Before we begin traveling through the years to sort everything out, see if you can find a good map of Europe. Locate the Adriatic Sea on this map. Then find Bosnia and Herzegovina on the east coast of the Adriatic. As you can see, Bosnia is just across the sea from Italy. It is located on what is called the Balkan Peninsula, somewhat to the northwest of Greece. Now, let's use that map as a base as we track the comings and goings of the people who ruled our mystery country.

Illyria
About 3,300 years ago, leaders from the Illyrian tribe of people conquered and settled part of what is now Europe. Their empire was based around the east coast of the Adriatic Sea, including the area that is now Bosnia. Many of the Illyrians were pirates, who ventured out on their boats to attack Greek and Roman colonies along the Adriatic's shores.

Roman Empire
You can imagine that the Illyrians' raids did not make them popular with their neighbors. About 2,000 years ago, the Illyrians were defeated by Roman armies and all their territory became part of the Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire, as we learned a few weeks ago in this space, was a vast and mighty empire that covered much of Europe, Palestine, Great Britain, and even North Africa and lasted for hundreds of years. Bosnia was part of this Empire.

Byzantine Empire
One thing that was unique for Bosnia during the time of the Roman Empire was that the boundary between the Western and Eastern parts of the Empire passed right through Bosnia. (The Eastern part of the Roman Empire was called the Byzantine Empire.) This meant that after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Bosnia continued to be part of the Byzantine Empire for several hundred years longer. It also meant that Bosnia's mix of different religions began: people in the Western Roman Empire were mostly Roman Catholic; people in the Byzantine (or Eastern Roman) Empire were mostly Eastern Orthodox. As we shall see, the mixing of different ethnic and religious groups in Bosnia has caused a lot of trouble over the years. Different groups haven't always gotten along.

Slavic Rule: Serbia, Croatia, and Hungary
About 1,400 years ago, the part of the Byzantine Empire on the Balkan Peninsula (where Bosnia is today) was conquered and settled by Slavic tribes. Two groups in particular, the Serbs and the Croats, settled in the area and ruled the people. This added even more to the mix of ethnic and religious groups in the area. In later years, the country of Hungary conquered the Croats in their country of Croatia, and also ruled what is now Bosnia. (Can you find Croatia, Hungary, and Serbia on your map? Croatia and Hungary are today independent countries; Serbia is part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.)

Independence: Bosnia at Last!
About 800 years ago (in about the year 1200) the people of Bosnia won their independence by fighting off their rulers from Hungary and Serbia. This independent country survived for several hundred years, and united the regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ottoman Empire
Independence ended in the 1400s, when Bosnia and Herzegovina was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. We learned about the Ottoman Empire a few weeks ago. It was a large empire that was based around what is now the country of Turkey and that extended to include the Balkan Peninsula, the Middle East, and parts of North Africa.

During the 400 years the Ottoman Empire ruled the area of Bosnia, people from two new religious groups - Muslims and Jews - moved into the area. Once again, the mix of religions and ethnic groups in Bosnia became more complicated.

Austria-Hungary
By the late 1800s, the Ottoman Empire was becoming much less powerful and had gone to war with the country of Russia. Other countries in Europe began looking at the Ottoman Empire with interest. Maybe they could rule some of those areas. The country of Austria-Hungary won control of Bosnia in 1908.

However, many of the people of Bosnia did not welcome this change. Some of them wanted to join with other Slavic states rather than becoming part of the kingdom of Austria-Hungary. They wanted to form a new country, which would be called Yugoslavia. One of these people killed Francis Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria and heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, in 1914. That action led to the start of World War I.

Bosnia's history continued to be complicated during the 20th century. We'll learn more about that next week.

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