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• History
of Christianization of Europe
• Soviet
Union, Communist influence
• Map
of European ethnic groups
• Map of Fascism
in Europe (1922-75)
• History
of Islamic conquest in Europe
• Religions
& ethnic groups in Russia
--MORE &
NON-ENGLISH--
• Muhammad cartoon crisis in pictures
• Stalin's private summer home
• Ravenna: capital of Gothic empire
• Czar Nicholas II's Ukrainian palace
• European traditional costumes/dress
• Inside the Vatican, house of all wealth
--MORE
& NON-ENGLISH--
• Islamic Mujahidin
vs. Spain & El Cid
• Poland-Lithuania vs. Teutonic Order
• Nevskiy's Russia vs. German Crusaders
• Mussolini vs. Libyan Islamic fighters
• Qadafi: Europe will soon be Islamic
• Ivan the Terrible vs. Muslim Tatars
--MORE
& NON-ENGLISH--
• Inside Albania, Europe's only Muslim culture (with rare pictures)
• History of Jihad in Chechnya
& Caucasus vs. Russians
• History of the Muslim Tatars in Russia
• Ethnic & religious history of Serbs, Croats, & Bosnians
• History of Italy: from Roman rule to Germanic barbarian
• The cost & bloodshed of the Serb-Albanian conflict in Kosovo
• Inside Bulgaria, 1st Slavic nation,
land of Thracian masters of gold
• Visual history of Yugoslavia
• Inside Muslim Turkey: right for the European Union?
--MORE
& NON-ENGLISH-- |
|
Ethnic & religious
history of the Serbs, Croats, & Bosnians
by James Mayfield (Chairman, European Heritage Library)
 Print
this Article • About
the Author • Bibliography/Sources
This essay offers the history
of the turbulent cultural & social relationship between
the Slavic Croatians (Croats), Bosnians, and the Serbs from
their medieval foundations, to their division between support
for the socialists and the Fascists in World War II, and to
the calamities of Yugoslavia until its total collapse and
today. It tracks the historical decay from an ethnically-based
Slavic alliance between the three followed by a shift to bitter
hatred after the end of Jugoslavija between three cultures
of the same seed. Also included are some of my observations
& photos from my vacation to the former Jugoslavija (Croatia)
at the bottom.
From the 6th century onward, less than a century after German
Gothic kingdoms had delivered the final blow to the decaying
Western Roman Empire and annexed its domain, the pre-Christian
Slavic race pushed westward from around the Volga river of
central Russia into the heart of Europe. From this common
Slavic stock a variety of military tribal confederations developed
in central Europe and the Balkans, gradually coalescing into
functional principalities and kingdoms. The first unified
Slavic nation was Bulgaria in the 7th century, one of the
oldest surviving nations in the world today. Germanic Vikings
(Swedes) established a unified Russian state called Kievan
Rus from the 9th century onward, whose high king Vladimir
the Great converted all Slavs under his massive domain to
the Orthodox Christian faith, a heritage that endures today
as the religion of most Slavs of Europe. What are now Croatia,
Serbia, Bosnia, etc. became occupied by the Slavs by the 9th
century, whose warring dukedoms gradually united into respective
Slavic cultures and nations. A unified Slavic Croatia first
was declared by King Tomislav the Great by the early 10th
century. The warring Serbian kingdoms quickly merged into
a united Serbian kingdom by the middle 11th century. Bosnian
& Herzegovine principalities coalesced into unified statehood
last of the three by the early 12th century. These are the
three major South Slavic ("Jugoslav") cultures for
the last 1000 years; the former Jugoslav republics of Slovenia
and Macedonia are brand new after Jugoslavija's collapse.
Christendom had already been accepted by a percentage of these
three populations of both the Catholic and Orthodox brands,
but within 200 years of each of the nations' foundation, Croatia
had become deeply entrenched in the Catholic faith, Serbia
had submitted to Russian Orthodoxy, and Bosnia was struck
with internal disputes between its regional leaders between
Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The influence of the Byzantines
and the Serbs (both Orthodox) encouraged adherence to the
Orthodox faith, whilst Hungarian and Croatian Catholic influence
pressured for the primacy of the Pope. Eventually, the dispute
between Bosnians as a Catholic culture or an Orthodox one
was resolved via the creation of a heretical body called the
Bosnian Orthodox Church, totally independent from the Byzantines'
authority and the Papacy's in Rome; the Bosnians and Serbs
became Orthodox, and the Croats Catholic. The proximity of
the Slavic Croats to the powerful influence of the staunchly-Catholic
Kingdom of Hungary and the German Empire (Holy "Roman"
Empire) aided in the Croats' conversion from their Slavic
Orthodox heritage to that of western Europe. The Serbs retained
their Orthodox faith, but often despite this formed positive
alliances with Catholic powers and the Pope in an effort to
wrest themselves free of the awesome military power of the
Orthodox Bulgarians and Greeks (Byzantines). So too, the affiliation
of the Croats with the Germans and Hungarians encouraged the
use of the Latin alphabet to write their Slavic language,
whilst the Serbs eventually embraced the Russians' Cyrillic
alphabet. By majority, the Bosnians also embraced the Cyrillic
alphabet of their Russian ancestors (also Orthodox), though
the Latin script was often used by Catholic Bosnians or pro-Westerners.
This is the beginning of the cultural divergence between the
Croats, the Bosnians, and the Serbs despite their common ethnic
heritage. The wealthy coastal kingdom of the Croats was short-lived.
