Bosnia and Herzegovina - State Level

In its present borders, Bosnia-Herzegovina was created on 25 November 1943 at a session of Tito’s Communist Party, the winning party after the Second World War. After the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was created in 1945, Bosnia-Herzegovina existed as one of its six republics for nearly 50 years. In the early 1990s, the events in former Yugoslavia and consequently in Bosnia-Herzegovina started to multiply at a dramatic speed. After the referendum, which was boycotted by the majority of the Bosnian Serbs and endorsed by Bosniaks and the Bosnian Croats, Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence on 1 March 1992, but the existence of the newly proclaimed state was short – the war started the following month. The beginning of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina saw two sides at war with each other: on one side were Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks and on the other Bosnian Serbs. However, throughout 1993, Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks fought also heavily with each other. In March 1994, under U.S. pressure, fighting between Bosniaks and Croats ended, with the two sides agreeing to establish a federation on the territory they controlled (the ‘Washington Agreement’). They then joined forces against the Bosnian Serbs who lost ground to the offensive and endured NATO strikes in August 1995.