When the Ottomans conquered Bosnia, tremendous changes occurred in the political and cultural life in the region. The kingdom was crushed and its nobility executed. However, the Ottomans allowed the preservation of the identity of Bosnia by integrating it as a major province in the Ottoman Empire, a unique situation among the subjugated states in the Balkans. In the Sandzak, or Vilayet of Bosnia, the Ottomans made changes in the administration by introducing a new landholding system, as well as a complex system of differentiation by classes and religion, and reorganising administrative units.

The Ottomans’ 400-year rule led to drastic changes in the make-up of Bosnia’s population, as well as the creation of frequent wars with the European powers, waves of migration and epidemics. A newly formed, native Slavic-speaking Muslim community emerged and developed into a large ethno-religious group, mainly due to the many forced conversions to the Islamic religion.

In the late 15th Century, a significant group of Sephardi Jews, expulsed from Spain, settled in the Bosnian region. The Catholic Franciscans were protected by an official imperial decree, but these rights were often disregarded and their number decreased. The Orthodox community, living mainly in Herzegovina and Podrinje, spread throughout the country and had relative prosperity until the 19th Century. The Bosnian Church all but disappeared.