Yugoslavia Begins to Break Up
In 1991, Slovenia and Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia, setting off the collapse of a multiethnic federal state in southeastern Europe. What followed was a decade of wars, the worst fighting on European soil since 1945, which left well over 100,000 dead by most estimates, displaced millions, and reshaped the map of the Balkans.
Yugoslavia had been created after the First World War as a kingdom of South Slavs and was rebuilt after the Second World War as a socialist federation under Josip Broz Tito. It comprised six republics (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia) along with two autonomous provinces within Serbia. Tito's balancing of national interests held the country together, but after his death in 1980 the system weakened. Economic crisis, rising nationalism, and disputes over how centralized the federation should be deepened divisions. In Serbia, Slobodan Milošević rose to power by championing Serb grievances, while leaders in Slovenia and Croatia increasingly sought greater autonomy or full sovereignty. The collapse of communism across Eastern Europe in 1989 removed another source of cohesion.
After multiparty elections in 1990, Slovenia and Croatia moved toward secession, and both declared independence in late June 1991. Slovenia's break was met by a brief intervention by the Yugoslav People's Army, lasting only about ten days, and ended with the army's withdrawal. Slovenia had few Serbs living within its borders, and Belgrade's interest in holding it was limited. Croatia's case was far more violent. Its large Serb minority, backed by Belgrade and the army, rejected rule by a Croatian state, and war broke out in regions such as Krajina and eastern Slavonia. Towns like Vukovar were devastated.
The conflict soon spread. Macedonia left Yugoslavia peacefully, but Bosnia and Herzegovina, the most ethnically mixed republic, descended into a brutal war from 1992 to 1995 involving Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats. It was marked by the siege of Sarajevo, ethnic cleansing, and the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, later ruled a genocide by international courts. The Dayton Agreement ended the war in late 1995. Kosovo became the focus of another conflict in 1998 and 1999, which prompted NATO air strikes against Serbia.
The consequences were lasting. Yugoslavia dissolved into several independent states, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was established in The Hague to prosecute war crimes. Slovenia and Croatia later joined the European Union, while other successor states still face unresolved questions about borders, memory, and reconciliation. Historians continue to debate how far the breakup was driven by ancient hatreds, which many reject, and how far by political choices, economic strain, and the manipulation of national identity by leaders.