The Bosnian war is a product of the historical development of the Balkans. It is the most complex area of Europe (if not the world), because of its ethnic, linguistic and religious composition.

Three of the groups, which make up the population, the Greeks, the Vlachs and the Albanians, claim descent from classical times, whereas the Slavs have migrated from surrounding countries. There has been a long history of complicated migration within the country, which means groups have become mixed geographically, making territorial exclusivity difficult to achieve (Carter 1995). The Ottoman Empire that originated in Turkey helped delineate boundaries, but since its decline in the late 1800's there have been continuing arguments over regional independence and boundary lines. In 1918 Yugoslavia was formed with the intention of creating a single state that would bring the various regions of the Balkans together. These were Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Macedonia. The creation of a Yugoslav state should have brought an end to the rivalry between the communities but the religious, cultural and linguistic differences were too great to maintain peace (Samary 1995).

In the few years before fighting broke out, groups of ethnic minorities fell into two categories. The first being those who were separated from their main ethnic group by international boundaries but lived in contiguous areas such as the Albanians who populated Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro, or the Greeks who resided in Southern Albania. The second consisted of those in non-contiguous areas, for example the Serbs who resided in Croatia and Bosnia or the Germans who inhabited parts of Vojvodina. The distribution of the minorities is best observed in the map below (Carter et al 1995).

The outcome of this dispersal meant that on a national scale no single ethnic group was in the majority – single tower blocks often housed a multiethnic population in Sarajevo. However a sense of rivalry remained, sufficient to create animosity between neighbouring villages that had different ethnic identities.

Tensions within Yugoslavia were strained and it took little time for the chain of events, that started in the 1980's with the crumbling of Communism in Eastern Europe and the death of Tito, to degenerate into hostilities, giving rise to the concept of "ethnic cleansing". The Serbs in Yugoslavia were strong supporters of Communism and its failure was interpreted by them as a defeat. This did not affect the Slovenes or the Croats, who had embraced Western culture and economic strategy, and were more economically advanced than their neighbours because of this (Carter 1995). Until that time Yugoslavia had been dominated by the Serbs, who held many of the more influential positions in the running of the country, particularly within the Communist Party, the Peoples Army and the Secret Police. The changing state of the country's political base raised many fears for them because Serbs would no longer benefit from the subsidies that were generated by the redistributed incomes of the more advanced republics. Their response came in the form of a declaration made by Serbian Nationalist politicians who stated that the diminution of Yugoslavia would be regarded as a direct threat to Serbian existence.

In 1987 the Serbian leader, Slobodan Milosevic, attempted to secure the integrity of Yugoslavia or initiate a Serbian hegemony but failed due to the continuing refusal by the Slovenes and Croats to accept Communism (Samary 1995). This lead to the pursuit of Serbian independence, using a campaign designed to whip up political fervour and by generating an ideology that led Serbs to perceive themselves as a "hero" nation fighting the rest of the world. The situation was intensified by the creation of a petition "against the persecution of Serbs in Kosovo" and the publication of a memorandum by the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts which defined the Slovenes, Croats and Albanians as enemies and hinted that armed force was a viable means to defining territory (Samary 1995). Both documents involved the work of leading Serbian intellectuals who manipulated the Serbian population until they fully believed that their neighbours were responsible for the threat on their way of life.

The Serbs were soon in a position to create new boundaries since their predominance in Serbia proper and also in large areas of Bosnia and Croatia left other ethnic groups greatly outnumbered. The imposition of their power began with the drawing of maps delineating new territorial lines that attempted to divide Bosnia and create a new republic that would link with Serb areas of Croatia. Non-Serb Bosnians realised that their position within Yugoslavia was weakening and opted, along with the Macedonians, for independence in an effort to prevent their treatment as second class citizens. Maps were continually drawn and redrawn as both sides contested changes in territory, until altercations between regions culminated in the Serbs ordering their troops to kill, rape and remove Croats and Muslims from Serb controlled areas. Ethnic cleansing had begun, and it did not take long for Serb aggression to spread throughout Yugoslavia, until all the regions were involved in the conflict.