How did Bosnia and Herzegovina become part of communist Yugoslavia after World War II?

Following the conclusion of World War II, Bosnia and Herzegovina became a constituent republic of the newly formed socialist Yugoslavia in 1946. This transition occurred after the communist-led Partisans, commanded by Josip Broz Tito, successfully liberated the region from German rule and the puppet Independent State of Croatia.123

During the war, the Partisans emerged as one of the primary resistance movements, eventually gaining the upper hand in a complex civil war against royalist forces and fascist collaborators. After the Partisans liberated Sarajevo in April 1945, they established a communist "people's government" for the territory.3

In 1946, this government was formalized as the People’s Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of six nominally equal republics within the new federal state of Yugoslavia. While the federation was initially highly centralized under the Communist Party, it provided a distinct political status for Bosnia and Herzegovina that had been absent during the pre-war kingdom, when the territory was divided into administrative districts.123