From: U15231@uicvm.uic.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna
Subject: BOSNIA AND ITS PEOPLE
Date: 26 Jan 93 15:54:05 GMT
Article-I.D.: uicvm.93026.095405U15231
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago



          BOSNIA AND ITS PEOPLE

          by : I.Lovrenovic, M.Imamovic
                                           Sarajevo 1992

         THE MIDDLE AGES - A PERIOD OF INDEPENDENCE - Lovrenovic

     BOSNIA is a historical name of the present BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA,
the South Slavic country which has existed in various constitutional
forms for around 1000 years. Slavic tribes migrated in large numbers
in the 7th century and settled in this area. For the previous five
centuries the region, known as Illyria, had been a part of the great
Roman Empire, which had imposed its classical civilization on the
Illyrians - the orginal inhabitants of this part of the Balkan
Peninsula.
     Very little is known about the Slavs in BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA
during the early Middle Ages. However, research shows that, while
the Slavs imposed their language and culture on the Illyrian-Romans,
they in turn affected the paleo-Balkan and Illyrian-Roman influences.
This heritage found expression in the cultural and spiritual life of
BOSNIA in the Middle Ages, and continued even after the Bosnians
were convereted to Christianity. They joined the Western Christian
civilization some time after it reached the coastal and Panonian
regions of Croatia.
     It is known that BOSNIA was first mentioned in "De administran-
do imperio" , the work of Constantine Porfirigenet, the 10th century
Byzantine emperor and historian. With an undefined level of political
independence, BOSNIA was at various times under the domination of
either Hungary or Byzantium. However, in the first half of the 12th
century, a Byzantine author, Ivan Kinamos wrote: "And Bosnia is not
subordinated...it is on itsown; a nation living its independant
life and governing itself..." From the days of ban Kulin (1180-1204)
one of the greatest and most important rulers in the history of
BOSNIA, the country developed parallel with the neighbouring
South Slavic states of Serbia and Croatia.
     Early Bosnia probably covered the central territories around
the upper course of the river Bosna, where the towns of Visoko,
Sarajevo and Zenica stand today. The reign of ban Kulin saw the
start of a period of political and economic growth, the expansion of
trade and flourishing of cultural life. Indeed, the first mention
of "heresy" and the well-known event of 1203- public renunciation
of heresy- were connected with the name of ban Kulin. At the same
time, despite the established rivalry of Hungary and Byzantium
over BOSNIA, the Roman curia became directly involved in the country's
politics.
     The entire 13th century (under the rule of Matija Ninoslav,
Prijezda, Stjepan Kotroman) was marked by political oscillations
and dynastic conflicts mostly by Hungarian intervention. There was
also a brief, destructive attack by the Tartars in 1242.
     The reigns of bans Stjepan II Kotromanic (1322-1353) and
Tvrtko Kotromanic (1353 as a ban, 1377-1391 as a king) covered
a period of overall development for BOSNIA during which the country
reached the climax of its political and territorial power. Tvrtko I
gained power and respect that made him the greatest ruler of the
Slavic south. BOSNIA contained all the lands from the river Sava in
the north to the river Drina in the east, and reached the Adriatic
Sea in the southwest, including the long stretch of land from Kotor
to Biograd-at-sea and the islands of Korcula, Brac and Hvar.Tvrtko
united all the major South Slavic ethnic regions.
     After Tvrtko's death, powerful feudal lords took control of
the regions. Two of these were the grand dukes Hrvoje Vukcic
Hrvatinic and Sandalj Hranic Kosaca. The former ruled in the
northwest with his seat in the glorious town of Jajce; the latter
in the south at Hum, the present Herzegovina. This was also the
time of the first clash with the rising Ottoman power, which took
place in 1386 in the valley of the river Neretva.
     Stjepan dabisa, Jelena, Stjepan Ostoja, Tvrtko II, Stjepan
Ostoja again and Stjepan Ostojic succeeded one another rapidly on
the throne. Meanwhile, Ottoman influence over BOSNIA increased,
although it was to take it 150 years - until the fall of Jajce
in 1528 - to complete its conquest. After the great victory of
the Ottoman army over Hungary in the battle of Doboj in 1415,
Turkish influence became dominant. Indeed, during the reigns
of Stjepan Tomas (1443-1461) and Stjepan Tomasevic(1461-1463)
BOSNIA turned to the Roman curia for assistance against the
threathening Ottoman. However, at the crucial moment, in the
spring of 1463 , Pope Pius II failed to form a European army to
prevent Turkey from conquering Bosnia and invading Europe further.
The Ottoman army, led by the sultan Mehmed II, seized all the main
Bosnian towns and fortifications. King Stjepan Tomasevic was
beheaded and the Bosnian Kingdom ceased to exist.