In 1103, Croatia forfeited its sovereignty in a quasi-autonomous
personal union to the powerful Catholic Hungarian Kingdom
to enjoy the economic opportunity as well as protect themselves
from local growing kingdoms to the east and south (including
Bosnia, Serbia, Albanian tribes like the Tosk and Gheg, and
the Bulgarians). Hungarian Catholic rule over the Croats remained
until the 16th century, some 400 years of thriving economic
and cultural advancement. The Catholic Venetians also colonized
and conquered the western coastline of Croatia (known as Dalmatia,
hence the dog breed) by the 15th century. The Serbs, however,
experienced a growing history of their own in which the small
kingdom retained its independence for several centuries. The
Serbs, with their staunch Orthodox Slavic heritage (and generally
the Russian Cyrillic alphabet), expanded to conquer modern
Kosovo, Montenegro, much of Macedonia, and occasionally exert
authority over the Bosnians and Albanian tribes. The house
of Serbia became one of the more powerful polities in Europe
for its size. Serbia expanded the Orthodox faith and Serbian
Slavic culture to most of the nearby region outside of the
sphere of the Hungarians (thus excluding Croatia), a foreshadow
of the Serbs' authority over all southern Slavs during the
period of Jugoslavija after World War I. The Bosnian ruling
house acted as a disputed buffer state between the Byzantines,
Serbs, Hungarians, Germans, and even the Italians (Venetians).
Frequently, however, the Bosnians re-established a unified
statehood that caused the Bosnian kingdom to play an important
role over southern European political relations. Nonetheless,
despite the shift in religions and identity between the three
South Slavs (precisely the meaning of "Jugoslavs")
as well as foreign domination, the Croats, Serbs, and Bosnians
as Slavic cultures and sub-ethnicities remained entirely Slavic
and changed little.
The Balkans. Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo
(southern Serbia), Macedonia, & Bosnia-Herzegovina --
all former Jugoslav states -- were borne of this Slavic settlement
nearly a millennium ago.
  
The respective modern flags of the Croats, the Bosnians, &
Serbians
From the 14th century onward,
however, a new incomparable power emerged that made the European
Christians quake with fear of a possible end of European culture
and even an end to Christendom altogether: the Islamic Turks
of the Ottoman Empire. Having marched into Anatolia (where
modern Turkey stands) from Central Asia and expelled the Greek
Byzantines since the 11th century, the mighty Sunni sultanates
of the Turks rallied a valiant Jihad against the Balkans.
The expansion of the Turks into Anatolia initially occurred
as a result of natural migration, settlement, and displacement
by other warring tribes and (later) the Mongols. The Turks
were used frequently as slaves (Mamlukes) of other Muslim
dynasties since the early 11th century in modern Turkmenistan
and all the way to Egypt. As the new Turkish populations became
increasingly powerful, aided largely by the obliteration of
Baghdad by the Mongols in the 13th century, the Turks became
the succeeding Islamic power. The unprovoked conquest of the
Balkans is a testament to the religious and militaristic character
of the new Ottoman state, though the conflict of the Turks
with Europeans had been exacerbated by the recent crusades
in Palestine. The expansion of the Ottoman state was evoked
as a holy war to spread the faith (as was typical of any world
power at the time). It must be acknowledged that when expanding
their empire, the Turks generally did not abolish the religious
institutions themselves. The Orthodox bodies survived in Constantinople
after having been destroyed and converted by the Turks as
Istanbul. This was more out of practical necessity to control
such a massive, multi-religious empire, rather than modern
concepts of equality and tolerance. The institutions survived,
but for Christians and Christianity itself within the empire,
it was a very different story. By 1500, the Turkish Mujahidin
(Islamic fighters) had conquered Bulgaria, modern Romania
(Wallachia and Moldova), Bosnia, modern Macedonia, Albania,
and what is today called Greece. The warriors of Islam had
obliterated the Byzantine Empire -- the center of the Orthodox
faith -- forever in 1453, converting the faith's holiest church
(Hagia Sophia) into a mosque. After a great and valiant resistance
afterward, the Muslim empire eventually conquered Serbia,
Bosnia, and had forced the Croats and even the mighty Hungarians
to their knees. The Serbs offered the greatest cultural and
military resistance, and were not subdued universally until
1500. The Ottomans were brilliantly practical in their social
policy. They did everything possible to foster conversion
to Islam without causing a brutal division and civil war within
their empire. Churches were burnt all across Europe, relics
were taken to Istanbul, and Christian Europeans who refused
to accept "heretical" (Muslim) occupation were executed
for their dissidence. Whereas Europeans generally forced universal
conversion by punishment of death, the Turks had a more liberal
and stable policy in which they made conversion an ideal act
of socioeconomic survival. In this policy the Turks were unusual
among historical Muslim powers for their lack of destruction
of non-Muslim religious bodies altogether. Conversion
from Islam to Christendom, as well as public preaching, was
usually punishable severely or by pain of death. Religious
leaders, such as the Metropolitans of Orthodox, were used
by the Muslims as subjugated vassals as a way to ensure cohesion
of an empire as large as the Roman empire. Christians and
non-Muslims were second-class citizens, subject to intense
discrimination, taxation, and the taxation of children for
forced conversion to fight their Christian brothers in the
next Muslim war against Europe. In a time of European history
that modern academia describes as "the dark ages"
of poverty and squabbles of kings and poor principalities,
harsh taxation (the jizyah) designed to allow "free"
worship was ultimately a tool to force the Europeans to convert
to Islam in the most palatable, least costly way for the new
Islamic leaders. As in much of the world, trade prosperity
was used as a way to spread Islam by the new Muslim conquerers;
Europeans felt it necessary to at least profess adherence
to Islam in order to succeed in trade. Under
the guise of saving the Christian Slavs and Hungarians from
total annihilation and mass conversion to Islam, German Austria
entirely annexed Hungary and Croatia, becoming the Europeans'
greatest military and political power. Serbia and Bosnia,
however, remained under the blade of the Mujahidin. It must
be acknowledged that both cultures -- the European Christian
world and that of the Muslims -- are equally guilty of brutal
violence and holy war.
