It was proclaimed as a result of secessionist politics by Fikret Abdić against the central government of Alija Izetbegović during the Bosnian War.

Fikret Abdić was the winner of the popular vote to head the government of Bosnia in 1990 but surrendered to Alija Izetbegović under an undisclosed agreement.

[5] In 1993, according to journalist Anthony Loyd, Abdić decided to try to carve out a little state for himself and succeeded in recruiting enough followers to make his dreams a reality.

"Talking to his autonomist followers was much the same as speaking with cult converts anywhere in the world: a wooden dead-end dialogue hallmarked by the absence of individual rationale and logic.

[12] The situation became very unfavourable to the future of Western Bosnia, as Fikret Abdić could no longer count on financial or military help by one of his protectors.

It was militarily defeated during Operation Tiger in June and August 1994, when the Bosnian government troops seized the territory of Western Bosnia.

[20] In June 2020 he was arrested by Bosnia's federal police as part of a corruption investigation which included a number of municipal officials.

[21] He was put in pre-trial detention, but was released in late October after his lawyers petitioned the court to allow him to take part in the re-election campaign for the 2020 Bosnian municipal elections in November that year, which he narrowly won with 44.1% of the vote.