If the Balkan Peninsula is Europe's "powder keg", then the small Balkan state of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia and Herzegovina) can be regarded as the "fuse" of this barrel of gunpowder.
The Bosnian crisis of 1908 and the events of Sarajevo in 1914 led directly to World War I.
▲Bosnia-Herzegovina landscape
The Bosnian War, which lasted from 1992 to 1995, was the largest local war in Europe after World War II.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is "peculiar" and much more than that. A closer look reveals that this country has no subject nation of its own, and is a country that has been artificially "pieced together" under a specific historical environment.
Map of Bosnia and Herzegovina today
What is even more peculiar is that this small country with an area of less than 50,000 square kilometers and a population of only 3 million has "three presidents" and truly realizes "one country and three dukes".
The way the president is produced is also very peculiar, not through universal suffrage, as in ordinary countries, but according to the three major ethnic groups in the country: Muslims (also called "Bosniaks"), Croats, Serbs, one for each ethnic group, "full of fairness".
Why does the small country of Bosnia and Herzegovina have so many presidential offices?
Ethnic distribution in Bosnia and Herzegovina
First, Bosnia and Herzegovina in the cracks
In the 6th century AD, the Slavs living on the plains of Eastern Europe began to divide into three branches: east, west and south, of which the Yugoslavs migrated to the northern Balkan Peninsula around the 7th century to settle.
Migration of the Slavs
At that time, the Balkan Peninsula was in the midst of an east-west tug-of-war between the Frankish Empire and the Byzantine Empire. The Yugoslavs were also influenced and ruled by the two empires and embraced the cultures of different empires; It gradually split into the two largest ethnic groups, the Croats and Serbs.
The two ethnic groups are both From Yugoslavia, and the culture of the ethnic group is very common, and even Croatian and Serbian can directly communicate with each other, and at that time this ethnic difference was mainly reflected in the difference in beliefs:
▲ The Balkan Peninsula is a place where major religions clash
Croats were influenced by the Frankish Empire and were Roman Catholic; The Serbs were influenced by the Byzantine Empire and believed in Orthodoxy; As a result, the Yugoslavs split into two major religious camps.
It is precisely because of the difference in faith that the two ethnic groups that are "of the same language and the same species" have become "feuds". Serbia established an independent state around 768 AD; Subsequently, in the mid-to-late 9th century, Croatia also broke away from the control of the Frankish Empire and established a principality.
▲ Map of the distribution of power between the Frankish and Byzantine Empires in the 7th century
Bosnia, on the other hand, at the junction of the two major ethnic groups of Serbs and Croats, has given birth to a different regional culture.
The whole territory of Bosnia is mostly rugged and mountainous, which has been inaccessible and sparsely populated since the Middle Ages. Thus, Bosnia, at the junction of the two major Slavic groups of Serbs and Croats, became a "buffer zone" for both communities, and both communities had weak control over them. This provides an opportunity for Bosnia to form an independent regime and a cultural community.
Topographic map of Bosnia and Herzegovina
In the 12th century, some native Bosnian nobles gradually established an independent State of Bosnia, centered on the Bona Valley. Although the country is small and the people are few, this is tantamount to holding up a small piece of the world in the gap between the Cypriot and Croat ethnic groups.
Under the efforts of several generations of monarchs, the Bosnian state grew and grew, and its territory gradually expanded to the size of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Territory of the Kingdom of Croatia and distribution of Serbs
At the same time, Bosnia took advantage of the contradictions of its neighbors to gradually weaken the intervention of external powers such as the Byzantine Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary and the Austrians, and expand the independence of the country. This led to the gradual formation of the perception that "Bosnia is an independent entity" at that time.
In the late 14th century, the bosnian monarch Twiko I defeated the powerful serbian kingdom and became king for the first time. The concept of "Bosnians" is generally accepted by the local population.
It should be noted that precisely because Bosnia was a marginal area of the Slovaks and Croats, where the two communities lived together, "Bosnians" were only a political concept at that time, not an ethnic concept.
In short, the vast majority of the Bosnian population at that time considered themselves Serbs or Croats, but lived in the Bosnian state and had Bosnian "nationality". The rise of Bosnia from a "political concept" to a "national concept" will require a longer period of cultural integration.
