BOSNIA
Like the rest of the Mediterranean region, Bosnia was part of the Roman Empire during the first centuries of the Christian era. By the 7th century AD, Bosnia was settled by Slavs, who formed a number of countries and duchies.
In the 14th century, the Ottoman Turks embarked upon their conquest of the Balkans. Through skillful maneuvering between its more powerful neighbors, Bosnia managed to retain its independence until 1463, when it also succumbed to the Turks. During the Ottoman rule many Bosnians (for both spiritual and social reasons) dropped their allegiance to the weak and disorganized Christian churches and adopted the triumphant faith of the Islamic conquerors.
Bosnia's Ottoman centuries came to an abrupt end in 1878, when the Great Powers of Europe met in Berlin to decide what to do about the Ottoman Empire. On peace conference held in German capital (on September 13th, 1878) European countries allowed Austro-Hungary to occupy Bosnia, although it was legally still under sovereignty of Turkish sultan. After the revolution in Turkey (in 1908) Austria annexed Bosnia.
Under Austrian occupation Bosnia was a military province and was issuing its own stamps. First stamps were issued in 1879. Click here to see some Bosnian stamps from that period.
In the summer of 1914, a Serb nationalist youth named Gavrilo Princip assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne during a state visit to Sarajevo, triggering First World War.
After WW1 Bosnia became a part of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs which soon united with Serbia to form Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed to Yugoslavia). Before this kingdom issued its first set of stamps (in 1921) overprinted old Bosnian stamps were used in the country (PIC). But after 1921 they were replaced with regular stamps of Kingdom of SHS.
During Second World War, Bosnia was occupied by Axis
and was incorporated into Independent State of Croatia (NDH).
After the WW2, Bosnia and Herzegovina, restored within its pre-1918 borders,
became one of six constituent republics. Shortly after the liberation provisional
issues appeared in Bosnia. NDH stamps were overprinted in two cities (Sarajevo
and Mostar). Later regular Yugoslav issues replaced provisional ones.
In communist Yugoslavia, for the first time since
World War I, Bosnian Muslims received official recognition of their separate
identity.
By the end of the 1980s, Communism as an ideology and state system was coming
undone throughout the entire region. Nationalism was resurrected to fill the
ideological void, as each of Yugoslavia's member republics sought to make its
own way.
Following international recognition of Croatian and Slovene independence, a plebiscite on independence was held in Bosnia-Herzegovina in late February 1992. The Serb nationalist party threatened violence and called for a boycott, but participation was high and in an optimistic mood 70% of Bosnian voters (including many Bosnian Serbs) turned out to cast their votes for independence. With 99% of all participants voting for the independence, the Bosnian and Croat representatives in Bosnia's parliament declared the republic's independence on April 5, 1992.
The Serb delegates, having previously left over the violation of the Constitution, declared their own state Republic of Srbska on midnight between April 6th and April 7th. Soon after the civil war broke up between Muslims, Croats and Serb nationalist militants backed by Yugoslav army.
The war between the three constitutive nations turned out to be probably the most chaotic and bloody war in Europe since World War II. Numerous cease-fire agreements were signed, only to be broken again when one of the sides felt it was to their advantage.
By April 7, 1992, Bosnia-Herzegovina's independence had been officially recognized by the United States and by most European countries. On May 22, 1992, Bosnia-Herzegovina was admitted as a full member of the United Nations.
The war continued through most of 1995, and with Croatia taking over the Serb Krajina in early August, the Bosniak-Croat alliance gained the initiative in the war, taking much of western Bosnia from the Serbs. At that point, the international community pressured presidents of Croatia, Bosnia and Yugoslavia to the negotiation table and finally the war which caused an estimated 278,000 dead and missing persons and another 1,325,000 refugees and exiles ended with the Dayton Peace Agreement signed on November 21, 1995 (the final version was signed December 14, 1995 in Paris). The Dayton Agreement divided Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina roughly equally between the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bosnian Serb Republic of Srbska, based mostly on their wartime borders.
Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina started issuing stamps in 1993. Click here to see some of them.
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