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REPUBLICS OF FORMER YUGOSLAVIA.   Term Paper ID:22678 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: History of ethnic rivalries among Serbs, Croats & Muslims, civil war, religion, communism, govt., potential for peace.... More...

8 Pages / 1800 Words 8 sources, 11 Citations, APA Format $32.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: History of ethnic rivalries among Serbs, Croats & Muslims, civil war, religion, communism, govt., potential for peace. Paper Introduction: Ethnic differences between the Balkan republics during the last century are the driving force behind today's war in the former Yugoslavia. Although once united in an uneasy peace with one another under a watered down communist regime, the republics have always been divided by ethnic, religious, and political differences. By the 1990s, these differences reached a flashpoint, and the Yugoslavian republics were headed on a collision course. Because the Yugoslavian republics had been federally forced together despite their differences, what appeared as relative stability was, in fact, an explosion waiting to happen. Some of the differences leading to the ongoing bitterness and strife between the different republics will be examined. In addition, an overview of past communist rule will show that the republics have always struggled for autonomy, despite strong federal forces. Finally, a look at future possibilities will include a discussion of the probability of peace or continued war. Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. All that remained of the Yugoslavian federation wasSerbia--the most powerful of the republics--and tiny Montenegro.Yugoslavia still had a federal government, but its power was taken over bythe government of Serbia. A further look at the ethnic and religious mix of the regionillustrates why there is such divisiveness today. German and Frankish missionaries converted bothgroups to the Western Rite of Roman Catholicism. Turkish power peaked at the start of the seventeenth century.Gradually, the Austrians and their allies, together with Slav rebels,chipped away at Turkish holdings. The Middle Ages were violent in Yugoslavia. The two groups tried to cooperate, but they couldn't.Unfortunately, while both groups were battling the Germans, Italians, andCroats, they also fought each other. International observers and analysts believed the Serbiangovernment wanted to create a "Greater Serbia" that would include parts ofCroatia and Bosnia, where many Serbs lived. The Serbian stereotype refers to the tradition of the 'hajduk,' the idealized mountain renegade who responded violently to the oppressive anarchy of the Ottoman Empire during its last two centuries; the Croatian stereotype reflects the cultural influence of responding through the legal system to the Hapsburgs' highly bureaucratized infringements on national and individual freedoms in Croatia. Croats are mostly RomanCatholics, with ties to Germany and Austria. As World War II loomed in 1939, Yugoslaviawas in turmoil. But thereare people who are thinking and worrying about us . By the late 198 s andearly 199 s, many Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia decided they no longer wantedto be citizens of their respective independent republics. References Auster, B. By the 199 s, the Yugoslavian republics were splintering. Malcolm, N. a self-complimentary Serbian stereotype, says: In a conflict with authority, the Serb reaches for the sword, and the Croat for his pen. Lewis, F. Ethnic differences between the Balkan republics during the lastcentury are the driving force behind today's war in the former Yugoslavia.Although once united in an uneasy peace with one another under a watereddown communist regime, the republics have always been divided by ethnic,religious, and political differences. Tito's significance was that he held the country together by force,by keeping Yugoslavia's many rival groups in check. Serbs and Croats: The Struggle inYugoslavia. With the aid ofthe Soviet Union, the Partisans overcame the Germans and established a newgovernment with Tito at the head. Washington, D.C.: Library ofCongress, Federal Research Division.----------------------- 7 Macedonia andBosnia soon followed. Yugoslavia: A Country Study. At the same time, the Chetniks, organized byDraza Mihailovic, a Serb, sought to restore Serbian dominance in thecountry. They, too, would have much to gain byhelping the people of Yugoslavia find themselves Yugoslav again" (p. New York: New YorkUniversity Press. . The 198 s saw a series of"collective presidencies," but, unless a president had Serbian support, hehad very little power. A look at the strife in what was once Yugoslavia will show that,ironically, it was the actions of extremist Serbs that most closelymirrored what the Nazis had done to Jews during World War II. 175). However, deep-seated hatreds always bubbled close to the surface. Montenegro, then calledZeta, lead a successful Serb rebellion against the ruling Byzantines.Serbia soon became a powerful kingdom and provided a basis for the