Bosnia-Hercegovina, 1908–1914

Abstract

In 1878, when Bosnia-Hercegovina was occupied, the population was divided among three component elements. The largest single element was the East European Orthodox (some 43 percent), followed by the Muslim (39 percent), and finally the Western European Catholic (18 percent). Both of the Christian components had developed ethnonational self-identities through influences that had infiltrated into Bosnia from its neighbors — the Orthodox espoused a Serb identity and the Catholics a Croat. Given the traditional theocratic culture of Islam, the Muslims, though ethnically Slavic and speaking the same language as the Christians, held no ethnonational affiliation. They maintained an Islamic cultural self-identity alone.