|
Country and Minority Flags of Europe EU Country Profiles
& Immigration Info
Minority Languages
& Identities in Europe
About the EHL/The Staff/Contact
Us
Submit Articles & Content
Online Language Translation
Join our Mailing List
Donate to the EHL
Bookmark
the EHL to Favourites!


Click a Flag to Translate
• Ethnic/religious
groups of Habsburg Empire
• Historical
breakup of Yugoslavia ('91-'09)
• Muslim
populations in European countries
• 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
• Detailed
map of French colonization
• Detailed
map of British colonization
• Napoleon's
conquests & legacy
• Ethnic
& religious map of pre-Nazi Poland
--MORE &
NON-ENGLISH--
• Pecs, Hungary: collision
point between
Muslim and Christian empires
• Auschwitz and Birkenau
• Poland's
resistance to Nazis in pictures
• Muhammad
cartoon crisis in pictures
• Stalin's
private summer home
• Ravenna:
capital of Gothic empire
• Czar Nicholas
II's Ukrainian palace
• European
traditional cultural costumes
• Inside the Vatican,
house of all wealth
• Banknotes/currencies
of Europe
• Croatia's
Dubrovnik, untarnished gem
--MORE
& NON-ENGLISH--

• Islamic Mujahidin
vs. Christian Spain
• Poland-Lithuania vs. Teutonic Order
• Nevskiy's Russia vs. German Crusaders
• Prussia
vs. France (Nazi Propaganda)
• Libya: Europe
will soon be Islamic
• Ivan the Terrible
vs. Muslim Tatars
• Soviet
Propaganda: Defeat of Germany
--MORE
& NON-ENGLISH--

• An analysis
of Mussolini's 1938 racialist legislation
• The disastrous
effects of Soviet collectivization on Kazakhstan
• Changing meaning
of Italian identity under Fascist rule
• Yugoslavia's independent
break from East and West
• The Galicians: the
Celts of Spain
• The modern
Macedonian Slavs and Alexander the Great
• An argument for
the Romanians' links to ancient Dacians
• Mussolini's
Italian death camp for Jews, Slovenes, and Marxists
• The disappeared
Jews of Hungary and the Arrow Cross regime
• The Gypsies in history and today,
Europe's public enemy
• History
of Jihad in Chechnya vs. Russians
• History
of the Muslim Tatars in Eastern Europe
• Post-WWII expulsion of 10 million
ethnic German civilians
• Ethnic
& religious history of Serbs, Croats, & Bosnians
• Breakaway
states and independence movements in Europe
• The ancient Germanic Runic alphabet
and Runestones
• Teutonic
Order and their 800-year legacy in Eastern Europe
• 460-year
struggle for Albanian homeland, and 540 for Kosovo
• 2,800-year-old white mummies of China,
bringers of Buddhism?
• Alexander the
Great's Greek descendents in Pakistan?
• Visual History
of Yugoslavia and its breakup (1918-2008)
--MORE
& NON-ENGLISH-- |
|
Visual History of
Yugoslavia and its breakup in the Yugoslav Wars (1918-2008)
by James Mayfield (Chairman, European Heritage Library)
Print
this Article About
the Author Bibliography/Sources
Below is a step-by-step visual
walkthrough of the history of Yugoslavia from its roots as
the post-WWI Kingdom of Yugoslavia, to the division of the
Yugoslavs over support for Fascism or socialism, to the foundations
of a dictatorial socialist power after World War II, until
the total decay and collapse under the Serbian regime of Milosevic
from 1991-1995, followed by the schism of Kosovo and Montenegro
in 2008. It is accompanied with simplified and exclusive EHL
maps to aid in understanding. For the exclusive ethnocultural
and historical EHL guide to the evolving historical relations
between the Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians from 1000-1995, and
how this contributed to the formation of ethnically-based
Yugoslavia, read this Library
essay.
