BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, HISTORY OF

history of the area from ancient and medieval times to the present. Additional reading William G. Lockwood, European Moslems: Economy and Ethnicity in Western Bosnia (1975), by a social anthropologist, studies village life in the 1960s, focusing on a Muslim community and suggesting the ways in which economic activity in the regional marketplace integrates different ethnic group members. John V.A. Fine, Jr., The Bosnian Church: A New Interpretation (1975), a highly detailed study of religion and conversion patterns in pre-Ottoman and Ottoman Bosnia and Herzegovina, argues powerfully against the Bogomil interpretation. Ivo Banac, The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics (1984), deals with the period between the two world warssee especially pp. 359378, which consider Muslim political activity and self-perceptions. Two books cover the entire history of Bosnia from early medieval times to the 1990s: Noel Malcolm, Bosnia: A Short History (1994); and Robert J. Donia and John V.A. Fine, Jr., Bosnia and Hercegovina: A Tradition Betrayed (1994). Mark Pinson (ed.), The Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina (1994), contains essays on the Muslim population from the early Ottoman period to the present. Valuable information on Austro-Hungarian policy is presented in Peter F. Sugar, Industrialization of Bosnia-Herzegovina, 18781918 (1963). Bosnia's international significance in the years before World War I is discussed in Bernadotte E. Schmitt, The Annexation of Bosnia, 19081909 (1937, reprinted 1970); and the background to the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand is vividly presented in Vladimir Dedijer, The Road to Sarajevo (1966). On the war that began in 1992, the report by Helsinki Watch, War Crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2 vol. (199293), contains both cool analysis and a mass of carefully substantiated detail. Noel R. Malcolm The economy As a republic of the Yugoslav federation, Bosnia and Herzegovina adhered to the unique economic system known as socialist self-management. In this system, business enterprises, banks, administration, social services, hospitals, and other working bodies were intended to be run by elected workers' councils, which in turn elected the management boards of the bodies. In practice, the level of workers' control was extremely variable from enterprise to enterprise, since ordinary workers often were not motivated to participate except in matters such as hiring, firing, and benefits and in any case lacked the necessary time and information to make business decisions. In the 1980s Yugoslavia's large foreign debt and rising inflation lowered the standard of living in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the period immediately following the 1991 war in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina's official economy collapsed. Huge increases in the price of oil, falling imports and exports, hyperinflation, shortages of food and medicine, insolvent banks, and unpaid pensions all resulted in a swelling black market, or informal economy. In addition, war after independence caused widespread destruction, so that any eventual peace would have to be followed by a complete rebuilding of the economy. Resources Bosnia and Herzegovina has important reserves of iron ore around Banja Luka and in the Kozara Mountains, bauxite near Mostar, and lignite and bituminous coal in the regions around Sarajevo, Zenica, Tuzla, and the Kozara Mountains. Zinc, mercury, and manganese are present in smaller quantities. Forests of pine, beech, and oak provide an important source of timber. The country's considerable hydroelectric potential has been increasingly exploited, while fishing potential remains underutilized. The land Relief Bosnia and Herzegovina has a largely mountainous terrain. Numerous ranges, including the Pljeivica, Grmec, Klekovaca, Vitorog, Cincar, and Radua, run in a northwest-southeast direction. The highest peak, reaching 7,828 feet (2,386 metres), is Maglic, near the border with Montenegro. In the south and southwest is the Karst, a region of arid limestone plateaus that contain caves, potholes, and underground drainage. The uplands there are often bare and denuded (the result of deforestation and thin soils), but, between the ridges, depressions known as poljes are covered with alluvial soil that is suitable for agriculture. Elevations of more than 6,000 feet are common, and the plateaus descend abruptly toward the Adriatic Sea. The coastline, limited to a length of 12 miles (20 kilometres) along the Adriatic Sea, is bounded on both sides by Croatia and contains no natural harbours. In central Bosnia the rocks and soils are less vulnerable to erosion, and the terrain there is characterized by rugged but green and often forested plateaus. In the north, narrow lowlands extend along the Sava and its tributaries. Geologic fault lines are widespread in the mountainous areas. In 1969 an earthquake destroyed 70 percent of the buildings in Banja Luka, and in 1992 a minor earthquake shook Sarajevo. Drainage The principal rivers are the Sava, a tributary of the Danube, which forms the northern boundary with Croatia; the Bosna, Vrbas, and Una, which flow north and empty into the Sava; the Drina, which flows north, forms part of the eastern boundary with Serbia, and is a tributary of the Sava; and the Neretva, which flows from the southeast but assumes a sharp southwestern flow through the Karst region, continues through Croatia, and empties into the Adriatic Sea. Rivers in the Karst flow largely underground. Numerous glacial lakes dot the landscape. Bosnia and Herzegovina is also rich in natural springs, many of which are tapped for bottled mineral water or for popular thermal health spas. The people Ethnic and religious composition The country is home to members of numerous ethnic groups. The three largest are the Bosniacs, Serbs, and Croats, who constitute about two-fifths, one-third, and one-fifth, respectively, of the population. Physically the three groups are indistinguishable; culturally the major difference between them is that of religious origin and affiliation. Serbs belong to the Serbian Orthodox tradition, Croats to the Roman Catholic, and Bosniacs to the Islamic. The association of religion with national identity has meant that, in spite of low attendance at church and mosque services, religious identity has remained important. The demise of communism has brought religious revival within all three populations, partly in response to the end of official disapproval and partly in assertion of national identity. Patterns of ethnic distribution before 1992 created an intricate mosaic. Certain areas contained high concentrations of Serb, Croat, or Bosniac inhabitants, while in others there was no overall ethnic majority or only a very small one. Towns were ethnically mixed. Many larger villages also were mixed, although, in some of these, members of different ethnic groups tended to live at different ends or in different quarters. Most smaller villages were inhabited by only one group. Much of the violence of the postindependence war had the aim of creating ethnic purity in areas that once had a mixture of peoples. In addition to killing thousands, this ethnic cleansing displaced more than one-third of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina either within its borders or abroad. Language The mother tongue of the vast majority is the Serbo-Croatian language, but it is now known as Serbian, Croatian, or Bosnian, depending on the speaker's ethnic and political affiliation. There are some minor regional variations in pronunciation and vocabulary, but all variations spoken within Bosnia and Herzegovina are more similar to one another than they are to, for example, the speech of Belgrade (Serbia) or Zagreb (Croatia). A Latin and a Cyrillic alphabet exist, and both have been taught in schools and used in the press, but the rise of nationalism has seen a Serb alignment with Cyrillic and a Croat and Bosniac alignment with the Latin alphabet.