[INTRO] Yugoslavia’s breakup is often overshadowed by the breakup of the Soviet Union or the
protests in the PRC, yet its effects can still be seen in Europe: From the poverty suffered
by those living in that region, to the gap in the EU. Yugoslavia was described by its
own president as 1 country with 2 alphabets, 3 languages, 4 religions, 5 nationalities,
6 republics, surrounded by 7 neighbours, with 8 ethnic minorites. And in this video we will
talk about how and why Yugoslavia. Had. Been. Divided!
[HISTORY OF THE PEOPLES] But before we can talk about how it fell apart, we need to talk
about how the country was created. Yugoslavia started out as an idea. For centuries, this
region of the world had been ruled by foreign powers, mostly the Ottoman Empire and the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. But most of the people who lived here were neither Austrian, Hungarian,
or Ottoman… They were slavic. And slavs saw themselves as a distinct ethnicity with
its own culture, history, and traditions. [IDEA OF NATION] And so Yugoslavia was the
idea of a unified state inhabited by slavic people and ruled by slavic people. And this
idea came about around the same time countries like Germany and Italy unified into distinct
countries, with their unification also, in part, based around the idea that Italians
and Germans each had their own unique ethnic identity. But there was a problem with this
Yugoslav idea: While Serbia and Montenegro had gained independence from the Ottoman Empire
in 1878, most of what would become Yugoslavia was still under Autro-Hungarian rule… and
the Austro-Hungarian Empire wasn’t going to give up a large part of its territory just
so slavs could have their own nation right across its borders.
[CORFU] But then WW1 happened. {PAUSE AND PLAY HABANERA} And in WW1 Serbia and Montenegro
were occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and their governments fled to allied countries.
And there, in 1917, leaders of montenegro, Serbia, and representatives from the Astro-Hungarian
regions of Slovenia, Croatia, Vojvodina, and Bosnia-Herzegovina declared that they would
join together to form a new nation. A nation they called: The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats,
and Slovenes. This nation was supported by the allies, who
liked the idea of breaking up the Astro-Hungarian Empire into smaller countries.
[ACTUAL FORMATION] And by the end of WW1, Austria-Hungary started falling apart: There
were revolutions in Vienna and Budapest, the capitals of the Austrian and Hungarian parts
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Czechia and Slovakia declared their own independence shortly
after… And in the midst of this breakup, the southern territories of the empire declared
its own independence, Serbia and Montenegro were liberated, and the three regions joined
together to officially form the Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs. Over time, a
few more territories were added to the kingdom such as 4 small Bulgarian territories, and
the Monastery of St. Naum. In 1929 they decided that the British way
of naming their country wasn’t very catchy and they became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
With “jug” meaning “south” and “slaveni” meaning “slavs”. And so the country was
called “the land of the south slavs”... and they were right to call it Yugoslavia
because “south slavs” is too much of a tongue twister {WHEN YOU SAY IT WRONG, KEEP
THAT IN THE RECORDING}. [WW2] But this kingdom didn’t last long
because in 1941 Hungary, Germany, and Italy came to visit for a World War. And while Yugoslavia’s
army surrendered… its people did not. Instead, Yugoslavia organised the largests resistance
of all the occupied nations in Europe. By 1945, the people of Yugoslavia managed to
completely kick out the axis forces from their soil with only minor support from allied countries
at the very end of the war… Because Yugoslavia was a strong independent country who needed
no foreign liberation. The faction which liberated the nation was
communist. {PLAY FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE} So after taking control over the government,
they turned Yugoslavia into a socialist nation and called itself the Socialist Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia. They also gave their old flag a 1-star review, and made THAT their new flag.
This new nation was founded on three basic concepts. Firstly, it recognized various ethnicities
within the country as equals through the idea that they all helped to liberate the country
from foreign occupation. The second, was that the nation’s economy would be managed through
socialism. And thirdly, that the country was governed as a federation of 6 equal republics
with a large degree of autonomy. They were: Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro,
Macedonia, and Croatia… And looking at Croatia’s flag, it’s no wonder why they have so many
chess grandmasters for such a small country. Additionally, the regions of Vojvodina and
Kosovo were granted autonomy, while still being part of the Republic of Serbia.