         BOSNIA WITHIN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE - Ivan Lovrenovic

     BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA remained within the Ottoma Empire for four
centuries, until the Austro-Hungarian occupation in 1878. During
this time, the Ottoman power changed from the glorious era of sultan
Sulaiman the Magnificent (1520-1566) to a period of overall decadence
in the second half of the 19th century. The turning point was at the
very end of the 17th century, after the Ottoman defeat at Vienna and
the establishment of the state border on the river Sava. Throughout
this period, BOSNIA stood in the most vital part of the Empire touched
"the other world" - Europe and Christianity.
     The Ottoman administration always showed respect for the position
of BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA, together with a number of its existing traditions.
This is illustrated by the fact that, in 1465, they proclaimed the
territory they had conquered to be "the Bosnian Kingdom". This was
an exception to their usual practice. They also named Matija, son
of Radivoje, as "the Bosnian king" and even made sure that he was from
the ruling dynasty of the Kotromanices.
     In the 16th century BOSNIA finally became a province totally
administered by the Ottoman Empire. The Bosnian pashadom (later known
as beylerbeylik and eyalet) was formed in 1580. Its first seat was in
Banja Luka, moving in 1639 to Sarajevo, then to Travnik in 1697 and
back to Sarajevo in 1850. Following the Viennese war, the borders  of
the Pashadom were almost identical with those of present-day BOSNIA&
HERZEGOVINA. Unlike other parts of the Empire, the Ottoman recognized
the inheritance rights of Bosnia's feudal lords and in time the
Muslim feudal lords in the region enjoyed considerable independence.
Due to this, the Muslim leaders rebelled in the 19th century against
the reforms coming from Istanbul and sought Bosnian autonomy. The
strongest expression of this rebellion was the uprising of Captain
Husein Gradascevic in 1831, when the Bosnian army fought grave battles
against the Ottoman forces. That rebellion continued for some years,
until it was supressed in 1850 by the Sultan's marshal, Omer-pasha Latas.
     The social tumult in the 19th century spread among both the
Orthodox and the Catholic populations. The Orthodox were affected by
the Russian-Balkan  policy and the rebellions in Serbia, while the
Catholics were influenced by the liberating mission of Austria and
the revival of Illyrism in Croatia.

    BOSNIA WITHIN THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY
                                                I.Lovrenovic

    In the young principality of Serbia, during the first half of the
19th century,there were already strong tendencies towards national
expansion, which would later become the basic ingredient of the Serbian
Balkan policy. That policy was shaped in 1844, in the secret document
"Nacertanije" ("The Plan") of the Serbian minister of internal affairs,
Ilija Garasanin. The idea of Pan-Serbian hegemony found support in the
"linguistic nationalism" of Vuk Karadzic. His work propagated his
formula regarding the ethnic unity of the Serbs - "The Serbs-all
together and everywhere"- and maintained that the only difference
among the people was in their religion - Orthodox,Catholic or Muslim
    At the very foundation of the centuries-long Serbian hegemony
was their aspiration to become a maritime state. The political
circumstances of Balkan history, and the creation of nations surr-
ounding Serbia, prevented them from reaching the Mediterranean.
Therefore, they were forced to look to the Adriatic. However, there
were other "brotherly" South Slavic countries in that direction -
Croatia, BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA, Montenegro. This, then was to be the main
cause of all the conflicts in the South Slavic region from the mid-19th
century until the present day.

   At the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Austro-Hungary obtained a
mandate to occupy and govern BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA. In the summer of that
year, the Austro-Hungarian army entered BOSNIA, encountering an unex-
pectedly fierce and lengthy armed resistance.
   That invasion removed BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA from Islamic-Turkish-Oriental
control, and brought it under Western European influence. After four
hundred years, the change was dramatic and painful, especially for the
Muslim people. However, Austro-Hungarian administration was sensitive
to the need to retain BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA as a single state, and after
much debate it was decided that Bosnia should not belong to either Austria
or Hungary, but should become the third state within the monarchy -
a corpus separatum.

