Early history Archaeological evidence in Republika Srpska attest to pronounced human activity in the
Paleolithic. Within the wider region of Herzegovina, the discoveries tie the region's early activities to
Croatia and
Montenegro. More permanent settlement arose with the
Neolithic, which occurred along the rivers of Bosnia and Herzegovina as farming spread from the southeast. The
Butmir culture developed near present-day
East Sarajevo on the river
Bosna. A variety of idols, mostly of female characters, were found in the Butmir site, along with dugouts. The
Indo-European migrations of the
Bronze Age contributed to the first use of metal tools in the region, along with the construction of burial mounds—
tumuli, or
kurgans. Remains of these mounds can be found in northwestern Bosnia near
Prijedor, testament to not only denser settlement but also Bronze Age relics. With the influx of the
Iron Age, the
Glasinac culture, developing near
Sokolac in eastern Republika Srpska, was one of the most important of the country's long-standing Indo-European inhabitants, the
Illyrians. Later, these Illyrians—the
Autariatae—were influenced by the
Celts after the
Gallic invasion of the Balkans.
Roman period , 4th century With the end of the
Illyrian Wars, most of Bosnia and Herzegovina came under
Roman control within the province of
Illyricum. In this period, the Romans consolidated the region through the construction of a dense road network and the Romanisation of the local population. Among these roads was the
Via Argentaria, or 'Silver Way', which transported silver from the eastern mines of Bosnia to Roman population centres. Modern placenames, such as the
Una and
Sana rivers in the northwest, have Latin origins, meaning "the one" and "the healthy", respectively. This rule was not uninterrupted, however, with the suppression of the once-dominant Illyrian population came revolts such as the
Bellum Batonianum. After 20 AD, however, the entire country was conquered by the Romans, and it was split between
Pannonia and
Dalmatia. The most prominent Roman city in Bosnia was the relatively small
Servitium, near modern-day
Gradiška in the northern part of the entity. Christianity spread to the region relatively late at least partially due to the countryside's mountainous nature and its lack of large settlements. In the fourth century, however, the country began to be
Christianised en masse. With the split of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires in 395, modern-day Republika Srpska fell under the Western Roman Empire. Testament to its and Bosnia and Herzegovina's later religious polarisation, it was conquered as a frontier of the Eastern Roman Empire, a harbinger of the religious division to come.
Middle Ages in Banja Luka, first appearing as an early Slavic
hillfort or
gradina With the loosening of the Roman grip on the region came the
Migration Period, which, given Republika Srpska's position in southeastern Europe, involved a wide variety of peoples. Among the first was the invasion of Germanic peoples from the east and north, and the territory became a part of the
Ostrogothic Kingdom in 476. By 535, the territory was taken once again by the Byzantine Empire. At this time, the Empire's grip was once again relatively loose, and Slavs invaded the surrounding area. Modern-day Republika Srpska was therefore split between the mediaeval
Kingdom of Croatia and, according to
De Administrando Imperio,
mediaeval Serbian županije, including,
Bosna,
Zachlumia,
Travunija, and Serbia, then including land in eastern Bosnia. Parts of present-day Srpska were locations of settlement of the original
White Serb people. , a
UNESCO World Heritage Site, on
Treskavica mountain By the end of the 11th century, the entirety of Bosnia became part of the
Hungarian Crown Lands. Under Hungarian rule, the area was known as the
Banate of Bosnia. Later, however, under the rule of
Ban Kulin, regarded as the founder of Bosnia, the region became
de facto independent. In 1377, the Banate of Bosnia became the medieval Kingdom of Bosnia, under
Tvrtko I of
House of Kotromanić. The capitals of the kingdom were all located in its centre, while the northern periphery remained under nominal Hungarian rule as the region of
Usora. Architectural legacies from this period include
Kastel Fortress in Banja Luka, the fortress of
Doboj as well as castles, churches, and monasteries across the country. With the growth of the Ottoman Empire,
Stefan Tomašević, the last
Kotromanić ruler, surrendered Bosnia and Serbia to Ottoman tributary status. A Catholic, he was unpopular among the Orthodox population of Serbia, as well as the members of the
Bosnian Church. Refusing to pay tribute to
Mehmed the Conqueror, King Stefan was executed and much of Bosnia fell under direct
Ottoman rule in 1463 as the
Eyalet of Bosnia. The entirety of the country fell in 1482, with the founding of the
Sanjak of Herzegovina.
