Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Wikipedia-Article "Herzegovina"
Herzegovina (natively Hercegovina/Херцеговина) is a historical and geographical region in the Dinaric Alps that composes the southern part of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina. The area of Herzegovina composes 9948 km² or 10190 km² according to other sources.
In the 1991 census, Herzegovina was recorded of having a population of 437,095 inhabitants. The ethnic composition of the population was the following: 206,457 were Croats (47.2%), 112,948 Bosniaks (25.8%), 93,047 Serbs (21.3%), 18,494 Yugoslavs (4.2%), and 6,149 were registered as 'others' (1.4%).
The Herzegovina terrain is mostly hilly, karst except for the central valley of the river Neretva. Largest city is Mostar, in the center of the region. Other larger towns include Trebinje, Konjic and Čapljina. Borders between Bosnia and Herzegovina are unclear and often disputed.
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History
In early Middle Ages, the territory of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina was divided into many smaller more or less independent territories. Herzegovina encompasses the regions then known as the Land of Hum or Zahumlje and Travunija. Westernmost parts of Herzegovina belonged to the Kingdom of Croatia. The book De Administrando Imperio mentions Zahumlje and Travunija as two regions inhabited by Serb tribes.
After 1320s, all of these lands became a part of the Bosnian kingdom. In a document sent to Friedrich III on January 20, 1448, Stjepan Vukčić Kosača called himself Herzog of Saint Sava, lord of Hum and Primorje, great duke of the Bosnian kingdom (Herzog means duke in German) and so the lands he controlled became (much later) known as Herzog's lands or Herzegovina.
In 1482 Herzog was overpowered by Ottoman forces led by his own son, Ahmed Hercegović, who accepted Islam. In the Ottoman Empire Herzegovina was organized as a province (sanjak) within the state (pashaluk) of Bosnia. The name of the country was changed to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1853, as a result of a twist of political events. It was part of the Ottoman Empire for a bit less than four centuries. By the end of this period, there happened a major uprising known as the Herzegovinian rebellion.
In 1878, Herzegovina was occupied by Austria-Hungary. This caused great resentment among its Bosniak and Serb populace which together resisted the invaders in smaller flare-ups that ended in 1882.
Today's Herzegovina
In the modern Bosnian-Herzegovinian state, Herzegovina is divided between the two entities (see Bosnia and Herzegovina and History of Bosnia and Herzegovina). Republika Srpska doesn't have any special arrangements for Herzegovina (though the term Trebinje Region is sometimes used for this). In the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Herzegovina belongs to cantons Herzegovina-Neretva, West Herzegovina and partially to the Herzeg-Bosnia Canton.
Its western parts are inhabited mostly by Croats, the eastern parts mostly by Serbs, and there is a significant Bosniak population along the flow of Neretva, including cities Mostar, Konjic and Stolac. The population of Herzegovina was mixed prior to the Yugoslav wars as well as the Second World War, both of which saw ethnic cleansing on a large scale.