Primorska banovina u politici upravne podjele Bosne i Hercegovine
Littoral Banovina in the Politics of Administrative Division of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Summary/Abstract: At present, when we are once again faced with the question: quo vadis Bosnia and Herzegovina, towards new integration or towards further disintegration? – it is undoubtedly useful to show how and when the process was initiated of its administrative-territorial division and its connecting with the neighbour states in the 20th century; in this case, with Dalmatia in 1929 within the Littoral Banovina, and with the Banovina of Croatia ten years later. This paper provides a detailed account of the size of territory and population with regard to various denominations on the level of 8, i.e. 13 districts which comprised 38, i.e. 70 municipalities of BiH. The population data based on the 1931 census, the last carried out in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, are the starting point of an attempt to establish the ratio between the Catholic majority and the Islam and Orthodox minorities. In the period of the Littoral Banovina, the Catholic population in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian districts had the absolute majority of 63%, and in the Banovina of Croatia – 53%. Beside the Catholics, the same counties were inhabited by minorities of Islam and Orthodox denominations, which were in the majority in some municipalities and districts. In Dalmatian districts of the Littoral Banovina, 84% of the population were Catholics, while the percentage in BiH districts was 63%, which means that the percentage on the level of the Banovina as a whole was 75%. Consequently, many were right to perceive and proclaim that the Littoral Banovina was Catholic by denomination, and Croatian by ethnicity, although this became a fact only when it joined the Banovina of Croatia together with the Sava Banovina.

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