The Dissolution Of Yugoslavi Yugoslavia - 903 Words

The Dissolution of Yugoslavia The country of Yugoslavia was first formed as a kingdom in 1918 after combining land areas from the now both defunct Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires and then recreated as a Socialist state in 1945 after the Axis powers were defeated in World War II. The Soviet Union took control of Yugoslavia after the war and wrote a new constitution for the country that established six constituent republics in the federation: Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. The Republic of Serbia also had two self-governing provinces: Vojvodina and Kosovo. Yugoslavia was a part of the Soviet Union until the Union dissolved in 1991 and as a result Yugoslavia soon followed, but this is about†¦show more content†¦Exceptions to this pattern of stability were the marked increase of the Albanian population and a steep decline in the numbers of Jews, ethnic Germans, and Hungarians after World War II (Cushman). Another definitive cause of the Yugoslavian breakup was the nationalism of ethnic groups in the early 1990s. Nationalism replaced communism as the dominant ideology in the country. Slovenia and then Croatia were the first to break away, but this caused Serbia to become hostile towards the two nations. Consequently, the war in Croatia led to hundreds of thousands of refugees and also brought back memories of the harsh acts of the Nazis in the 1940s. By 1992 a further conflict had broken out in Bosnia, which had also succeeded from Yugoslavia. The Serbs who lived there were determined in remaining within Yugoslavia and to help build a more homogenous Serbia. They received strong backing from radical groups in Belgrade. Muslims were driven from their homes in carefully planned operations that become known as ethnic cleansing. By 1993 the Bosnian Muslim government was besieged in the capital Sarajevo, surrounded by Bosnian Serb forces who controlled around 70% of Bosnia. In Central Bosnia, the mainly Muslim army w as fighting a separate war against Bosnian Croats who wished to be part of a greater Croatia. The presence of United Nations peacekeepers was required to contain the situation. The idea from culminated in the Yugoslav Peace Conference,