The Ottoman Empire at its height. The Balkan Christian Slavs
all fell to their mighty Jihad whilst the Byzantine Empire
was obliterated forever by their superior will, power, and
faith. (click to enlarge)
A blood tax called devshirme
(دغشرمي) forced Christian European mothers to give up every
few male family members (varies by population census) to be
forcibly conscripted into the Janissary elite armies in Istanbul
after forced conversion to Islam. The majestic wealth and
education the Islamic world had to offer at this time of Muslim
conquest was often quite appealing to many families for their
sons instead of death or starvation. Many families under Islamic
rule professed submission to Islam solely to inherit the benefits,
but instead practiced the faith of their heritage in private
to avoid persecution or death. As a result of Turkish rule,
whose blade of Jihad subdued Serbia, Bosnia, Albania, Montenegro,
modern Greece, Romania, and Bulgaria for nearly 400 years,
Islam had taken deep root in the lands of the victim peoples.
The Albanian tribes (especially the Tosks and Ghegs) eventually
coalesced into statehood for the first time after Christian
resistance under Skanderbeg before nearly entirely converting
to Islam; today, 70% of Albanians are Sunni Muslim. No other
culture under Turkish Islamic rule converted as such excluding
the Bosnians. Today, some 40% of Bosnia-Herzegovina is Muslim
as a result. Croatia and Hungary, saved from the Jihad by
the Germans whom annexed them, remain almost universally Catholic.
Proud Serbian Orthodox resistance to the Jihad for some 300
years of Muslim rule make the Serbs themselves almost entirely
Orthodox, though the south of Serbia (Kosovo) is primarily
Sunni Muslim due to the fact that most of its inhabitants
are of the Albanian ethnicity. The Croats remained Catholic
with their uninhibited Slavic culture, the Serbs remained
distinctly Slavic Orthodox despite this foreign Islamic rule,
and the Bosnians and Albanians had converted much of their
faith to Islam.
The flag of Albania is the crest of Skanderbeg, the center
of Albanian history in his repulsion of Mujahidin (that ultimately
failed). Interestingly, depite the fact that one of their
few historical heroes died trying to free Europe from the
Mujahidin, Albanians accepted Islam out of obligation to survive.
An almost contradictory heritage.
The flag of Bosnia during the Islamic occupation. Some 40%
of Bosnians ultimately converted to Islam during the harsh
Muslim rule in an act of self-preservation. This conversion
or "ethnic treason" posed a major problem later
in the pan-Slavic Yugoslav worldview.
The elite and famous janissaries with daggers, Islamic beads
for prayer, and a tobacco huqqah waterpipe. Many of this elite
legion were Europeans forcibly taken from their families,
converted to Islam, and conscripted for life or a term into
Istanbul's armies. Many preferred this luxury lifestyle to
the hardships of farming live as third class Christian citizens.
Europeans (whites) standing before an Islamic sultan or bay
(royal nobility) to be conscripted.
After nearly 400 years of
the rule of the armies of Islam, Ottoman authority waned due
to bankruptcy and the growing economic and military superiority
of the Europeans by the early 19th century. Croatia, modern
Slovenia, and Hungary remained under the rule of the Catholic
German Austrians. The growing economic hardships of the Muslim
empire along with the constant distraction of wars with the
Russian Empire, as well as internal mass revolt by the Serb
and Bosnian Christian majority forced the Mujahidin to forfeit
Christian-majority Bosnia to Austria in 1878. Austria now
ruled Hungary, Croatia, modern Slovenia, and Bosnia. This
ushered in a relative return to Christendom for the Bosnians
no longer under Islamic rule, and indeed today the majority
of Bosnians are non-Muslims (60%+). Serbians offered heroic
resistance by initiating a national revolution against Islamic
rule in the First Serbian Uprising of 1804-1813. The revolt
failed, and Muslim supremacy was retained. Immediately thereafter,
the economic decline of the Ottomans was recognized by the
Serbs, and the Second National Uprising began in 1815. After
nearly a decade of constant strife and relative civil war,
Serbia retained its independence as an Orthodox Slavic culture,
though this was not formally recognized by the Turks until
1878 in the Congress of Berlin after a political union with
Montenegro was cemented. The other nations under Islamic authority
gained their independence in succession thereafter: Bulgaria
fully in 1908, Romania in 1878, Muslim Albania in 1912, and
a first-time unified Greece in 1821. Orthodox Serbia was the
only nation of the South Slavs/Jugoslavs (Slovenians, Croats,
Bosnians, Serbs + Montenegrins) to retain full political independence.
Ottoman Empire map by 1914. All Slavic lands had declared
their independence from the armies of Islam. Shows all political
bodies; the South Slavic countries are not independent, but
are ruled by the Germans excluding Serbia. (from nationalarchives.gov.uk)
Encarta's map of Austria-Hungary by World War I, showing Hungarian
claims and German ones. Serbia is excluded. Notice the many
South Slavic nations collectively under the same empire. (click
to enlarge)
Islamic rule had ended, and
other than independent Serbia, German Catholic domination
had replaced it. Despite the historical, religious, and identity
shifts that the Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs, & Orthodox-majority
(but a large converted Islamic population due to the Turkish
Jihad) peoples had endured as Slavic cultures for the previous
nearly 700 years, their awareness of their common ethnic and
cultural heritage remained unchanged. As it became apparent
that the ethnic German elite that ruled the Austrian Habsburg
Empire was only a minority in a population dominated by Hungarians
and Slavs, ethnic pan-Slavic nationalism spiked to a climax
demanding more autonomy or even full independence. The name
Austria-Hungary instead of "German Austria", which
came into use in the 19th century, is a testament to the growth
in ethnic-based nationalism among these disenfranchised minorities.