Map of the territory of the Kingdom of Bosnia in the 12th-14th centuries
But at this time, many of the Bosnian countries' problems began to come to light.
With the development of feudalization, the increasing division of noble lords in Bosnia, coupled with the weakness of Bosnia's small and scattered population, further weakened the king's ability to centralize power, and the country was unstable.
External neighbors, on the other hand, always oppress and tear bosnians apart. Catholicism and Orthodox Churches remain in a state of east-west tug-of-war at home, with rulers still leading a fractured and isolated regime that will take longer to consolidate domestic resources to consolidate unity. But history hasn't given Bosnia more chances – the Ottoman Turks came.
▲ The Ottoman Empire conquered the Balkan Peninsula in the 15th century
The conquest of the Turks blocked the formation of an independent Bosnian nation. Until the 15th century, the vast majority of Bosnian Slavs considered themselves to be Catholic Croats or Orthodox Serbs. Bosnia was only a political-geographical concept and did not further form an independent nation.
Islamization and the Birth of the Muslim Community
In the late 15th century, the Ottoman Turks conquered the entire Balkan Peninsula. Bosnia is also under the iron heel of the Turks.
It is worth mentioning that in the process of conquest, the southern part of Bosnia was particularly stubborn in its resistance, which gradually split out of Bosnia, as the rulers of the region were given the title of Herzog (duke in High German).
Thus the name of this region gradually evolved into the transliteration of "Herzog" "Herzegovina", at which point Bosnia and Herzegovina was fully formed.
Location map of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Turks adopted a policy of fragmentation and adaptation to the Balkan regions. In the case of Serbia and Croatia, because of the solid national consciousness and religious beliefs that had developed, the Turks were allowed to maintain their original beliefs and could impose a system of "Millett" autonomy within Catholic or Orthodox communities only by paying religious taxes to the Ottoman Empire.
But Bosnia and Herzegovina is different. Bosnia and Herzegovina has long been on the fringes of the cultures and religious beliefs of the Two Nationalities of Serbia and Croatia, and its devotion to Catholicism or Orthodox Christianity is lower than that of Serbs and Croats.
▲ Expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans
At the same time, during the Kingdom of Bosnia, a Bosnian church with Bogomils heretical overtones grew and had a great influence on the Bosnian people.
Bosnian Christians, who appeared less "religious" and "authentic", gave the Turks the possibility of "assimilation". The important strategic position of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the northwestern border of the empire also forced the Turks to make up their minds to strengthen control.
▲ 14th-century murals of the theme of "anti-Bogmille heresy" in Bosnia
To this end, at the beginning of the conquest, the Turks sent a large number of Islamic clerics to carry out missionary activities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, attracting Christians to convert. And adopt a moderate policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina to win the hearts and minds of the people.
At the same time, the Ottoman Empire also threw out "interests" to tempt Bosnian Christians to convert. Converts could not only enjoy the privilege of tax reduction and exemption, but also serve in the administrative and military branches of the empire; Have a higher upside and even enter the imperial center; Historically, there have been many converted Muslim officials to the Ottoman Empire's prime minister, the Grand Vizier. Driven by this particular political and economic interest, a large number of Bosnian Slavs converted to Muslims.
▲ Ottoman "Royal Mosque" established in Sarajevo
Moreover, the most direct way is "immigration". At the beginning of the conquest, the Region of Bosnia and Herzegovina was poor, dilapidated, sparsely populated and lacked central cities. In order to enrich the frontier, the Turks migrated hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants into Bosnia and Herzegovina, and many new Islamic cities were built.
At the same time, the Ottoman Empire's policy of religious privilege also led to a large number of Muslims entering the cities, while Christians were forced to migrate out of the cities and settle in the countryside. By the 16th century, the Muslim population of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, had reached 98.7%.
Sarajevo in 1697 had a population of 80,000 and 120 mosques
The religious and immigration policies of the Ottoman Turks greatly changed the original ethnic structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
By the end of the 18th century, there were 265,000 Muslims, 253,000 Orthodox Serbs and 79,000 Catholic Croats. Among them, the Muslim community includes former Serbs and Croats who converted to Islam, as well as immigrants.
These immigrants were gradually assimilated by the converts, forming a native Muslim community. They still speak the Serbo-Croatian language and retain some of the cultural elements of their original peoples.