16th to 19th centuries , a
UNESCO World Heritage Site, in
Višegrad, founded by Ottoman Grand vizier of Serb origin
Sokollu Mehmed Pasha Ottoman rule in modern-day Republika Srpska saw another addition to its religious fabric—Islam. Members of the Bosnian Church, as well as many Orthodox and Catholic Bosnians, gradually converted to Islam. Ottoman rule left a profound architectural legacy in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. The most famous mosque from this period is the
Ferhadija mosque, located in
Banja Luka. In addition, the subject of
Ivo Andrić's book
The Bridge on the Drina, Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge in
Višegrad, was constructed by
Mimar Sinan, the most famous Ottoman architect, in 1577, for
Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha. Years earlier, the same Grand Vizier was born into an
Orthodox family in a small town in Bosnia and taken from his parents as a child for upbringing as a
janissary. His bridge is a symbol of the religious and cultural spans—and eventually conflict— that characterise Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina. With the
Ottoman-Habsburg conflicts of the late 17th and 18th centuries, parts of northern Republika Srpska became a part of the Habsburg Empire for relatively short periods. The rule was more permanent following the Austro-Hungarian invasion in 1878. Characterised by economic and social development not seen in the by-then backwards Ottoman Empire,
Austro-Hungarian rule was welcomed by many. However, many Muslims left Bosnia, leaving Serbs as the majority in the entirety of the Condominium.
20th century , one of the key sites in the
Genocide of Serbs, in which tens of thousands of Bosnian Serb civilians were brutally killed With the assassination of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, carried out by Bosnian Serb
Gavrilo Princip, a member of the
Yugoslavist Mlada Bosna, World War I broke out in 1914. Following the war, the territory of modern-day Republika Srpska was incorporated into the
Vrbas,
Drina, and
Zeta banovinas of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. Following the outbreak of
World War II and the
invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941, modern-day Republika Srpska fell under the rule of the Nazi
puppet state, The
Independent State of Croatia. Around 300,000 Serbs are estimated to have died under the
Ustashe regime as a result of their
genocide campaign; a slew of
massacres, as well as the use of a variety of concentration and extermination camps, took place in Republika Srpska during the war. The
Jasenovac concentration camp, located in modern-day Croatia, was the site of the deaths of some 100,000 people, about 47,000-52,000 of which were Serbs. Massacres also occurred at
Garavice and
Kruščica concentration camp in the eastern part of Bosnia. The regime systematically and brutally massacred Serbs in villages in the countryside, using a variety of tools. The scale of the violence meant that approximately every sixth Serb living in Bosnia-Herzegovina was the victim of a massacre and virtually every Serb had a family member that was killed in the war, mostly by the Ustaše. An estimated 209,000 Serbs or 16.9% of its Bosnia population were killed on the territory of Bosnia–Herzegovina during the war. Today,
monuments honouring these victims can be found across Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Yugoslav royalist and
Serbian nationalist movement
Chetniks, a guerilla force that engaged in tactical or selective
collaboration with the occupying forces for almost all of the war, pursued
genocide against Croats and Muslims, which included thousands of Croat and Muslim civilians killed on the territory of modern-day Republika Srpska. The Chetniks killed an estimated 50,000 to 68,000 Muslims and Croats. A December 1941 directive, attributed to Chetnik leader
Draža Mihailović, explicitly ordered the
ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Croats from
Sandžak and
Bosnia and Herzegovina. About 300 villages and small towns were destroyed, along with a large number of mosques and Catholic churches. The Chetniks were almost exclusively made up of
Serbs except for a large number of
Montenegrins who identified as Serbs. After World War II came a period of relative peace and economic development.
Ljubija mine and companies like
Agrokomerc played a vital role in much of the economic development of the
Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Literacy rates increased greatly, and the University of Banja Luka was founded in 1975.
