community, mainly Bosniaks, causing in the process almost systematic rapes and sometimes killings. The Bosnian-Serbs thus took control of more than half the country. However, they were driven out of certain towns such as Livno and Stolac. In Mostar, the Bosnian-Croats first allied themselves with the Bosnian army against the Bosnian-Serbs, then turned against the Bosnian army. But the latter resisted. The siege resulted in the death of 2,000 people and significant destruction, including the famous Old Bridge in November 1993.

From January 1994, the Bosnian army managed to gain the upper hand against the Bosnian-Serbs and Bosnian-Croats. The latter then agreed to sign the Washington Agreement on 18 March 1994, which put an end to the Bosnian-Croat war. From then on, the former enemies joined forces (about 250,000 soldiers) against the army of the Bosnian Serb Republic (less than 100,000 fighters). In the months that followed, the latter had to retreat and committed more and more atrocities, notably the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995, in which more than 8,300 Bosnians were killed. It is also increasingly attacking the peacekeepers. Despite their limited mandate, they began to retaliate. This was the case on May 27, 1995, when French peacekeepers retook the Vrbanja bridge in Sarajevo during a bayonet assault. But the event that marked international opinion was the bombing of the Markale market in Sarajevo on August 28, 1995, which killed 37 people. The Nato member states reacted and launched a vast aerial bombing operation from 30 August to 20 September 1995 against the Bosnian-Serb army. This favored the Bosnian and Bosnian-Croat armies, which seized towns that had been occupied for three years, such as Sanski Most, Kupres, Jajce, Zavidovići and Mrkonjić Grad, where one of the rare massacres of Bosnian-Serbs took place (181 dead in October 1995). But their advance was stopped short by the Dayton Agreement.

The Dayton Accords, signed in Paris on December 14, 1995, ended the war after 34 days of negotiations at an American military base near Dayton, Ohio. The leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia and Croatia co-signed the document, as did representatives of the Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats. If, after three years of refusal, Milosević and Karadžić accept peace, it is because, on the ground, the Bosnian-Serb troops are about to collapse. While they recognized the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the semi-independent entity of the Bosnian Serb Republic was also formalized. As French and American negotiators would later say, the Dayton Accords were a victory for the Serbian side. These same agreements also defined the institutions of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which were among the most complex in the world. Finally, they provided for the deployment of a contingent of 55,000 Nato peacekeepers: IFOR (Implantation Force), which has now been replaced by the European Union force Althea (1,600 soldiers). In total, the Bosnian war caused the death or disappearance of approximately 101,000 Bosnians: 62,100 Bosnians (including 31,600 civilians), 25,300 Bosnian-Serbs (including 4,200 civilians), 8,500 Bosnian-Croats (including 2,500 civilians), and 5,100 unidentified persons (bodies continue to be discovered each year). In addition, about 2 million people were displaced, almost half of them abroad. The country's population was 4.4 million in 1991, compared to 3.5 million in 1996.

Year after year, the country still follows the trials of those responsible for crimes committed during the Bosnian war. Between 1996 and 2021, 89 Bosnians have been convicted by international justice (the Hague Court in the Netherlands) or by the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina of genocide and/or crimes against humanity and/or war crimes and/or grave breaches of the Geneva Convention. The two highest ranking officials, Radovan Karadžić (President of the Bosnian Serb Republic from 1992 to 1996) and Ratko Mladić (Bosnian Serb army commander), meanwhile, were sentenced to life imprisonment, one in 2019, the other in 2021. However, the majority of Bosnian-Serbs who committed massacres, including the one in Srebrenica, have not been prosecuted. Finally, some of those indicted died before their verdict. This is the case of Serbian President Slobodan Milošević, who died in The Hague after a five-year trial in 2006.

The Dayton Accords that ended the war not only divided the country, but also caused an economic crisis. Under the influence of the United States, Bosnia and Herzegovina moved from collectivism to a liberal model. While a minority of the population became richer in often troubled conditions, many businesses closed, causing the unemployment rate to soar (31% in 2006). Faced with this situation, the blockage of institutions and widespread corruption, in February-March 2014, the major industrial cities of Tuzla and Sarajevo were shaken by large spontaneous demonstrations. This movement, called the "Bosnian Spring," unfortunately did not lead to any major reforms. It even led to an autocratic and independence-oriented drift by the Bosnian Serb nationalist elite in the Bosnian Serb Republic. While the country is still plagued by unemployment (37 per cent of the youth are unemployed) and a strong demographic decline, the only prospect seems to be the European Union. The EU is already the main economic and political supporter of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2022, it also granted the country "official candidate" status. There is still a long way to go to become a member of the EU, but this finally brings a real glimmer of hope to the inhabitants.