At the same time, it was also influenced by Islamic and Turkish culture, and gradually formed cultural characteristics and ethnic consciousness that were different from other ethnic groups, becoming a de facto emerging nation. However, this national status has not been officially recognized for a long period of history.
Portraits of subjects of different religious beliefs at the end of Ottoman rule
At this point, the ethnic structure in the Bosnia and Herzegovina region has changed from the "two-power confrontation" between "Serbs" and "Croats" to the three-legged stand of "Serbs", "Croats" and "Bosnian Muslims", which has continued to this day.
The post-Ottoman era
The surrounding powers have changed like a marquee, and the ethnic pattern and situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina have also changed like the "banner of the changing king of the city".
After the 18th century, the Ottoman Empire declined, and the Central European power of Austria (later Austria-Hungary) extended its hand to the Balkan Peninsula. At the same time, the Serbs, Bulgarians, Greeks and other peoples under Ottoman rule became independent.
Ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina are also affected by the external environment. The Bosnian Croats had a natural affinity with the same Catholic Austro-Hungarian Empire and wanted to merge with the Croats within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Bosnia and Herzegovina Serbs, on the other hand, want to merge with the newly independent Kingdom of Serbia and thus complete the unification of the Balkan Serbs.
The Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose status had plummeted due to the decline of the Ottoman Empire and were ostracized by the Christian communities, supported the autonomy of Bosnia and the preservation of the traditional rights of Muslims while retaining the suzerainty of the Turks.
In the 19th century, the Balkan dependencies of the Ottoman Empire became independent
In the decades that followed (from the end of the 19th century to the Second World War), there were three marked reversals in ethnic relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the first reversal, the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, and croats "ascended to the throne".
Map of the Balkan Peninsula in 1878, Serbia gained independence from the Ottoman Empire, and Bosnia and Herzegovina changed hands from the Ottoman Empire to the Austro-Hungarian Empire
In 1877, the Austro-Hungarian Empire took advantage of the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War and sent troops to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina, which it formally annexed in 1908.
Due to their common Catholic belief, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was particularly fond of croats, and the Bosnian Croats also hoped to merge with the Croats in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to form a "Greater Croatia" state, and the two sides "hit it off".
Map of the administrative divisions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Austro-Hungarian Empire's policies of de-Islamization in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the suppression of the traditional Muslim elite, and the introduction of Christian immigrants also caused a revolt among the Muslims. Serbian nationalists were also dissatisfied with the failure to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina and achieve national unity. The original ethnic pattern dominated by the Muslim ethnic group in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been transformed into the dominant ethnic group of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the second reversal, Bosnia and Herzegovina was incorporated into Yugoslavia, and the Serbs "came to power".
After World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire disintegrated, and Serbia, as the victorious power, successfully merged Bosnia and Herzegovina and other small Slavic states to establish the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
"Serbia", overwhelmed by victory, implemented "Greater Serbianism" in the Kingdom, not only rejected the equal "federalism" program, but also adopted a policy of oppression and assimilation of other nationalities, which further aggravated the centrifugal force of the various ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At this point, the dominant ethnic group in Bosnia and Herzegovina changed from Croats to Serbs.
After World War I, Bosnia and Herzegovina became a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
In the third reversal, the Independent State of Croatia annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Croats once again "came to power".
During World War II, Nazi Germany and Italian fascists perished and dismembered the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In order to support the use of the native Croatian fascist force, ustaše, they merged Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatia and formed a puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia.
At the instigation of fascist forces, Croatian ultra-nationalism soared, and large-scale oppression and even massacres of Serbs and Muslims were carried out.
During the occupation, the Nazis merged Croatia and Bosnia into a puppet independent Croatian state
These three "reversals" have caused the three major ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina to experience the process of "oppressing each other" and "being oppressed by each other", which has intensified the contradictions between the three ethnic groups and weakened their identification with the countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Cypriot and Croat ethnic groups mostly emigrate to their home countries or further hope to merge with their home countries, while the Muslims have been ostracized and oppressed for a long time due to their faith problems, and have further differentiated themselves from the Cypriots and Croats, and prefer to obtain officially recognized status as an "independent nation".
