The area of Bosnia, originally limited to the upper reaches of the Bosna, has been continuously settled since the Paleolithic, with the Neolithic Butmir culture leaving rich traces. End of the 1st millennium BC Illyrian tribes immigrated in the 4th century BC. Got under Greek cultural influences. Their formation of states, which were also influenced by the Celts after 400, fell in 156 BC. BC under the sovereignty of Rome, which incorporated the region, which is valuable because of its ore wealth (gold, silver, lead), into the province of Illyricum and later Dalmatia after the suppression of an Illyrian-Pannonian uprising (6-9 AD). The largely Romanized population, especially in the cities, converted to Christianity early on; 375 by the Ostrogoths devastated, assigned to the Western Roman Empire in 395, after temporary occupation by the Ostrogoths, Bosnia fell to the Byzantine Empire around 535.
From the early 7th century, South Slavic tribes immigrated, mixing with or displacing the Illyrian-Roman population. As a political unit, Bosnia (in Greek Bosona) is mentioned for the first time in the middle of the 10th century in the work of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos; Fought over between Croatia, Serbia, Byzantium and Zeta (Montenegro) and temporarily independent under the name of Rama, Bosnia came increasingly under the influence of Hungary from the middle of the 12th century; the Bosnian rulers called themselves Banovi (Ban). From an ecclesiastical point of view, Bosnia was under Roman jurisdiction. The Hungarian kings undertook several crusades in agreement with the papal curia against alleged heretical groups, which found support especially under Ban Kulin (1180–1203 / 04) and which until around 1250 played an important role in the development of the so-called Bosnian Church. Their heretical or schismatic character is just as controversial in research as their connection to Bogomils who immigrated from Bulgariaor to the contemporary western heretic movements (Albigensians, Waldensians, Cathars). The religious symbolism on the so-called Bogomile stones (stecci) from the 12th-16th centuries, some of which have been preserved in entire burial fields, is still a mystery. Century in Herzegovina and eastern Bosnia. The followers of the Bosnian Church called themselves “Krstjani” (Christians). Since the middle of the 13th century, the Bosnian Franciscans have increasingly taken on the leading role in the recatholization efforts. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Bosnia was largely able to become independent (especially fighting under Ninoslav [1232–50]) and Serbia, as well as in 1326 the country of Hum, which was under Serbian sovereignty, and Herzegovina from the middle of the 15th centurycalled, include. The economic backing was the exploitation of the rich precious metal deposits (silver, gold, copper, lead) in the mines near Kreševo, Fojnica, Zvornik and Srebrenica and the trade exchange with Ragusa / Dubrovnik in particular. The one built by Stjepan II. Kotromanić (1322–53) on the Adriatic coast and by his nephew Tvrtko I. (1353–91) the empire extended to include Serbian territories and the cities of the Dalmatian coastal zone (1377 acceptance of the royal title of Serbia and Bosnia) came back under Hungarian sovereignty and fell into disrepair. After the Turks had subjugated the area around Sarajevo in 1435, they conquered all of Bosnia in 1463 and also Herzegovina by 1482/83. Only the northern parts of the country bordering Hungary with the old royal city of Jajce were able to evade Turkish rule until the 16th century. In 1592 Bihać, then Croatian, was the last Bosnian city to fall. Bosnia and Herzegovina remained united as a paschal (since 1580 Eyalet Bosna; ruled by Turkish pashas).
According to franciscogardening, the majority of the nobility and later parts of the population converted to Islam and provided officials and significant troop contingents (janissaries) until the 18th century; the special ethnic unity of the Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) arose, which then worked with the local Croats, Serbs and others for centuries. Nations lived together peacefully. The Islamized nobility was able to preserve their manorial rights for a long time; the Bosnian Begs (Bei), as loyal followers of the Sultan, often held high administrative positions. In the 17th / 18th In the 19th century the Catholic Church was persecuted; the land was deserted. After the conquest of Sarajevo by Prince Eugene In 1697 Travnik became the seat of the vizier and the administrative center of the Bosnian paschalik. It was not until late (in the 19th century) that Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the national South Slavic autonomy and liberation movement that originated in Serbia and Croatia (Illyrism). Turkish reform attempts in Bosnia and Herzegovina were hindered by the local begs; the resulting uprisings in Herzegovina and then in Bosnia (1834, 1852–54, 1857–58, 1860–62, 1875/76) culminated in the Russo-Turkish War in 1877/78. After the preliminary truce of San Stefano (March 3, 1878), temporarily autonomous, Austria-Hungary was granted the right to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Berlin Congress (June 13–13, 1878). The formal annexation of the country on October 7, 1908 triggered a European crisis (Bosnian annexation crisis; Austria, History) and heightened tensions between the Kingdom of Serbia and Austria-Hungary, which gave Bosnia and Herzegovina a constitution and parliament; In 1881 the Archdiocese of Sarajevo was restored (suffragan dioceses in Banja Luka and Mostar). The Greater Serbian agitation in Bosnia favored the assassination attempt by the secret society of the »Black Hand« in Sarajevo, to which the Austrian heir to the throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife fell victim on June 28, 1914 (the cause of the First World War).
