ABSTRACT
The history of Bosnia and Herzegovina as an entity dates back further than either of the other two case studies. The first independent Bosnian state (then without the Herzegovina) existed in the twelfth century. In 1377, Bosnia, now with the Herzegovina, became an independent kingdom.1 In the fifteenth century, Bosnia and Herzegovina was occupied by the Ottomans, who kept it as the entity it was before, including its former name and borders, and integrated it into the Empire. During the Ottoman occupation a large number of inhabitants converted to Islam, making Muslims into the third largest group after Catholics and Greek Orthodox in the area. After massive unrest in the Ottoman Empire, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH2) was handed over for administrative tasks to AustriaHungary in 1878 at the Berlin Congress. The monarchy consciously tried to establish a multiethnic model in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but increasing nationalism from the neighbouring countries of Croatia and Serbia started influencing the Bosnian Catholics and Orthodox, who began defining themselves as Croats and Serbs, i.e. defining their nationality via their religion – something that seems a logical reaction following the Ottoman administrative system which classified its citizens according to religion. Simultaneously, Bosnian Muslims were prompted to do so as well.3 Benjamin Kallay, the then minister for finance, thereupon developed the notion of Bosniak as a separate ethnic group, although this only became accepted in 1993 as an official designation for Bosnian Muslims. While the Muslim elite of the early twentieth century preferred to choose Serb or Croat affiliation, the masses mostly stayed apolitical regarding this question.4 Up until 1948, 72,000 Muslims defined themselves as Serbs, 25,000 as Croats, and 778,000 as ‘undecided Muslim’ in the census.5 Ethnically speaking, all inhabitants were, from the seventh century onwards, independently of their religion and mixed with the different occupying powers, from the same group: ‘all that one can sensibly say about the ethnic identity of the Bosnians is this: they were Slavs who lived in Bosnia.’6
