BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA AND CONSEQUENCES OF EXCLUSIVIST IDEOLOGIES
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA AND CONSEQUENCES OF EXCLUSIVIST IDEOLOGIES

Summary/Abstract: The conflict between the Croatian and Serbian peoples and the ensuing suffering at the beginning of the Second World War in the Independent State of Croatia, particularly in parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina where the population was the most intermingled, were not simply an incident but rather an event which constitutes one of the tiles in the mosaic of conflicts and suffering which occurred throughout Europe and the world at that time, and which ensued as a result of various policies and ideologies that were operatively based on the principle that the other had to be annihilated to achieve one’s own objectives. Such policies and ideologies also appeared in the territory inhabited by the Croats and Serbs. The multilayered distrust between these two peoples, who were compelled to share the same living space due to historical circumstances, provided fertile ground for the emergence of their exclusivity, which, depending on circumstances, meant a gain for one and a loss for another. To clarify the circumstances underlying the conflict and suffering, this paper first presents the root causes which led to them, and then the wartime events that led to the collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia.

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