Kingdom of Yugoslavia, political division during World
War II, & the People's Republic of Yugoslavia:
The Croats, Serbs, Slovenes,
Bosnians, Montenegrins, and (with some debate) the Macedonians
all descend from a common genetic and shared ethnic Slavic
line that settled in the Balkans by the 8th century. Often
passed between various European empires, a foundational genesis
of Catholic Croatia, along wth Orthodox Serbia and Bosnia,
was planted by the early 11th century. In the 15th century,
the awesome jihad of the Ottoman Turks plunged the blade of
Islam into the heart of the Balkans, conquering Albania, what
is now Greece, Slavic Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Bosnia,
Serbia, and had supplicated Hungary and Croatia to their knees.
This rule and process of both relegated and voluntarily conversion
continued for nearly 400 years. Intense conversion efforts
by Muslim Bektashi mystics, and also as an effort to avoid
second-class status, caused Bosnia to become half-Muslim as
it remains today. Ostensibly to save the Slavic and Hungarian
Christians from the jihad, the massive German empire of Habsburg
Austria gradually annexed Slovenia, Croatia (1526), Hungary
(1526), and Bosnia (1908). Serbia freed itself on its own
from Islamic rule after two brutal wars of independence, finally
to be liberated by 1878.
As the massive German Habsburg
Empire collapsed after World War I (1918), the newly-independent
South Slavs (Bosnians, Croats, Serbs, Slovenes, Montenegrins,
Macedonians) united behind a common ethnic, linguistic, and
cultural heritage to form the Kingdom of Croats, Serbs, and
Slovenes in 1918. Quickly changing its name to the Kingdom
of Yugoslavia, the monarchy was centered at Belgrade and dominated
by ethnic Serbs as it would be until its total collapse in
1995. Kosovo (by then majority non-Slavic Albanian Muslim)
was part of Serbia, as it had been for 1,000 years. Montenegro
merged with Serbia, but remained autonomous. This was not
a socialist state, but rather a monarchical dictatorship.
In World War II, Yugoslavia
was initially very close with Adolf Hitler. Internal political
conflict, as well as a prescient concern that Italy's Mussolini
would conquer German-dominated Yugoslavia, prompted Hitler
to lead the Germans to conquer the whole area. Axis Bulgaria
also yearned to "re-take" Macedonia, whose Slavs
it considered to be nothing more than Bulgarians. The broken
kingdom became split between the political worldviews of Fascist
National Socialism, monarchy, or socialist-Communism. The
destroyed kingdom was now a warground between socialist rebels
like Marshall Broz "Tito" and Albania's Enver Hoxha,
nationalist-monarchists like the Chetnik legions (on-and-off
allies of Germany), and independent ethnic nationalists. Most
Croats welcomed the Fascist invasion as a solution to Communist
overthrow, as well as a chance to counterbalance the consistent
domination of Croatia by the Serbs. All of Yugoslavia excluding
Croatia (which then incorporated Bosnia) was a mere province
of Germany and Italy, a warzone between partisans and the
German army.
Croatia became a semi-independent
ally of the Third Reich under the government of Ante Pavelic
of the Ustashe brigade. It is reported by many sources (especially
in The Balkans by Misha Glenny) that the Fascist
Croats perpetrated some of the worst acts of violence in the
war, killing more of the total population than in any other
nation. Ante Pavelic is lionized as a hero by many Croats
today because he brutally protected Croatia from Serbian domination.
Thousands and thousands of Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats
joined SS killing squads (especially SS-Handschar) due to
a mutual opposition to Jews, Communists, Serbs, and progressive
secular liberals. The "treason" of the Bosniaks
and Croats against the Serbs and Yugoslavs would not be forgotten
after the war, nor during the Yugoslav Wars. Whereas many
Bosniaks and Croats, as with many other ethnic minority volunteers
in the SS, believed themselves to be defending their families
and homelands rather than participating in extermination,
the post-war Yugoslavs equated their membership as direct
corroboration with the Fascists and persecuted them accordingly.