It was not until Tito established the socialist Yugoslav Federation after World War II that the ethnic contradictions in Bosnia and Herzegovina improved.
As the leader of Yugoslavia after World War II, Tito was well aware of the consequences of national contradictions and national oppression in history. Therefore, during his 36 years in power in Yugoslavia, he suppressed Greater Serbianism, eased national contradictions, and safeguarded the unity of Yugoslavia.
At that time, Bosnia and Herzegovina became one of the 6 republics in the Yugoslav Federation. In order to weaken the division of the Serbs, Tito advocated the separation of the Islamic Slavs from the Croats from the Serbs.
Bosnian Muslims, who had existed for nearly 500 years, were finally officially recognized as an emerging ethnic group in 1973, when they were called "Muslims" and later universally known as "Bosniaks". Ethnic groups rotate in power in Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to maintain national balance.
▲ Leader of socialist Yugoslavia - Tito
This balance, which relies on political strongmen, will not last. After Tito's death in 1980, Serbian nationalism rose and ethnic strife revolted.
Coupled with the imbalance in the economic development of the yugoslav federation and the widening gap between the rich and the poor, as the poorest and most backward member countries, the Bosnian Croats and Serbs have flowed to their own member states, further tearing apart the broken ethnic relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This also laid the groundwork for the outbreak of the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the dissolution of the Yugoslav Federation.
Fourth, the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the formation of the "one country, three dukes" pattern
The drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the bipolar pattern directly led to the disintegration of the Yugoslav Federation.
From 1990 to 1991, Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia declared their independence one after another, and Serbia and Montenegro still advocated the preservation of the Federation, which led to the intensification of conflicts between the parties and the outbreak of civil war in Yugoslavia. Unlike other countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina's fate is even more uncertain due to the lack of a dominant ethnic group.
Map of the distribution of ethnic groups before the dissolution of Yugoslavia
The Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina wanted to merge with the newly independent Croatian state and advocated independence for Bosnia and Herzegovina; At this time, the Muslim ethnic group in Bosnia and Herzegovina accounted for 44% of the total population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which made the Muslim ethnic group have a strong sense of locality and considered itself to be the real main ethnic group in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Thus also attempts were made to establish an independent Bosnian state. The Bosnian Serbs, on the other hand, opposed independence and advocated a coalition with Serbia and Montenegro to jointly maintain the "basic plan" of the Yugoslav Federation.
In March 1992, the Bosnian Croats and Muslims jointly launched an independence referendum; Unilateral declaration of Independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina was made in the case of a majority of Bosnian Serbs resisting the vote.
This caused strong resentment among the Bosnian Serbs, who, with the support of the Serbian state, declared their independence from Bosnia and Herzegovina on 6 April. Contradictions between the two sides intensified, and the three-year-long civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina broke out.
▲ The countries of Yugoslavia after the dissolution
At the beginning of the war, with the help of the Serbian state in charge of the former Yugoslav regular army, the Bosnian Serb offensive was rapid; By 1993, the Serbs controlled more than 70 per cent of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. At this time, there was also infighting between the Croat and Mu armed forces, and they fell into a scuffle.
Serbia is on the verge of controlling the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The major european and American powers do not want to see Yugoslavia "resurgence"; on the one hand, they reconcile the contradictions between the Croats and the Muks, so that the two sides form a "Mukh Federation"; on the other hand, they launch NATO intervention in the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina under the pretext of the mistaken bombing of civilians by Serb armed forces.
With the intervention of nato's strong armed forces, in October 1995, the parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina ceased hostilities. In December of the same year, the parties to the Civil War in Bosnia and Herzegovina mediated in the international community and negotiated in Dayton, Ohio, usa, and finally signed the Dayton Accords, reaching a compromise plan.
▲ The Bosnian parliament building was bombed during the civil war
According to the principles of the Dayton Accords, the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina is characterized by "one State, two entities and three constitutional peoples".
The so-called one State, and the boundaries of the newly independent Bosnia and Herzegovina State are determined in accordance with the borders of bosnia and Herzegovina as defined by the Federation of the Former Yugoslavia, maintaining a state subject and maintaining the unity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The two entities refer to respecting the objective situation formed by the warring parties during the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and determining that the new state consists of two political entities, the Republika Srpska, the Muslim and the Croat Federation.