The Latin alphabet also became the standard lingua franca
of the South Slavs due to the authority of the Catholic Germans
and Hungarians. Of the South Slavs, only the Serbs remained
outside of German rule. The Serbs maintained close ties with
the Hungarians and Germans whom consistently protected them
against the Islamic Mujahidin. This encouraged the Bosnians,
Croats, Slovenes, and the large population of Serbs living
in Austria to set aside their minute linguistic, cultural,
and religious differences and unite based upon ethnic grounds,
a foreshadow of the future of a united South Slavic state
("Jugo-slavija"). A testament to this pan-Slavic
union is the creation of a variety of dialectic mergers such
as Serbo-Croatian, a blend between the two similar languages,
which developed gradually from this period of the late 19th
century onward. This language was used even more so intently
in Jugoslavija to encourage union between the dissident Croats
and the Serb overlords, but is now shunned. Pan-Slavic ethnic
nationalism was flourishing to proportions that threatened
their German and Hungarian overlords.
The cross-border pan-Slavic
independence efforts were agitated by the Serbs' perception
of German economic domination of their independent kingdom
of Serbia. As a result, in 1914, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand
I was killed by a Serbian nationalist of the so-called Black
Hand organization. As a result, the German Empire and Austria-Hungary
invaded and conquered Serbia. The Serbs' military alliance
with their Orthodox Russian Slavic brethren forced Russia
into a war that ripped the entire continent asunder: World
War I. The end of the Great War in 1918 ushered in the Treaty
of Versailles and the Treaty of Trianon. These treaties forced
the collapse of the massive Austrian Empire, the German Empire,
and the lands of the Hungarian kingdom. The new Slavic nations
of Catholic Slovenia, Catholic Croatia, Orthodox-majority
Bosnia, Catholic Hungary, and Catholic Czechia & Slovakia
(soon thereafter to merge as Czechoslovakia) were created.
The independence of the Orthodox Kingdom of Serbia was retained.
Austria and Hungary were two new kingdoms crippled by the
war, and Austria's attempted merger with their German brethren
was forbidden by the Allies until Adolf Hitler's Anschluss
of 1938 forced the common ethnic union. The Balkans of southern
Europe were a patchwork of tiny Slavic kingdoms of the almost
indistinguishable Slavic languages, cultures, and identities
collectively called the South Slavs (as opposed to the East
Slavs [Bulgarians, Russians, Ukrainians] & North Slavs
[Czechs, Poles]). The pan-Slavic nationalism of these South
Slavs encouraged a future of ethnically-based national singularity.
Though Serbia had lost nearly half its male population in
the Great War, its long history of proud military and cultural
resistance to foreign and Islamic rule, its independence during
the war, and a stable post-war direction under King Piotr
I of Serbia effectively placed the Serbs as the center of
this pan-Slavic kingdom in the Balkans. On 1 December, 1918,
less than a year after World War I, the South Slavs united
into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, & Slovenes under the
authority firstly of Piotr I and in succession of Aleksandr
I. This long name was quickly changed to the formal adoption
of the Kingdom of Jugoslavija. Far at this stage from the
socialist dictatorship of which we are familiar today, this
ethnic-based kingdom was a monarchical dictatorship. The kingdom
included modern Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia (along
with its Kosovo and Macedonian provinces it had annexed before
WWI), each of whom forfeited their independence voluntarily.
Other Slavs like Bulgaria were omitted due to the long history
of Bulgarian independence, invasion, and the fact that independent
Bulgaria waged the Second Balkan War against their Slavic
brothers in Serbia over land in newly-conquered Macedonia
(from the Muslims).
Map of Europe upon the formation of an ethnically-based Jugoslavija
Kingdom in 1918 (from nationalarchives.gov.uk)
The Kingdom of Jugoslavija
remained upright and successful until 1939, when the global
calamities of World War II struck the South Slavs. The political
struggle of the world between the Allies' liberalism &
Communism and the Fascism of the Axis was epitomized in the
region of Jugoslavija. By 1941, Axis Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria,
Germany, and Italy had invaded and destroyed monarchical Jugoslavija
as well as independent Muslim Albania to the south. Popular
Slavic rebellion to foreign oppression, forced labor and exploitation,
and the hardship of war against the South Slavs mobilized
generally in the form of socialist guerrilla warfare and pro-Soviet
paramilitary action. The united monarchy of Jugoslavija had
declined into a warzone between socialism and Fascism. Serbia
remained the center of the socialist revolt, headed by the
charismatic Croat guerrilla commander Jozip Broz "Tito".
Millions were killed during the Axis occupation, though much
was the result of the violent revolt. Reactionist Croats'
fears of a socialist and Communist overthrow of the Jugoslav
kingdom resulted in Croatia's military and political alliance
with the Axis, and an opposition to the partisans attempting
to built a unified socialist Jugoslavija. With German military
administration, the Ustaše government of Fascist Ante Pavelič
led Croatia into a war against the Allies' liberalism and
the Soviets' Communism on the Axis front. Tens of thousands
of ethnic Croats and Bosnians volunteered to join German SS
units in both pan-Slavic regiments and Muslim-exclusive armies
to aid in the Fascist cause against the Communists and, by
extension, the Jews. The German conquest and their support
for Jihadists during the war against the atheistic Communists
(or so it was portrayed) strengthened Islam in Bosnia during
the war period in many ways, even attracting the Grand Mutfiy
of al-Quds (Jerusalem) to offer his support to the Bosnian-SS
units to promote Jihad against Jews and the Allies. Croatian
and to a much lesser extent Bosnian support for the Germans
encouraged a growing schism between the South Slavs for claims
of treason against the Jugoslavs. Slovenia remained deeply
under the fist of Mussolini's Italy, and Serbia and Bosnia
constantly rallied in a socialist popular revolt against Fascist
domination, despite being under Axis German & Hungarian
political rule. Many South Slavs perceived the Croats' shift
to the Axis side as betrayal, and thus a major event in the
history of cultural and social divergence between the Croats
and other South Slavs.