By the end of World War
II, as the Germans withdrew, the Croatian nationalists and
Chetnik monarchists lost support. The fraternity and will
of the Communist militias won the war with Soviet support.
Although Yugoslavia was one of the only nations to be liberated
from Axis rule largely by itself (the other being Albania),
and although Yugoslavia soon became famous for its dramatic
divorce from Soviet economic influence, Yugoslavia did
enjoy Soviet supplies, military advice, and briefly towards
the end of the occupation, direct military support. The Chetniks
lost in part because they were dominated by Serbs, whilst
the socialists included all ethnic groups of ex-Yugoslavia.
Marshall Jozip Broz "TITO" led the militias to victory,
creating the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. Initially,
as the great majority of each ex-Yugoslav society proudly
notes, Yugoslavia under Tito was one of mutual cooperation
free of Serbian domination. In truth, Tito is portrayed as
considering Croat, Serb, and Bosnian insignificant; all were
merely Yugoslavs, in great contrast to the chauvinism of Milosevic
nearly 50 years later. This was a socialist dictatorship centered
in Serbia (Belgrade) that granted quasi-autonomy to each province
but invested Belgrade and the president with unlimited powers.
Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Slovenia
were all "republics" of Yugoslavia's federation.
Kosovo's Albanian Muslims pressured revolt, demanding more
autonomy, but received very little until after Tito's death.
Each group in Yugoslavia
proudly recalls the independence and tranquilty of Yugoslavia.
Tito led a very independent stance, causing Stalin and his
Warsaw Pact puppets in Eastern Europe to expel Yugoslavia
from the Comintern. Yugoslavia even became an exporter to
the United States. Tito is criticized by less romantic nationalists
for being passive and apathetic, effectively allowing inter-ethnic
problems to fester with a temporary band-aid with unresolved
consequences enduring later.

Yugoslavia as a socialist state under Tito in 1944. The monarchy
of 1918-1941 had the same borders.
Wars of Independence/Breakup following Tito's death:
Near the death of the charismatic
leader Tito, broad corruption, overspending, and infrastructural
and economic decline became increasingly disastrous. The authority
of Yugoslavia shifted from one of shared inter-ethnic cooperation
to one of Serbian chauvinism from the monarchical period,
or so most ex-Yugoslavs today angrily claim. As the Yugoslav
government was centered at Serbia, "equal" constituent
republic Slavic peoples affixed more and more blame to the
self-interested and corrupt Serbs. Tito's death in 1980 exploited
the hardships between these Slavic peoples. The Serbs still
claim that it was the selfish autonomy interests of the Croats
that caused the collapse, not any Serb hegemony. The Croats
and Slovenes -- the first two to break free -- found great
resentment to the fact that the majority of Yugoslavia's industry
and economic power was in Croatia and Slovenia, and yet they
were forced to pay taxes to and obey the whim of comparatively-impoverished
Serbia. Serbia today remains far poorer than still-poor Croatia
and quite-rich Slovenia, despite the fact that Belgrade was
given total economic control.
In 1997, Slobodan Milosevic
ascended to power as the president of Yugoslavia. Instead
of attempting reconciliation, he and other hard-line nationalists
promoted "Yugoslavism," an ideology that sought
to set aside local minority interests in the name of the state.
Since the "state" was in many ways Serbia, this
was felt by Croats and others to be mere hegemony and domination.
One of the biggest problems was the problematic Albanian Muslim
minority in Kosovo and throughout the federation, who frequently
fought for statehood (independence) via jihad and terrorism,
especially under the Kosovo Liberation Army. Internal schism
forced the Serbs to become even more dominant and nationalistic.
