Peace in Yugoslavia From 1919 Until 1980
Peace in Yugoslavia meant unity. The country was a drawing together of
different groups, which held together from 1919 to the 1980. Before
the First World War the Austria ruled the individual countries of
Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia as well as other countries such as
Hungary as part of the Hapsburg Empire. The other big empire was the
Turkish Ottoman Empire. All the individual areas had different ethnic
groups and religions. The Croats were Roman Catholic, people living in
Bosnia were mainly Muslim, as were people living in Kosovo. Serbia was
a separate independent country, ruled by its own King. The Serb
religion was Christian Orthodox.
The Treaty of Versailles created the "Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and
Slovenes", (Yugoslavia) following World War I (in which both Austria
and Turkey were defeated). It ruled that Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and
Bosnia would become a united country, because it was believed that a
large country would have a better chance of survival than a collection
of small ones and also would provide a greater threat to nearby
Germany. As Serbia had been independent before the war, its leaders
believed that it should be the most important part of the new Kingdom.
Serbs had huge amounts of control over the other ethnic groups from
the beginning - the Serbian King (King Peter I) was appointed King of
the new country, and the Serbian capital city Belgrade became the
capital of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Serbs held
the top posts in the army and in the Government. However, other groups
did benefit from the Treaty - they now lived in an independent country
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...t Milosevic had not listened to his constituency - one
man said it seemed as though he (Milosevic) was running Yugoslavia as
if he were the only person in it. President Kostunica told crowds
"Democracy has happened in Serbia. Communism is falling". President
Kostunica now runs Serbia under a democracy and this seems to be
stable, but whether it will last or not remains to be seen. In the
past the former Yugoslavia only remained peaceful when ruled under a
dictatorship - led by Tito. However, Tito was a war hero, and brought
economy to Yugoslavia, which made the country and its people wealthier
than they had ever been before -this made him popular even though he
was a dictator. However this was combined with a strong Secret Police
and also threats to anyone who disagreed or spoke out against
communism and dictatorships.
The 1990s were a period of extreme ethnic conflict in the former nation of Yugoslavia. In 1992, Bosnia-Herzegovina passed a referendum for independence, which was not met with an equal enthusiasm amongst the republic's population. The group most against this independence was the Serbian minority, who were convinced by leaders such as Slobodan Milosovic and psychiatrist Jovan Raskovic in the idea of a "greater Serbia." Serbs were told they needed to dominate the surrounding Croats and Muslims based on their psychological superiority. Serb fighters carried out vicious campaigns of ethnic cleansing, killing over 100,000 people with another 1.5 million being forced from their homes to created predominantly Serbian areas. In 1995 Bosnia Croatia and Serbia signed the Dayton peace accords and focus shifted towards Kosovo, where discord had been emerging between the Albanians and the Serbs.
The last two decades of the twentieth century gave rise to turbulent times for constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, eventually leading them to split apart. There were a number of damaging aspects of past history and of the political and economic circumstances that contributed to the breakup and eventually caused the situation to snowball into a deadly series of inter-ethnic conflicts. Yugoslavia was reunified at the end of the war when the communist forces of Josip Broz Tito liberated the country. Under Tito, Yugoslavia adopted a relatively liberal form of government in comparison to other East European communist states at the time and experienced a period of relative economic and political stability until Tito’s death in 1980. In addition to internal power struggles following the loss of their longtime leader, Yugoslavia faced an unprecedented economic crisis in the 1980’s. As other communist states began to fall in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, some former Communist leaders abandoned communism and founded or supported ethno-national parties, blaming the economic suffering on the flaws of communism and other ethnic groups. The ethnic violence that followed would not have been possible without the willingness of politicians from every side to promote ethno-nationalist symbols and myths through media blitzes, which were especially effective due to low levels of education in the former Yugoslavia. Shadows of the events of World War II gave these politicians, especially the Serbs, an opportunity to encourage the discussion and exaggeration of past atrocities later in the century. The ethnic violence in the former Yugoslavia can be traced back to a series of linked damaging factors such as the de...
Bosnia is one of several small countries that emerged from the break-up of Yugoslavia, a multicultural country created after World War I by the Western Allies. Yugoslavia was composed of ethnic and religious groups that had been historical rivals, even bitter enemies, including the Serbs (Orthodox Christians), Croats (Catholics) and ethnic Albanians (Muslims).
Slobodan Milosevic and many others who were born in WW2 have had troubled childhoods, Milosevic’s parents committing suicide which would traumatize any adult . He rose through the ranks of Tito’s communist party and survived the late 60’s purges where he became a close ally to the 1980’s party leader Ivan Stambolic. When Slobodan Milosevic was president of Serbia, Time Magazine interviewed him in 1995 just after the Dayton peace accords. His interview focused on four key actions that were affecting former Yugoslavia. Firstly, the atrocities that ethnic Serbs were perpetrating against Bosniak’s. Secondly his national speeches that focused on Serbian nationalism that gained him enough power to force the party leader Ivan Stambolic out of office. Thirdly his alliances with Serb nationalists and paramilitaries in other states such as Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia had implicated him in sending military munitions to these nationalists. Fourthly, the Time Magazine interview is important because it show’s Milosevic’s Machiavellian nature as someone who will lie directly to people on atrocities that his government had been supporting to sustain his power.
