Between Peace Co-existence and Fratricidal Fights. Bosnia and Hercegovina as the Exemplification of the Multicultural Society

Abstract

Bosnia and Hercegovina due to its geographical position and complicated past history, forcing it into the reach of influence and rivalry among several civi-
lizational circles, became the conglomeration of various nationalities and ethnic groups. The bloody conflict in the years 1992–1995 proved how little suffices to turn the previously peacefully co-existing nations against each other. Multiculturalism, admired all over the world during the Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo 1984, transpired to be the curse when nationalistic symbolic power holders came into prominence. The paper tries to analyze the ethnic alteration in Bosnia and Hercegovina across the history, focusing mainly on such vital moments as: the arrival of Sephardic Jews, intensified colonization during Austro-Hungarian rule, Second World War, and finally – the process of constituting the new nation – Bosniaks.