The Yugoslavian Conflict Essay

Bosnia is a country in south-eastern Europe that emerged after the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1980. The conflict between the three main ethnic groups in Bosnia, the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims, resulted in genocide committed by the Serbs against the Muslims in this country.

Throughout the past degree programmes, I continuously developed fundamental skills required to any serious historical research: how to collect, evaluate the primary and secondary sources in a critical manner and to derive a logical argument from them. The primary outcomes of this training were research essays that I did for assessment. One example is "Understanding the gendercide of the Yugoslavian civil war, 1991-1995", which was produced for the seminar on contemporary nationalism and gender politics. This one critically reviewed major analytic frameworks on mass war rape, namely biological, feminist, strategic interpretations, and pointed out all of them had failed to take account of the historical process that ‘ethnicised’ of women's body

One of the youngest nations of Europe, Yugoslavia was created after World War I as a homeland for several different rival ethnic groups. The country was put together mostly from remnants of the collapsed Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. Demands for self-determination by Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, and others were ignored. Yugoslavia thus became an uneasy association of peoples conditioned by centuries of ethnic and religious hatreds. World War II aggravated these rivalries, but Communist dictatorship after the war controlled them for 45 years. When the Communist system failed, the old rivalries reasserted themselves; and in the early 1990s the nation was rent by secessionist movements and civil war. Within several years these conflicts

The Bosnian-Herzegovina genocide or “ethnic cleansing” went on from April 1992 to December 1995 around the end of the Second World War. When Bosnia became its own independent nation on April 5th 1922 it wanted to “cleanse” its country of any non Serbian residents. The killing of Bosnian Muslims during this time was stated by international tribunals to be an ethnic cleansing however the events that took place in July 1995 in Srebrenica was so horrific it was deemed a genocide. The United Nations should have intervened a lot sooner than they did and should have sent more than just peace keepers to protect the human beings that were being slaughtered.

The Serbs then dominated Yugoslavia so they then decided to try and expand by setting up Serbian regions in Bosnia. The Bosnian government did not allow that, thus leading to armed conflicts between the Serbs and the non-Serbs. Another major difference was the fact that Hitler started the mass murder within his own country and expanded outward through Imperialism, Bosnia however did not. When the Serbs got control of Yugoslavia they became more of a nation banded together than the Croats and the Slovenes were, so what started off as a war became blown up into a mass-murdering spree.

Upon the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia crumbling down in 1992, Bosnia Herzegovina entered a period of instability. The country was recognized as it’s own independent country by the main powers, however there were three groups arguing over land rights inside Bosnia. The Croat, Serb, and Bosnian Muslim disputing quickly escalated into something horrendous. The Serbs did not want Bosnia to be it’s own country because some of the Bosnian land encompassed some of Serbia, the Serbs began bombing Bosnian cities and would murder Bosnian citizens in the cities that were in the land the two countries “shared.” The Serbs began encroaching on Bosnian territory, they were led to believe that the Bosnians were the enemy, televised to the Serbs was propaganda claiming that the Bosnian Muslims were an enemy and a threat to Serbia, they were instilled with paranoia ("Combat

Nobody chose for it to come to this point, yes there could have been better ways to deal with the disagreement or there were ways to end the genocide before the Bosnians had to rise above. It wasn't fair that the Bosnians just wanted power in their country but they could have confronted the subject differently than just trying to overthrow the already set people in charge. Everyone likes power, but when is it enough to where you should give it up or you have gone too far. If you believe that the way to deal with disagreements is to turn to genocide you shouldn't be in charge at that point you’re over using your power for evil things. In my opinion and beliefs I think that the Bosnians could have waited a little bit to demand power because the cold war. The Serbians could have also given up power because the economy wasn't that good for them and they were just in the cold war which made the Bosnians angered because the Serbians got them in the cold war. It doesn't do much justice for the Serbians saying as they got them involved in the cold war, refused to give up after power, and the genocide was began against the Bosnians. Not only were the Bosnians killed but they were beat, killed, raped and humiliated. They didn't always do a “quick death” they wanted the Bosnians suffering to last (Bosnian Genocide). We notice the genocide but we

