federal republic, SE Europe, in the Balkan Peninsula, with Sarajevo as the national capital.

Formerly a constituent republic of Yugoslavia, it has been divided since 1995 into a joint Bosnian-Croat Federation (about 51% of the territory), with capital at Mostar, and the Bosnian Serb-led Republic (about 49% of the territory), with capital at Banja Luka.

The country is bounded on the N and W by Croatia and on the E by Serbia, and on the SE by Montenegro. The republic lies mostly in the Dinaric Alps and has a narrow outlet to the Adriatic Sea. The N portion of the country is a region of flat, fertile plains; the remainder is extremely mountainous, with elevations attaining heights of up to 2440 m (8000 ft). The chief rivers are the Sava, on the N frontier, the Drina, and the Vrbas. Bosnia and Hercegovina is rich in natural resources, with large tracts of arable land, extensive stands of timber, and valuable deposits of such minerals as salt, manganese, silver, lead, copper, iron, chromium, and coal. Area, 51,129 sq km (19,741 sq mi).

Population.

According to the 1991 census, the population of Bosnia and Hercegovina totaled 4,365,639. The population for 2006 was estimated at 4,498,976, or about 88 persons per sq km (228 per sq mi). The major cities are Sarajevo, the national capital, with 552,000 inhabitants (2001 est.); Banja Luka, 142,634 (1991 census); and Zenica, 96,238 The three principal population groups are Bosnians (sometimes called Bosniaks), who are mostly Muslim (48%), Serbs, who are mostly Orthodox (37%), and Croats, who are mostly Roman Catholics (14%). Serbo-Croatian is the main language.

Economy.

Leading crops include corn, wheat, potatoes, and fruits and vegetables. Livestock raising is also important. Iron and steel, farm equipment, motor vehicles, and cement are the principal manufactures. The economy was devastated by the civil war. In 2005 the gross domestic product was estimated at $22.9 billion, or $6800 per capita. The convertible mark was introduced as currency in June 1998 (1.57 conv. marks equal U.S.$1; 2005). .

Government.

At independence, executive power in Bosnia and Hercegovina was vested in a collective state presidency, whose members chose a president from their own number. A bicameral assembly held legislative power. A separate Serb government and a Croatian government were subsequently proclaimed. The Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina, comprising Muslim- and Croat-held territories, was established in 1994. The 1995 Dayton Agreement, which included a new constitution, recognized the division of the country in two main entities, the Bosnian-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina and the Bosnian Serb-led Republic, each with its own president, government, parliament, police, and other institutions; Brcko District, in northeastern Bosnia, is an internationally supervised district.

Overarching these institutions, the constitution provided for a central government, with a rotating three-member presidency (a Bosnian Muslim, a Croat, and a Serb), taking turns every 8 months; the three are elected by popular vote for 4-year terms (eligible for a second term, but then ineligible for 4 years). There also is a bicameral national legislature, consisting of an elected lower house of 42 members (28 from the Muslim-Croat federation, 14 from the Serb republic); and an appointed upper house of 15 members, divided equally among Muslims, Croats, and Serbs The UN Office of High Representative was established to oversee the implementation of civilian aspects of the agreement.

Bosnia and Hercegovina is a member of the United Nations and of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

History.

In ancient times the area of present-day Bosnia and Hercegovina was part of Illyria and of the Roman province of Illyricum. Overrun by the Goths in the 3d century ad, the region became part of the Byzantine Empire after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476. During the 7th century the Slavs settled here. Various petty princes held sections of the region during the next few centuries. About 1100, after a brief period of Croatian rule, the Bosnian part became a dominion of Hungary. The Hungarians later made Bosnia a banat (province) controlled by a ban (viceroy). Ban Stephen Krotomanić (r. 1322–53) extended Hungarian authority over the principality of Hum (or Zahumlje), later known as Hercegovina. His nephew and successor, Stephen Tvrtko (1338?–91), further extended the boundaries, and in 1376 he proclaimed himself king of Serbia and Bosnia. The kingdom began to disintegrate after his death. A Bosnian chieftain seized the Hum region in the early 1400s and renamed it Hercegovina (“independent duchy”). By 1463 the Turks had conquered most of Bosnia, and Hercegovina fell in 1483. For the next 400 years the Turks ruled the region, although there were many failed uprisings against them in the 1800s.

