for most of the 20th century there existed a country in Southeastern Europe called Yugoslavia today however what used to be Yugoslavia is now six fully independent countries plus one more self- declared independent country but more than that later so why exactly did Yugoslavia split up well before we look at why it split up let's first look at how it came to be for this we need to go back to 1918 and the end of World War I Yugoslavia was created from the kingdom of Serbia the kingdom of Montenegro and what used to be territories of the Austria Hungarian Empire the country was originally called the kingdom of serbs croats and slovin but later changed its name to the kingdom of Yugoslavia this lasted until about 1941 when Yugoslavia was occupied by the Axis powers of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy during World War II the Axis powers installed their own puppet governments which effectively ended the kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1945 after the Allied victory in World War II Yugoslavia was reestablished this time as a socialist State a Federation of six republics Slovenia Croatia Bosnia and herzen Serbia Montenegro and Macedonia after initially sighting with Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union Yugoslavia remained neutral throughout the Cold War and even went on to become one of the founding members of the non-aligned movement throughout yugoslavia's existence there had always been ethnic tensions between the various ethnic groups this would ultimately lead to the country's collapse but under the rule of their first president ysf Rose Tito these tensions were largely kept under control as he promoted Brotherhood and unity between the six republics and always tried to suppress nationalism sometimes by force the death of Tito in 1980 is often viewed as the beginning of the end of Yugoslavia during the 1980s yugoslavia's economy took a turn for the worst ethnic tensions began to rise and nationalism began to grow in some of the individual republics this coupled with the fall of Communism throughout the world all contributed to what would become the Yugoslav wars and the breakup of Yugoslavia the ruling political party in the country was the League of Communists there were eight members the six republics as well as the two autonomous provinces of Serbia vo viina and kovo in 1986 Slobodan mosovich became the leader of the Serbian branch mosovich and his supporters were uncomfortable with the autonomous provinces of Serbia as Belgrade had very little control over the politics in these parts of the country supporters of mosovich through large protests known as the rallies of Truth managed to overthrow the political leaders in coso boina and Montenegro which were replaced by allies of mosovich Serbia had effectively created a voting block having four of the eight votes the other Yugoslav republics especially Slovenia openly criticized these actions in 1989 the autonomy of the province of kovo was abolished kvo was about 80% ethnic Albanian with ethnic serves being in the minority unsurprisingly the Albanian majority were extremely unhappy with his motion and this led to the kvo minor strike in which more than 1300 Albanian miners went on a hunger strike during what would become the last meeting of the league of communist there was a heated debate between the Slovenian and the Serbian leaders about the structure of Yugoslavia Slovenia called for more autonomy for the individual republics while Serbia wanted more unity and centralization the Slovenian delegates left the Congress meeting in protest and were soon followed by the croatians and macedonians after the league of Communists was dissolved multi-party elections took place in all six of the republics for the first time the Croatian people voted into Power the newly established Croatian Democratic Union party and their leader Franco tman the new Croatian flag was raised as the country moved towards its Declaration of Independence which later followed Croatia's population was mostly ethnic croats but the country also had a large minority of serbs large regions of Croatia had Serbian majorities especially along the border with Bosnia for many Croatian serbs the newly elected government was something that caused cious concern many serbs remember the last time that Croatia was an independent country the independent state of cro IA during World War II governed by the ultra nationalist fascist group usachi allied with Nazi Germany the extremist group of croats took part in the Holocaust committing genocide against ethnic serbs so in 1990 many serbs had all too Vivid memories of the atrocities committed to their people just half a century before and many worried about the newly elected government in Croatia in a Serb majority town of kin the local serbs started a rebellion blocking off key roads throughout Croatia Croatian Special Forces helicopter were sent to resolve the Rebellion by force however well on Route Yugoslav Army fighter jets flew alongside them and ordered them to turn back or be shot down they returned to base this was when the gravity of the situation became apparent this wasn't just some local Serbian Rebellion they were being assisted by the Yugoslav National Army in the following weeks and months the Army also provided the rebels with weapons many more of the Serb dominated areas in Croatia started rebellions taking control of the Serb majority towns seeking to join Serb three separate Rebel groups proclaimed themselves independent from Croatia these three groups would later join together and seek unification with Serbia on the 25th of June 1991 Slovenia and Croatia both officially declared their