Bosnian War Bosnian War and the proclamation of the Republika Srpska during the war at its greatest extent (around 1993) compared with current borders. Representatives of main political parties and some other national organisations and institutions of
Serb people in Bosnia and Herzegovina met on 13 October 1990 in
Banja Luka and formed the 'Serbian National Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina' as a Serb political body. In a session on 14–15 October 1991, the
People's Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, then part of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, approved the 'Memorandum on Sovereignty', as had already been done by
Slovenia and
Croatia, as a way to proclaim independence from the rest of Yugoslavia. The memorandum was adopted despite opposition from 83 Serb deputies belonging to the
Serb Democratic Party (most of the Serb parliamentary representatives) as well as the
Serbian Renewal Movement and the
Union of Reform Forces, who regarded the move as illegal. On 24 October 1991, the Serb deputies formed the
Assembly of the Serb People in Bosnia and Herzegovina (
Skupština srpskog naroda u Bosni i Hercegovini) to be the highest representative and legislative body of the
Bosnian Serb population, ending the tripartite coalition. The Union of Reform Forces soon ceased to exist, but its members remained in the assembly as the
Independent Members of Parliament Caucus. The assembly undertook to address the achievement of equality between the Serbs and other peoples and the protection of the Serbs' interests, which they contended had been jeopardised by decisions of the Bosnian parliament. On 28 February 1992, the assembly adopted the
Constitution of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the name adopted instead of the previous
Republika srpskog naroda Bosne i Hercegovine), which would include districts, municipalities, and regions where Serbs were the majority and also those where they had allegedly become a minority because of
persecution during World War II. The republic was part of Yugoslavia and could enter into union with political bodies representing other peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bosnian parliament, without its Serb deputies, held a
referendum on the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 29 February and 1 March 1992, but most Serbs boycotted it since the assembly had previously (9–10 November 1991) held a
plebiscite in the Serb regions, 96% having opted for membership of the Yugoslav federation formed by
Serbia and
Montenegro. The referendum had a 64% turnout and 92.7% or 99% (according to different sources) voted for independence. On 6 March the Bosnian parliament promulgated the results of the referendum, proclaiming the republic's independence from Yugoslavia. The republic's independence was recognised by the
European Community on 6 April 1992 and by the United States on 7 April. On the same day the Serbs' assembly in session in Banja Luka declared a severance of governmental ties with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The name
Republika Srpska was adopted on 12 August 1992. The political controversy escalated into the
Bosnian War, which would last until the autumn of 1995. The war was ended by the
General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, reached at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near
Dayton, Ohio, on 21 November and formally signed in Paris on 14 December 1995. Annex 4 of the Agreement is the current
Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which recognises Republika Srpska as one of its two main
political-territorial divisions and defines the governmental functions and powers of the two entities. The
boundary lines between the entities were delineated in Annex 2 of the Agreement. Between 1992 and 2008, the Constitution of Republika Srpska was amended 121 times. Article 1 states that Republika Srpska is a territorially unified, indivisible, and inalienable constitutional and legal entity that shall perform its constitutional, legislative, executive, and judicial functions independently.
Impact of war The
war in Bosnia and Herzegovina resulted in major changes in the country, some of which were quantified in a 1998
UNESCO report. Some two million people, about half the country's population, were displaced. In 1996, there were some 435,346 ethnic Serb refugees from the Federation in Republika Srpska, while another 197,925 had gone to Serbia. In 1991, 27% of the non-agricultural labour force was unemployed in Bosnia, and this number increased due to the war. By 2009, the unemployment rate in Bosnia and Herzegovina was estimated at 29%, according to the
CIA's
The World Factbook. Republika Srpska's population of Serbs had increased by 547,741 due to the influx of ethnic Serb refugees from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former unrecognised state of the
Republic of Serbian Krajina in the new
Republic of Croatia. In Eastern Bosnia, Bosnian Serbs besieged the town of Srebrenica, among others. Srebrenica was declared a UN 'Safe Area' in 1993, and it served as an enclave for Muslim refugees for the final years of the Bosnian War. In the middle of July 1995, more than 8,000 Muslim
Bosniaks, mainly men and boys, in and around the town of
Srebrenica, were killed in what became known as the
Srebrenica massacre, which was subsequently designated as an act of
genocide by the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the
International Court of Justice. Acts of
ethnic cleansing against the non-Serb populations reduced the numbers of other groups. Serb police, soldiers, and irregulars attacked Muslims and Croats and burned and looted their homes. Some were killed on the spot; others were rounded up and killed elsewhere or forced to flee. The number of Croats was reduced by 114,593 (the majority of the Croatian pre-war population), and the number of Bosniaks by some 268,907. Some 136,000 of approximately 496,000 Bosniak refugees forced to flee the territory of what is now Republika Srpska have since returned home. , 40% of Bosniaks and 8.5% of Croats had returned to Republika Srpska, while 14% of Serbs who left their homes in territories controlled by Bosniaks or Croats also returned to their pre-war communities. In the early 2000s, NGOs and the
Helsinki Commission alleged discrimination against non-Serbs. The
International Crisis Group reported in 2002 that in some parts of Republika Srpska a non-Serb returnee is ten times more likely to be the victim of violent crime than a local Serb. The Helsinki Commission, in a 2001 statement on 'Tolerance and Non-Discrimination', pointed at violence against non-Serbs, stating that in the cities of
Banja Luka and
Trebinje, mobs attacked people who sought to lay foundations for new
mosques. Non-Serbs have reported continuing difficulties in returning to their original homes, and the assembly has a poor record of cooperation in apprehending individuals indicted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Organisations such as the
Society for Threatened Peoples, reporting to the
United Nations Human Rights Council in 2008, have made claims of discrimination against non-Serb refugees in Republika Srpska, particularly areas with high unemployment in the Drina Valley such as
Srebrenica,
Bratunac,
Višegrad, and
Foča. According to the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
European Union Police Mission,
UNHCR, and other international organisations, security in both Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2015 was satisfactory. == Governance ==