A Bosnian Muslim SS legion supporting the Axis against the
Soviets, Communists, and Jews. "Traitors!" say the
Serbs and socialist Jugoslavs fighting to protect their freedom
from Axis brutality and genocide.
Grand Muftiy of al-Quds (Jerusalem) shows his support for
the Axis and their Bosnian Muslim legions to promote Jihad
against the Jews and atheistic Communists. His Islamist movement
was prompted by fears for the coming establishment of a Jewish
state (Israel) in Palestine.
Croatian independent Fascist propaganda ad.
Fascist Croatia's leader Ante Pavelic shakes the hand of Adolf
Hitler.
Jugoslav socialist partisans rest after a battle with Axis
invaders.
Jugoslav socialist partisan freedom fighters march against
Fascist capitalist oppression (from Encarta)
By 1944, German and Axis
authority in what was previously a unified monarchical Jugoslav
kingdom was waning as Germany was forced to focus on the Russians
and their Allies to the west. The pause in foreign domination
allowed the warring socialist South Slav guerillas under Tito
to coalesce into a successful sociopolitical union, having
overthrown the "traitor" Fascist government of Croatia.
Socialism became the popular doctrine of the Croats as well,
as the social liberalism of the Allies and the Soviets became
apparent as the sole possible direction with the Fascists
vanquished. The new government of the Federal People's Republic
of Jugoslavija, declared before the end of the war though
unrecognized by the de jure ruling Axis, became cemented as
a new united socialist dictatorship under the authority of
Marshal Tito. The socialist government was modelled after
the Soviet Union, though the Jugoslavs consistently distanced
themselves from the world hegemony of Stalin's Soviet Union,
offering only dubious political affiliation as opposed to
political and economic submission. The government was a socialist
dictatorship divided into the constituent federal republics
of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia.
The new nation of Macedonia (along with Islamic Albanian-populated
Kosovo) are separate breakaway states from Serbia proper.
The socialist people's republic was extremely popular amongst
the South Slavs for its stability, economic and social development,
social satisfaction, and the exclusion from the many wars
that tore the remainder of post-war Europe in pieces. Marshal
Tito, who led Jugoslavija from its main power of Serbia, was
praised for setting aside the role of the ethnic groups in
Jugoslavija. By no means does this refer to ethnic tolerance
of non-Slavs (as Jews, political opponents, Muslim Albanians,
and Gypsies were reported to have died by the thousands under
his reign), but rather that the Serb minority did not exert
excessive power over the other major constituent republics
of Jugoslavija. Indeed, Jugoslavija was an ethnically-based
Slavic state of the Christian faith. The Albanian Islamic
minority was often hated then just as it is now for its separatism
via political rebellion and often Jihad to liberate Serbian-ruled
Kosovo, where the majority are Albanian. The Cyrillic alphabet
of Serbia was used as the lingua franca for the remainder
of Jugoslavija (including Latin-script Croatia and Slovenia).
The period of stability caused this brutal dictator to become
wildly popular amongst the South Slavs as a man of the people,
ushering in a bright period of stability and prosperity for
Slavs so familiar with brutal hardships of war and foreign
rule for nearly 600 years without pause. Tito's Jugoslavija
offered military and political support for the Soviet Union,
their Warsaw Pact post-war vassals, and world socialism, but
generally did not participate in the many global political
and military conflicts of the United States and Soviet Russia.
The socialist dictatorship professed strong adherence to the
Non-Aligned Movement began by the leftist Indian prime minister
Jawaharlal Nehru, promoting peace and development.
Mighty Jugoslav socialist hero and dictator Jozip Broz "TITO".
The flag of Jugoslavija after unification. Often bears a star
in the center, traditional of Communist states like North
Korea, China, and the Soviet Union.
The EHL map of Jugoslavija upon its full extent (1918 as a
dictatorship kingdom, 1944 as a socialist dictatorship of
the same size.
Tito was viewed as a national hero, unifier of the South Slavs,
and peacemaker in a world without any.
The death of Jozip Broz Tito
in 1980 was considered a national tragedy, and many South
Slavs therein feared greatly for the future of their federated
nation. The economic decline of Jugoslavija near the end of
Tito's lifetime due to bankruptcy, poor infrastructural and
market development, and social conflict with the revolting
Albanian Jihad accelerated the non-Serb republics' identification
of surplus and budget waste with the corrupt Serb central
government. This exacerbated ethnic conflict between the Serbs,
Croats, and Bosnians, and also encouraged the Albanian Muslims
to fight for independence (or merger with Albania) in Kosovo
against Serb rule. The next decade of Jugoslav history would
be wrought with economic decline, social conflict, corruption,
overspending, and ethnic & political disputes between
the constituent republics. The growing hardships, as well
as the revolt of the Albanians forced the central Serb government
to enforce its authority over the other "equal"
governments in the nation with more and more strength. Instead
of resulting in stability, this ultimately identified the
Serbs more and more with oppression, corruption, and self-interest.