While there were other foundations upon which Yugoslavia was formed, it is these three which
were the most important. And it is also these three foundations which would cause the eventual
breakup of Yugoslavia. Because the fall of nations rarely has a single cause . Rather,
it’s a combination of various issues which together cause the collapse of nations and
Yugoslavia is no different in this regard. So first, let’s talk about the Yugoslav
political system. {PLAY FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE} Being a communist country, Yugoslavia was
a close friend of the Soviet Union and the Yugoslav governments controlled many aspects
of the nation. But in 1948 the country politically distanced itself from the Soviet Union, after
the leaders of the two countries disagreed on what the future relationship between the
two nations should be. In the 60s and 70s, the country began reforming its political
system by handing over more and more control away from the central government towards the
individual republics. These changes included, among other things, giving the republics and
autonomous regions more control over their own economies, giving them more influence
in the central government and giving the individual republics local armed forces which were separate
from the national army. But there was one thing which barely changed
during this time: the presidency. After WW2, a man named Josip Broz Tito became president
of Yugoslavia and retained this position until his death. He personally controlled a large
part of the national government and was an important force in keeping the nation stable…
But there is a large problem with relying on a single person to run essential aspects
of your government, rather than relying on an institution: If a king dies, a president
loses an election, or a prime minister falls ill, then that position will be filled by
somebody else while the institution of the monarch, president, or prime minister remains…
In Yugoslavia, the country relied on a single person: Josip Tito… Until he died in 1980
and there was nobody to replace him as president. Instead, the presidency was transformed into
a collective presidency. This meant that the 6 republics and 2 autonomous regions would
each get ⅛ of the presidency and would need to make decisions via a majority. So while
before the country relied on a single person to make certain important decisions, it now
relied on 8 different groups of people ruling 8 different regions of the country to make
collective decisions. And these 8 different regions each had a different vision for the
future of Yugoslavia and their place within it. Serbia wanted a stronger federal government…
in which they would likely have gotten a disproportionate amount of control; Kosovo wanted more autonomy
for itself, such as becoming a 7th republic in Yugoslavia; Slovenia was the most liberal
republic and wanted a more liberal Yugoslavia; Slovenia and Croatia were the richest regions
of the country and wanted more control over their own economic policies instead of sending
money to poorer regions; Bosnia-Herzegovina wanted to become its own independent nation…
With all these different political forces, each with different and often opposing political
goals, the country became less and less manageable in the 1980s.
The second major factor leading to the breakup of Yugoslavia was its economy. While in countries
such as China and the Soviet Union the leadership took decisions based on communist ideals,
in Yugoslavia the government tried a lot harder to implement policies which it believed would
be an effective means at providing wealth to its own citizens, often disregarding socialist
philosophy if it proved ineffective at achieving that goal. So while China lost millions due
to avoidable famines and the USSR through industrialisation, Yugoslavia never saw such
types of destructive policies in its country… And its economy performed quite well.
At first, Yugoslavia was similar to other communist nations where the government controlled
large parts of the economy directly, with a central authority dictating how supply chains
are managed, how resources are distributed, and how businesses are run. But the Yugoslav
leadership soon realized it would be more efficient to let people manage their own workspaces,
as they had greater knowledge and expertise in their fields than distant bureaucrats do.
And so Yugoslavia reformed its economy over the coming decades, becoming the most reformed
socialist economy in the world at that time. This reformed economy would eventually consist
of 4 main aspects: market mechanisms, whereby prices are determined by supply and demand;
decentralised decision-making, where businesses would be able to make their own decisions;
social ownership, where employees of a business automatically owned a share of the business
they worked at; and worker’s self-management, where those employees who owned a share in
a business were the ones making the decisions of that business, rather than shareholders
who bought a part of the company without ever having to have worked at said company.
