Bosnia and Hercegovina

Bosnia and Hercegovina (Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian Bosna i Hercegovina,pronounced  Cyrillic script), sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina, abbreviated BiH, and in short often known informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeastern Europe located on the Balkan Peninsula. Sarajevo is the capital and largest city.

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Bordered by Croatia to the north, west, and south; Serbia to the east; Montenegro to the southeast; and the Adriatic Sea to the south, with a coastline about 20 km (12 miles) long surrounding the city of Neum.

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In the central and eastern interior of the country the geography is mountainous, in the northwest it is moderately hilly, and the northeast is predominantly flatland. The inland is a geographically larger region and has a moderate continental climate, bookended by hot summers and cold and snowy winters. The southern tip of the country has a Mediterranean climate and plain topography.Bosnia and Herzegovina is a region that traces permanent human settlement back to the Neolithic age, during and after which it was populated by several Illyrian and Celtic civilizations.

Culturally, politically, and socially, the country has one of the richest histories in the region, having been first settled by the Slavic peoples that populate the area today from the 6th through to the 9th centuries AD. They then established the first independent banate in the region, known as the Banate of Bosnia, in the early 12th century upon the arrival and convergence of peoples that would eventually come to call themselves Dobri Bošnjani ("Good Bosnians"). This evolved into the Kingdom of Bosnia in the 14th century, after which it was annexed into the Ottoman Empire, under whose rule it would remain from the mid-15th to the late 19th centuries. The Ottomans brought Islam to the region, and altered much of the cultural and social outlook of the country.

This was followed by annexation into the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, which lasted up until World War I. In the interwar period, Bosnia was part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and after World War II, the country was granted full republic status in the newly formed Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Following the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the country proclaimed independence in 1992, which was followed by the Bosnian War, lasting until late 1995.Today, the country maintains high literacy, life expectancy and education levels and is one of the most frequently visited countries in the region, projected to have the third highest tourism growth rate in the world between 1995 and 2020. Bosnia and Herzegovina is regionally and internationally renowned for its natural beauty and cultural heritage inherited from six historical civilizations, its cuisine,winter sports, its eclectic and unique music, architecture and its festivals, some of which are the largest and most prominent of their kind in Southeastern Europe.

The country is home to three main ethnic groups or, officially, constituent peoples, a term unique for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosniaks are the largest group of the three, with Serbs second and Croats third. Regardless of ethnicity, a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina is often identified in English as a Bosnian. The terms Herzegovinian and Bosnian are maintained as a regional rather than ethnic distinction, and the region of Herzegovina has no precisely defined borders of its own. Moreover, the country was simply called "Bosnia" until the Austro-Hungarian occupation at the end of the 19th century.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has a bicameral legislature and a three-member Presidency composed of a member of each major ethnic group. However, the central government's power is highly limited, as the country is largely decentralized and comprises two autonomous entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, with a third region, the Brcko District, governed under local government. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is itself complex and consists of 10 federal units – cantons. The country is apotential candidate for membership to the European Union and has been a candidate for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation membership since April 2010, when it received a Membership Action Plan at a summit in Tallinn. Additionally, the country has been a member of the Council of Europe since April 2002 and a founding member of the Mediterranean Union upon its establishment in July 2008.The first preserved mention of the name "Bosnia" is in De Administrando Imperio, a politico-geographical handbook written by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII in the mid-10th century (between 948 and 952) describing the "small country" ( in Greek) of "Bosona" (). Bosnia and Hercegovina

The Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja from 1172–96 of Bar's Roman Catholic Christian Archbishop names Bosnia, and references an earlier source from the year of 753 – the De Regno Sclavorum (Of the Realm of Slavs). The name "Bosnia" is probably derived from the name of the Bosna river, possibly mentioned for the first time during the 1st century AD by Roman historian Marcus Velleius Paterculus under the name Bathinus flumen. Some scholars also connect the Roman road station Ad Basante, first attested in the 5th century Tabula Peutingeriana, where also the proposed hydronym Bathinus is placed, as referring to Bosnia. According to philologist Anton Mayer the name Bosna could be derived from Illyrian "Bass-an-as" which would be a diversion of the Proto-Indo-European root "bos" or "bogh", meaning "the running water". Bosnia and Hercegovina

