Difference between revisions of "Yugoslavia"

Revision as of 22:22, April 25, 2007

Yugoslavia, which during the span of its existence was the largest nation in the Balkan peninsula, was created following the Paris Peace Talks of 1919-1920 as the "Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes." Since these were not the only ethnic groups existing in the country, the name was changed in 1928 to "Kingdom of Yugoslavia." While none of the countries created at the Peace Conference perfectly represented the Wilsonian ideal of national self-determination, Yugoslavia was more of a repudiation of this idea than probably any other. Most of its territory had previously been part of the recently destroyed kingdom of Serbia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire; or prior to World War I, the Ottoman Empire.

Besides Great Britain and France, Yugoslavia was the only European country to openly defy Nazi Germany after the Munich agreement of 1938 but before being attacked or annexed. It earned this distinction as a result of a coup d'etat in April 1941 triggered by Benito Mussolini's unsuccessful invasion of neighboring Greece. The coup overthrew a pro-Nazi prime minister and was treated by Adolf Hitler as a casus belli, although he typically didn't look for one of those too hard.

Insurgents in Yugoslavia caused the Nazis more trouble than in any other country with the exceptions of the Soviet Union and perhaps Poland. They were in fact so effective that an actual invasion of Yugoslavia to eject the Nazis was considered wasteful by all of the principal Allied leaders and was not undertaken. As became typical of civil wars in the 20th century, the insurgents also fought each other, sometimes making temporary alliances with the Nazis and Italians who later came to occupy the southern part of the country in order to concentrate more fully on destroying one another. The Nazis also set up Croatia as a puppet state run by the fascist Ustashe, providing yet another combatant to the ensuing anarchy.

An anti-fascist Croat, Josip Broz Tito, emerged as the leader of the communist arm of the resistance and, after the Nazi defeat in 1945, as the new leader of Yugoslavia overall. In 1949, he adopted a policy of armed neutrality in the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. Yugoslavia prospered considerably from this policy and was able to trade on favorable terms with both superpowers and their economic blocs. Shortly after Tito's death in 1980, the state industrial ministry began marketing the last new European car brand, the Yugo, to the United States. The Yugo suffered, however, from the same quality deficiencies as the state-made cars of other Warsaw Pact countries and never caught on.

In 1991-1992 the internal republics comprising the country of Yugoslavia divided up and became five seperate countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia, and Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). It was said at the time that only Tito could have held the fractious nation together, although the monarchy had also managed tolerably well prior to the Nazi invasion.

Serbia and Montenegro both claim to be the successor country to the former Yugoslavia so each use the name "Yugoslavia" but neither are recognized as an independent country by any other countries, including the United States.