Yugoslavia Before War

.. King PeterI immediatley closed parliament, and took dicatorial power of the state. In 1929 the name of the state was changed to Yugoslavia(state of south slavs)this was one to give the people the idea of not being Serbian, Muslim, or slovenian, but being Yugoslavian.

A new ploiticla party was formed called the Yugoslav National party. The attempts to melt the deffernet groups failed, and afterthe cloud settled Serbs considered themselves Serbs, and Croats considerd themselves Croats. By the mid 1930's attempsts were being made to setttle the rivalry between the Serbs, and the Croats.In August 1939 the State of Croatia was put on the map/. This move by the countries leader, infuruated the Serb population.

Before anyhting else could be donethe Second World War began, and all hopes of settling the fuming rivalries died. In April 1941, the massive German war machine rolled into the Balkans, and took the region in deciesive two weeks, overcoming any hasty resistance, with ease.This marked the beginings of one of the countries darkest hours. The Nazi party installed puppet governments into Croatia, and Serbia. The germans choose anybody who would follow their orders, this resulted in the rising of fanatics, who would do anyhting for power.

In Croatia a fascist government was put into place named the Ustatsa.The Ustasa went on a spree of Killing. The Croatian government persecuted and killed over a quarter of a million Serbs.As in any military occupation resistance groups, began to surface. There were two main guerilla groups one the Chetniks, made up of mainly Serbs whose goal was re-establish the Serbian royal family, of which all fled abroad, and a new serbian state.

The other group were the Partisans, who were made up of mostly Serbs, and non-serbs. The partisnas were organised, by their leader , a communist by the name of Josep Broz Tito.Tito being a member of the comunist party, in Yugoslavia, nourished it, from a couple of dozen clubs, with low membership, to a party with over 10,000 members. With this experiance in mind he raised an army of well over 150,000 resistance fighters, in fifteen months. As a surprise the Chetniks did not fully engage the German forces, this was in large part the German reprisal method all over its occupied teeritory, from France, to Norway.

The order issued stated that for every german soldier killed by the locla population, one-hundred citizens would be killed. This order dettered the Chetniks from engaging the Germans. The Partisans had their own doctrine.They believed the killing of the locla population would only swell their ranks. This doctrine also included a limited war agianst the Ustasa government, and the puppet government in Belgrade.

Toward the end of the war Tito's forces were mainly fighting a civil war, not a war of resietance. Tito's injenuity set him up as the next leader of the region, and this was his goal from the time he joined the communist party. In October 1945 A joint Soviet, partisan force liberated the Belgrade. The Sopviets left it up to the partisans to mop up the remaining German forces.After the war came the most drastic political swing he region had ever exerianced.

In march 1945 tehallies compelled the royal family to appoint Tito as leader. This was done, and immeaditley Yugoslavia was a communist state with absolute dictatorial power given to Tito.Tito was an admirer of the then powerful Soviet Union. Tito realized as Stalin did that industrialism was needed in order to equalize the gap between the peasentry, and the aristocrat. Tito formulated a five year plan similar to that of the Soviet Union.This plan included industrializing the provinces of Bosnai and Herzgovina, macedonia, and montenegro.

This plan was done in large part to modernise Yugosl;avia, but also to equalise the Yugoslav economy. Joseph Stalin became increasingly irritated by Tio's actions. He wantred Yugoslavia to become a grain farm for the Soviet Union. In 1948 Yugoslavia was expelled from the Soviet Union, and left to flounder.Tito, was a leader an had great ambitions for his kinsmen. After Yugoslavias expelltion from the union Tito went to the west for help.

The west gave him loans, new trade allainces, and armaments. With the loans , and new trade Tito could build the country of his dreams. The state of Yugoslavia was dream. The econmy was subsidised by massive international loans, the inflation rate was always rising, and unemployment, was rampent.

Tito hoped that the new prosperity would calm the waters of the past. He invisioned that Serbs, Croats, macedonias would think themselevs not by their ethnicity, but as consumers. During the 1970's Yugoslavias econmy baegan to falter. In Tito's great equalised Yugoslavia, Croats, and Slovenes earned twice the wages of a Serb, and three times as much as a Macedonian, and Montenegran. The Slovenenians, and Croats became resentfull of the fact that they had to support the poorer south.

The Serbs, and other Slavs felt they desreved more from the rich Croats, and Slovenes.Tito's idea, and ambition had failed like so many others in the region had before. Half way through the decade on calls of renewed nationilism by Serbs, Croats , slovenes, and montenegrans, Tito reorganized the state into six republoics. This move only widened the divisions in the region, every republic had resentment toward one another. After the death of Tito, in 1980 the situation in the region went from bad to worse. During the 1980's Europe, experianced an economic resurgence, and their economies grew.

Yugoslavia on the other hand never felt this, and went farther into debt. To divert the blame most yugoslav politicians brgan to convince their respective peoples that the other groups were at fault. Serbians blamed Albanians, Croatians blamed Muslims etc. One such politicain was Slobodan Milosevic.

He was president of Serbia, and he was in essence a fear mongar and propoganda maghine.He told the Serbian people that the Croatia was planning a war of genocide against them, and that Albania was gouing to invade the province of Kosovo. The divisions, in Yugoslavia went from the size of a creek, to the size of the Atlantic, overnight. After the crumbel of the berlin wall in 1989, the pot of water which is yugoslavia boiled over.

In 1990 the communist party disloved, and the politicaly the country split. Croatia, and Slovenia decided to move in their own direction.In 1991 Croatia, and slovevia held a referendums to decide wether they should each form independant states. Each republic did and broke away from Yugoslavia. Bsonia-herzcegovina followed suite in 1992. Serbia and Monetnegro stayed in Yugoslavia, and claimed that what Croatia, slovenai, and Bosnia had commited was illegal.

At the heart of the issue was that ten percent of Croatia population was Serbian. In June 1991 under the authority of Yugoslavia the yugoslav army was sent into Kraijina, and had control of it by January 1992. At that point, a cease fire was signed.In the aftermath thirty percent of Croatia was left to the Serbs.

In 1992 when Bosnia- Herzcegovina seperated from the serbian republic seris was outraged. Bosnia as Croatia had a large Serb populatuion, and therfore must belong to Serbia. Croatia to made this argument. As a result both armies entered Bosnia, on the preminishen of gainig more territory. Serbia wanted alink to the sea, and Kraijina, and croatia wanted to gain what it had lost tohe serbs in Kraijina.Caught in the middle was the Muslim population Bosnia, which fiaght to hold their land.

Each faction committed horendous atrocities, ethnic cleansing was rampent , and was not committed only by the Serbs as the media has shown, but also by croatians, and Muslims. The conflict grew and grew, until the international community said "Stop". In August 1991 the United Nations secutriy council passed a resolution, calling for a force to enter the enbattled region, and separate the warring factions. The force was to fail from the begining for three main reasons.

The first was that they entered the region assuming that the boundries of Tito's yugoslvia were adequete, and sustainable. This was not true, because in Bosnia, and Croatia there was a large Serb populations. So when UNPROFOR(United Nations Protection Force), entered the region they were defending the wrong borders, and seperating the people at the wrong borders. Secondly UNPROFOR had no right to interceede in the conflict, unless their personell or equipment was at risk, and even if they did if they would attack one side the other would become resentfull to the U.

N. thus expanding the problem. Thirdly the force sent was outnumbered, and out gunned. In 1991 there was no Artillery available for the defence of U.N.soldiers, their were no helicopters for Medical evacuation, and the U.

N. possessed no heavy Armour(Main Battle Tanks). The force was only aglorified police force with lightly armoured APC's. This set the stage for disaster, little to nothing was acomplished, except losing the lives of our soldiers. Most Aid convoys, were sacked and the food was used to feed soldiers.