The Balkans: Powder Keg of Europe. by Oksana Drozdova, M.A. Lecture VI

Transcription

1 The Balkans: Powder Keg of Europe by Oksana Drozdova, M.A. Lecture VI

2 On the Eve of the Great War

3 The Legacies In social and economic terms, wartime losses and the radical redrawing of national borders at the end of the war created dislocations that remain troublesome even today after generations of adjustment. In political terms, the Balkan Wars and WWI also completed the process that replaced the old multi-national, dynastic empires with smaller states. Greek, Serb, Romanian and Bulgarian leaders could no longer follow simple national policies based on territorial expansion at the expense of the Ottomans or Habsburgs. Combined with the stunning cost of the war, this new political landscape made the region ripe for new views of national life and new solutions to lingering problems. 3

4 Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes / Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( ) A National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs met in Zagreb and called for the unification of all the South Slavs in the Habsburg lands. The Croatian Sabor merged with this National Council. Fearful of Italy, the National Council then pledged allegiance to Serbia. In this manner a unified Yugoslav state came into existence before the formal peace talks began. 4

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6 After the War Serbian leaders retained a vision of a centralized country united around Serbia, as described in nationalist literature and painfully pursued in past wars and crises. Serbian leaders had little understanding for the Croatian experience of Magyar domination, which was driving demands in Zagreb for federalism and autonomy. In 1921, a national assembly adopted a centralist constitution based on that of pre-war Serbia. The voting followed ethnic lines and since the Serbs were the most numerous ethnic group the voting ensured the tyranny of the majority. In the next 22 years, every Prime Minister was a Serb, and so were most other Cabinet ministers 6

7 A Shift to the Right Ethnic minorities remained an insoluble problem for the interwar Balkans, in part because imported Western European and American ideas about ethnically homogeneous nationstates were poorly suited to deal with Balkan conditions. As influential elements in Balkan societies grew impatient with moderate ideologies, the Balkan states experienced a political drift to the Right. Authoritarian regimes came to power because liberal and parliamentary approaches failed to solve the problems of national minorities and economic weakness. 7

8 Rise of Authoritarian Regimes Balkan authorities often reacted to instability and differences of opinion by retreating into authoritarianism. Traditional political and economic elites supported this trend, never having liked sharing power under democratic experiments. In Yugoslavia, the Croatian wish for federalism was never reconciled with Greater Serbian nationalism. 8

9 6 January Dictatorship Alexander I King of Serbes, Croats and Slovenes ( ) King of Yugoslavia ( ) 9

10 Ante Pavelić ( ) Croatian fascist leader, founder of the Ustaše movement. Dictator of Independent State of Croatia ( ).

11 In 1939, the Banovina of Croatia was founded in order to solve the "Croatian question".

12 Nazi occupation and partition of Yugoslavia,

13 Poglavnik Ante Pavelic (left) with Italy's Duce Benito Mussolini (right) in Rome, Italy on 18 May 1941, during the ceremony of Italy's recognition of Croatia as a sovereign state under official Italian protection, and to agree upon Croatia's borders with Italy.

14 Slovenian territories occupied by Nazi Germany, Italy and Hungary ( ).

15 King Peter II of Yugoslavia ( ) Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia (1945)

16 A puppet state: Croatia The independent State of Croatia was headed by the Ustaše fascist movement. The Ustaše expressed their Croatian patriotism in terms of anti-serb and anti-orthodox activity. They have been credited with coining the term "cleansing" to describe these ethnic persecutions. The Ustaše episode left a legacy of friction between Catholics and Orthodox, Croats and Serbs, Serbs and Muslims, and Croats and the Communist regime. 16

17 The Communist Wartime Resistance Communism required powerful new forces before it could come to power. In Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria the impetus came from the Red Army occupation after the war. In Yugoslavia, Albania and very nearly Greece, it was the power of indigenous wartime resistance groups. Yugoslavian and Greek Communist-controlled resistance movements were the enemies not only of the Germans, but also of the pre-war regimes that had suppressed them during the interwar period. 17

18 The Big Three To prevent accidental clashes between British and Soviet forces, Churchill and Stalin agreed to divide the Balkans into "wartime" spheres of responsibility. The famous "percentages" agreement was settled in October Stalin followed conditions of the agreement which allowed the British to defeat Greece s communists and socialists. Postwar Greece became part of the Free World. 18

19 Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ( ) Josip Broz Tito ( ) The first President of Yugoslavia ( )

20 SR Slovenia SR Croatia SAP Vojvodina SR Bosnia and Herzegovina SR Serbia SAP Kosovo SR Macedonia

21 Yugoslav Wars ( ) War in Slovenia (1991) Croatian War of Independence ( ) Bosnian War ( ) Kosovo War ( )

22 Nationalist Forces Tensions built up slowly before and during the year of revolution in There were North-South tensions based on cultural and economic factors, and the overall economy was stagnant. The death of President Tito in 1980 emphasized the departure from leadership of a generation that had been united by the Partisan effort in World War II. By the 1980s, Communist leadership was increasingly questioned, opening the way for alternative political and economic forms. 22

23 Croatian Dissent Franjo Tuđman The first President of Croatia ( )

24 Serbian Dissent Slobodan Milošević 3rd President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ( ) 1st President of Serbia ( )

25 The Yugoslav Crises 1. January to July, 1990: In this period, all the ethnic elements in the country began to explore new (and often contradictory) possibilities. The ability of the nationalities to pursue their own goals in the aftermath of the 1989 revolution led to a growing distance between the factions. 2. August 1990 to May 1991: In this period the contradictions between competing goals moved the situation from tension to violence. The incompatibility between Serb and Slovene-Croatian wishes became clear, and led to violence outside of Kosovo for the first time. 25

26 3. May 1991 to February 1992: This was the period when true open warfare began, as the Serbs resisted the Slovene and Croatian independence movements. In June 1991, both Slovenia and Croatia proclaimed their independence. By the end of the third period, most of the principal organized forces in the civil war were present, including the UN, the Croats and the Serbs. 4. March 1992 to December 1992: In this period the theatre war shifted from Croatia to Bosnia, where the province split along ethnic lines. Many Serbs left cities like Sarajevo, and a separate Bosnian Serb parliament was set up. While the Serbian Milošević regime supported much of the Bosnian Serb policy, it did not control it. By the end of the fourth period, the Serbs of Bosnia had made notable gains in territory while facing Croatian, Muslim and UN opposition.

27 5. January 1993 to January 1994: During this year, all sides in Bosnia pursued a dual strategy, balancing fighting with negotiations on the world stage to seek maximum advantage. This fifth period of stalemate was the calm before the storm. 6. February 1994 to June 1995: The stalemate began to destabilize. Generally, this sixth period discredited the UN, and the result was new initiatives both by the Serbs and by their enemies in Croatia and at NATO. 7. July to November 1995: The summer of 1995 saw the climax of the civil war in Bosnia. The war ended with the Dayton Peace Agreement signed on 21 November 1995; the final version of the peace agreement was signed 14 December 1995 in Paris.

28 Seated from left to right: Slobodan Milošević, Alija Izetbegović, Franjo Tuđman signing the final peace agreement in Paris on 14 December 1995.