Sometimes, the best way to understand everything a people have gone through is to understand a dream.<br /><br />This is how many nations frame themselves and their own origins. No matter the context, there is always truth in the idea that before there was a nation, there was a dream. And that dream, however morally sullied by the ugliness of reality, consequences, and choices, can never and should never be discounted, even with the nations who have had their dreams frustrated for so long. In fact, the truth of that dream can be seen in those realities, consequences, and choices that we may not understand or accept on a moral level many years later. This can be seen in plenty of nations, both old and young, and that everyone recognizes, from the United States to Israel. But there are few nations whose history better represents this dynamic than the young nation (but very old culture) of Bosnia.<br /><br />In this conclusion to the Balkan Inferno trilogy that will lead us by the hand back into the good graces of the so-called “Muslim Nazis,” we look at that long history of that central, symbolic part of the old Yugoslavian Region we today call Bosnia-Herzegovina (or Bosnia, for short). We’ll look at many of the strange and mysterious aspects of this place’s history, including its own schismatic Bosnian Church, and the various attempts at self-determination peppering the timeline. This timeline is often dominated by collapsed empires—Roman, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, German—and failed kingdoms—Serbian and Croatian—but always present is the story of Bosnia.<br /><br />This nation and its people has always had others trying to define them for their own ends, but there has always been a force within that has wanted to define itself. This has indeed led to some truly disturbing decisions—namely alliances—but these decisions could always be tracked back to the dream that forges all nations. That is what we explore here today.<br /><br />History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider <a href="https://www.patreon.com/historyimpossible" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">donating today</a> to help keep me free and this show alive:<br /><br />David Adamcik<br />Michael Beach<br />Benjamin<br />Elias Borota<br />Johannes Breitsameter<br />Charles C<br />Mind Chatterings<br />Cliffydeuce<br />CR<br />daddygorgon<br />Paul DeCoster<br />Nathan Diehl<br />Bob Downing<br />Rob Duval<br />Gavin Edwards<br />Pierre Ghazarian<br />Jayson Griesmeyer<br />Nathan Grote<br />Benjamin Hamilton<br />Peter Hauck<br />Carey Hurst<br />Thomas Justesen<br />Mike Kalnins<br />Bryn Kaufman<br />Leah Kodner<br />Benjamin Lee<br />Maddy<br />Mounty of Madness<br />Jose Martinez<br />Mike Mayleben<br />Judy McCoid<br />Jim Miller<br />Kyle Mohney<br />Monica<br />Kostas Moros<br />Ryan Mortenson<br />Ben Mullen<br />Allen Pace<br />Skip Pacheco<br />David Page<br />Molly Pan<br />Jeff Parrent<br />Jean Peters<br />Brian Pritzl<br />AnaR737<br />PJ Rader<br />Gleb Radutsky<br />Aleksandr Rakitin<br />Phillip Rice<br />Chris Rowe<br />Jon Andre Saether<br />Alison Salo<br />Jake Scalia<br />Emily Schmidt<br />Julian Schmidt<br />Andrew Seeber<br />Joshua Simpson<br />Cameron Smith<br />Thomas Squeo<br />Brian Steggeman<br />Pier-Luc St-Pierre<br />Athal Krishna Sundarrajan<br />Jared Cole Temple<br />ChrisTX<br />Robert VS<br />Jonny Wilkie<br />Ricky Worthey<br />Michael Wroblewski<br />F. You
