Demographic history of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Encyclopedia II - Demographic history of Bosnia and Herzegovina - Migrations and other

Demographic history of Bosnia and Herzegovina - Migrations and other

Demographic history of Bosnia and Herzegovina - 15th century - 19th century demographic changes

Frequent wars, religious persecutions, rebellions and uprisings, taking of children as tribute, high tributes and taxes, years of bad crops, epidemics, violence, and oppression caused high mortality rate and suffering of the whole population and instigated the migration flows that changed the ethnic structure of the population. So, with arrival of Ottoman empire coincided with the process of Christian population emigration from these regions, which has remained the main feature of the demographic development of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina until the present day. At the same time, intense internal shifting of the population together with recurrent migrations and also immigrations changed the distribution of some ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Ottoman period. The later stages saw particularely Moslem migrations from the region.

The population started to move out first from lower regions (Posavina and the river valleys) and then from highlands. The most intensive migration flows originated in the karst Dinaric regions of Herzegovina and western Bosnia. For centuries, the population from these regions, mostly Orthodox Christian, headed towards Serbia, Dalmatia, Slavonia, Lika, and other parts of Croatia (Military Frontier, Senj and its surroundings) and some parts of Slovenia (Žumberak, Carinthia).

The Serbian migrations from Western Bosnia (from Glamoč and Unac, Kupres, Grahovo, Knežpolje) were heading towards Lika, Croatia proper, and Slovenia, and steady emigration flows from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dalmatia, and Lika headed towards Slavonia, Syrmia, Banat, Bačka, and Baranja.

The population from Herzegovina, mostly members of the Herzegovinian Serbian tribes and Upper Podrinje settled in western Serbia and Šumadija.

Very strong emigration flows from the Dinaric region of Bosnia and Herzegovina headed towards Dalmatia. Jovan Cvijić states that the first migrations to Dalmatia from the Dinaric hinterland started already at the end of the 12th century, and they became stronger in the Ottoman period from the 15th to the 18th century. These migrations shifted the medieval population of Dalmatia that had previously migrated mostly towards Croatia, Slavonija, and Italy. According to Cvijić, almost all of the population of Makarska, Omiš, Split, Šibenik and Bukovica originated from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Of the Herzegovina origin were the inhabitants of the city of Dubrovnik and the vicinity, while the population of the Bay of Kotor originated from the Montenegrin and Herzegovina Dinaric regions.

With coming of Ottoman empire on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina first significant demographic change took place as almost all followers of than Bosnian Church converted to Islam as a method of keeping the ownership of the land they owned before the Ottoman conquest. Their conversions were also of a political nature while Orthodox and Catholic portions of the Bosnian population had their base in the Serbian Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church, Bosnian church followers had no representation on a larger geopolitical scene. Added motivation were also tax relief's for conversions to Islam.

The Serbian Orthodox population had the lowest natality in the period especially in the first stages of Ottoman rule, because the part was converting to Islam and the small bit that migrated to Dalmatia was converting to Catholicism.

The Catholic population also had a great share in the emigrations from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The emigration flows were directed towards Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Baranja and north-west Back At the same time, after the victorious wars of Austria against Turkey and the shifting of the border south of the Sava and Danube rivers, a portion of previous Croatian emigrants came back to Bosnia.

According to the findings of many an author, the Moslem population, in the period of the Ottoman rule, did not emigrate much compared to the migrations of the Orthodox and Catholic population. The Moslem population was characteristic of return migrations as soon as the political and economic situation again became stable or the state borders were shifted. The return movements of the Moslem population from the Seaside, Lika, Slavonia, Hungary, and other places are well known. For example, after the Siege of Vienna (1683-1699), territorial losses of the Ottoman Empire and the conquest of Lika and Krbava by the Austrian Imperial Army, mass movements of the Moslim population from those regions took place; the Moslem population headed towards Bihać, Cazin, and Bosanska Krupa where they created an enclave in the vast region of Bosnian Frontier. More intensified immigrations of the Moslim population were noticed in 1690 when they moved from Hungary and Slavonia to the region around the mountain of Majevica^{[citation needed]}.

In the Ottoman period, the Moslim population increased in number in Bosnia and Herzegovina somewhat due to immigrations of Moslems from the Sanjaks of Smederevo and Novi Pazar, and especially from some regions of Montenegro, Sjenica, and Pester. Immigrations of the Turkish population from Asia Minor also had an impact upon the growth of the Moslem population in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the 15th to 19th century.

However, the increase of the Moslem population was mostly due to their high natality rate given the patriarchic nature of the family structure. In such family structure the duties of the family members were strictly divided where female member of the family almost solely were bearing many children and taking care of the household while male members were engaged in running the land and the politics of the community.

Patriarchic structure was also evident in in Orthodox and Catholic families but the statistics don't tend to show as high natality rates. The difference (according to some literary sources of the time) was in the social levels of Moslems relative to their Christian counterparts where the former were landowners and hence upper and upper middle class who could afford to have more offspring and latter were land workers and hence lower middle to lower class. Such social organization corresponded to a feudal system of the time.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Migrations and other", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki