PS 11/Week 5: Yugoslavia

I. Introduction

 

II. Geography and Demographics

a. Six Republics and at least as many ethnic groups (see listing at end)

b. Administrative boundaries and demographic boundaries not coterminous

                c. Serbs largest group in country, but minority in Croatia and Bosnia

III. History

                a. Prior to WWI: Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires

                b. The first Yugoslavia

                                1. Voluntary, created for protection against outsiders

                                2. Problematic:

                                                - Unified/centralized or decentralized/autonomous republics?

- A Serbian solution

                c. WWII

                                1. Nazi imposed regime: Ustashas and Chetniks, general ugliness

                                2. Tito and the Partisans

                d. Tito’s Yugoslavia

                                1. The Communist Party: unifying, pro-growth, anti-nationalist force

                                2. Tito’s personal charisma

                                3. Constitutional arrangements: Consociationalism

                                                - Group rights

- Veto power to all republics, including two “autonomous regions,” Vojvodina and Kosovo

                                                - Over-represent smallest, under-represent biggest (Serbia)

                                4. Happy years

                                5. Tito’s death: 1980

                e. Post-Tito vacuum

                                1. Economic crisis, Communist Party unable to address

2. Political crisis: Serbia unhappy with enhanced powers of Vojvodina and Kosovo, but other republics use veto power to block any change.  Serbs look for other ways to change the situation.

IV. Steps to war

                a. The significance of Kosovo

                b. 1988: Milosevic in Kosovo: “You will not be beaten again.”

                c. “Rallies for truth”

                d. Replacement of leadership in Vojvodina, Kosovo, and Montenegro

                e. 1989-1990: Moves by Slovenia, end of Communist Party

                f. May 1990: Election of Franjo Tudjmann

                g. Summer 1990: Krajina Serbs respond

                h. June 1991: Slovenia and Croatia declare independence

                i. War in Croatia

                                1. Paramilitary units

                                2. The Yugoslav National Army (JNA)

                j. War in Bosnia

                k. Dayton Peace Accords: November 1995

               

Terms:

Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro

Vojvodina and Kosovo                                       Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires

Ustashas and Chetniks                                       Tito and the Partisans

The Communist Party of Yugoslavia                Policy of Brotherhood and Unity

Consociationalism                                               Slobodan Milosevic

Franjo Tudjmann                                                  Yugoslav National Army (JNA)