Country Name
Bosnia and Herzegovina is sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia.
Location
Bosnia is a country in South and Southeast Europe, located within the Balkans.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is bordered by Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to the north and southwest.
It is not entirely landlocked; to the south, it has a narrow coast on the Adriatic Sea, which is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) long and surrounds the town of Neum.
Capital
Sarajevo.
Reason for Naming
The name is believed to have derived from the hydronym of the river Bosna coursing through the Bosnian heartland.
According to philologist Anton Mayer, the name Bosna could derive from Illyrian "Bass-an-as", which would derive from the Proto-Indo-European root "bos" or "bogh"—meaning "the running water".
According to English medievalist William Miller the Slavic settlers in Bosnia "adapted the Latin designation Basante, to their idiom by calling the stream Bosna and themselves Bosniaks.
The name Herzegovina "Herzog's [land]", from the German word for "duke" originates from Bosnian magnate Stjepan Vukčić Kosača's title, "Herceg (Herzog) of Hum and the Coast".
Hum, formerly Zahumlje, was an early medieval principality that was conquered by the Bosnian Banate in the first half of the 14th century.
The region was administered by the Ottomans as the Sanjak of Herzegovina (Hersek) within the Eyalet of Bosnia up until the formation of the short-lived Herzegovina Eyalet in the 1830s, which remerged in the 1850s, after which the entity became commonly known as Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On the initial announcement of independence in 1992, the country's official name was the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina but following the 1995 Dayton Agreement and the new constitution that accompanied it the official name was changed to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Flag
The flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina was adopted on 4 February 1998.
The flag consists of three colors Blue, Yellow, and white. It contains a wide medium blue vertical stripe on the right side with a yellow right triangle joining the band and the top of the flag; the rest of the flag is medium blue with seven full five-pointed white stars and two half stars top and bottom along the hypotenuse of the triangle.
The flag features colors often associated with neutrality and peace, white, blue, and yellow, they are also colors traditionally associated with Bosnian culture and history.
The blue background is representing the flag of Europe, the blue and white colors are from the Pan-Slavic Tricolore.
The gold shield is taken from the arms of King Stephen Tvrtho, 1376-1391.
The three points of the triangle stand for the three main ethnic groups or "constituent peoples" of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs. The triangle represents the approximate shape of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The stars, representing Europe, are meant to be infinite in number and thus they continue from top to bottom.
Language
Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian are the three official languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The primary language is Bosnian, although all three languages bear similarities with each other. The influence during this period resulted in the numerous Turkish and Arabic loanwords heard today in the Bosnian language.
The Minority Languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina recognize the following minority languages: Albanian, Montenegrin, Czech, Italian, Hungarian, Macedonian, German, Polish, Romani, Romanian, Rusyn, Slovak, Slovene, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Jewish.
The immigrant language with the largest community of speakers in Bosnia and Herzegovina is Bulgarian, Italian, Ukrainian, Turkish, and German.
Religion
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a nation that has several religions.
Islam is the major religion in Bosnia & Herzegovina it spread during Ottoman rule, and Muslims from other countries escaping wars migrated into Bosnia and Herzegovina, thereby increasing the population of Muslims in the country. The majority of the Muslims are Bosniaks who also form the largest portion of the entire country's population (48%) only 38% are Sunnies.
Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the second largest religious grouping in Bosnia and Herzegovina after Islam and the most widespread denomination of Christian religion in the country. Orthodox Christians currently form 31% of the total population in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many of these Orthodox members are mainly Serbs.
Roman Catholics have long been a presence in the region, though in smaller numbers. current statistics show that the number of Roman Catholics remains lower compared to Muslims and Orthodox Christians.
The smallest groups are Agnosticism, Atheism, and others.
Currency
Convertible mark (BAM).
Time Zone
+02:00 GMT. (Summer Time),
+01:00 GMT.
Government Regime
Federal parliamentary constitutional republic.
Climate
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the climate is the Mediterranean in the small stretch of the plain near the sea, it is colder and more continental in the hilly and mountainous west-central area, mainly because of altitude, while it is continental, with cold winters and hot summers, in the northern plains. Cold waves from the north and the northeast, typical of the Balkan Peninsula in the winter months, bring snow and frost in most of Bosnia, while they only bring wind and a bit of cold in the plain of Mostar. Rainfall is plentiful in most of the country, except in some sheltered valleys and the northernmost area, near the border with Croatia.
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