The Albanian Muslim uprising is reported to have affiliated
Islam with separatist activity, and thus persecution or marginalization
of the Bosnian Muslim minority intensified, further agitating
the nation's inter-state cooperation. The borderless free-reign
that was Jugoslavija in which a Croat Slav could freely travel
to or live in Macedonia or Montenegro exploited the growing
ethnosocial conflict, as Serbs in Croatia began social violence
against the Croats to promote the Serb cause, and Croats or
Bosnians in Serbia attacked civilian Serbs to discourage continued
Serb hegemony in the nation. Jugoslavija and the South Slavs
were in decline and on the verge of collapse once again. Jugoslavija
became divided over a unionist future as in the past, -- as
supported by popular politicians like Markovich -- independence
movements in each constituent state, or those seeking to continue
the centralized authority of the Serbs. The leader of the
reactionary call for forced Serb stability and supremacy over
the post-Tito Jugoslav nation was Serb Slobodan Miloševič
(Meelo-shev-itch). The nation was enduring a political schism
as intensely as its economic calamities. An additional irritant
to Croatia and to a lesser extent Montenegro was their geographic
proximity to the sea; due to Serb rule, much of the thriving
economic benefits and imports wrought by coastal ports went
on to the wealthier Serb elite instead of the local Croats.
Slobodan Milosevic, viewed as a hero to many Serbs but a frightening
usher of further Serb hegemony by non-Serb Jugoslavs.
Miloševič's Serbia-Montenegro
continued what other South Slavs perceived as corruption,
oppression, and self-interested Serb supremacy over its "subjects".
The political and military strength caused the Albanian civil
uprising to be more and more in the form of terrorism and
Jihad as is experienced today. This resulted in the Slavs'
mass genocide of the Albanian community for its violent revolt.
The sociopolitical conflict between these Slavic cultures
of the same stock reached a peak in 1990, as the Soviet Union
was nearing total collapse. Just as the Croats had shifted
from Fascism to Jugoslav socialism when the reality of liberal
supremacy became apparent, constituent Jugoslav republics
used the opportunity to wrest themselves free of Serb Communist
oppression. Catholic Slovenia declared its independence from
Jugoslavija in July of 1991. In terms of world political theory,
this illegal succession allows the government (in this case
Serbia) to re-exert its authority over the breakaway state.
The so-called Ten-Day War resulted between Serb military legions,
Serb civilians, and Slovenes, though the distance and unimportance
of Slovenia made its independence a quick victory. Catholic
Slavic Slovenia, with its Latin script, became a nation for
the first time in history. The independence schism encouraged
the distinct Croats to rally the Croatian War of Independence
against Jugoslavija. To the Serbs, the Croats' independence
movement appeared as a second betrayal against the socialist
"ideal" just as they had done when they switched
sides to support the Third Reich and their Axis allies. A
brutal, bloody, and long war ensued in Croatia from 1991-95,
leaving thousands dead on both sides. Serb minority communities
in Croatia, as well as Serb soldiers reclaiming their breakaway
territory, routinely attacked and killed ethnic Croat civilians
both civil and paramilitary. The Croat political and military
leader Ante Gotovina rallied the Croats against the Serb invasion.
For the social and human conflict in Bosnia between the warring
factions, both the Serbs and the Croats are accused of war
crimes for genocide and persecution. Ante Gotovina is a cultural
and national hero in Croatia despite this. Many bullet holes
and artillery shell holes can still be seen in many buildings
in Croatia as a testament to the Croats' struggle against
Serbian invasion. The long war's brutality as well as the
Serbs' violent exertion of their authority catalyzed further
independence movements in the dying socialist state.
Bosnia-Herzegovina declared
independence in 1992 in the middle of the Croat war, initiating
a long war that also lasted until 1995. The Serb military
as well as the Serb minority in Bosnia offered violent reprisals
against the Bosnians -- especially the Muslim ~40% minority
-- for their separatist activity. Bosnian civilians reciprocated
the massacre of ethnic Serbs both civil and military for their
independence efforts. The eastern half of Bosnia-Herzegovina
today is Serbian-populated. During the wars for independence,
the eastern half of Bosnia refused to break from Serbia, and
viewed their fellow countrymen of Bosnia as traitors, leading
to brutal cultural warfare between Slavs in the region, leaving
hundreds of thousands dead with ranging sources. Muslims were
especially a target because it was perceived that they as
Muslim Bosniak Slavs (as opposed to Bosnian Christian Slavs)
were not truly Slavic or Yugoslavian, and were weakening the
state that Tito built with their separatism. Serbia was now
implicated in genocide in Croatia and Bosnia. Many Muslims
across the world are angered by what appears as a systematic
slaughter of Muslims in Bosnia. Indeed, the natural Serb effort
to suppress an internal revolt was coupled with persecution
of Muslim minorities, resulting in a double blow to the region.
This conflict, all initiated by what was perceived as Serbian
self-interested hegemony, has kept tensions between these
related peoples strong despite a thousand years of mutual
heritage and history. Today, the republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina
is divided tensely in three: the east, known as Republika
Srpska (Republic of Serbia) is Serbian Christian,
the southwest is Catholic Croatian, and the remainder is divided
into a blend of all three groups, including Bosnian Christians
and Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks). The division in Bosnia today
is evident in the fact that Republika Srpska even prints its
own money. Officially, the national Muslim population of Bosnia
is noted at roughly 40%, but the percentage of Islam in comparison
with the entire population is offset by the large Serbian
and Croatian population, thus setting the percentage of Islam
among Bosnians higher than 40%. Bosnia's and Albania's Islam
is less conservative than Turkey's Islam or other forms.
A cultural and religious map of Bosnia. Bosnia is tensely
divided between Christian Serbs, Catholic Croats, Bosniak
Muslims, and Bosnian Christians. (click to enlarge)
The wave of breakaway states
also caused the brand-new state of Macedonia
to declare independence in 1992. Due to the uselessness of
the region as well as Serbia's need to place its soldiers
in the violent Croatian and Bosnian republics, Macedonians
encountered almost no resistance or conflict. By 1993, Jugoslavija
was de facto reduced to only Serbia & Montenegro (plus
Serbia's Albanian Muslim-populated Kosovo) under Miloševič.