After the two provinces were annexed by the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1908, they became centers of nationalist agitation for political independence and cultural autonomy. In June 1914 the heir to the imperial throne, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, was assassinated in Sarajevo, an act that precipitated World War I. On Dec. 1, 1918, following the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy at the close of the war, Bosnia and Hercegovina were merged and became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes; this was renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929. During World War II the territory was made part of Croatia. After the Axis defeat in 1945, it became a constituent republic of Yugoslavia.

From the start, ethnic and religious tensions ran high among the Yugoslav republics, but civil war did not erupt until 1991, in Croatia and Slovenia. The three main groups in Bosnia and Hercegovina—Muslims (or Bosniaks), Serbs, and Croats—failed to negotiate a peaceful settlement of differences. Bosnia and Hercegovina became an independent republic in March 1992, following a referendum boycotted by Bosnian Serbs, who established their own government. As the violence escalated, the Serbs, with superior firepower, expanded the territory under their control through a program of “ethnic cleansing,” massacring or displacing thousands of Muslims. Mediation efforts by the UN and the European Union, backed by forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), were unable to stem the violence or resolve the conflict. A peace conference held in May 1993 in Athens by the presidents of Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia also failed.

In July 1995, Srebrenica, a UN-declared safe haven for Bosnian Muslim civilians, defended by a contingent of Dutch peacekeeping troops, was overrun by Serbian troops under General Ratko Mladić (1943–    ); an estimated 8000 Muslim men and boys were massacred, in Europe's worst mass atrocity since World War II.

Aiming to end the war in Bosnia, the U.S. sponsored peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, Nov. 1–21, 1995. The resulting accord (formally signed in Paris on December 14) established a Bosnia and Hercegovina divided into a Muslim-Croat federation (51%) and a Serb republic (49%), with Sarajevo as national capital. The 3-year presence of more than 22,000 UN peacekeeping troops was ended; to enforce the accord, more than 20,000 American troops were sent to Bosnia as part of a NATO force of 60,000.

In mid-1996, President Radovan Karadzić (1943– ) surrendered both the presidency of the Serb republic and his post as head of the ruling Serb Democratic party; meanwhile, the UN war-crimes tribunal issued international arrest warrants against both him and Mladić. They were among 57 people indicted for war crimes. (In August 2001 a major figure connected to the Srebrenica massacres, Serbian General Radislav Krstic, was convicted by the tribunal and sentenced to 46 years in prison.)

Following elections in September 1996, Muslim leader Alija Izetbegović (1925–2003) became chairman of Bosnia-Hercegovina's three-member collective presidency. In December the NATO peacekeepers were reorganized into a Stabilization Force (SFOR) of 31,000 members, of whom 8300 came from the U.S. SFOR's original mandate of 18 months was subsequently extended, although by 2000 the total number of troops had been reduced to about 20,000.

Parliamentary elections were held in November 2000, and a moderate coalition led by the multiethnic Alliance for Change took office. Two years later, however, nationalists won back power in federation presidential, parliamentary, and local elections. In 2003, the Office of High Representative abolished the Supreme Defence Council of Bosnian Serb Republic and amended the constitutions of both entities by removing all references to statehood. In 2004 SFOR's peacekeeping duties were handed over by NATO to a European-led force, EUFOR. At that time about 100,000 Bosnian refugees were still living in neighboring countries and about 300,000 were still displaced within Bosnia.

Successful steps leading to integration of the two entities included the formation of a unified multi-ethnic national police force in 2005; the republic has now a single defence structure, a central judicial system, and a single customs service. Stabilization and Association Agreement talks on a Bosnia and Hercegovina possible membership in the EU began in late 2005.

For further information on this topic, see the Bibliography, sections 1002. Balkans, 1003. Balkan nationalism, 1005. Yugoslavian ethnic divisions, 1006. Yugoslavian modern history.