Part 3/8:
To fully understand the current crisis, one must consider Bosnia's tumultuous history, particularly its transition from being part of the Ottoman and Habsburg empires to the complex political landscape following World War I. The disintegration of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s set the stage for Bosnia’s declaration of independence in March 1992, an act vehemently opposed by the country's Serbian population. Their rejection led to the establishment of the Republika Srpska, which plunged the nation into a brutal war marked by ethnic cleansing and mass atrocities.