Herzegovina
Herzegovina (natively Херцеговина/Hercegovina) is a historical region in the Dinaric Alps that composes the southern part of present-day Bosnia and 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. Trebinje and Srbinje are also two important towns.Herzegovina encompasses the regions known as Hum (or Zahumlje) and Travunija during the Middle Ages. In a document sent to Friedrich III on January 20, 1448, the ruler of Hum Stjepan Vukčić Kosača called himself Herzog of Saint Sava, lord of Hum and Littoral, great duke of the Bosnian kingdom. Herzog means count or duke in German, and the land remained known as Hercegovina. It withheld as an independent state against the Ottoman Turks up to 1482, after which it was part of the Ottoman Empire for less than four centuries before being occuppied in 1878 by the Austrians. This caused great resentment among its Muslim and Orthodox Serb populace which together resisted the invaders in smaller flare-ups that endede in 1882.
Its western parts are inhabited mostly by Croats, the eastern parts mostly by Serbs, and there is a significant Bosniak population in Mostar and the northern parts of the region (bordering Bosnia).
The population of Herzegovina was mixed prior to the latest Yugoslav War as well as the Second World War, both of which saw ethnic cleansing on a large scale.
See also
