Bosnia: Migrations

The paper is a reprint of a very informative review of migrations in Bosnia published almost 60 years ago. The author first notes that the [Slavic] population that first settled Bosnia spoke variants of the ikavian-ţakavian dialect spoken also in neighbouring parts of Croatia (although the interrogative ča itself was not common). From the 13th century the jekavian-štokavian dialect expanded from the Southeast, from areas in modern Montenegro. This change was greatly due to immigration of Vlachs, who had adopted jekavian-štokavian. Although earlier Vlach immigrants had adopted the indigenous ikavian idiom, as well as associating themselves with Catholicism or with the Patarene Bosnian Church, later arrivals spoke jekavian-štokavian and adhered to Eastern Orthodoxy. In the 14th century the former group, living on both sides of the Neretva valley and in the Dinaric range, expanded to areas of Croatia, whereas the Eastern Vlachs had already established themselves on the left bank of the Drina river. By 1450 all Vlachs in Bosnia spoke jekavian-štokavian. In the 15–16th centuries the Ottomans favoured the settlement of Vlachs in Bosnia. The Vlachs served in Ottoman military structures, provided transportation services and were useful in the integration of conquered western and northwestern lands. In general, the establishment of Ottoman rule in Bosnia induced major changes in the population and in migration flows. The author divides this history into three periods. The first lasted from the initial Ottoman conquests to the wars of 1683–1699. At its start in the 15th century almost all Patarenes adopted Islam, especially in areas where the Bosnian Church was strong, but also in areas where Catholicism dominated, where some Catholics embraced Islam. Conversions of Catholics to Islam intensified in the 16th century and throughout the 17th, to a different degree in various regions: a) in Central Bosnia conversion was almost total, b) along the Sava river, where the Catholic Church was better organised, the population either adopted Islam or remained Catholic; c) in the West (in regions that had been part of Croatia), constant war, war loses and emigration had devastated the population, so that new Muslim settlers had to be brought in; the remaining local population converted to Islam, except a small group in Bihaš that remained Catholic; d) along the Neretva the situation was similar to the one along the Sava. In this period, several migration flows intensified. The Ottomans had built many forts, around which commercial suburbs soon developed and evolved into prosperous towns. This stimulated urbanisation, especially of Muslims, and corresponding depopulation in areas near successful towns, such as Sarajevo (Vrhbosna) and Banja Luka. Also with the arrival of Ottoman rule, there was a lesser migration of Catholics to Croatia and more distant lands. A much more intense Muslim migration followed – i.e. during Ottoman expansion to parts of Croatia and also to Hungary, in accord with Ottoman policy Muslims were settled in newly acquired lands in order to consolidate the conquests. Bosnia was the only area in the region with a large Muslim population on which the Ottomans could count on for this purpose. As a result, in the 16th century and into the 17th two fifths of the Bosnian Muslim population emigrated to other lands. The least originated from Central Bosnia and the most from the North West and parts of the Drina Valley. To correct the loss, the Turks brought in large groups of Vlachs. All in all, by the late 17th century the Bosnian population included some 100.000 Catholics, 120.000 Eastern Orthodox Christians (mostly Vlachs) and 450.000 Muslims. The wars of 1683–1699 marked the beginning of the second migration period. The Muslims suffered heavy war losses, primarily in the North and in the Bosna river valley, along which the Austrian army had advanced to capture and burn Sarajevo, and also in West Bosnia (where 20,000 Muslims died in the wars). Yet as the Ottoman Empire lost areas in Croatia and Hungary, a great mass of Muslims, previously settled in these lands, moved to Bosnia. On the other hand, until the 1730s about 70,000 Catholics left Bosnia for contingent parts of Croatia. They were joined by 80,000 Orthodox Christians (who settled in Banija, Lika, Krbava, parts of Slavonia and North Dalmatia). Due to these changes, Bosnia became almost totally Muslim. However, in 1733 it was hit by a strong plague, which initiated the third migration period. This period, the 18th and early 19th centuries, saw large-scale migrations of Catholics from Dalmatia to South and Central Bosnia and all the way to the Sava, and also new migrations of Vlachs and a return migration of Orthodox Christians from Croatia. The Catholic population rose from 20,000 at the beginning of the 18th century to 90,000 by the century‘s end and to twice this number by 1850. The increase of the Catholics and Orthodox Christians brought about a more balanced structure of the three Bosnian groups. This was further influenced by an absolute reduction of the Muslim population, which suffered losses in a new plague in 1782 and finally was effected by emigration abroad in the late 19th and early 20th century