As a result, Slovenia and
Croatia -- the two wealthiest regions of Yugoslavia -- declared
independence in 1991. The Ten-Day War for Slovene independence
saw a short but bloody war. Slovenia remains one of the cleanest
and wealthiest countries in Europe, in contrast to the wicked
poverty of Serbia. Croatia followed suit in the Croatian War
of Independence, a horrific and bloody war in which thousands
on both sides were killed, slaughtered, and displaced, leading
to American claims of war crimes on both sides. Civilians
were massacred in small family villages. The war between Croatia
and Serbia continued until 1995, when the Croats with American
and NATO support effectively expelled every Serb from the
country. Ante Gotovina, the Croatian general, is criticized
for using scorched earth and massacre tactics on Serbian civilians.
Gotovina remains a hero in Croatia today, much like the Nazi
Ante Pavelic is lionized still by many for repelling the Serbs.
Croatia's former Serb-dominated territory of Srbija Krajina
is now almost Serb-free due to the expulsions. Croatia was
now broken, and "Yugoslavia" only included Serbia,
Montenegro, Bosnia, and Serbian Kosovo. Macedonia broke off
by 1993 without bloodshed from the Serbs.
What followed was by far
the worst portion of the Yugoslav Wars between the Serbs and
Bosnians. Bosnia, which is 40% Muslim due to the legacy of
forced and relegated conversion during Ottoman conquest, suffered
some of the worst atrocities in the 20th century. Their "treason"
from an increasingly-nationalistic Yugoslavia made them a
particular target. Their polar quality of being "Muslim"
(although a very liberal form thereof, and only a minority)
made them victims of an even more smoldering discrimination.
Muslim civilians and soldiers were reported as being raped,
slaughtered, beheaded, starved, and killed, although tremendous
exaggeration and unproved claims appear on all sides of this
debate. Of course, Bosniak Muslims were guilty of equal atrocities,
employing jihad and terrorist attacks against Serbian women
and civilians at the same degree of brutality. The terrible
war in Bosnia lasted from 1992 until 1995, when the Clinton-sponsored
Dayton Accords established independent Bosnia. UN, NATO, and
American forces kept the Serb militias out of Bosnian cities,
and still occupy Bosnia today.

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 map of Bosnia. The difficult division of cultural
and religious groups in today's Bosnia is clearly a result
of the difficult internal Yugoslav wars. Note: the EHL is
not the owner of this map. I was unable to isolate the original
creator.
By 1992 Yugoslavia was no
more than de facto Serbia-Montenegro, though this would not
be entirely apparent and recognized by the Serbs until 1995
or even later. The Muslim revolt of the Albanian minority
in Serbia's Kosovo region -- as well as claims of war crimes
in the revolting regions of Croatia and Bosnia -- caused the
US to bomb Serbia for several weeks under the guise of NATO
and UN peacekeeping action. The destruction of the Serbian
army and airforce by American bombings exacerbated and ensured
Yugoslavia's collapse, though a downward spiral was evident
beforehand. Following the bombing, in which not a single American
soldier was killed and hundreds or even thousands of Serbian
civilians are often claimed to have been slain, the United
States indirectly administered Kosovo as a UN-governed province.
The overwhelming expenses and casualties endured by Serbia,
US and NATO bombing, corruption, and total bankruptcy caused
a new Serb (Yugoslav) regime to be elected by the end of 1999,
when Milosevic was turned over to NATO for trial in the International
Criminal Court for slaughter of Croatian, Bosnian, and Albanian
[rebelling] civilians during the many wars the Balkans have
suffered from 1991-2000. As it quickly became apparent that
the concept of "Yugoslavia" was entirely meaningless
as it referred now to no more than Serbia and Montenegro,
a new name was adopted for the personal union of the two as
"Serbia & Montenegro." Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Serbia-Montenegro, Slovenia, and Macedonia were now all independent
states. Croatia today has largely refused to hand of its war
heroes to international courts for human rights affairs, as
has Serbia.
In 2006, further, Montenegro
of post-Yugoslav Serbia-Montenegro resolved its political
weakness in Serb politics (due to its tiny comparative size)
by declaring independence; Yugoslavia had ended for good.
