Yugoslavian Civil War Project

Trevor Jones 

11/16/15

Per. 3

Yugoslavian Civil War Write-up

In 1945, Josef Tito  became the monarchical communist dictator of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia. Under his tight rule, ethnic tensions were kept in check in a region where such feelings were flaring amongst the many diverse groups of people forced to live together in a single sovereignty. When Tito died in 1980, the tensions that built up over the past decades exploded, leading to division of the people, a bloody civil war, and the perpetration of atrocious crimes against humanity. This conflict is unique in the fact that it was not sparked by a single factor, but rather many factors and differences between the people, built upon each other until they finally reached a tipping point and exploded into conflict.

The first factor that helped start and continue the Yugoslavian civil war was the impact of Nationalism on the conflict. This was caused by the high amount of diversity in the country, with over 4.4 million people who were 40% Muslim, 33% Serbian and 19% Croatian. Of the ethnic groups that inhabit what was once Yugoslavia, the main group is Slavic that includes Serbians, Croatians, Bosnians, Slovenians, and Macedonians. There are also Italians, Hungarians, Albanians, Turks and Gypsies living in this region. The amount of diversity in the country worked well under communist rule, but when the communist party fell, the strict rule of the president, dictator Josef Tito fell as well. This meant that the different ethnicities were free to fight each other, and claim land. An example of this is when Serbia wanted to create a greater Serbia by carving out enclaves where Serbians lived in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and adding them to Serbia. When Serbia defeated the Turks in Kosovo in 1389 giving the Serbs a feeling of ownership of the region. However, Kosovo is the cradle of Albanian nationalism in Yugoslavia. Another factor that lead to Serbian dominance was the fact that The Yugoslav army was Serbian led and dominated, which lead atrocities committed by the Serbian army during the War. These are just a few examples that help us understand why such a diverse country can have conflict, and why nationalism was a major cause for of war.

One of the slightly more important causes of the Yugoslavian civil war was the economic aspects of it. Several economic aspects contributed to the growing feud between peoples, such as Serbia’s want for expansion and sea access. Geographically, Serbia was landlocked and separated from the Adriatic Sea in the 80’s so they wanted to take enough of Croatia’s land in order to have access to the sea. The Croatians were obviously not keen towards this idea which brought up problems in the Serbian and Croatian relationship. The 1980’s also marked a widening of the gap between communist and capitalist economies. However, the spread of communism was slow, as well as considered technologically backwards by some, and lead to chronic shortages. On top of all of this, inflation was growing rapidly and in the early 90’s, inflation levels were at 2600%. This impacted the economy greatly, and even resulted in a strikingly high unemployment rate of 20% in Yugoslavia, as well as a national debt of over $23 billion, an internal debt of over $14 billion, and a personal income level that had decreased by 20% since the 80’s. These figures had a great impact of the identity of the country as a whole, as well as individual groups within the country. The economic causes leading up to the Yugoslavian civil war were severe, however there were several other types of causes that contributed as well.

Another factor that greatly contributed to the onset and continuation of the civil war in Yugoslavia is the political complications of the tensions and conflict between groups in Yugoslavia. With over 40 political parties and no predominant nationality in Bosnia & Herzegovina alone, political tensions and division of the population is inevitable. Additionally, the fact that the European Commision would not recognize Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina's nations effectively set the stage for major conflict because it forced groups with different political views and platforms to live together under a single political body and to identify against each other. Even though Yugoslavia had only been a democracy for only eleven years as of 1989 due to it’s history as a single body under authoritarian rule, the contribution of the ongoing global conflict between the democratic world and the communist world created unique tension between the Serbians and the Croatians because Serbia still favored a communist system and a united Yugoslavia while Croatia favored independence and a free market democratic system. When all of these sources of political tension are combined under a single government that had been gradually decentralizing since the death of Josef Tito, it is impossible to prevent the spark of a major conflict between the multitudes of ethnic and political groups forced to live with one another in Yugoslavia.

    In conclusion, conflict caused by economics, nationalism, and politics created heated and potentially deadly tension between ethnic groups in Yugoslavia, and when communism fell, the tension was released, causing a deadly civil war that lasted ten years. By analyzing these these factors, we can conclude that conflict in Yugoslavia was caused and sustained by economic, nationalist, and political tension.