The official name is Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in the southeastern part of Europe, in the west of the Balkan Peninsula. The area is 51,129 km2. The population is approximately approx. 3.8 million people According to the last census (1991), 4.377 million people lived in the country. As a result of the military conflict in 1992–95, the population decreased significantly. The official languages are Bosan, Serbian and Croatian. The capital is the city of Sarajevo (400 thousand people, 1991). The monetary unit is the convertible mark (KM).
Member of the UN (since 1992), OSCE (since 1992), Council of Europe (since 2002), etc.
Geography of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina is located between 15° and 20° east longitude and 46° and 42° north latitude. It has a narrow (about 15 km) exit to the Adriatic Sea. The coastline is high, rocky, covered with islands.
It borders in the north, west and south with Croatia, in the east and southeast with Serbia and Montenegro.
The landscape is 90% mountainous. The mountains of the Dinaric system (highest point 2228 m) include two belts: the Bosnian ore mountains and the Dinaric highlands. The largest rivers are the Sava (940 km), Drina (460 km), Bosna (308 km), Neretva (218 km). Plains – in the valleys of the Sava (the southern outskirts of the Middle Danube Lowland) and the Neretva.
The mountains are dominated by mountain-forest brown soils, podzolized to varying degrees; in the upper belt of mountains there are mountain-meadow soils. In intermountain depressions, chernozem-like soils are common in places. Chernozems in combination with alluvial meadow soils predominate in the Sava River valley.
40% of the territory is covered with deciduous and coniferous forests (beech, oak, pine, spruce). In the south – evergreen shrubs. Fauna: deer, chamois, wild goats, bears, wolves, foxes, wild boars, reptiles (lizards, snakes), the most common fish is trout.
Minerals: brown coal, iron and manganese ores, bauxites, salt; hydro resources.
In the north, the climate is temperate continental (600-800 mm of precipitation per year), in the mountains it is cool and humid (1500-2500 mm of precipitation per year). In summer, frequent fogs and rains, in winter – heavy snowfalls. In the south, under the influence of the Adriatic, a Mediterranean, mild, warm (hot in summer) climate prevails.
Population of Bosnia and Herzegovina
According to Countryaah, there is no complete information about the size and structure of the population. During the military conflict of 1992–95, approx. 250 thousand people, St. 30 thousand people, approximately 2 million people became refugees and displaced persons.
Infant mortality 13 people per 1000 newborns; the average life expectancy for men is 71 years, for women – 76 years.
Men – 48.7%, women – 51.3%; urban population – 43%. The age structure of the population: up to 14 years old – 17.8%, 15-64 years old – 70.5%, 65 years and older – 11.7%. The retirement age is 65 years. 95% have primary education, 57% – secondary.
Ethnic composition: the state-forming peoples of the Bosniaks (Slavs who profess Islam) – 43.6%, Serbs – 31.4%, Croats – 17.3%, the rest – 7.7% (Montenegrins, Macedonians, Albanians, Gypsies, Rusyns, Jews and etc.).
The most common languages that coincide with the state ones are Bosan, Serbian, Croatian.
Main religions: Islam (Sunnis), Orthodoxy, Catholicism.
History of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The oldest population is the Illyrians. From the 1st century AD under the rule of Rome, in the 6th century. – Byzantium. In the 6th-7th centuries. the territory is inhabited by Slavs. In the 12th century the Bosnian principality was formed, headed by a ban (prince) – the most famous is ban Kulin (1180-1204). On the territory of the principality, Bogomilism became widespread, on the basis of which the so-called. Bosnian church. Medieval Bosnia reached its peak under Stephen I Tvrtko (1353–91), who significantly expanded his possessions and proclaimed himself king. A region in the south was annexed to the Kingdom of Bosnia, later called Herzegovina (in the 15th century, its ruler, Stepan Vukchich, who recognized his fief dependence on the German king, received the title of duke from the latter).
From 1463 the territory of Bosnia, and from 1482 – Herzegovina under the Ottoman yoke. A significant part of the population converted to Islam.
Resistance to Turkish rule acquired a particularly broad scope in the 19th century, culminating in the Herzegovinian-Bosnian uprising of 1875–78.
By decision of the Berlin Congress in 1878, B. and G. was occupied by Austria (annexed by Austria in 1908). The annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina caused an acute political crisis in international relations. The assassination of the Austrian Archduke F. Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo served as a pretext for the 1st World War. Since 1918, Bosnia and Herzegovina has been part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (since 1929, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). In 1941-45 it was occupied by Nazi Germany and included in the so-called. Independent State of Croatia.
In 1945-92 – as part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with the rights of a republic. In 1992, independence was proclaimed in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the basis of the results of a referendum (the Serbian community, which boycotted the referendum, created its own entity – the Republika Srpska). These events caused an escalation of interethnic conflicts, which escalated into a large-scale military conflict that lasted until the autumn of 1995. The hostilities were stopped thanks to the active efforts of the international community. In accordance with the agreements reached in Dayton (USA), in Paris on December 14, 1995, the warring parties signed the “General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, also known as the Dayton Agreement.