The Split between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union in 1948 occurred due to a conflict of interest between Josip Broz Tito and Joseph Stalin, the respective leaders of the Nations. Through this essay my aim is to highlight the causes of the dispute and then discuss the consequences of the split for both the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.
What Happened in Bosnia is quite bad but it is in no comparison with the world domination of Hitler and his army. The main difference between the Bosnia genocide and the Holocaust is that Hitler gained respect and power, whereas the Serbs had the majority of the army and were smarter then the non-Serbs so they were able to take charge. When Hitler first started his campaign people loved him and wanted him in power. It was what he did once he was in power that astonished the nation. However, in Bosnia there were always tensions between the three groups. The Serbs were not let into power; they never had the other group's respect they were just able to establish a strong army and state that was capable of killing. In Yugoslavia there ...
Kosovo: Conflicts Between Serbians and Ethnic Albanians I. Introduction A. Thesis- The conflict between the Serbs and Albanians shows us the amount of intolerance with religious, political, and racial conflicts throughout the history of the relationship between the Serbs and Albanians. II. History of Kosovo A. Battles 1.
Although Milosevic was a key figure during this period whose actions undoubtedly influenced the chain of events that unfolded, I believe his power-seeking motives were not unique to him; his actions in the former Yugoslavia could have been committed by a number of others who had the same desire for power driving them. Nevertheless, as he was president of Serbia and essentially commander-in-chief of Serb forces who carried out unconscionable acts of cruelty against Muslims and other non-Serb civilians, particularly in the attempt to annex Bosnia-Herzegovina, he bears responsibility for his actions as an authority figure. Though his main goal seemed to be focused on territorial expansion of the Serbian state, he led military forces to deport and murder non-Serb civilians in massive numbers and therefore was in vi...
Yugoslavia came to be because of a group of people wanted their own nation, and worked out as the Allies of Britain wondered what could come of dominating the Austro-Hungarians. The beginning of Yugoslavia is well known, but why did the country fall apart completely? As stated in the thesis, there was always a sense of nationality and diversity between the republics of the nation. The six never came together as one nation, and if there would have, many of Yugoslavia 's conflicts would have ceased to happen.
Brenda Katten who is the chairman of the Zionist Federation said that, “As Jews, we are quite horrified at what is going on: we lost a lot of our people in the 1930s because the gates were closed on us- What is sad, is that we don’t learn from our history.” (3) This seems to be the recurring theme about genocides: They happen and are an immense tragedy but yet they continue to happen throughout time and all over the world. In the Bosnian genocide in 1992-1998, another group was was exterminate by a group for specific reasons. In this case, an estimated 200,000 Bosnian civilians were killed (2) by Serbians. But all of this conflict can be traced back to the resolutions which transpired at the end of the second world war. (1) After Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and Croatia became apart of Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, when the Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito died in 1980, the union between the several countries under the Yugoslav power seemed to be threatened to separate. When a Serbian leader, Slobodan Milosevic provoked a dissatisfaction between Serbians in Bosnia and Croatia and their Bosnian and Croatian neighbors, lead to an insuming war. When Milosevic was elected president of the republic of Serbia in 1989, an oncoming movement violent uprisings of several Serb nationalist political parties in neighboring Croatia. These events frightened the other members of Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, which lead to their uncertainty towards the future of the republic that had just recently been established. As fears engulfed many civilians, a large population of non Bosnian Serbians began to not only boycott the voting of Milosevic, but urge others to take similar measures in March of 1992. These actions lead to the sec...
A genocide is a mass murder of a croup of people based of religion, ethnicity and/or racial background. The Kosovo incident was a genocide in my opinion. I will compare ti to the Holocaust, which was also a genocide of mass proportions during WW2. The targets in Kosovo, were the Albanians and in the Holocaust the targets were Jews. The aggressors in the Kosovo incident were Serbians. while the aggressors in the Holocaust were the Nazis.
This paper is analysis of The Croatian War of Independence, It was fought between Croatian forces devoted to Croatian the government between 1990-1995, the war started when Croatia declared their independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Serbians had control over the Yugoslavian People’s Army as well as cooperative local Serbian forces.
Imagine waking up one day to the thundering of blows given at the door telling you to “open up or be shot down.” It is the Serb police, and they are telling you that you and your whole family had to leave your home immediately. This is how it went for many Albanian people during what some Serb extremists called “demographic genocide.” This was the beginning of what many would call the Kosovo War, and it lasted from March to June 1999. After NATO’s intervention in Kosovo, something strange happened. Now the people being victimized were the Serbs and anyone who was “friendly” to them. In this paper, I will speak about what happened before and after the war in Kosovo.
The conflict between the Albanians and Serbs has been a continual issue since the fourteenth century. Ethnic conflicts rose again after the death of Tito who was the leader of Yugoslavia. Tito set up a national Yugoslav government and let the five Slavic nationalities (Serb, Croat, Slovene, Montenegrin, and Macedonian) govern their own part of Yugoslavia which suppressed any ethnic fighting (Andryszewski 14). After the death of Tito in 1980, ethnic conflicts began to come to surface again. Slobodan Milosevic gave a speech to the Serbs in Kosovo saying that “No one will dare to beat you again” (Andryszweski 18). In 1991, Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence from Yugoslavia which led to the outbreak of war since the Serb-dominated central government wanted to preserve the state. In 1995, the Dayton Peace Settlement was signed to end the war and Yugoslavia broke apart ove...
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.