The term, adopted in the 1971 Constitution of Yugoslavia, groups together several distinct South Slavic communities of Islamic ethnocultural tradition.

Although nationalist ideologies appeared among South Slavs as early as the 19th century, as with the First and Second Serbian Uprising and the Illyrian movement, national identification was a foreign concept to the general population, which primarily identified itself by denomination and province.

[9] The emergence of modern nation-states forced the ethnically and religiously diverse Ottoman Empire to modernise, which resulted in the adoption of several reforms.

Vuk Karadžić, then the leading representative of Serbian nationalism, considered all speakers of the Štokavian dialect, regardless of religious affiliation, to be Serbs.

Josip Juraj Strossmayer, the Croatian Catholic bishop and his People's Party advocated the idea of South Slavic unity, while Ante Starčević and his Party of Rights sought to restore the Croatian state based on the so-called historical right, considering Bosnian Muslims as Croats.

[11] In Bosnia and Herzegovina at that time, the population did not identify with national categories, except for a few intellectuals from urban areas who claimed to be Croats or Serbs.

The population of Bosnia and Herzegovina primarily identified itself by religion, using the terms Turk (for Muslims), Hrišćani (Christians) or Greeks (for the Orthodox) and "Kršćani" or Latins (for the Catholics).

[12] After World War II, in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Bosnian Muslims continued to be treated as a religious group instead of an ethnic one.

The use of Muslim as an ethnic denomination was criticized early on, especially on account of motives and reasoning, as well as disregard of this aspect of Bosnian nationhood.