Bosnia and Hercegovina

Bosnia and Hercegovina (Republic of), independent country in southeastern Europe, bordering Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, formerly one of the 6 states of Yugoslavia. The population of over 4,300,000 consists of Serbian Orthodox, Croatian Roman Catholics, and Turkish Muslims. Before the war that ensued independence, the economy was largely based on agriculture, with wheat, maize, sugar, meat and milk the most important products. However, the war caused an economic standstill in the early 1990s, and the population became almost completely dependent on foreign-relief aid. When Yugoslavia disintegrated, Bosnia Hercegovina became an independent state. The Bosnian Serbs opposed independence from Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia and started to expand the area under their control. Despite international intervention, the war between the Muslims, Croatians and Serbs continued into the mid-1990s. In 1995 Bosnia was partitioned into two autonomous states: the Muslim-Croatic Federation Bosnia-Hercegovina and the Bosnian Serbian Republic (Republika Srpska). In 1997 the first federal Bosnian government was formed.

See also: Yugoslavia.