While these are generally quite good economic policies: A healthy supply and demand generally
makes sure that there are enough products being made and that there is an incentive
to find ways to make those products cheaper and better. And businesses owned by employees
are generally more profitable than businesses owned by shareholders or the government…
But it’s the implementation of this system where things went wrong. You see, employees
didn’t get to directly vote on decisions in the business they worked at. Instead, they
were run by so-called ‘management boards’. And if you wanted to get on this management
board, then you needed the votes of your colleagues… So, how do you get these votes? Well, for
many it was to promise higher salaries. And so in the 1980s the salaries of the employees
went up… and this might seem like a great idea at first, afterall, more money for average
people instead of rich CEOs. But a business has a limited amount of resources which it
needs to manage. And eventually the salaries became so high that businesses were running
out of money. So what did the management boards do? Well,
many decided they didn’t want to lower salaries and instead opted to increase prices. And
now all across Yugoslavia prices were going up. But think about this for a moment: your
salary was going up… but so were the prices of products… Making your wage increase completely
useless. This increase in prices is called inflation. And many businesses couldn’t
keep up with this inflation and went bankrupt… And so the government decided to step in by
providing welfare for the unemployed, giving money to businesses to prevent bankruptcies,
and trying to keep the economy from collapsing. At first they had enough money, but then the
cold war came to an end in the late 1980s. Why is this important? Well, Yugoslavia sat
right between the capitalist west and the communist east. Both sides wanted Yugoslavia
to join their side, or at the very least, not join the other side. And they did this
by giving Yugoslavia money… This was a common tactic during the cold war: give money to
countries so they will be on your side, or at least don’t join the enemy. But by the
late 1980s the Soviet Union was breaking apart and the cold war was coming to an end. As
a result, the Soviet Union sent less money to other countries such as Yugoslavia. But
if the USSR wasn’t sending that much money anymore, there was no reason for western countries
anymore to do the same. And so all of a sudden Yugoslavia was receiving A LOT less money
from other countries. So by now the prices were going up, businesses
were being mismanaged, and the government didn’t have enough money anymore to keep
everything under control… And so they decided they would simply borrow money to make up
for this… But the problem with loans is that people will only give you a loan if they
believe you will pay those loans back with interest. And as Yugoslavia’s economy got
worse, that belief was evaporating. Soon people were no longer willing to give Yugoslavia
more money. And so how could Yugoslavia get enough money to stabilize their economy when
investors were no longer willing to give them any loans?
Well, they went to an organisation called the International Monetary Fund, or IMF for
short. This is an organisation owned by various world governments which, among other things,
sells loans to countries… But they were only willing to give a loan to Yugoslavia
if the country would reform its economy and government finances in such a way that it
could repay this loan. These reforms included for the government to cut spending, allowing
private businesses not run by workers unions in their economy, and restructure their property
market, and various other minor changes. While this is great for a country’s ability to
repay debt, it also creates large issues for the country as a whole. The Yugoslav government
provided a lot of money to people and businesses to avoid poverty and mass bankruptcies…
but if the government has to spend less money, they can no longer provide as much support.
And changing your economic system is also likely to cause severe economic issues.
And this is where the politics were making things difficult. Because Yugoslavia had 6
republics and an additional 2 autonomous regions, it meant that they needed to figure out together
how to implement the IMF’s demands in order to get that loan. And Yugoslavia had quite
a bit of wealth inequality. The average person in Slovenia was 8 times richer than the average
person living in Kosovo. So while Slovenia was on par with countries such as Israel or
Ireland, Kosovo was on par with third world countries such as Sudan or Papua New Guinea.
This economic inequality caused quite a bit of strife.
Richer regions such as Slovenia and Croatia argued that they had spent the last few decades
building up a healthy economy while poorer southern regions such as Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
and Montenegro spent their money on inefficient businesses and prestige projects. And that
therefore, those southern regions should take the brunt of the reforms as they had the weakest
economies with the most inefficient governments. While on the other hand, those southern regions
argued that Yugoslavia should have a unified approach to the issue with all republics taking
equal responsibility no matter how rich or poor that region may be… Suffice to say,
reforms were slow and the economy of Yugoslavia faced a long recession in the 1980’s and
early 90s. [ETHNICITY] And now we get to the third issue
that was facing Yugoslavia: ethnic tensions. Yugoslavia had many different ethnic groups
living within its borders. An ethnic group is a group of people which share a common
cultural or national tradition. Such as, for example, the Zulu people of Southern Africa,
African Americans of the USA, or the Han Chinese of East Asia.
