Socio-economic development of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period 1948-1991 and its impact on the population dynamics of nations in BiH
Abstract
The study examines the effects of turbulent modernization of Bosnia and Herzegovina after World War II, which modified fundamentally the almost exclusively agrarian and strongly conservative rural society. The paper analyzes how and to what extent socioeconomic changes affected not only the spatial distribution of population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also basic demographic components (natural movements and spatial mobility).
Such changes resulted in geographical polarization of the population process during the socialist period, i.e. in significant differences between rural and urban areas. Different demographic behavior and different mobility of Muslims, Serbs and Croats radically changed their numerical representation in the country.
The growth in the numbers of Muslims and decrease in the numbers of Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the time of political and economic collapse of Yugoslavia was one of the key factors, which inevitably contributed to the escalation of ethnic tensions and subsequent civil war.