Other theories involve the rare Latin term Bosina, meaning boundary, and possible Slavic and Thracian origins. The origins of the name Herzegovina may be identified with greater precision. In the Early Middle Ages the corresponding region was known as Zahumlje (Hum), after the Zachlumoi tribe of southern Slavs which inhabited it. In the 1440s, the region – adjoined to medieval Bosnia since the early 1300s – was ruled by the powerful Bosnian nobleman Stephen Vukcic Kosaca. In 1448, Kosaca dropped the title "Voivode of Bosnia" and instead assumed the title "Herceg (Herzog) of Hum and the Coast"; Herzog being the German word for "duke", and so the lands he controlled would later be known asHerzegovina ("Dukedom", from the addition of -ovina, "land"). The region was administered by the Ottomans as theSanjak of Herzegovina (Hersek) within the Eyalet of Bosnia up until the formation of the short-lived Herzegovina Eyalet in the 1830s. Bosnia and Hercegovina

Following the death of its founder and ruler vizier Ali-paša Rizvanbegovic in the 1850s, the two eyalets were merged, and the new joint-entity was thereafter commonly referred to as Bosnia and Herzegovina.On initial proclamation of independence in 1992, the country's official name was the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina but following the 1995 Dayton Agreement and the new constitution that accompanied it the name was officially changed toBosnia and Herzegovina.Bosnia is located in the western Balkans, bordering Croatia (932 km or 579 mi) to the north and south-west, Serbia (302 km or 188 mi) to the east, and Montenegro(225 km or 140 mi) to the southeast. It lies between latitudes 42° and 46° N, and longitudes 15° and 20° E.The country's name comes from the two regions Bosnia and Herzegovina, which have a very vaguely defined border between them. Bosnia and Hercegovina

Bosnia occupies the northern areas which are roughly four-fifths of the entire country, while Herzegovina occupies the rest in the southern part of the country.The country is mostly mountainous, encompassing the central Dinaric Alps. The northeastern parts reach into the Pannonian basin, while in the south it borders theAdriatic. The Dinaric Alps generally run in an east-west direction, and get higher towards the south. The highest point of the country is peak Maglic at 2,386 m, at the Montenegrin border. Major mountains include Kozara,Grmec, Vlašic, Cvrsnica, Prenj, Romanija,Jahorina, Bjelašnica and Treskavica.Overall, close to 50% of Bosnia and Herzegovina is forested. Most forest areas are in Central, Eastern and Western parts of Bosnia. Herzegovina has drier Mediterranean climate, with dominant karsttopography. Bosnia and Hercegovina

Northern Bosnia (Posavina) contains very fertile agricultural land along the river Sava and the corresponding area is heavily farmed. This farmland is a part of the Parapannonian Plain stretching into neighboring Croatia and Serbia. The country has only 20 kilometres (12 miles) of coastline, around the town of Neum in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton. Although the city is surrounded by Croatian peninsulas, by the international law, Bosnia and Herzegovina has aright of passage to the outer sea.

The major cities are Sarajevo, Banja Luka in the northwest region known as Bosanska Krajina, Bijeljina and Tuzla in the northeast, Zenica and Doboj in the central part of Bosnia and Mostar, the largest city in Herzegovina. There are seven major rivers in Bosnia and Herzegovina:  Bosnia and Hercegovina
• The Sava is the largest river of the country, but it only forms its northern natural border with Croatia. It drains 76% of the country's territory into the Danube and the Black Sea. Bosnia and Herzegovina is therefore also a member of theInternational Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR).
• The Una, Sana and Vrbas are right tributaries of Sava river. They are located in the northwestern region of Bosanska Krajina.
• The Bosna river gave its name to the country, and is the longest river fully contained within it. It stretches through central Bosnia, from its source near Sarajevo to Sava in the north.
• The Drina flows through the eastern part of Bosnia, and for the most part it forms a natural border with Serbia.
• The Neretva is the major river of Herzegovina and the only major river that flows south, into the Adriatic Sea.
Phytogeographically, Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs to the Boreal Kingdom and is shared between the Illyrian province of the Circumboreal Region and Adriatic province of the Mediterranean Region.