       BOSNIA WITHIN THE YUGOSLAV MONARCHY
                                        Ivan Lovrenovic

    One of the most remarkable achievements in the history of BOSNIA&
HERZEGOVINA was the speed withwhich it overcame the initial
shock of the change of the government from Ottoman to Austro-Hungarian,
and the way it quickly began to assimilate European influences. Due to
later ideological obstacles, this area of development was not researched
until the present day.
   The entire process, however, was stopped dead by the murder of the
Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofia in Sarajevo in
1914 and the ensuing World War.

   For centuries, the idea of political integration had been fermenting
among the South Slavic peoples. A comprehensive illustration of this
was the Illyrian program of Croatian national revival, which percieved
the integration as a cultural and political union of the regions from
the Black Sea to the Adriatic. The most prominent advocate of South
Slavic unity was the humanist bishop of Djakovo, Josip Juraj
Strossmayer.
   The end of the World War I saw the dismantling by the international
community of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the formation of
Yugoslavia, which was to be one united state, encompassing the South
Slavic territories. However, the new state did not live up to its
ideals and the way was opened for the realization of Garasanin's
"Nacertanije" ("The Plan"), under the reign of the Serbian dynasty
of the Karadjordjevices.
   The main obstacles to the plan for a united state were the prominent
historic, cultural and national identities of the individual South
Slavic countries. This was the problem that the governments tried to
solve by forcibly creating regional units, thereby, attempting to
destroy the individual identities of each nation. This happened to
BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA for the first time in its long history. Firstly,
it was broken up into several administrative regions. Later, when
the conflict between serbia and Croatia intensified, BOSNIA&
HERZEGOVINA was divided into 13 administrative units by the famous
Cvetkovic-Macek agreement in 1939. These were then added to the
newly-formed regional unit of Croatia.

          BOSNIA IN THE WORLD WAR II
     BOSNIA WITHIN THE SECOND YUGOSLAVIA AND AFTER?...
                                  I.Lovrenovic

   During World War II, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia disintegrated. In
April 1941, the Government capitulated and, together with the court
fled abroad. The country was occupied and divided among Germany, Italy,
Hungary and Bulgaria. BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA became a part of the Independent
State of Croatia, created under the German occupation.
   During this time, the concept of a federal Yugoslavia prevailed
among the leaders of Tito's partisans. within this Yugoslavia, BOSNIA&
HERZEGOVINA was to become a separate federal unit, equal in status
to the others: Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia.
Such status belonged, historically, to BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA. This
status was not only in acknowledgement of BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA'S large
number of casualties during the anti-occupational and civil war
(it had more victims than any other South Slavic country); this
status was in actual recognition of the historical existence of
BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA.

   However, after the war the centralist and unitarian policy prevailed.
It relied on the totalitarian communist ideology and brought about
renewed national and inter-republic tensions at the end of the 1960's.
In order to resolve these tensions, the regime used a bizarre combination
it strengthened ideological repression, dragging society back-wards
and affirmed the independence and integrity of individual federal units
by the Constitution of 1974.
   As can be seen from the latest events in Yugoslavia, this combination
was the main reason for the revival of Serbian expansionism after 1980
and Tito's death. This time it appeared in a pronounced agressive form,
with the full participation of the federal army, and under the pretext
of preserving Yugoslavia. After the emancipation of Slovenia and Croatia
and the analogously expressed will of Macedonia, BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA
remains the last desperate stronghold against the plans for a great Serbia.
And even if the whole of BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA could not be annexed, at least
the division, according to the alleged national "right" over certain
parts of the country, could be executed. The idea was to divide BOSNIA&
HERZEGOVINA among the Serbs, the Croats and the Muslims. This division
would be politically and culturally primitive, and phisicaly and admin:
istratively impossible. And beside, the Muslims, the largest group in
BOSNIA&Herzegovina , would practically be left without a state. The
Bosnian Croats and Serbs would also be denied their common historical
homeland.
   It is wrong to define the question of BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA as a national
question, the question of national state. This question should be put
and solved as a democratic question, in the aspect of a modern civic
republic, with the accent on human and civil rights. So, much more,
and so much easier, since history has left BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA with
such a national and religious structure, that none of these collectives
is not and can not be a minority in relation to the others, regardless
of the numerical ratio.
   Besides, without BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA as a sovereign and independent
state, there is actually no harmonius solution of the totality of the
Serbian-Croatian-Muslim state and national relations.

   END OF PART I