Many Montenegrins and Serbs today have no idea why their country
declared independence, as many polls show overwhelming support
for Serbia still today. Many consider it the work of politicians,
as in the former Czechoslovakia. The Montenegrins are culturally,
religiously, linguistically, and ethnically identical to Serbs,
but have a distinct history that dates back nearly a millennium
and remained the only state in the Balkans free of Ottoman
rule indefinitely.

Kosovo's Muslim Albanian
independence wars:
Read my article on the 510-year
struggle for an Albanian homeland, and 552 for Kosovo
to gain a fair and full understanding of the Albanian perspective
on the Kosovo conflict.
Albanians are the only Muslim-majority
culture in Europe, occupying Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro
and Kosovo. The region, never a nation, was divided by two
Christian hill tribes -- the Tosk and Gheg -- who unified
as Christians under Albanian national hero Gjergj Skanderbeg
to resist the Islamic Jihad of the Ottoman Turkish empire.
They failed, and after 400 years of strict occupation, the
Albanians are today Muslim-majority. Despite the Serbian clash
with Albanians and their mutual hatred, it was the Serbs who
have ruled Kosovo as an integral part of their history and
heritage for nearly 1,000 years. It was the Serbs who liberated
Kosovo from Ottoman rule. Most of Serbia's most important
historical triumphs occurred in Kosovo against Muslim conquest
that the Serbs had never provoked. Read my
Inside Albania article for a rare inside look at Albania,
the hermit state of Europe. The American and Western claims
of ethnic cleansing of Albanians by Serbs and other Slavs
unfairly ignores the brutal violence, terrorism, and jihad
that the Albanians in Kosovo performed to secure their independence
as well. Both sides are guilty of brutal violence, religious
persecution, and murder (see 2004:
a bloody year in the Kosovo conflict). The Kosovars hoped
to gain their independence just as Croatia and Slovenia were,
resulting in an intese reprisal by the Serbian Christians
against Kosovo.
Having been seized from Serbia/Yugoslavia
by 1999, the region, now protected by the United States and
NATO, operated independently with almost no say to the nation
from which it was taken. Independence calls continued, though
failed to materialize because of the tenuious political implications
of such an act of forced succession. Some (like the US) argued
that Kosovo needed to be free in order to repair the horrors
of Serbian genocide, despite the fact that Kosovars did the
same to the Serbs. Others argued that the non-Serb, non-Christian
population had a right to represent its own affairs. Some
Muslims argued that a Muslim, independent nation should be
established at any cost. Other Albanian nationalists wanted
to re-establish a pan-Albanian nation, championing the largely
ahistorical myth of an Illyrian/Epir Roman-era origin. There
were disputes also in the size of this nation to be carved
out of another country's sovereign land. Albanians demanded
"Greater Albania" stretching from the border of
Greece to central Serbia. America and the European Union only
supported the claim to a small portion thereof (see the maps
below). In 2008, Kosovo formally declared independence. Much
of the world completely ignored or refused such an act, but
the United States and the European Union recognize Kosovo
as a new nation. The status of Kosovo will continue to be
difficult, especially for Serbs who refuse to simply give
up more than 10% of their national land as well as an integral
part of their vivid Slavic Serbian national heritage. See
the maps below.

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.
________________________________________
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
James Mayfield is a historian
and the Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I have
a Cum Laude BA in History with a Minor in Germanic Studies
(language and history), am presently working for my Masters
in History, and plan to immediately progress to my PhD Doctorate.
I have a special academic interest in Europe's diverse ethnic
identities, languages, and cultures, and the political struggles
of native European and immigrant minority identities. See
my staff entry for more information.
BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES
USED:
The image used as the basis
for the maps is widely redistributed and is not protected.
Glenny, Misha. The Balkans:
Nationalism, War & the Great Powers, 1804-1999. New
York, NY: Penguin Books, 2001.
|
|