Bosnia-Before+Refugee+Crisis

=          == =History of Bosnia= Bosnia has been under the control of many groups of people throughout its history. It was part of the Roman empire and when the empire declined if was destroyed again and again by the nomadic Goths, Alans, Huns, and Avars. In 1180 Ban Kulin created the first independent Bosnian state. It remained its own state until the Ottomans conquered them in 1463. During their independence Bosnia had a brief stint as the most powerful Balkan state in 1377 when Tvrtko I was king. Ottoman rule brought two other religions into Bosnia. In addition to the Slavic Christians, Jews who had been expelled from Spain in 1492 and Muslims from the Middle East came to make their homes in Bosnia. After a war between the Russians and the Ottomans in 1877, The Congress of Berlin gave Austria-Hungary the duty to occupy and administer Bosnia. In 1908 Bosnia was officially annexed by Austria-Hungary in part to keep Bosnia from joining the Kingdom of Serbia. In Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, on June 28, 1914 World War I was started when a Yugoslav assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. At the end of the war Austria-Hungary had ceased to exist and Bosnia became part of Yugoslavia. In World War II Bosnia was occupied by both the Italians and Nazis. After World War II Bosnia remained part of Yugoslavia which was ruled by Tito. It was a communist government modeled closely to Stalin's communist government of the USSR. In 1990 Yugoslavia finally fell apart and and the six different regions of Yugoslavia held independent elections. The parliament in Bosnia was split between three main groups with the Muslims (PDA) taking 34% of the seats, the Serbs (SDS) taking 30%, and the Croats taking 18%. In 1992 Bosnia gained true independence when 97% of the Muslims and Croats voted to secede while the Serbs boycotted the meeting. Within a week of independence Bosnia was in a civil war with the Croats, backed by Croatia, and the Bosnian Muslims against the Serbs who were backed by Serbia. In 1993 the Croats turned on their Muslim allies for control over central Bosnia. During the war all parties involved took part in massacres of unarmed citizens of the other side. In March 1994 a Bosniak-Croat federation was agreed to which allied both the Croats and the Muslims again. The war ended in 1995 after NATO helped the Bosniak-Croat offensive and both sides were under extreme presure from the United States.

= = =Works Cited=

"Bosnia and Herzegovina," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation.

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