Bosnia-Herzegovina was made up of three main ethnic groups, Bosniak Muslim, Serb, and Croat (Bosnia-Herzegovina). Before Bosnia declared independence from Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia had a history of political, economic, and cultural conflict. Towards the end of World War II, Tito, a communist, ran Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia’s government fell apart and each nation had its own self-rule to be apart of the

The Albanians were the majority and the Serbians being the minority. In this situation, the Serbians oppressed the Albanians. In retaliation, the Albanians formed a terrorist group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) which was a terrorist group that fought for the rights of the Albanians. The various actions taken by the KLA caused NATO involvement. Their involvement required a series of air raids and bombings to flush the Serbian people out of Kosovo. However, the story gets much deeper than that.

The ethnic divide has grown and is shaping the future of the conflict. War breaks out and Serbs, under the leadership of Radovan Karadzic, lay siege to capital Sarajevo. The U.N. issues sanctions on Serbia for backing rebel Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia. The U.N. is trying to defuse the conflict before it get wholly out of control. Bosnia peace efforts fail, and all-out war breaks out between Muslims and Croats, who were previously allied against Serbs, Muslims and Croats. In order to spare the civilian population the UN creates safe zones, place where everyone is safe and the combatants should not attack. They are Srebrenica, Zepa and Gorazde in eastern Bosnia. According to, Steven L. Burg and Paul S. Shoup Armonk, “The US understood that by 1994 recognized the need for a military-strategic balance between Croatia and Serbia, the partitioning of Bosnia, and denying a military victory for the

Josip Broz came to power in 1943, and he made sure to keep everyone in check, making sure that no ethnic groups controlled the country.Unfortunately, after his death in 1980, Yugoslav went through many ups and downs due to different ethnic groups wanting independence. Finally in 1987 Slobodan Milosevic grew to power and he changed many things, so that it could favor Serbs. “He created an army that was 90% Serbian, and he extended his power over the country’s financial, media, and security structures. Later, with the help of Serbian separatists in Bosnia and Croatia, he convinced them that other ethnic groups posed a threat to their rights”(The Bosnian War and Srebrenica Genocide). That’s when the genocide started, of mass killings. Croatia and Bosnia wanted independence as well. Yugoslav began to attack Croatia to help any ethnic Serbs that lived there. They took over the city, Vukovar, and had

The Bosnian War was an international arms conflict that involved 2 main sides, the Republika Srpska, and Herzeg-Bosnia. The Republika Srpska would show very little sympathy towards the Non-Serb population of cities they would occupy. 1995 of the Bosnian War reached its most violent climax, Bosnian Serb Forces in occupied Srebrenica began an ethnic cleansing of the Non-Serb population, and massacred more than 8000 people. Many generals and other people of high class within the Republika Srpska were tried for their actions, but none confessed and denied everything, this is what makes the following person so significant. Dragan Obrenovic, who was the only person who admit guilt for the Genocide and it taking place. The accused, Dragan

Known as Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, the Yugoslav Wars (also known as the Wars of Yugoslav Succession, the Yugoslav Civil War, or the War in the Balkans) were a series of wars fought in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Though the entire conflict can be divided up into four distinct wars, they are related due to their common origin and the presence of the same ethnoreligious groups in the multiple wars. These wars have become notorious due to the atrocious war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by all sides.

The land of Kosovo has been plagued with tension for hundreds of years being claimed by several surrounding countries. The two biggest contenders, Albanians in Kosovo and Serbia have been fighting for the land, which culminated in a full war from 1998-1999. The war brought international attention to the war crimes committed by both sides, and proved that the two countries had years to go before coming to a solution. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) led by Kosovo Albanians, and the Serbian militia led by President Slobodan Milošević committed heinous crimes against their enemies. Crimes range from ethnic cleansing to rape and destruction of whole villages. The violence created a serious refugee problem that is still relevant today.

As one of the most troubled region of the Balkans in Central Europe, the Balkans were affected by strife and hostility. The problems in the Balkans not only affected the people living in this region, but also other large European powers that fueled many of the major conflicts and events of Europe at the time. The First Balkan War and its profound effects on European history will be discussed, while also exploring the future conflicts in both the Balkans and the rest of Europe.