The EHL map of Jugoslavija's collapse and wars of independence
therein with dates.
Ante Gotovina, hero of Croatian independence and, as the US
and UN claim, genocidal war criminal.
Gotovina in military gear to reflect his military resistance
to Serb invasion.
Serbia's and Miloševič's
role as the helm of brutal military suppression of freedom-seeking
Slavic peoples under their domain made the two the targets
of an endless raft of American claims of human rights violations
and genocide. More so, however, reports of Serb massacre of
the violent revolting Muslim Albanian minority attracted full-scale
US intervention. Under the Clinton administration, a joint
force of the US Army with its NATO and UN supporters bombed
Serbia for several weeks in 1999. No Allied casualties were
reported to be directly the result of Jugoslav military attacks,
but the Serbs claimed the loss of thousands as a result of
what was perceived as the West's brutal slaughter. Hatred
for the US, its policies, and the UN spiked tremendously due
to this as remains strong today. This invasion crippled the
existence of Jugoslavija, and incited the Albanians in Kosovo
and Macedonia to increasingly use terrorism and even on occasion
Islamic Jihad against the Serbs in order to "liberate"
Kosovo, a province that had been an integral part of Serb
national heritage for nearly a thousand years (of course,
Albanians argue the same for themselves). Though not all Albanians
seek victory via Jihad or even under the banner of Islam,
the struggle has an Islamic character with broad support from
Mujahidin even from the Arab world. Albanians in Kosovo are
more conversatively Islamic than those in Albania because
only the Albanians in Albania experienced forced atheism,
and those in Kosovo have experienced what they perceive as
the oppression of foreigners and their culture. Albanians
claim descent from an ancient tribe, the Illyrians, from the
Roman period, evoked as an ideal of nationalism despite having
no historical evidence for such a worldview. American support
for Islamic rebels and terrorists in Kosovo greatly angered
the Serbs and their supporters in Russia and other Slavic
nations. After the bombing, the Jugoslav government effectively
collapsed, and a new president (Koštunica) was elected with
general public support. America inherited authority over Serbia's
Kosovo under the guise of a United Nations and NATO holding
in order to protect the Albanian Muslim guerrillas from ethnic
cleansing of the Serbs. Though the province was legally ruled
by the United Nations, the United States under President Clinton
led the offensive, as is evident in the fact that angry Serbians
protesting the independence of Kosovo burned American flags,
not UN or NATO flags. In 2001, Jugoslavian (at this point
meaning only Serbia & Montenegro) authorities arrested
former president Miloševič in his home, later transferring
him to NATO police and eventually to the International Criminal
Court in order to spare Jugoslavija further hardships. He
would die mysteriously in his cell, with many claiming murder
largely as a result of nationalism. By 2003, what was by now
the useless political concept of Jugoslavija collapsed, and
Jugoslavija/Serbia-Montenegro renamed themselves Serbia-Montenegro
in a political personal union. In 2006, largely due to the
fact that tiny Montenegro had almost no power over larger
Serbia (yet deserved access to Serbia-Montenegro's rich coastal
port opportunities), Montenegro seceded from Serbia. Jugoslavija
had ended in entirety. Albanian insurgency via terrorism (especially
the Kosovo Liberation Army) and often Jihad in Kosovo and
Macedonia against Slavic populations and political leaders
has caused the deaths of thousands on both sides, and by no
means is one side guilty of genocide and the other innocent;
both have caused a large share of violence and brutality.
The US supports the Albanian Muslims and continue to levy
claims against Serbia. Today, Kosovar Albanian Muslims demand
freedom. After the bombing of Yugoslavia under the Clinton
administration, Kosovo became a UN-administered province with
American authority. Russia, Serbia, and the Slavic and Greek
neighbors overwhelmed with Albanian immigration all refuse
to allow America to force Serbia to forfeit nearly half of
its land to the Albanian minority. Bitter ethnic hatred exists
for them all over Europe as a type of lazy, apathetic, or
draining population, further exacerbated by their Muslim identity.
To read my rare exclusive photos & observations of Muslim
Albania, read the othe essay
on Albania. In 2008, Kosovo, with the blessings of the
European Union and especially the United States, formally
declared its independence. Its status today remains disputed
in terms of its recognition. Like Israel, Taiwan, the Sahara
Arab Republic, and many more, not all nations agree upon the
future political and social implications of Kosovo. Serbs
protested en masse by burning American flags -- not UN or
NATO flags, but US flags because of their imperial-like control
over a province that has been connected with Serbian national
heritage for nearly 1000 years.
The EHL map of the often-sought "Greater Kosovo"
and "Greater Albania". This is the maximum extent
of Albanian Muslim claims to sovereignty, though they have
only acquired a small portion thereof (see below). Albanians
also claim parts of Macedonia.
The EHL map boundaries of the new nation of Kosovo as it is
recognized by the United States and European Union.
Slobodan Milosevic on trial in the International Criminal
Court after his expulsion by the new regime.
The EHL map of Montenegrin succession from Serbia, formally
ending all Jugoslavija.
 
Albanian Islamic freedom fighters in Kosovo rally the Jihad
against the Serbs, with US support. For some Albanians, the
conflict is a fight for freedom; for others, it is a Jihad.
The fight is rooted in an Islamic characteristic.
The new modern flags of Serbia and independent Montenegro.
As this essay illustrates,
the South Slavs have a highly complicated political and social
historical relation from their inception nearly a millennium
ago until today, despite being of the same ethnicity and effectively
the same culture. From a common Slavic stock the Serbs, Bosnians,
and Croats developed their own religious directions, Slavonic
dialects, and endured brutal foreign and Jihadist rule for
nearly a thousand years until returning to their common ethnic
identity in the ethnically-based South Slavic nation of Jugoslavija.
