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History of Bosanski Samac


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The city was founded by Bosnian settlers from Ottoman province of Smederevo in 1862. It was part of the Ottoman province of Bosnia by the time it was annexed by Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1887. After World War I, the city became part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. From 1929 to 1939, it was part of Drina Banovina; and from 1939 until 1941 it was part of the Banovina of Croatia. During World War II, Šamac, as all the rest of Bosnia-Herzegovina, was included into Nazi-controlled Independent State of Croatia. After 1945, the city was reintegrated within the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Tito's Yugoslavia.

In the early stages of the Bosnian war the town was occupied by Bosnian Serbs who established the provisional municipal government. Most Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats were ethnically cleansed. During the war, a semi-permanent front line was established against Croatian and Bosniak forces towards the neighboring Orašje. In 2003, three Bosnian Serb town leaders at the time of the Yugoslav Wars were sentenced in ICTY for crimes against humanity.

The town lies on an important strategic position –near Brčko. As with most other places under Serbian control, Srpska authorities removed the "Bosnian" adjective from the town's official name and changed it to "Srpski" meaning Serbian. Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats continued to refer to it by its historical name of "Bosanski Samac" causing tension among the inhabitants. A court order had the official name changed to simply Šamac removing any ethnic divisions in its previous names.

A monument in Šamac for the Serbs who fought and died during occupation of Bosanski Samac, has the Serbian eagle in the center, the years which occupation occurred (1992–1995) and the Serbian slogan: "Samo Sloga Srbina Spasava" on the left and right sides
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