The Breakup Yugoslavia

The Breakup Yugoslavia by: Jenya loughney

Yugoslavia. Also known as a country with many many years of peace, no war, and serenity. Oh right. Totally forgot it was opposite day. Sorry!

Yugoslavia was located in the Balkan Peninsula, also known as modern day Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo, and Montenegro.

Yugoslavia was created from the Kingdom of Serbia, Monenegro, and Austria-Hungary.

This region was called the Kingdom of Croats and Slovenes, but obviously was changed to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

War in this region of the world was not a new thing. There have been religious, ethnic, and political wars dating back to the Roman Empire falling.

When the Empire fell, christianity spread like wildfire. Then the Eastern Orthodox church was forced when the Soviet union took place. Islam was then spread by the Ottomans, creating a very diverse region.

Because of these three religions, the Balkan Peninsula separated into 4 very distinct groups: the Croat, the Slovene, the Serb, and the Bosniak.

Before Yugoslavia, the nazi regime had power. After WWII, Yugoslavia established as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

During the Cold War, Yugoslavia stayed mutual with Stalin, not wanting any more war.

Later, Yugoslavia became one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement.

But There were ALWAYS ethnic tensions.

The First and ONLY successful president of Yugoslavia was Josip Broz Tito.

He kept ethnic and religious tensions under control. He promoted "Brotherhood and Unity" and always tried his best to suppress nationalism.

Unfortunately, Tito died. This day is also known as the beginning of the end for Yugoslavia.

After Tito died, the economy plummeted.

The tensions rapidly began to rise and nationalism quickly regained popularity.

As a drop of lemon juice to a wound, the Soviet Union broke apart and wars began to spread all throughout Yugoslavia.

Communists took over the branches of Yugoslavia.

The main one was Slobodan Milosevic, over the Serbian branch.

He led the "Rallies of Truth" against the provinces.

The Albanians hated him and went on many strikes.

After the Communistic party of Yugoslavia died down (but was not gone), Some new republics took place.

Croatia's new president was Franjo Tudman.

Croatia declared independence under him.

The Ustache (a terrorist group) refused to recognize Croatia as an independent country

The rebels were actually helped by the Yugoslav National Army. They provided weapons and soldiers. But this bond did not last for long.

On June 25th, 1991, both Croatia and Slovenia declared independence.

You thought the wars were over after that? Awe, that's cute. They Weren't. We're just halfway through.

After the cute thing Croatia and Slovenia pulled, thinking they could declare independence peacefully, completely backfired.

As a result, The "Ten-Day War" was born.

After this war, a treaty was made, the Brioni Agreement, between Yugoslavia and Croatia and Slovenia saying that Croatia and Slovenia will postpone their independence by three months.

But there was still war.

War was now between the Serbs and the Croats.

A new plan was presented that would give all branches independence, but Milosevic did not approve.

The plan only needed 5/6 voted to pass and it got just that. But war got in the way.

In 1992, a cease fire was set into place between the Croats and the Yugoslav army called the Sarajevo Agreement.

But war was still not over.

The bloodiest war of them all was the Bosnian war.

This war was between the Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats.

The Bosniaks and the Serbs reached peace and a compromise with the Republika of Srpska.

By the end of 1992, the communist and socialist reign came to an end, but the Bosnian war did not.

Now comes in more terrorist attacks. Four solid years.

Towards the middle of the Bosnian War, the Croats and the Bosnians allied because they were facing a common enemy.

And it was also at this time the U.S. decided to stick their nose where it didn't belong and demanded the Bosnian war come to a peaceful end. Which didn't help at all.

And then here comes the climax of this story.

In April, 1994, an attack on a marketplace took 64 lives

The army launched an attack on the terrorists called Gorazde.

But this idea greatly backfired.

The group captured over 100 U.N. hostages.

And now here we see the falling action of the war.

Gorazde also decided to create a genocide, killing over 1,400 civilians.

They attacked again, murdering 34 more.

The terrorists also began to to full scale needle bombing the Serbs.

Many Serbs needed to seek refuge.

Village after village was being bombed and burnt to the ground.

And yet again, unwanted America was sticking its nose where it didn't belong.

And now we witness the resolution to this sad story.

After years, a treaty was finally signed.

Well at least we thought all war was over.

A small war broke out between the Arabs and the Croats.

That was eventually finished in 1999.

In the long- awaited 2008 each branch gained independence to end all of this madness.

Citation:

http://www.icty.org/en/about/what-former-yugoslavia

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1989-1992/breakup-yugoslavia

http://geography.about.com/od/politicalgeography/a/fmryugoslavia.htm

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/understanding-yugoslavia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiSgAiM0d8A&index=1&list=LLhpi-10S0aWyHkZKTrRGWnA

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The Breakup Yugoslavia by: Jenya loughney

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