The History of Bosnia

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.

The start to the feud concerning Serbia and Austria commenced when Serbia was ruled by the Turkish Ottoman Empire, while Austria-Hungary was a chief European power. In 1815 the Serbs effectively campaigned against and rebelled, and in 1835 they proclaimed their own individual constitution. Austria-Hungary, a dynastic empire consisted of countless diverse races whom were petrified of the 'panslavism',” the nationalism by which the Slav races of the Balkans desired to set up their own nation-states”. Austria-Hungary observed Serbia as the leading vilest, example of this. Austria-Hungary loathed Serbia . Then in 1876 Serbia declared war with Turkey and took over the acreage of Bosnia, an area of the Balkans where many Serbs lived in the

As Bosnia pursued the path of its neighbors: Croatia and Slovenia by declaring independence from the former Yugoslavia, which was becoming very unstable and impoverished, the Serbians were determined to stop them, and they did so by beginning a three-year war that would stain the peaceful hills of Bosnia with blood. Yugoslavia, a communist country, which spanned from Slovenia in the north to Macedonia in the south, had been rapidly declining economically. In 1990, Croatia and Slovenia held successful votes for independence from Yugoslavia, and in December of 1991 they were officially declared separate nations. Bosnia declared itself a separate nation on March 3, 1992 after the results of their referendum for independence. About a month later, on April 7, 1992, the United States and the European

The victims targeted during the Bosnian-Herzegovina genocide were mostly Bosnian Muslims and Croatians. The majority of the people that were being murdered and executed were male (boys and men), while the women were being raped and tortured. The downfall of the Ottoman Empire gave a rise to the thoughts of nationalism which in turn caused the ethno religious (an ethnic group whose members are also unified by a common religious background) in Bosnia to have clashing issues like historical problems between groups and political issues. The three different groups which were living in Bosnia were obviously Bosnians but also Serbians and Croatians.

During the war, a significant amount of things happen to different groups of families in their homeland. There are soldiers that are fighting for the protection of their families and there are many families that are doing anything in their power to stay safe through the chaos. Yet a number of the individuals involved in the conflict have a tendency to try and escape the madness. In spite of the madness, some children have the advantage to escape yet they are equally impacted with long term trauma by the war as those who did not have the opportunity to depart.

However, there had to be certain event that started all of it. That event happened in June 1914, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was visiting Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. This visit angered members of the Black Hand, a Serbian terrorist group, who wanted Bosnia to break away from Austria-Hungary and join Serbia.

Genocide is the systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or ethnic group. In Germany during World War II a man named Hitler tried to eliminate any race except for what he called the "Arian" race. In the process he committed genocide by killing off 6 million Jews and a total of 8 million people in all. Europe was going through some very hard times during the mid 1900's so that no one was able to see a disaster such as the Holocaust coming. Many things led to the weakening of Europe at the time. The Ottoman Empire was breaking up plus they were still trying to get over the devastation of WW I. Bosnia and Herzegovina had been having many problems as well. They were a witness to much change and

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.

The Bosnian Genocide began in April of 1992 and ended in 1995. It was a war between the Bosnian Muslims, the Croats, which are Catholics, and the Serbs, which are Orthodox Christians. It occurred in Bosnia-Herzegovina where the population was about 3.8 million. The Bosniaks made up 44 percent of the population, the Serbs 31 percent, and the Croats 17 percent. The country is only about the size of West Virginia. The Bosniaks were treated unfairly and inhumanely during this span of three years.

They occur and we neglect to notice the unearned inequity. Even though genocide is difficult encounter as actuality it is. The Bosnian genocide was a heartbreaking event that caused misery and loss of lives to 100,000 with 80,000 being of the Bosnian culture (Bosnia-Herzegovina). March 1, 1992-December 14, 1995 35 dreadful months for the Bosnians. If you think of all the terrifying things done to them they would sometimes rather be dead than alive. Could imagine being in so much agony you would wish you were dead. The perpetrators, the Serbians were making an effort to exterminate the Bosnians. They were stopped by the Bosnians who fought for their lives. This would be recognized as genocide because it shares several characteristics with

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

The Bosnian War was an international arms conflict that involved 2 main sides, the Republika Srpska, and Herzeg-Bosnia. The Republika Srpska would show very little sympathy towards the Non-Serb population of cities they would occupy. 1995 of the Bosnian War reached its most violent climax, Bosnian Serb Forces in occupied Srebrenica began an ethnic cleansing of the Non-Serb population, and massacred more than 8000 people. Many generals and other people of high class within the Republika Srpska were tried for their actions, but none confessed and denied everything, this is what makes the following person so significant. Dragan Obrenovic, who was the only person who admit guilt for the Genocide and it taking place. The accused, Dragan

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 Bosnian Crisis came directly out of this Revolution and led to tensions between powers. The Young Turks, a fairly new political group, had considerable power in the Ottoman Empire and took western ideals and tried to implement them in the Empire. As Ivan Gueshov, the Prime Minister of Bulgaria at the time describes it, “the Young Turkish Committee constitutes the only organized force in Turkey…[that] possesses power enough to impose its will.” The group’s dominant stance on the Empire’s politics allowed it to generate great change in the country’s leadership. The group overthrew the Sultan in power at the time, Abdulhamid II, and replaced him with Mohammed V. They tried to restore the 1876 constitution in the Ottoman empire which had never taken effect in the nation’s politics. They were, “eager to instill among all the various peoples of the Ottoman Empire a sense of Ottoman identity, and thus forestall its further disintegration. The Young Turks were also determined to modernize the Ottoman armed forces.” The effects of this revolution by the Young Turks were felt by people throughout the Balkans, especially by Austria and Russia, who desired control in the Balkans before any of the changes suggested by the Young Turks were implemented in the Ottoman Empire. Austria’s main objective was the overtaking of Bosnia, due to their already established rule over the region in the past. Russia, on the other hand, was focused on gaining control of the Black Sea Straits, as