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Spark of War
A Bosnian Serb student named Gavrilo Princip assassinates the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, indirectly leading to the start of World War I. -
Annexation
Following 300 years under rule by the Ottoman Empire, Bosnia is annexed by Austria-Hungary, sparking international protest. At the time, Bosnia-Herzegovina is home to an integrated society of Bosnian Muslims, Serbian Orthodox and Croatian Catholics. -
Collapse
At the dissolution of the Austria-Hungary empire, Bosnia and Herzegovina become part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (soon to be renamed Yugoslavia). Bosnia's Muslim population, who considered themselves neither Serbs nor Croats became an afterthought. -
Enter the Nazis
Nazi forces conquer Yugoslavia, and all of Bosnia is ceded to the Independent State of Croatia, a World War II puppet state. Serbs, Jews, Roma and Muslims are sent to death camps. -
Tito's Partisans
Josip Broz Tito, a revolutionary, forms the multiethnic guerrilla movement Yugoslav Partisans to fight back against Axis powers. -
Liberation
The success of Tito and his Partisans convince the Allies to lend their support, and at a meeting of the Anti-Fascist Council of the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia re-establishes Bosnia and Herzegovina as a republic within Yugoslavia. Tito and his Partisans make up much of the new government. -
Arms Buildup
Post-war Bosnia becomes a center of production for the military defense industry, which leads to a large concentration of arms and military personnel that will later amplify the violence during the Bosnian War of the early 1990s. -
Winter Olympics
Sarajevo is host to the Winter Olympics, the second games held in a communist country. Photograph by Mrkvi -
Milosevic in Power
Slobodan Milosevic rises to power in Yugoslavia with a campaign emphasizing nationalism and racism. He is to become the most brutal European dictator since Hitler, and the first sitting head of state to be tried for war crimes. -
Ethnic Splits
Following collapse of communism, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina both declare their independence from Yugoslavia. This signals the end of multiethnic coalitions, as each group - Serbs, Croats and Muslims - attempts to establish its own sovereign territories. -
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Bosnian War
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Seige of Sarajevo
Serb forces occupy Sarajevo for nearly four years, turning this capital city of Bosnia-Herzegovena into a war zone. -
Open War
Throughout the early months of 1992, fighting begins in Bosnia between Bosnian Croats and Muslims against Serbs, who had boycotted a referendum calling for independence. Bosnian Serbs begin their siege of Sarajevo on April 6. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev -
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Foca Rapes
Over a period of two years, Serbian soliders and paramilitaries carry out a campaign of sexual terror against Bosnian Muslim women. Many of the victims are as young as 12, and a network of rape camps with the express purpose of impregnating women play a large part in the Serbian ethnic cleansing occurring around the country. The ICTY will later try and convict numerous Serb defendants for sexually enslaving Bosnian Muslim girls in Foca. -
Ethnic Cleansing
Serbs take power and begin opening concentration camps, where killings, torture, and brutal interrogations occur. Camps such as Omerska and Trnopolje gain infamy, the latter of which operates as staging ground for massive deportations of civilians - mostly of women, children, and elderly men. Killings and rape are standard practice.
Photograph provided courtesy of the ICTY -
Safe Havens
The United Nations Security Council instructs the The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) to ensure Sarajevo, Goražde, Srebrenica, Tuzla, Žepa and Bihać become safe havens. The group prioritizes securing the Sarajevo airport, which has become a front line in the war.
Photo by Ludovic Hirlimann -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an international military cooperative, gets involved in the Bosnian conflict, when it shoots down four Serbian jets that had violated the no-fly zone. -
U.N. Intervention
UNPROFOR, which had been deployed to stabilize neighboring Croatia, has its mandate expanded and deploys into Bosnia to protect the country's airspace and support deliveries of humanitarian supplies. -
Srebrenica Massacre
Serbs overrun the safe haven of Srebrenica and begin an 11-day massacre of Muslim men and boys. An estimated 8,000 are killed in what the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) will later define as a genocide. -
Big Fish
The ICTY indicts Bosnian Serb Army General Ratko Mladic and politician Radovan Kardadzic for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. Kardadzic is currently on trial in The Hague after evading police for more than 10 years, while Mladic remains at large. -
NATO Airstrikes
NATO begins Operation Deliberate Force, a three-week campaign against Serb military targets in response to the violation of safe havens. It is the first use of force since NATO's founding in 1949. -
Clinton Commits Troops
U.S. President Bill Clinton, during a nationally televised address, calls for U.S. support for sending 20,000 American troops to Bosnia. See Video of Clinton's Address -
Dayton Peace Accords
In November of 1995, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher brokers a meeting between Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian leaders at an Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio. The agreement, which effectively ends the Bosnian War, is signed into law in Paris on December 14. The accord gives about half of the territory to a Bosnian-Croat coalition and the other half to Serbs. -
High Representative
Carl Bildt, a Swedish diplomat who had formerly served as a U.N. envoy to the Balkans, becomes High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this role, he is tasked with overseeing that the Dayton Peace Accords terms are followed.
Photo by Bengt Nyman -
First ICTY Trial
The ICTY convicts Croatian Serb Drazen Erdemovic for crimes against humanity for his role in the Srebrenica massacre. He would later become a witness in the trial against Slobodan Milosevic. -
NATO Peacekeepers
SFOR, a multinational NATO peacekeeping force, is deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina to ensure stability. -
Milosevic Trial
During Milosevic's tenure as President of Serbia, the ICTY indicts him initially for crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo, but later adds charges of genocide in Croatia and Bosnia. He dies while on trial. -
EU Takes Over
The European Union Force (EUFOR) takes over peacekeeping duties from NATO in Bosnia and Herzegovina -
Srebrenica Trials
The ICTY begins trials for seven former high-ranking Bosnian Serbs accused in the Srebrenica genocide. All plead not guilty. -
U.N. Security Council
Bosnia and Herzegovina assumes a U.N. Security Council seat for the 2010-11 term. -
Convictions
The ICTY convicts seven Bosnian Serb military and police officials in a trial over the Srebrenica massacre. Two are convicted of genocide and sentenced to life terms, while the others are found guilty of a range of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