Yugoslavia had several officially recognized ethnic groups. They were the Serbs, Slovenes,
Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, and later recognized Bosnian Muslims as well. And being
recognized as an official ethnicity came with certain rights: you were allowed to openly
express your religion, you would receive free education in the dominant language of your
ethnicity, and they were given their own ethnic republic. When the borders of the Yugoslav
republics and autonomous regions were drawn after WW2, they closely corresponded to where
the different ethnicities lived… But this system failed over time because people tend
to move to other places and by the 1980s the ethnicities were a lot more spread out.
At the same time, there were ethnicities which weren’t officially recognized. A prominent
example were the Albanians who lived in Kosovo. They were a larger ethnic group than the Macedonians
or Montenegrins… yet weren’t recognized as an official ethnic group. And so they often
felt like second-class citizens in their own country, resulting in protests by the 1980s
which were put down by the military. And by the late 1980’s politicians exploited
the ever-growing ethnic tension for their own gain. Because in 1989 Serbia got a new
leader, a man named Slobodan Miosevic. And under this new leadership Serbia’s government
envisioned a Greater Serbia. In this ‘new’ Serbia, the regions with ethnic Serbian majorities
would be added to the Serbian Republic. Ethnic-Serbs accounted for about ⅓ of all the people
living in Yugoslavia, meaning there were many regions outside of Serbia which had an ethnic-Serbian
majority. The goal was for Yugoslavia to become a Serbian-controlled country.
One of the ways it sought to control Yugoslavia was through the presidency: there were 8 seats,
one for each of the republics and autonomous regions… but both of these autonomous regions
were within Serbia. So the first thing it did was to control these two regions and thus
control their seats of the presidency. Then it installed a pro-serbian government in Montenegro,
thus controlling 4 out of the 8 seats of the Yugoslav Presidency. Therefore, any policy
that wasn’t explicitly in Serbia’s interest wouldn’t have the majority vote and therefore
no major policies could be passed without the approval of the Serbian republic.
And so by now it’s 1990 and Yugoslavia is facing a combination of 3 issues: the republics
and autonomous regions couldn’t agree on how to govern the country, it’s economy
was in a recession without clear solutions, and ethnic tensions were being exploited.
And so Croatia and Slovenia decided that they did not want to be part of a government controlled
by ethnic Serbians, didn’t want to pay for the economic crises in the other regions,
and didn’t want to be part of a country whose government couldn’t agree on major
policy issues. The Yugoslav constitution gave each republic the right to independence if
a majority of that republic voted in favour. And so they each held such a referendum on
independence in 1990, each passed said referendum, and each decided to secede from Yugoslavia
on June 25th, 1991. And so the people of Croatia and Slovenia decided that Yugolsavia. Will.
Be. Divided. But as often happens when you break up with
someone: they might not let you go so easily… and Yugoslavia was no different. Without Croatia
and Slovenia, it meant that Serbia had substantial influence over 4 of the 6 remaining republics
and autonomous regions. So what did the Serbian government do with this influence? Well, they
still wanted to create a ‘Greater Serbia’ and 12% of Croatia’s population were ethnic
Serb. So while Croatia was trying to become independent, Serbia was going to finance a
counter-revolution by the ethnic-Serbs by trying to convince them that the Croatian
would persecute ethnic Serbs living in Croatia. And so, almost immediately after declaring
independence, Serbs started blockading roads and train tracks, armed Serbs attacked Croatian
targets, and the Yugoslav army provided air support while invading Croatia… And so the
Yugoslav Wars began. Slovenia, however, was a bit further away.
While Yugoslavia tried subduing Slovenia, they ended hostilities after only 10 day of
fighting when the European Community, a precursor to the EU, helped negotiate a peace treaty.