strongnational identity the Serbs have today. The roots of the conflict in Yugoslavia go back more than 1,5 years, to the time soon after the fall of the Roman empire. As will be seen,extremist Serbs began a campaign of what they called, "ethnic cleansing,"the wholesale removal and slaughter of all Muslims and Croats from areasthe Serbs wanted to control. A quotation from a country study of Yugoslavia (1992) well summarizesthe rivalries between Serbs and Croats, and is worth repeating in itsentirety: The very way of life of a Serb and a Croat is a deliberate provocation by each to the other . A recentarticle in Foreign Policy advocates "trying to unite interests rather thandividing them [Bihac, Gorazde, Sarajevo] into ever more limited pieces . During thefifth century, Tribes of Slavs moved south from the Carpathian mountains ofcentral Europe. During that time, Croatiawas given to Austria.Croatian nationalists are believed by scholars to have been responsible forthe assassination (after World War I) of King Alexander, the Prince ofSerbia, who had been responsible for heading a "new country" that wascalled the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Bosnia was caught in the middle of the conflicts between Croatiaand Serbia (as it was in the 199 s) and was ruled by Hungary and Croatia. Serbo-Croatian ties toGermanic, Roman Catholic culture still exist. They believedSerbs should be ruled only by other Serbs. War in Yugoslavia: The Breakup of aNation. or, perhaps those who are worrying about the former Yugoslavia will cutoff all means of destruction. Dragnich (1992) explains the extreme significance of Roman Catholicismto the Croats, both historically and in the present: It is significant in this context to suggest that no people in Europe, with the exception of the Irish and the Poles, were more inclined to defend themselves by Catholicism than the Croats. L. .. In addition, an overview of past communist rule will show thatthe republics have always struggled for autonomy, despite strong federalforces. actions,the plan to partition Bosnia, or the upcoming Serbian election would helpend the conflict remains to be seen" (6 ). 48). Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo.New York: Viking. Brookfield: The Millbrook Press. R. During the second World War, Marshal Tito, whose followers werecalled Partisans, fought to organize Yugoslavs of all backgrounds to fightthe occupiers of Yugoslavia. (1995). News & WorldReport, 118 (23, 34-37. Bosnia: A Short History. The Croatian frenzy in 1941 of killing Serbs and Jews and Gypsies was as much a religious act as a politically dictatorial or militarily terrorist act. Croatia, meanwhile, joined withHungary. Auster (1995) reports that "News photographers in Sarajevosay they can no longer snap dramatic pictures because weary civiliansdodging whistling mortar shells no longer betray any emotion" (p. They converted to Islam under the MuslimTurks, who ruled most of the Balkans until late in the nineteenth century. As was the case in the Soviet Union, economic woeshastened the collapse of communism in Yugoslavia (inflation reached astaggering 8 percent in 1984), but anti-Serbian unrest was also growingsteadily in Slovenia, Croatia, and Kosovo. Because the Yugoslavian republics had been federally forced togetherdespite their differences, what appeared as relative stability was, infact, an explosion waiting to happen. Tito's partisans won the support ofthe United States, Great Britain, and the other allies. It included most ofmodern Yugoslavia. B. N. By the 199 s, these differencesreached a flashpoint, and the Yugoslavian republics were headed on acollision course. No matterhow blood-thirsty the Serbs have been in their own right, the fact remainsthat the Croatian government assisted Nazi Germans in their campaign ofextermination against the Jews. As Graff (1995) reports for Time magazine, the Croatian governmenthas launched its largest offensive since 1991, "sending a total of 7,2 army and police troops into Sector West, as the U.N. Most Serbs live in Serbia, but more than a tenth of Croatia'speople are also Serbs. peace-keepingmissions. Surely the ammunition will run out sometime. The Serbs came under the rule of the Byzantine Greek Empire andfollowed the Eastern Rite of Catholicism. Reassembling Yugoslavia. Their aim was tocarve out new Serbian territories that were within the new states. calls it, from twosides" (p. " (p. During the eleventh century, theEastern Rite severed ties with the Roman Church and became the Orthodoxfaith. Finally, a look at future possibilities will include a discussionof the probability of peace or continued war. The country had becomeso dependent on the iron hand of its president that, almost as soon as Titodied in 198 , Yugoslavia began to unravel. In his Serbs and Croats, AlexN. Thus began the religious differences that today separate the Serbsfrom the Craots and Slovenes. .. Add to those economic andpolitical stressors the following religious conditions: Islamic Albaniansin Kosovo attacked Orthodox Serbs and their churches, and many Serbs wereforced to leave. Filipovic, Z. The majority of Bosnians (Bosnia-Herzegovina lies between Serbiaand Croatia) are Slavic Muslims. It was a long and bloody process thatwould go on for more than three hundred years. 