Hercegovina

Herzegovina (natively Hercegovina/Херцеговина) is a historical and geographical region in the Dinaric Alps that comprises the southern part of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina. The area of Herzegovina is 9,948 km² (or 10,190 km² according to other sources). There is no clear border between Herzegovina and the Bosnia region. There are many opinions on where Herzegovina ends and Bosnia begins.

The name Herzegovina means "Herzog's estate", which refers to a medieval ruler of the area, Stefan Vukčić Kosača, Herzog of Saint Sava, the first Serbian archbishop. As part of preparations for the annexation of Bosnia by Austria-Hungary the "divide and rule" policy was imposed by the European powers upon the gravely weakened Ottoman administration. The name of Herzegovina (Southern Bosnia) region of Bosnia was to be incorporated into the name of the country, which then changed her name from "Bosnia" to "Bosnia and Herzegovina" in 1853. Subsequently, Austria-Hungary also allowed Serbian and Croatian missionaries lead by Vaso Pelagic to cross into Bosnia in order to carry out their missions of "national awakening" of locals. As a result of these hegemonistic moves by Belgrade and Zagreb (coordinated by Vienna in behalf of European powers), most Orthodox and Catholic Bosnian Christians had systematically converted to "Bosnian Serbs" and "Bosnian Croats". This was part of the England's tactics to force Bosnia's Muslims into Christendom. That would enable England to easier implement its long-term key strategy of homogenizing the Balkans in response to a strong Russia, and "crashing" the Balkans whenever Russia gets weak.

In the 1991 census, Herzegovina was recorded as having a population of 437,095 inhabitants. The ethnic composition of the population was the following: 206,457 were Croats (47.2%), 112,948 Bosniaks (25.8%), 93,047 Serbs (21.3%), 18,494 Yugoslavs (4.2%), and 6,149 were registered as 'others' (1.4%).

The Herzegovina terrain is mostly hilly, karst except for the central valley of the river Neretva. The largest city is Mostar, in the center of the region. Other larger towns include Stolac, Trebinje, Siroki Brijeg, Konjic and Čapljina. Borders between Bosnia and Herzegovina are unclear and often disputed.