Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country in the western Balkans with a complex administrative structure established by the 1995 Dayton Agreement following the Bosnian War. The country is home to a mix of Bosniak, Serb, and Croat communities sharing a mountainous, landlocked landscape threaded with rivers. Sarajevo, the capital, famously hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics and is known for its blend of Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and socialist architectural heritage.
Population and area are rounded.
The flag was imposed in 1998 by the international High Representative after the country's politicians could not agree on one, and it deliberately avoids the symbols of any single ethnic group. The yellow triangle echoes the shape of the country and its three points stand for the three constituent peoples: Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs. The blue and the line of white stars, cut off at the top and bottom to suggest they continue, refer to Europe.
Blue field with a yellow right-angled triangle and diagonal white stars.
Bosnia has one of the oldest bridges in the world — the Stari Most in Mostar, built in 1566.
Bosnia and Herzegovina's flag is often mixed up with these. Learn to tell them apart:
Every flag that has flown over Bosnia and Herzegovina, from today back through time.
Imposed by High Representative Carlos Westendorp in 1998 after local politicians deadlocked, it was deliberately neutral. The yellow triangle suggests the country's shape and its three peoples; the stars represent Europe.
A white flag with a blue shield of six golden fleurs-de-lis, echoing the medieval Kotromanić dynasty. It flew throughout the Bosnian War but was seen by Serbs and Croats as too Bosniak-centric.
As a constituent Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia flew the plain Yugoslav red-white-blue tricolor with a gold-bordered red star — identical to the federal Yugoslav flag.
After centuries under the Ottomans, Bosnia was occupied by Austria-Hungary in 1878 and formally annexed in 1908, flying a red-and-yellow flag with the provincial arms. Vienna's rule industrialised the province but stoked the Slav nationalism that, in Sarajevo in 1914, lit the fuse of the First World War.
In 1831 the Bosnian captain Husein Gradaščević led a revolt against Ottoman centralising reforms, briefly winning autonomy for Bosnia under a green flag with a gold crescent and star. The uprising was crushed in 1832, but "the Dragon of Bosnia" became an enduring folk hero of Bosnian self-rule.
Empires, kingdoms and republics that once covered part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The civil ensign split 50/50, joining the Austrian red-white-red with Hungary's colors and both shields — the Dual Monarchy never agreed on a single flag for the whole empire.
The blue-white-red Pan-Slavic tricolor symbolized the union of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, flown by the Kingdom until the Axis invasion of 1941.
Tito's Partisans added a red, gold-bordered star to the tricolor; it marked the country's communist character until the federation's violent breakup in the 1990s.
The red field with white crescent and star was standardized in 1844; older Ottoman banners varied widely and often carried multiple crescents.
The 11 states, provinces and regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina with their own flags.
Una-Sana
Posavina
Tuzla
Zenica-Doboj
Bosnian Podrinje
Central Bosnia
Herzegovina-Neretva
West Herzegovina
Sarajevo Canton 10 (Livno)
Republika SrpskaBosnia and Herzegovina shares a land border with 3 countries: Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia.
4 other national flags use the same main colours as Bosnia and Herzegovina's.
Play Globalio and learn Bosnia and Herzegovina's flag
Slovenia
Croatia
Montenegro
Serbia
Argentina
Kosovo
Nauru
Uruguay