This is a history of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has been inhabited at least since Neolithic Period (before 10,000 years ago). In the early Bronze Age, the Neolithic population was replaced by more warlike Indo-European tribes, the Illyrians. Celtic migrations in the 4th and 3rd century BC displaced many Illyrian tribes from their former lands, but some Celtic and Illyrian tribes mixed.
The Byzantines restored control over Bosnia at the end of 10th century, but not for long as it was soon taken by the Czar of Bulgarians Samuil. In 1019 the Byzantine Emperor Basil II, after he defeat of Samuilo, forced Serbian and Croatian rulers to acknowledge Byzantine sovereignty. Croatian king Petar KreÅ¡imir IV (1058–1074) exerted his influence over Bosnia in 1060s.
The arrival of the Ottoman Turks marked a new era in Bosnian history.
Though an Austro-Hungarian occupying force quickly subjugated initial armed resistance upon take-over, tensions remained in certain parts of the country (particularly Herzegovina) and a mass emigration of predominantly Muslim dissidents occurred. However, a state of relative stability was reached soon enough and Austro-Hungarian authorities were able to embark on a number of social and administrative reforms which intended to make Bosnia and Herzegovina into a "model colony". With the aim of establishing the province as a stable political model that would help dissipate rising South Slav nationalism, Habsburg rule did much to codify laws, to introduce new political practices, and generally to provide for modernization.
Once the kingdom of Yugoslavia was conquered by Nazi forces in World War II, all of Bosnia was ceded to the Nazi-puppet state of Croatia. The Nazi rule over Bosnia led to widespread persecution, murder, and near-total annihilation of the Jewish population, while the NDH Croatian state also specifically persecuted the country's Serbs. Many Serbs themselves took up arms and joined the Chetniks; a Serb nationalist and royalist resistance movement that both conducted guerrilla warfare against the occupying forces and committed numerous atrocities against chiefly Bosnian Muslim civilians in regions under their control.
Following the war, Bosnia was incorporated into the South Slav kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (soon renamed Yugoslavia). Political life in Bosnia at this time was marked by two major trends: social and economic unrest over property redistribution, and formation of several political parties that frequently changed coalitions and alliances with parties in other Yugoslav regions. The dominant ideological conflict of the Yugoslav state, between Croatian regionalism and Serbian centralization, was approached differently by Bosnia's major ethnic groups and was dependent on the overall political atmosphere.
Because of its central geographic position within the Yugoslavian federation, post-war Bosnia was strategically selected as a base for the development of the military defense industry. This contributed to a large concentration of arms and military personnel in Bosnia; a significant factor in the war that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. However, Bosnia's existence within Yugoslavia, for the large part, was peaceful and prosperous.
