Tag Archives: Study in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the heart of the western Balkan region, includes Bosnia proper to the N, crossed by a series of tributaries of the Sava and therefore belonging to the Danube basin, and to the S Herzegovina, included in the Mediterranean watershed. Both regions are mainly mountainous, even if the first, richer in water, is largely covered with woods, while the second appears more arid. The country derives its name from the two historical regions that compose it: Bosnia from the homonymous river that crosses most of the territory, Herzegovina from herceg (in Serbian “duke”), having had a period of autonomy as a duchy in the century. XV. Bosnia and Herzegovina has been characterized over the centuries by the ethnic homogeneity of the population, of Slavic origin and sharing the same language, as opposed to a religious differentiation, given the coexistence of Islam, Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism and – up to the 1940s. XX – Judaism. An independent Bosnia in the Middle Ages was followed by the centuries – old Turkish-Ottoman domination which lasted from the 10th century. XV to 1878, the Habsburg one for about forty years until 1918, the integration of the region into the Serbian monarchy of Belgrade, subsequently into the Croatian state Ustasha in the years of the Second World War, and then into federal Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1992, the year of the proclamation of independence. That same year, in conjunction with the international recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a sovereign state, a war broke out between the various national and religious components of the country in which neighboring countries indirectly participated and which saw the interventions of the UN, the BORN and then the action of the United States which imposed the cessation of the conflict in 1995. A peace of compromise followed with which, leaving the external borders of the country unchanged, an institutional reconfiguration of the state and a new partition of the territory took place between the warring entities. Already at the time of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina was among the most economically backward republics. Subsequently, the transition from a planned economy to the free market, the war destruction of the years 1992-1995 and the poor functionality of the post-war space organization, prevented – despite international aid – the economic revival of the country, which is among the poorest in Europe. In fact, the productive activities, which collapsed during the conflict, did not regain altitude in the following decade due to both the failure of the system in which Bosnia integrated its economy with the other Republics of the Yugoslav federation, and also of the protective barriers that prevent free circulation of Bosnian goods in the territory of the EU. The consequences of this situation are very low per capita incomes, high unemployment rate, development of a “black” economy largely controlled by organized crime, as well as a propensity to emigrate abroad in search of better living conditions. The Croatian and Serbian components of the population feel Croatia and Serbia respectively as their own authentic nations of belonging, thus establishing preferential relations with these countries; all the residents, regardless of national identities, aspire to the integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina into the EU, even if the negotiations for an association have not yet begun in 2005, a preliminary step for full membership. According to COUNTRYAAH, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a nation in Southern Europe, the capital city of which is Sarajevo. The latest population of Bosnia and Herzegovina is 3,280,830. MYSTERYAROUND: Lists and descriptions of main religions and beliefs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including religion demographics and statistics on Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc.