Culture Name: Bosnian - Herzegovinan

Orientation

Identification: The name "Bosnia" comes from the Bosna Pond, which cuts from the region. Herzegovina takes its name from the saying herceg, which designated this duke who decided the southern section of the region until this Ottoman invasion inside the fifteenth century. Both regions are culturally indistinguishable and for high of their history happen to be united under 1 government. Although ethnical variations in Bosnia as well as Herzegovina are small, cultural identity is extremely divisive. The three main groups are Muslims (Bosniacs), Serbs, as well as Croats. Before this recent civil warfare, many areas from the country had merged populations; now the populace has become a lot more homogeneous in almost all regions.

Location as well as Geography. Bosnia is southeastern Europe on the Balkan Peninsula, bordering Slovenia for the northwest, Croatia for the north, and Serbia and Montenegro south and southwest; it's got a tiny coastline along the Adriatic Sea. The land area is 19, 741 block miles (51, 129 block kilometers). Herzegovina could be the southern portion from the country; it is shaped like a triangle whose word of advice (surrounded by Croatia as well as Yugoslavia) touches this Adriatic. Northern Bosnia is characterized by plains and plateaus. The central and southeast regions are mountainous. The Dinaric Alps that cover this location also extend southward in to Serbia and Montenegro. These kind of regions, including areas around Sarajevo, the capital, are conducive to skiing and other winter sports and before the civil war were a popular tourist destination. A lot of the land (39 percent) is forested; only fourteen percent is arable. Most of the farmland is inside the northern section of the country.

The local climate varies from cold winters and slight, rainy summers inside the mountains to docile winters and very hot, dry summers in the rest of the country and a more Mediterranean climate at the coast. The entire region is vulnerable to severe earthquakes. Bosnia also is suffering from air and water pollution on account of poorly regulated industrial production inside the years before this civil war.

Demography. The people was 4, 364, 574 throughout 1991. A You. S. estimate from the population in September 2000 was 3, 835, 777; nevertheless, that figure seriously isn't reliable as a result of dislocations and deaths from military pastime and ethnic cleansing. In 1991, approximately 44 percent from the people were Bosniac, thirty-one percent were Serb, 18 percent were Croat, 5. 5 percent were Yugoslav (of merged ethnicity), and a couple of. 5 percent ended up of other civilizations. Since that time, the Bosniac populace has declined knowning that of the Serbs has risen on account of ethnic cleansing with the Serbian army. (The terms "Bosniac" as well as "Muslim" often are used interchangeably; "Bosniac" refers more explicitly a great ethnicity, to avoid confusion using the term "Muslim, " which means any follower from the Islamic faith. )

Considering that 1995, the country may be internally divided in a Bosniac/Croat Federation, which controls 51 percent from the land and in whose majority is Bosniac as well as Croat, and any Serb Republic, that has the other 49 percent possesses a Serb the greater part. Herzegovina, which edges Croatia, has historically had a Croat the greater part.

Linguistic Affiliation. Croatian, Serbian, as well as Bosnian language are essentially identical; the distinction most notable is a make a difference of identity governmental policies. Serbians write their language inside the Cyrillic alphabet, whereas Croatian and Bosnian make use of the Latin script. Turkish and Albanian are spoken by way of small minority.

Importance. The flag is blue, with a yellow-colored isosceles triangle for the upper right as well as seven five-pointed