Reasons for the Disintegration of Yugoslavia

Reasons for the Disintegration of Yugoslavia

From its birth in 1918 to its death in the 1990’s, Yugoslavia has always been a whole. Yugoslavia was kept together by it’s diplomacy and their good reputation and achievements during the administration led by Tito. As a result of his death, neighbors that lived in peace for decades turned on each other, ethnic hatred was occuring and republics were declaring independence one after the other. The country was gradually falling apart. There were many reasons for the breakup of Yugoslavia but one of the most important one was realism which basically deals with politics.

Realism played an important role because equal power was never distributed in Yugoslavia and there was a struggle of power. Tito’s liberalism recieved a large amount of criticism from the USSR, especially, Joseph Stalin. Stalin, responded by cutting all ties between Yugoslavia and the USSR. Because of this, Tito wasn’t obligated to follow Soviet policy, and because of that Yugoslavia was no longer being funded by the USSR. This lack of financial support posed a huge threat to Yugoslavia’s survival.

It was only after Tito’s death in 1980, that the world began to realize his true significance. Tito had controlled Yugoslavia for 35 years. During that time, his prestige and remarkable diplomacy held the country together.

The Yugoslav Army played a disastrous role not only as an enforcer of political decisions but as an independent. In Tito’s time, the army had only a subordinate role. In those days, the Communist Party and the army were the glue that held the country together. When the Communist Party separated, the army remained the sole power that guaranteed the union. After the secessions, it became an army without a country. With Tito’s death in 1980 and the death of the Communist party in 1990, the national army was cut adrift with an idea with noone to control it. They eventually made themselves powerless.

The most significant reason for the disintegration was the reintroduction of nationalism. Because Yugoslavia was created after self-determination the Serbs saw an opportunity to create a new slavic nation.

Serbs saw in the idea of Yugoslavia the opportunity to have all Serbs living in a single state, and in addition, gathering around them the other nationalities in such a way that Serbs would play the dominant role.