independence of course by this point the Yugoslav wars had already begun but they were thus far mostly confined to Croatia between the croats and the SES however with Slovenia declaring their independence this brought them into the war as well the Yugoslav Army traveled to Slovenia with a goal of asking to politely reconsider their independence 2 days after their Declaration of Independence began what became known as the 10-day war between Slovenia and the Yugoslav Army relative to the other Wars within Yugoslavia there were very few casualties after these 10 days of War under the sponsorship of the European Community an agreement was signed between Slovenia Croatia and Yugoslavia the document sought to open up negotiations between the parties to resolve things peacefully Yugoslavia withdrew their army but the agreement did very little to actually stop the the fighting Yugoslavia were preparing for a massive attack on Slovenia with tanks Air Force and artillery their military power was far superior and they could easily take control of Slovenia however Serbia's authorization was required but Serbia refused the Serbian Representatives within Yugoslavia didn't care if Slovenia left Slovenia was a country of almost entirely ethnic slovin because there were very few SS within Slovenia Serbia didn't care if they left Croatia on the other hand was a different story therefore Serbia were unwilling to let them leave so easily the Croatian president publicly stated that he would defend every inch of Croatia Serbian nationalists in Croatia had already taken control of a dozen towns and Villages but things took a turn for the worst in the Croatian Border Town of vavar with the conflict escalated between Croatia and the rebel serbs the Yugoslav Army sent a huge Force to the Croatia Serbia border claiming to be a neutral peacekeeping unit together the Yugoslav Army and the Croatian serbs pushed forward taking control of more and more Villages some of which had been entirely populated by croats that were no longer just taking control of Serb dominated parts of Croatia due to the escalating violence in Croatia the presidents of all six republics were called to the Haag by the European Community to discuss possible peace plans Croatian president Franco tujan claimed that Croatia had every right to secede from Yugoslavia Serbian president sladan mosovich responded by saying that if Croatia had the right to suceed then serbs and Croatia had the right to join Serbia European peace negotiator Lord carington presented mosovich with a question would you be willing to accept the independence of Croatia subject to the human rights of serbs outside of Serbia to Lord Carrington's surprise he said yes in the meantime the Yugoslav Army were planning a massive attack on the Croatian Capital Zagreb but such an attack carried huge risks of sanctions or even outside intervention carington was eager to get this verbal agreement in writing however when it came time to sign the document there was one key reference the agreement would not simply accept Croatia's Independence but would make all six republics independent nations mosovich refused to sign as he didn't want to dissolve Yugoslavia the carington plan though was not just for Serbia and mosovich but for all the republics who voted on the plan the plan needed five votes to pass Serbia voted no but all five other republics voted yes this was surprising given that Montenegro was strongly allied with Serbia as it later turned out Italy had offered Montenegro a large Aid prr if they accepted the carington plan the plan was set to go ahead but Serbia later blackmailed the Montenegro president to send a letter to Lord carington and change his Vote or be outed to the public as a traitor to Yugoslavia the letter was sent and the plan broke down around this time Macedonia held a referendum on Independence which was 95% in favor Macedonia was the only Republic which broke away from Yugoslavia completely peacefully meanwhile in Croatia the Croatian stronghold in vikar was under siege the small Croatian Defense Force managed to hold the town for 87 days before it finally fell to the much larger US laab Army the serbs held around 13d of Croatian land in January of 1992 a ceasefire agreement was signed between the croat and the serbs but the war in Yugoslavia was not just between Croatia and Serbia in fact by far the bloodiest war in Yugoslavia was the Bosnian War Bosnia and Herzegovina was the most Multicultural of the republics and had three main ethnic groups the largest were the bosniacs often referred to as Bosnian Muslims but there was also a very large minority of serbs and a smaller minority of croat the Bosnian Serb leader issued a firm warning to the Bosnian government not to pursue independence but in February 1992 Bosnia and heroina held a referendum most bosniacs and croats voted in favor while the majority of serbs boycotted the vote the very next day a Serb civilian in Bosnia was killed by a bosniac the serbs retaliated by setting up blocks in the nation's capital Saro and large parts of the city quickly came under the military occupation of the Bosnian serbs demands were made that Bosnia and herzen stopped seeking International recognition serbs and Bosnia had declared their own independent republic the Republic of cska all Bosnian serbs within the Yugoslav Army were transferred to the Bosnian Serb Army on the 27th of April 1992 the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia officially came to an end as a new constitution was adopted with a proclamation of of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia consisting of just two of the six republics Serbia and Montenegro the