Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia was a country in Europe that lay mostly in the Balkan Peninsula. It existed in one of three forms from 1918 to 1992 . Yugoslavia means “land of the south Slavs”. The name comes from people who left Poland, which was to the north of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia contained a wide range of different ethnic groups that spoke different languages, used different alphabets and worshipped different religions. These included Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, Slovenes, Herzegovinians, Montenegrins, Macedonians and Albanians.

From 1918 until 1928 it was called the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. From 1928 until World War II it was the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After WWII it was renamed the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with six republics, 2 autonomous provinces: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia and two autonomous provinces in Serbia: Vojvodina in the north, and Kosovo, next to Albania.

In 1991, came the independence of Slovenia, Croatia, in 1992, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, causing the end of the country. Serbia and Montenegro, were the last two republics in the Socialist Yugoslavia. In 1992, they formed a new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) which ended in 2006 with Montenegro declaring independence.

Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918-1945)

In 1903 the Serbian king was murdered and replaced with Peter I. After this Serbia became more nationalist. Tensions with Austria-Hungary heightened when it conquered Bosnia in 1908. During this period Serbia managed to extend its borders and capture Kosovo and North Macedonia from the Ottoman Empire. Many Serbian nationalists wanted to create a unified state for the Slavs of the Balkans. Covert gangs attempted to assassinate Austro-Hungarian officials, like the Bosnian governor. In June 1914 a Bosnian Serb called Gavrilo Princip killed Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia. This event eventually led to the outbreak of the Great War (World War One).

Yugoslavia came into existence in 1918 after World War I. The State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, which came from a part of Austria-Hungary, joined with the Kingdom of Serbia. The King of Serbia became the king of the new country. Southern territories of Yugoslavia were taken by Serbia from the Ottoman Empire during the Balkan Wars (1912-13).

For ten years it was known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. It began using the name ‘Yugoslavia’ in 1929. The name ‘Yugoslavia’ is Serbo-Croatian for ‘Land of the Southern Slavs’. The Kingdom was invaded by Axis powers in 1941 and quickly fell during World War II. The Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was declared in 1943 with the King’s approval, but the monarchy was abolished shortly after.

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945-1992)

A People’s republic was created in 1945 by a newly established communist government. It was ruled by Josip Broz Tito from then until 1980. The country renamed itself SFR Yugoslavia in 1963. It was made up of six individual Socialist Republics: SR Croatia, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Macedonia, SR Montenegro, SR Serbia, and SR Slovenia. The SFR Yugoslavia was different from other socialist states of the Cold War, deciding to keep itself out of it. Yugoslavia was the only socialist state to have open borders and allowed Yugoslavs and tourist s to freely move around the country. Yugoslavia also kept warm relations with the West. It was also an enemy of the Soviet Union after the Tito-Stalin split as Stalin considered him a traitor. In 1968 the Soviet Union invaded socialist Czechoslovakia to stop its leader from making the country freer. Tito told the Czechoslovak leader that he was willing to fly to Prague to help him face the Soviet s if he wanted.

The Yugoslav republics began turning against one another in the 1970s and 1980s. Josip Tito ruled Yugoslavia with an iron fist and crushed any nationalist movements that wanted to see the country break up. His government forced the six republics to stay part of Yugoslavia. When he died in 1980, the new leaders were less strict and let nationalist feelings grow in the republics of Yugoslavia. The breakup was caused by many things like nationalism, economic difficulty, and ethnic problems. The Socialist state was dissolved in 1992 during the Yugoslav wars. Serbia and Montenegro stayed together as FR Yugoslavia.

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia/Serbia & Montenegro (1992-2006)

After the dissolution of the SFR Yugoslavia, only Serbia and Montenegro were willing to remain in the union. They renamed themselves the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992. The country was led by the controversial statesman Slobodan Milosevic from 1996 until 2000. He was widely accused of having his opposition assassinated in 2000. Yugoslavia applied for UN membership in October 2000 and was granted the following month. For most of its existence, the country was involved in what was called the Yugoslav Wars. There was much ethnic violence including mass genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995) and ethnic cleansing in Kosovo (1998). It was the worst act of war seen in Europe since World War II. The country was bombed by NATO forces in 1999 during the Kosovo war. In the late 1990s, separatism was growing in Yugoslavia and the country dropped the name Yugoslavia in favor of a state union in 2003. Serbia and Montenegro became independent states in 2006, formally ending the last remaining parts of Yugoslavia

Now, Yugoslavia has been split up and made into these countries:

• Slovenia
• Croatia
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Montenegro
• Serbia
• Kosovo (considered by some countries to be part of Serbia)
• North Macedonia