Sarajevo Canton - History

History

The history of Sarajevo Canton dates back to Neolithic times, when the Butmir culture made its mountains and hills their home. In ancient times, the Canton was occupied by the Illyrians. The local tribe, the Daesitates, controlled most of the area. They were a warlike bunch and the last Illyrian tribe to resist Roman rule, which finally came in AD 9. Under Roman rule, many roads were constructed in the region, as well as a city on top of modern day Ilidža. During the Middle Ages, the area of Sarajevo Canton was a key part of the Bosnian Kingdom. The toponym Vrhbosna existed somewhere in the region and was one of the notable settlements at the time.

True development of the region came after the Ottoman conquest when local Muslim noble Isa-Beg Isaković established the roots of the modern city of Sarajevo, between 1461 and 1463. The region grew along with the city, which quickly, after Istanbul, became the most important in the Balkans. Later rule by Austria-Hungary modernized and westernized the region. Under Yugoslavia, the Yugoslavian government further developed the area, which more than tripled in size. Much of this progress was offset however by the Yugoslav Wars in the early 1990s.

The canton was a result of this warfare, created by the Washington Accords in 1994, and its boundaries defined by the Dayton Accords in 1995.