Bosanska Krajina - History

History

In the 6th century, northwestern Bosnia was part of the Roman province of Dalmatia. It fell under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Roman Empire. Shortly thereafter, Eurasian Avars and their Slavic subjects from northern Europe invaded Dalmatia and settled in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In the 7th century the Serbs and Croats formed principalities initially under the Eastern Roman Empire.

Northwestern Bosnia, along with the rest of Pannonian Croatia, soon fell to the Franks. During this time many Croats were Christianized. The Croats scored several victories against the Franks; as a result, the Franks relinquished their claims on Pannonian Croatia. In the 10th century, Pannonian Croatia joined with other Croatian lands in an independent Croatian kingdom. Northwest Bosnia remained part of Pannonian Croatia until 1102, when Croatia joined the Kingdom of Hungary.

By the 14th century, the Ottoman Empire had significantly expanded into the western Balkans in a series of wars, and the Turkish westward incursions eventually made this region an Ottoman borderland. Jajce had fallen to the Ottomans in 1463, marking the downfall of the Kingdom of Bosnia. The Battle of Krbava field in 1493 effectively ended the Kingdom of Croatia's persistent hold over the entire region, restricting them to fortified cities.

In the late 15th century, a local Croatian lord (knez) Juraj Mikuličić erected a fort in the village of Bužim near Bihać, fearing the advancing Ottoman army. Mikuličić died in 1495, but the Bužim fort would not pass to Ottoman control until 1576.

Over the course of the 16th century, the Turks took hold of much of the region. The fort of Ostrovica (near Kulen Vakuf) passed to one Skender-pasha in 1501. In 1520, the Croatian ban Petar Berislavić was killed in a Turkish ambush in the Bihać area. Turkish commander Gazi Husrev-beg was made the governor of the Sanjak of Bosnia in 1521 and proceeded to expand its territory, and conquered Udbina the same year. By 1523, Gazi Husrev-beg's army had also captured the southern regions including the forts of Knin, Ostrovica (near Benkovac) and Skradin. In the following years, his army gradually overtook much of the Bosanska Krajina region.

After the crucial 1526 Battle of Mohacs, the Croatian nobility convened the Parliament on Cetin and in 1527 Croatia became part of the Austrian Habsburg Empire, and the Ottoman Empire formally established the Eyalet of Bosnia. The Croatian lands in general were reduced to a fraction of what they encompassed, and only the westernmost parts of today's Bosanska Krajina still resisted the Ottoman rule. Nevertheless the Ottoman armies preferred to advance towards their targets in the northwest through more easily passable terrain, such as along the river Danube, for example Vienna was first besieged in 1529 after the army had gone through Osijek, Mohács and Buda. The natural obstacles in and around the region, especially at the time, included the rivers Sava, Vrbas, Una and Sana, as well as the mountains such as Plješevica, Šator, Klekovača, Raduša, Grmeč, Kozara and Vlašić.

In January 1528, the Ottomans under Gazi Husrev-beg took command of Jajce, Banja Luka and Ključ, followed by Krbava and Lika in the spring of that year.

Turkish incursions expanded further to the north, and Charles of Styria erected a new fortified city of Karlovac in 1579. In 1580 the Turks responded by declaring the Pashaluk of Bosnia which unified all the Sanjaks, including territory in modern-day Croatia. As a result of the wars and border changes, the Catholic Croat population moved north, and was replaced with Orthodox Serbs and Vlachs.

The Bužim fort, under Ottoman control since 1576, was successfully held by the Ottomans in numerous battles (1685, 1686, 1688, 1737) and it was also upgraded (1626, 1834) until their eventual surrender in the 19th century. The building remains to this day as a monument to the Ottoman conquest.

Bihać held out longer than Bužim, and even at one point served as the capital of Croatia. But, in 1592 the Turkish army of about 20,000 under Hasan-pasa Predojević, an Ottoman vizier, attacked and forcefully occupied Bihać. Records show that nearly 2,000 people died in defense of Bihać, and an estimated 800 Croat children from Bihać were sent into servitude in Turkey, to be educated in Islam and become Yenicari. Hasan-pasha Predojević pressed further north into Croatia, but was defeated in the June 1593 Battle of Sisak.

When the Ottoman Empire lost the 1683-1690 War of the Holy League to the Habsburg Monarchy and her allies, and ceded Slavonia and Hungary to Austria at the 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz, the northern and western borders of the Bosnian Province (corresponding to the modern Bosnian borders), became a permanent frontier between the Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Ottomans wanted to turn the tide of warfare to their side, so, opposite to the Habsburg Military Frontier, they formed a Bosnian Frontier which was in the Military Frontiers like, split on captains, each having its own fortifications and military regiments.

The Frontier was further settled by Serbian herders, who served as militia, defending it from hostile incursions and maintaining order, or as medics and workforce for the much needed frontline with the Austrian Empire. Since then, the Serbs formed the majority of the Bosnian Frontier's population.

During the military intrusions of their fellowmen from the Military Frontier, the Uskoci, mostly helped them.

The Bosnian Frontier, like the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina, participated in the 1875 - 1878 Herzegovina Uprising.

During World War II, Bosanska Krajina was known for its very strong resistance to the Fascist regime. The anti-fascist Partisan movement in Bosanska Krajina region had one of the most ethnically mixed compositions than in any other part of former Yugoslavia during WWII. In the winter of 1942/1943 the Partisans established the so-called Republic of Bihać in Bosanska Krajina. Soon afterwards, Bosanska Krajina was also the place of historical agreements that have taken place in Jajce and Mrkonjić Grad in 1943, ones that established the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in its current borders, as well as the Federation of Yugoslavia.

During WWII the Ustasha Jasenovac concentration camp was established just across the river Sava from Bosanska Krajina, and many of the region's inhabitants (mainly Serbs, Gypsies and Jews but also some communist Bosnians and Croats) were killed there. The Jewish virtual library estimates the number of Serbs killed by the Ustaša to be between 330,000 and 390,000, with 45,000 to 52,000 Serbs murdered in Jasenovac.

During the 1992-95 Bosnian war, Bosanska Krajina was divided between Republika Srpska, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia. The region was also a place of concentration camps, including Manjača and Omarska where predominantly Bosniaks were held, tortured, raped, and killed.