Bosnia - History
The area that is now called Bosnia has been ruled by many different
groups in the course of its history. In 1463, it was conquered by
the Ottoman, or Turkish, armies. Many Bosnians became Muslim at
this time.
The region remained part of the Ottoman empire until 1878, when
Austria-Hungary gained control. In June 1914, a young Serbian student
assassinated the Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo, a murder
which sparked World War 1.
After the war, Bosnia-Herzegovina became part of the country that
was later renamed Yugoslavia. During World War 2, Germany and Italy
invaded Yugoslavia. Many Bosnian patriots fought against the invading
armies, led by a young Communist, Josip Broz Tito. When the war
ended, Bosnia-Herzegovina became one of six republics in the new
Communist state led by Tito.
Communism held the different states and ethnic groups together
briefly, but when Tito died in 1980, the old conflicts re-emerged.
In 1990, the Communist party lost control; two years later, Croats
and Muslims in Bosnia voted for independence. Most Serbs living
there opposed this because they wished to remain part of Yugoslavia,
which Serbia dominated. A fierce civil war broke out in April 1992
after Bosnian Muslims and Croats declared independence. Within two
months, about two-thirds of Bosnia fell under the control of the
Bosnian Serbs.
Over the next three years, more than 200,000 people lost their
lives, and more than two million people were forced to leave their
homes.
One of the worst aspects of the war was ‘ethnic cleansing’.
This is when one ethnic group tries to force all other groups out
of a certain area in order to make an ethnically ‘pure’
territory. Thousands of people were violently forced to leave the
homes and lands where they had lived for generations. Atrocities
were committed on all sides.
On 21 November 1995, a peace agreement was signed. Bosnia was divided
into two parts: a Muslim-Croat federation which controlled 51 per
cent of the country and a Bosnian Serb republic which controlled
49 per cent of the country. The peace plan also called for refugees
to be allowed to return home, and for the cease-fire to be policed
by 60,000 NATO troops.
Since the Dayton peace plan, Bosnian refugees returned home.
Many went back to find their homes occupied by other groups,
or destroyed. Communities struggled with the after-effects
of war.
Photos: Peter Maxwell/Oxfam
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