According to the WWF, the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina can be subdivided into three ecoregions: the Pannonian mixed forests, Dinaric Mountains mixed forests and Illyrian deciduous forests.Bosnia's constitution does not specify any official languages. However, academics Hilary Footitt and Michael Kelly note that the Dayton Agreement states that it is "done in Bosnian, Croatian, English and Serbian", and they describe this as the "de facto recognition of three official languages" at the state level. The equal status of Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian was verified by the Constitutional Court in 2000. It ruled that the provisions of the Federation and Republika Srpska constitutions on language were incompatible with the state constitution, since they only recognised "Bosniak" and Croatian (in the case of the Federation) and Serbian (in the case of Republika Srpska) as official languages at the entity level. Bosnia and Hercegovina

As a result, the wording of the entity constitutions was changed and all three languages were made official in both entities. The three languages are mutually intelligible and were previously known collectively as Serbo-Croatian. Use of one of the three languages has become a marker of ethnic identity. Michael Kelly and Catherine Baker argue: "The three official languages of today's Bosnian state...represent the symbolic assertion of national identity over the pragmatism of mutual intelligibility".According to the 1992 European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Bosnia and Herzegovina recognizes the following minority languages: Albanian, Montenegrin, Czech, Italian, Hungarian, Macedonian, German, Polish, Romani,Romanian, Rysin, Slovak, Slovene, Turkish, Ukrainian and Jewish (Yiddish and Ladino).

The German minority in Bosnia and Herzegovina are mostly remnants of Donauschwaben (Danube Swabians), who settled in the area after the Habsburg monarchy claimed the Balkans from the Ottoman Empire. Due to expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World Wars, the number of ethnic Germans in Bosnia and Herzegovina was drastically diminshed.  Bosnia and Hercegovina
Bosnian cuisine uses many spices, in moderate quantities. Most dishes are light, as they are cooked in lots of water; the sauces are fully natural, consisting of little more than the natural juices of the vegetables in the dish. Typical ingredients include tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic,peppers, cucumbers, carrots, cabbage,mushrooms, spinach, zucchini, dried beans, fresh beans, plums, milk, paprika and cream called Pavlaka. Bosnian cuisine is balanced between Western and Eastern influences. Bosnia and Hercegovina

As a result of the Ottoman administration for almost 500 years, Bosnian food is closely related to Turkish, Greek, and other former Ottoman and Mediterranean cuisines. However, because of years of Austrian rule, there are many influences from Central Europe. Typical meat dishes include primarily beef and lamb. Some local specialties are cevapi, burek, dolma, sarma,pilav, goulash, ajvar and a whole range of Eastern sweets. Cevapi(pronounced ) or cevapcici (formal diminutive,) is a grilled dish of minced meat, a type of kebab, found traditionally in the countries of southeastern Europe (the Balkans). Bosnia and Hercegovina

They are considered a national dish in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and are also common in Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, as well as in Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Turkey and the Italian region bordering Slovenia. Bosnian cevapcici from the Bašcaršija district of Sarajevo are probably the most famous Cevapi. Local wines come from Herzegovina where the climate is suitable for growing grapes. Herzegovinian loza (similar to Italian Grappa but less sweet) is very popular. Plum (rakija) or apple (jabukovaca) alcohol beverages are produced in the north. In the south, distilleries used to produce vast quantities of brandy and supply all of ex-Yugoslavian alcohol factories (brandy is the base of most alcoholic drinks). Bosnia and Hercegovina

 

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