It’s one of the most tortured place-names in the world, which is pretty apropos considering…

The area is almost entirely land-locked in one of the most rugged parts of Central Europe. It was first settled by an odd mixture of Greeks and Celts, before it was fully developed by Slavs who came down from central Asia. In the 15th century it was violently annexed by the Ottoman Empire and became Muslim for over 400 years. But after the Russo-Turkish War, in 1878, it was unofficially occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire (which was ruled by two Christian monarchies) while remaining an Ottoman kingdom. This odd arrangement made it one of the most cosmopolitan and liberal places in the world.

It also made it a powder keg. In 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on a bridge in its capital city, Sarajevo, plunging Europe into World War I. In the ensuing bloodbath, the area’s Orthodox Christians and Roman Catholics were pitted against their Muslim neighbors, which resulted in the creation of the Slavic Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which lasted until 1941. Then, during World War II, the Nazis annexed the area under Catholic/Muslim rule, and systematically murdered 500,000 Serbs as well as 40,000 Roma Gypsies and 32,000 Jews.

In 1946, the area passed to Soviet control with the creation of Yugoslavia. Ironically, the iron grip of the Communists provided a period of relative peace and religious freedom, crowned by the 1984 Winter Olympics at Sarajevo. But it wasn’t to last. With the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1992, the area declared independence. This unfortunately precipitated the Bosnian War, in which the Serbs took revenge on their neighbors, put Sarajevo under the longest siege in human history, massacred over 8,000 citizens of the city of Srebrenica, and embarked on a horrific campaign of ethnic cleansing. Over 2 million people were displaced, 100,000 killed, and perhaps 50,000 raped, making it the worst crime on European soil in modern history.

Peace and independence finally arrived in 1995. But how does an area so steeped in blood put its past behind it? How do neighbors who have been murdering each other for a century find the strength to forgive? How does a country now facing a broken infrastructure, chronic poverty and high unemployment find the will to continue?

Maybe here’s how. This past Tuesday night, approximately 5,000 Bosniaks, Croats, Slovenes and Serbs made the trek to Lithuania to watch their national soccer team, the Dragons, compete in the final qualifying match of the World Cup. In the 68th minute, striker Vedad Ibisevic scored the goal that would prove to be the winner. Back home in the main square of Sarajevo, a crowd of 100,000 fans dressed in yellow and blue exploded with happiness, setting off a night-long celebration that flowed through the city streets and spilled out to the national airport, for a raucous team homecoming. And for once the nation was truly unified. Said Salih Redzic, a 52-year-old unemployed Sarajevo resident, with tears running down his face, “They have no idea what they have done to the people here. It’s not even about soccer any more. It’s about this feeling many of us have almost forgotten and the younger ones have never experienced. The feeling of success.”

Their time has come.  The Dragons have taken flight. Bosnia-Herzogovina is going to the World Cup.