36). (74) United Nations sanctions, delineations of "no-fly zones," and furthersubdivision of Yugoslavia into autonomous areas were some peace-keepingbandages aimed at keeping a lid on tensions by the end of 1992. U.S. Catholics in Croatia were, and are, militant and quick to take arms. On June25, 1991, Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence. (1995). Over centuries, however, these peoples formed their own distinctnational identities. It is true that the United Nations, NATO, Europe, the United States, andthe 'international community' look terrible in their impotence andindecision in the face of this war. 2 ).Perhaps peace will come only when the population has been reduced to theextent that the country will have to regenerate itself from post-apocalyptic destruction. Toward the end of 1995, thebloodshed still continues, despite naval blockades and U.N. The entire country will destruct from within . . 142). This dominationby foreign forces would affect their future, right up to the present day. Anentry from Zlata Filipovic's diary (1994) is filled with dispair and hopein the same entry: "I keep thinking that we're alone in this hell, thatnobody is thinking of us, nobody is offering us a helping hand. . (1993). Ricciuti, E. Predications aimed at establishing the possibility of peace for thedifferent ethnic groups discussed above are destined for failure. 85) Split along religious lines, these two nations are ancient foes of theSerbs. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers. TheSerbian government welcomed the allegiance of Serbs in other republics,further fracturing what little federal cohesiveness did exist in the formerYugoslavia. By the seventh andeighth centuries, various groups of Slavs had fallen under the influence ofmore powerful peoples who invaded from outside Yugoslavia. The Serbian government aided--and, in many ways, even helped to start--rebellions in Croatia and Bosniathat quickly erupted into war. During the late eighthcentury and early ninth century, the Slovenes became subjects of Germancounts, and the Croats were ruled by the Franks, a Germanic people who hadearlier settled in France. Within a century, these tribes had permanently settledthroughout much of the region that became Yugoslavia. In his book, Bosnia: A Short History, Noel Malcolm (1994) "explodesthe claim that the war in Bosnia was the inevitable consequence of "ancientethnic hatreds" (Introduction). Time, 145 (2 ), 48-49. Fueled by growing resentments, the Serbian nationalists rebelledagainst the governments of Croatia and Bosnia in 1991. (1995). (1994). Despite theCroats' Nazi-sympathies and German identification, however, it was theSerbs who began the "ethnic cleansing" that advocated the wholesale removaland slaughter of all Muslims and Croats from areas the Serbs wanted tocontrol. . Many Serbs want their own uniquecountry to emerge again, whatever the cost to others. Malcolm (1994) illustrates that the causeof Bosnia's destruction came from outside Bosnia itself: "first throughthe political strategy of the Serbian leadership, and then from the fatalmiscomprehension and interference of Western politicians" (Introduction).Actually, the "ancient ethnic hatreds" which analysts currently speak ofare more accurately referred to as modern genocidal policies. Of them all, the Serbs have the most establishedhistory of being a united country. (1993). Although there were tensions, many Yugoslavians of different ethnicgroups lived side by side without trouble for many years. Almost one third of Bosnia's population is alsoSerbian. Dragnich, A. Graff, J. The Slovenes, in fact,remained under German or Austrian sway until the end of World War II in1945. Hoping to calm growing Croatian unrest, the governmentgave Croatia a large measure of self-rule. As Malcolm (1994) tells it, "On 1 April1941, even before their blitzkrieg had ended, the Germans proclaimed a new'Independent State of Croatia (known by its Serbo-Croat initials as NDH),incorporating the whole of Bosnia and Hercegovina" (p. Montenegrins, and many Macedonians, were originally of Serbianstock. Theprotection of Aryan blood (racial identity) and the honor of the Croatianpeople (strong nationalism) made modern those "ancient hatreds." Most Serbs belong to the Orthodox Church, which split from the RomanCatholic Church in the eleventh century. A good season for war. The Serbian population is the largest in what used to be Yugoslavia.The Serbs number nine million of the former country's twenty-three millionpeople. AsRicciuti (1993) noted at the close of his book, "Whether the U.N. But the situation insideYugoslavia only worsened, and the Croats and Serbs were soon embroiled inconflict. (1992). Lost in the Balkans. Foreign Policy, 98, 132-142. Some of the differences leading tothe ongoing bitterness and strife between the different republics will beexamined. (p. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.