Today, these three Slavic peoples have returned to mutual
diversion and even on occasion ethnic and social hatred despite
this common heritage.
In Croatia, Montenegro, Bulgaria,
Ukraine, and Russia, the South Slavic peoples are tightly
bound to their ethnic and cultural heritage with pride as
can be seen across Europe in Slavic Ukraine and Russia to
the same extent. The political and social hardships these
peoples have endured since 1100, be it the domination of Communists,
corruption, genocide, Jihadist Mujahidin, Germans, Bulgarians,
Byzantines, Fascists, or Hungarians, have left these South
Slavs scarred with a difficult and dark history even amongst
themselves. Their common ethnocultural pride that inclined
them to create the race-based state of Jugoslavija has been
tried and hampered greatly by the collective tumult each South
Slavic nation experienced during the Miloševič administration.
The pan-Slavic ideal of Tito is long from forgotten despite
these brutal conflicts. Marshal Tito is celebrated and mythified
by nearly all Croats, Serbs, Slovenes, Bosnians, Macedonians,
and Montenegrins despite his history as a violent socialist
dictator. The collapse of Jugoslavija is not viewed by most
here as a fault of socialism, dictatorship, or Tito, but rather
the corruptive self-interest of Slobodan Miloševič, the Serbs,
and the Albanian rebels. The Serbs are viewed by surrounding
Slavic peoples as self-interested and corrupt. But the idea
of Jugoslavija as an ethnically-united Slavic thriving polity
remains a vivid ideal of the better time for many, as realistic
as this may or may not be. The new nations of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Serbia, and Montenegro all are working for pride in their
new independent post-Tito heritage. This growing cultural
divergence is most intense, predictably, in Croatia and Bosnia,
where most of Serbia's brutality was endured. In Croatia,
Tito still endures cult of personality status. Not only did
he unite the Slavic ethnicity in a peaceful kingdom with a
vivid future, but he is believed to have protected jobs and
the well-being of the people due to dictatorship's traditional
ability to exert whatever means necessary to fulfill its goals
(as opposed to weak democracy of these present nations, unable
to repair war-destroyed Serbia or Bosnia). With no or little
nationalization of industry and public affairs, little security
is certain despite this lull of peace in the volatile Balkans.
Ante Gotovina, the Croatian leader responsible for protecting
Croatian independence from Jugoslavija is by majority praised
as a national hero against their Serbian brothers, despite
his international status as a war criminal and murderer of
Serb civilian separatists. Graffiti can be seen throughout
Croatia showing popular youth support for Gotovina. A photo
shown below taken by me shows the text in English "Ante
Gotovina...HEROJ" (hero). The oppression wrought by Communists
is intensely hated by Croats along with Slobodan Miloševič,
who is viewed as a murderer and war criminal against the Croats.
From one political murderer to another, one might say; a fascinating
phenomenon common to the region. Evidence of Serbian military
assault on civilians and soldiers can be seen all over Croatia,
as I saw for myself. In the coastal ancient walled fort city
of Dubrovnik, bullet holes and artillery shells can be seen
in many of the 500-year-old buildings maintained to commemorate
the Croats' defense of their right to statehood (my photo
shown below). Due to the fact that the bombing occurred so
recently, most Croatians can remember first-hand the Serbian
invasion, including the fear of social reprisal by the Serb
minority, the sound of gunfire and explosions in the distance,
and even the deaths of thousands by the hands of artillery
or even mass murder. In some of my interviews with local Croats,
those who did not express brutal ethnic hatred for Serbs were
so emotional with anger and hatred in regard to the subject
that they refused to discuss it. The same anger is afforded
in Bosnia arguably to a stronger intensity due to the additional
persecution levied on the 40% Muslim minority Bosniaks by
the Croats and Serbs.
My photo of the main bridge in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Destroyed
by the Serbs to prevent supplies from reaching the Croats.
(click to enlarge)
My photo of the ancient 400-year-old+ walled fort city of
Old Dubrovnik. The mountain summit at right is the hill from
which Serb cannons, rockets, and mortars bombarded Dubrovnik
and the Old City for weeks. This was an attempt to demoralize
the Croats for destroying a continental treasure. (click
to enlarge)
My photo of a map in Dubrovnik showing where Serb bombs fell,
losses of life, injuries, and destroyed or damaged buildings
during the Croatian War of Independence. (click to
enlarge)
My photo of an ancient Catholic Croatian church. Notice the
Serbian bullet holes and shells in the right corner of the
building.
My photo of another Croatian building with bullet holes and
shell damage from the Serb attack. (click to enlarge)
My photo of graffiti saying "ANTE GOTOVINA...HEROJ"
(hero) (click to enlarge)
The phenomenon that is Jugoslavija
and its former constituent states is a situation uncommon
in the world: from Slavic tribes to unified states with distinct
histories and the same experience of foreign domination and
the awesome Jihad, to united Slavic nationalism under Catholic
German foreign rule, to a proud and unified ethnic-based Kingdom
of Jugoslavija, then to socialism, and finally to total collapse.
The dark history that these cultures have shared and yet persevered
with the same cultural Slavic pride for nearly 1000 years
is nearly unmatched.
________________________________________
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
James Mayfield is the owner
and Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I am working
for a doctorate in history, with a specific emphasis on Islamic
and European histories. I am well versed in all world cultures,
ethnicities, religions, languages, politics, and historical
evolution in relation to and against each other.
BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES
USED:
Personal experience.
Click the source links as
they appear throughout the article. Hosts of off-site links
are written under the image.
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