But Croatia was not so lucky. And so it managed to use the regional army each of the republics
had control over to hold off the Yugoslav army in 1991… even though it still lost
about a quarter of its territory. And then on September the 8th of that same
year, Macedonia, now called North Macedonia, held its own independence referendum, passed
it, and seceded from Yugoslavia 2.5 weeks later, on September the 25th. It managed to
remain at peace with Yugoslavia and did not join the Yugoslav Wars… so now 3 republics
had seceded. Things escalated when Bosnia-Herzegovina held
its own referendum, also voted in favour, and declared its independence on March 3rd,
1992. But they also had a large Serbian population… so Yugoslav forces invaded the new country
while Croatian forces came to support the new country.
With only 2 republics and 2 autonomous regions left of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro
decided to create their own Yugoslavia, removing the “socialist” in their name, and called
itself the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. But from 1992 until 1995, Bosnia-Herzegovina
and Croatia would be the major battlegrounds of the Yugoslav Wars. In these wars people
committed genocide, filled mass graves, and comitted a wide range of warcrimes for three
years. The death toll is estimated to be around 100.000-200.000 with another 4 million people
becoming refugees. And it’s at this point that other countries
started to get seriously involved in the Yugoslav Wars. Particularly, the European Community.
Even early on, it was predicted that the Yugoslav Wars would likely bring millions of refugees,
something those European countries weren’t fond of. It might bring naval conflict in
a sea shared with Italy, a prominent member of the European community, which wanted to
keep the region stable… And it might destabilize more of Europe, in a time when Eastern and
Central Europe was going through a major social, political, and economic change. So the European
Community at first tried peace negotiations… While this worked with Slovenia, it failed
with Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. And so by 1993 they asked NATO for help.
NATO was a military alliance between primarily North American countries and Western European
countries at the time. Many countries who were a member of the European Community were
also a member of NATO. With a resolution from the United Nations, they set up safe havens
where civilians would be protected from the war, while also establishing a no fly zone
to prevent the Yugoslav air force from bombing Bosnian and Croatian targets.
This war eventually ended in 1995, when NATO began bombing Serbian-held positions, Croat
and Bosnian forces managed to kick the Serbian troops out of their territories, and Serbia
sued for peace. In November 1995, the war came to an end with the Dayton Peace Accords.
This peace accord included letting 60.000 NATO troops maintain the peace, Bosnia-Herzegovina
would become a federation consisting of a Muslim-Croat and Serbian republic, and Serbia
would get to keep Kosovo… Although Kosovo would later declare independence in 2008.
But… the country still hadn’t completely broken up because Serbia and Montenegro were
still united. But over the next decade separatism grew in Montenegro after the wars had ended
and decided in 2006 to hold a referendum on Montenegrin independence. With 55% of the
votes in favour, Serbia and Montenegro officially became separate countries on June 3rd, 2006.
And there was one final matter to address: the war crimes. Many countries did not want
to let the atrocities go unpunished, and so the United Nations established a tribunal
to put various people on trial who were suspected of committing or ordering war crimes. This
Tribunal was called the... {AUDIBLE BREATH IN A LOT} “International Tribunal for the
Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law
Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991” {INHALE} or simply the “International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia”. The people indicted ranged from presidents
and prime ministers to common soldiers and generals.
In total, 161 people were indicted for various types of war crimes, of which 18 were acquitted,
91 were convicted, 13 cases were transferred to the national courts of former Yugoslav
countries, 20 indictments were withdrawn, and 17 died before they were sentenced. If
you’d like me to do a video on these trials then you’ll need to wait, because 1 person
is currently appealing their conviction, but once that’s over I’ll let you guys vote
on whether I should cover these trials. The last of these hearings occurred in 2017, after
which the institution ceased to exist. And this is how Yugoslavia broke apart.
[OUTRO] If you liked this video then please give it a like and subscribe for more content.
Next video will be about North and South Korea. And there is a poll on what video I should
make after that, link in the description. I am a bit sick of covering European topics
half the time, so this time NO EUROPEANS ALLOWED!