WikipediaExtracts:Bosniaks
Extracted from Wikipedia --
The Bosniaks, are a South Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Bosnia and Herzegovina and constitute the largest ethnic group in Bosnia and Herzegovina, followed by Serbs and Croats. They share a common ancestry, culture, history and language emanating from the Bosnian historical region; and traditionally and predominantly adhere to Sunni Islam for which reason they are often also referred to as Bosnian Muslims although this is an imprecise ethnic descriptor today. The Bosniaks constitute significant native communities in Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Kosovo as well. Largely due to displacement stemming from the Bosnian War and Genocide in the 1990s, they also form a significant diaspora with several Bosniak communities across Europe, the Americas and Oceania.
A distinct native community of Bosnian Muslims began to form after the Islamisation of the Christian multi-confessional Slavic-speaking population in Bosnia and Herzegovina and neighbouring regions at the end of the 15th and, mainly, in the 16th century, following the Ottoman conquest of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. During Ottoman rule, the social and cultural life of the population in Bosnia and Herzegovina was structured along religious lines, and the Bosniak name was applied to the population primarily as a territorial designation in a time when ethnic or national self-identification was absent among the population regardless of religion. Despite an initially steep increase upwards to three-fourths of the Bosnian population at its height, wars and plagues would later throughout Ottoman rule decimate the Bosnian Muslim population who, in contrast to their rural Christian counterparts, lived in more densely populated urban centres and were obligated to partake in Ottoman military campaigns. In the late 17th century, a large influx of Muslim immigrants from neighbouring western lands outside Bosnia and Herzegovina came to make up around half of the total Bosnian Muslim population. Significant migrations occurred during the 19th century as well, from present-day Serbia and Montenegro.
With the collapse of Ottoman rule and the rise of European nationalism in the 19th century, a tri-ethnic reality was installed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the Bosnian Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians gradually being incorporated into the neighboring Croat and Serb national identities. For the Bosnian Muslims, interposed between the stronger and rivalling Serb and Croat national movements, and weakened by large-scale emigrations to Ottoman Turkey and the loss of influence, the process of ethno-national self-determination would proceed well into the late 20th century when the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence and the Bosnian Muslims affirmed the Bosniak name for their nation. Today Bosniaks are recognized by the Dayton Agreement and the constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina as one of the three constitutive nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina alongside Serbs and Croats.
