History of Republika Srpska - Overview

Overview

Through the history, territory of present-day Republika Srpska was part of the Kingdom of Illyria, the Roman Empire, the Hunnic Empire, the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths, the Kingdom of the Lombards, the Byzantine Empire, the Kingdom of the Avars, the medieval Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian states, the Bulgarian Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, the Austria-Hungary and Yugoslavia. From 1992 to 1995 it was a de facto independent country, while after 1995, it is one of two political entities that composing Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The borders of Republika Srpska are, with a few negotiated modifications, based on the front lines and situation on the ground at the time of the Dayton Peace Accords. As such, the entity is primarily a result of the Bosnian war without any direct historical precedent. Its territory encompasses a number of Bosnia and Herzegovina's numerous historical geographic regions, but (due to the above-mentioned nature of the inter-entity boundary line) it contains very few of them in entirety. Likewise, various political units existed within Republika Srpska's territory in the past, but very few existed entirely within the region.