United Nations denied the request to automatically continue membership as Yugoslavia Bosnian serbs began to take control of all the Serb majority areas in Bosnia as well as many Muslim towns near the Serbian border as well as this they also began sporadic mortar attacks on S Evo the Bosnian Capital would be under siege for nearly 4 years in the beginning of the Bosnian war bosniacs and cro were allied with each other as they were both fighting a common enemy however Bosnian croats had similar ideas to Bosnian serbs to take control of the croat majority parts of Bosnia and join Croatia like serves however the croat forces didn't just take control of croat towns the Bosnian croats proclaimed the Croatian Republic of Herzig Bosnia a separate state from Bosnia and herzen in May of 1993 a United Nation Commander was sent to the town of shanit which had become a refuge for Bosnian Muslims who fled their home he was welcomed into the town with open arms but when it came time for him to leave a crowd of people wouldn't let him they wanted him to guarantee their safety and demanded help from the West the Bosnian serbs already had the town surrounded the commander went against un policy and announced the town was under un protection later a unanimous UN resolution was adopted which declared Trevor nit and other Muslim populated regions as a safe area the International Community devised a plan the Vance own plan which would divide the country into 10 ethnic provinces three bosniac three Ser three croat as well as the neutral Capital Saro the Bosnian president the Croatian president and the Bosnian croats had all agreed to the plan the Serbian president urged the Bosnian servs to agree to the plan as well but through their military conquest they had already taken control of about 2third of Bosnia and herg Goa accepting the van's own plan would mean giving up about 25% of their currently held territory So the plan ultimately brought down the bosniacs and the croats signed a peace treaty in Washington as the Americans demand that Croatia stop their war against the Bosnian Muslims or face sanctions they agreed to this as they wanted help from the West to retake their own land in Croatia in February of 1994 a mortar attack on S Evo's Marketplace caused the death of 68 civilians in response to this NATO issued the Bosnian servs with an ultimatum withdraw your heavy weapons from the hills of Saro within 10 days the Bosnian serbs rejected the ultimatum the Bosnian serbs wanted to show their military superiority over the BOS and show that they could not be bullied by the West they launched a mortar attack at a hospital in the town of garaji a un safe area NATO responded with an air strike of a Bosnian S command post and they retaliated by surrounding and taking hostage 150 un Personnel one of the other un safe areas Shor nit well under UN military protection was forcibly taken in what became known as the Shor nit Massacre where thousands of civilians were killed with the violence at an alltime high in Bosnia another mortal attack on Sano and another 37 civilians killed was the final straw and a full skill NATO bombing campaign began against the Bosnian serbs president mosovich of Serbia demanded that the Bosnian serbs allow him to negotiate a peace treaty on their behalf cutting all ties and support from Belgrade meanwhile back in Croatia the Croatian government had been preparing for several years to retake their land in May and August of 1995 Croatia launched two large-scale military assaults on the Serb controlled parts of Croatia by this point the croats had a far stronger military the vast majority of serbs fled the country even communities that had lived in Croatia for centuries many Serb Villages were burnt to the ground to ensure the serbs never returned with the Bosnian serbs weakened the croats and the bosniacs worked together in Bosnia taking as much land as they could serbs fled to Serbia and Montenegro the Americans urged them to stop as they wanted a peace treaty to be signed peace talks took place in Dayton Ohio USA the plan was to keep BOS and herina as one country but divided into two distinct legal entities the Bosnia croat Federation and the Republic of Sera after 17 days of negotiating and several redrawn Maps the peace treaty was finally signed between all parties this peace treaty which put a stock to the wars in Yugoslavia was not quite the end of the violence in the late '90s war broke out between the Albanian majority in Kosovo against Serbia as they seek their independence backed by NATO The kovo Liberation Army took effective control of coso the war ended in 1999 and in 2008 the Republic of coso declared itself an independent nation but the situation Still Remains unresolved This Day in the year 2000 after the overthrow of sladan mosovich Serbia and Montenegro gave up on its desire to continue as the sole legal successor of Yugoslavia and they joined the UN as a new member in 2003 the country changed its official name to the state union of Serbia and Montenegro this only lasted three more years though because in 2006 mon to negro past a narly one Independence referendum Yugoslavia was a country that was built on brotherhood and unity but fell apart from internal struggle and Civil War the country may not exist anymore but its Legacy lives on unfortunately the most prominent memories from yugoslavia's history are the extremely unpleasant ones but today all of the Former Yugoslav republics are peaceful and prosperous Nations however with the still unresolved situation in coso another war in the Balkans is always a possibility let's hope that doesn't happen happen and that the situation can be resolved peacefully