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Civil War in the Former Yugoslavia

            Looking at the remnants of what was once Yugoslavia it is hard to understand the hatred and violence that has ripped that nation apart, engendering mass atrocities and policies of genocide not seen in Europe since the days of Adolph Hitler. First Slovenia, Croatia and now Bosnia-Herzegovina have sunk into a brutal civil war, which defies every effort to end the violence. While some causes of this war are as ancient as the centuries-old split between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, one need only travel as far back as the Second World War to find more recent and vivid reasons for the peoples of the former Yugoslavia to wish death and destruction upon each other.
             The Second World War came to Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941; two weeks after a group of anti-German military officers overthrew the pro-Axis government of the royal regent Prince Paul and placed the seventeen-year-old King Peter upon the throne. A massive invasion by powerful Nazi German armored and air forces supported by infantry overran the entirety of Yugoslavia in only eleven days. An ominous sign of the fratricidal days to come were the cheers of the pro-German Croatians that greeted the men and tanks of the Fourteenth Panzer Division as they arrived virtually unopposed in the Croatian capital of Zagreb. Yugoslavia was immediately dismembered and its territory and the task of governing it was divided among Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and the newly independent fascist state of Croatia. .
             The occupation of Yugoslavia, which was to last in some areas until the end of the war, can only be described as on of the most brutal of the entire war. Drawing upon centuries of traditions as guerilla fighters the people of Yugoslavia fought an unceasing war against the occupiers and often each other with little outside assistance from either the Western Allies or the Soviet Union.
             In areas controlled by the Germans brutal measures were taken in a vain effort to stamp out the resistance that was offered to German rule.


Essays Related to Civil War in the Former Yugoslavia

1. CROATIA

retrospect it is very difficult to look back at Yugoslavia and remember a time when its nations were at peace with each other. it was quite the opposite, the nations constituting the former state are scared by savage wars and torn by nationalistic territorial and religious feuds. Yugoslavia is considered to be a direct offspring of the resolutions following the First World War. one of Woodrow Wilson's babies, former Yugoslavia will later be destroyed by it's founding ideas; self-determination. this paper will focus on the trials and tribulations of one of the six nations forming th...

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2. Warsaw Pact

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3. Nationalism

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4. Canada's Fall in Peacekeeping

Examples of this instance include the mass genocide in Rwanda, the civil war in Somalia and Yugoslavian crisis. ... Likewise, many Canadian soldiers view the peacekeeping experience in Yugoslavia as a nightmare. For a considerable amount of the 20th century, a communist country known as Yugoslavia had lived in unity. ... Canada deployed over 2,500 soldiers to the former Yugoslavia. ... Altogether, Canada is largely responsible for the severe failures to prevent conflict in nations which could have prospered if the wars and predicaments in these nations were handled by the Canadian peacekeeper...

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5. EU and NATO Integration of Western Balkans

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6. Kosovo

Yugoslavia has been divided, reunited, divided again, undergone wars and been through depressions. Each country within the Yugoslavia region has experienced hardships due to a failing economy, poor leadership, and civil wars. In the past few years, a major upheaval in the political structure and the disputes concerning land between the different religions and ethnicity's has caused a civil war. ... Kosovo, a small area in the center of the former Yugoslavia, played an important role in the Balkan conflict. ... This was shown in history through the American Civil War and Viet...

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7. Societies After Conflict: Bosnia and Kosovo

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8. Ethnic Violence

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