Bosnia and Herzegovina is in the Balkan Peninsula in South Eastern Europe. Other countries in this area include Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria and Greece.

Much of Bosnia and Herzegovina is mountainous with areas of karst (limestone).

Maglic Mountain (2386 m), in the Sutjeska National Park, is Bosnia and Herzegovina's highest peak.

The Sutjeska National Park, named after Sutjeska the mountain river, is Bosnia and Herzegovina's oldest National Park.

During the twelfth century a Bulgarian Christian religion called Bogomilism was adopted by many in the region.

An unusual religious monument seen throughout the countryside is the stecak, a medieval tombstone.

In the second half of the fifteenth century the Ottoman Empire conquered Bosnia and Herzegovina. Inhabitants who became Muslims are known as Bosniaks.

A printing house in Gorazde (operating from 1520 to 1523) printed The Gorazde Psalter. The printing house had to move to Romania as the Turkish rulers did not encourage printing.

The name of the city of Tuzla is derived from the word "tuz", the Turkish for salt. Tuzla's salt comes from its salt water springs.

Jews were given refuge in Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Ottomans when they were expelled from Spain and Portugal at the end of the fifteenth century.

Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908.

On 28 June 1914 the Serbian organisation known as the "Black Hand" assassinated the heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne in Sarajevo. This was one of the causes of the First World War (1914-1918).

The Kingdom of Serbians, Croats and Slovenes was formed after the First World War. This also included Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia.

Following the Second World War (1939-1945) Bosnia became an independent republic within the Federal Peoples' Republic of Yugoslavia, led by Marshall Tito. Yugoslavia consisted of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro.

Independence from Yugoslavia was followed by fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina leading to three years (1992-1995) of inter-ethnic war within the country.

In 1995 a massacre occurred in the UN safe haven of Srebrenica. Bosnian Muslim males were killed by Bosnian Serb forces.

The Dayton Peace Agreement was signed at the end of 1995.

The Dayton Peace Agreement established the post of High Representative to oversee the civilian aspects of the Agreement.

As well as a national government of Bosnia and Herzegovina a second tier of government dealing with internal affairs was formed: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska.

In May 2014 severe flooding caused half a million people to be evacuated from their homes.

In 2016 the UN tribunal in The Hague sentenced former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic guilty of genocide and war crimes sentencing him to forty years in jail.

In 2017 former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity during the Bosnian War and sentenced to life imprisonment.