December 20, 2009 
Author: Antonello F. BIAGINI & Andrea CARTENY
Abstract: The fall of Constantinople (1453), symbol of the inevitable expansion of the Ottoman power, was followed by the conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Ottoman Empire in 1463. Nonetheless, the Ottoman Empire has revealed its power in the military field and also in political and institutional matters. The debut of the process of Islamisation is undoubtedly the main feature of Bosnia’s modern history which fuelled the creation of several myths and legends, alongwith a vigorous historiographic debate. With the system of the millet effective up until 1878, the non-Muslim communities preserved their confessional identity: under the Habsburg administration the Muslim community equally searched for areas of expression. After the Great War and the union with other Slavic peoples to the South, moving past the Ustasha period,Tito’s socialism provided Bosnia with the dimension of a state inhabited by Croatians, Serbs and Muslims. The after-Titoperiod, the Yugoslav wars and the Dayton agreements have revived the debate on the national question and its ethno-confessional components in Bosnia.
Keywords: Bosnian, millet, minorities, Ottoman, Yugoslav