Each of the two entities has a complete system of State, including the President, the Prime Minister of government and various ministries, parliaments, central banks, courts and other state institutions; There are also independent armed forces.
▲ Map of the situation of two "entities" in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The three constitutional peoples, on the other hand, recognize the equal status of muslims (Bosniaks), Croats and Serbs at the constitutional level, and try to maintain the balance of interests of the three communities.
It is precisely because of this principle that Bosnia and Herzegovina has adopted a collective head of state system in order to prevent any one of the three ethnic groups from holding the presidency for a long time. The Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina was established to exercise the functions and powers of the Head of State.
The Presidium consists of three members, muslim, Croat and Serb. Because the rotating chairman of the presidium is also customarily called the "president", this has created a strange political scene of "one country, three dukes" in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The three presidencies must be allocated not only "by ethnicity" but also by "divisional" elections. Simply put, it is "you choose yours, I choose mine, do not interfere with each other, wait until you have selected three to get together, and take turns to sit in the village." After the election is over, comparing the votes of the three presidents, the first rotating chairman of the current presidency will receive the largest number of votes.
▲Distribution map of the three ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Don't look at the design of the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina is quite complicated, in fact, the authority is not large. It is mainly limited to the diplomatic and financial spheres and must be subject to parliamentary and substantive constraints.
Office building of the Presidium of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Not only that, but the Constitution also stipulates that both entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina have certain diplomatic powers and can establish "special parallel relations" with their respective neighbors, even without the approval of the national parliament. This makes the president of Bosnia and Herzegovina's diplomatic power appear in name only.
The most critical military power, in fact, belongs only to the entity, and the three presidents can only coordinate military operations with the consent of the entity. Even without the consent of the opposing entity, the armies of different entities may not cross the line; In fact, the division of the state army of Bosnia and Herzegovina was tacitly acquiesced.
The principle of ethnic balance is not only reflected in the setting of the president of the country, but also in the entire State apparatus of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Important positions in the central government of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Council of Ministers) and the Congress of Bosnia and Herzegovina are also divided according to ethnicity, and places are allocated by the three communities and "take turns".
▲ The current members of the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, representing the Serbs, Muslims and Croats respectively
What is even more troublesome is that on top of this decentralized and weak central government, there is also a "foreign emperor" who controls the "imperial government".
According to the provisions of the "Dayton Agreement", after the war, the Bosnia and Herzegovina Peace Council and its executive committee were composed of the United Nations, the World Bank, NATO and other international organizations and the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Russia, And Japan, and sent high representatives to Bosnia and Herzegovina to supervise the implementation of the "Dayton Agreement."
▲The current presidium of Bosnia and Herzegovina
This "balanced system" has indeed eased the contradictions between the three ethnic groups in a short period of time and maintained stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
However, this representative system based on "ethnic sovereignty" determines not the "people" but the "ethnic group" behind the government, and "ethnic sovereignty" is not only not conducive to cultivating a unified national consciousness, but will make the three ethnic groups continue to strengthen their own national consciousness and weaken their sense of identity with the unified state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the same time, the interference of foreign forces is not conducive to the growth of the consciousness of Bosnia and Herzegovina countries.
This "reverse" effect is also reflected in the current tri-ethnic population, according to recent demographic statistics: Muslims (Bosniaks) account for 50.1%, Serbs account for 30.8%, Croats account for 15.4%, and other ethnic groups account for 3.7%. Many Serbs and Croats choose to immigrate to their home countries, while the proportion of Ethnic Muslims is rising.
▲ Bosnia and Herzegovina's religious composition in 2013, Islam accounted for 51%, Orthodox Church accounted for 31%, Catholicism accounted for 15%
The three ethnic groups of Bosnia and Herzegovina also have their own calculations: the Croats see Croatia join the European Union, the economy takes off, and hope to "return" to the home country; The Serbs, for their part, remain obsessed with the "Greater Serbian Dream" in their desire to merge with their home countries.
The rising proportion of Muslims, whose "native consciousness" has increased, considers themselves "true Bosnians" and wants to maintain bosnia and Herzegovina.
How bosnia and Herzegovina, a country with its own "bulk" attribute, can truly achieve national integration and national reunification still has a long way to go.