Decline of a Federation of States

 

                                                        Story of Yugoslavia

Decline of a Federation of States  

    Abstracts:

                      Yugoslavia, a federation of states which was created by Slavs in the year 1918, initially as a monarchy under King Alexander l named as ‘Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes’. In 1929, the name of this country was changed to ‘Kingdom of Yugoslavia’, a democratic country from 1918 to 1945. In the year 1945 the country adopted a socialist system and Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia was changed to Socialist Federal Republic Of Yugoslavia. During Cold war, the country pursued policy of non-alignment. After death of the president, General Josip Broz Tito the country became unstable and due to ethnic conflicts along with political and economic instability, the federation collapsed, starting with Slovenia and Croatia in 1991 till Montenegro in 2006, leaving no entity of a federation named ‘Yugoslavia’.

 

    Introduction:

Yugoslavia:              A Multi ethnic federated state located on the South-Eastern part of Europe called Balkans; a region dominated by South Slavs (a group of people who belong to Slavic ethnicity and are Slavic Language speakers). ‘Yugoslavia’ is a word made by combining two Slavic words- ‘Yug’ i.e. south and ‘Slavic’; means ‘Homeland of the South Slavs’. Initially a country belonging to the south Slavs was just a dream or imagination as this region was captured by Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires. During late eighteenth century, the feeling of ‘Nationalism’ was rising high; sub sequentially, for the first time, the concept of a new Slavic country came into existence. First of all, a plan was created for the creation of south Slavic federation in 1848. The Slavs sought out, got united and revolted against both the empires to unify the region as similar to the German and Italian unification. However, this idea turned into reality after World War I, when both the empires were defeated by the allied powers. Eventually, in 1918 a new federal state came into existence with name ‘Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes’. Which further turned into ‘Kingdom of Yugoslavia’ in 1929.

Some facts about Yugoslavia:

Capital:                      Belgrade (now the capital of Serbia)

Member countries: Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia,        Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina

Population:             24 Million (in 1991, against the total population of about 448 Million of the entire Europe)

Area:                 2,55,804 square kilometers (79^th largest country of the world)

Languages:             Serbo-Croatian, Ukrainian, Italian and German

Currency:                Yugoslavian Dinar

GDP:                         129.5 Billion Dollar (1990)

Per Capita Income: 5,464 USD (1990)

Neighboring countries: Italy, Austria, Hungary, Romania,                Bulgaria, Greece and  Albania

Nationality:            Yugoslavian(s)

Coastline:                Adriatic Sea

                               

                    Picture 1: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

 

    History:

Serbia and Montenegro got freedom from Ottoman Empire in 1878. But unfortunately, these both states were captured by Austro-Hungarian Empire in the year 1914. In World War I, central powers were defeated and the Austro-Hungarian Empire also got weakened politically. In 1917, Montenegro, Serbia, and Austro-Hungarian Empire’s beloved parts – Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina’s representatives declared that they will establish a new country. This combined kingdom was named – ‘Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes’, which was a monarchy under King Alexander l. This nation was supported by the then Elite Powers (The Great Britain and France), who were happy with the decline of Austro-Hungarian Empire.  Gradually, new territories were added to this kingdom, in which main territories were- The Bulgarian Territories and St. Nuam’s Monastery. The name of the state was officially changed to- ‘Kingdom of Yugoslavia’ on 3^rdOctober 1929. Belgrade was made its capital. The main towns and cities of this country were Belgrade, Zagreb and Sarajevo. After a decade, in year 1939, the World war ll broke out. During the war Nazi Germany and its allies invaded and occupied Yugoslavia. Josip Broz Tito, (a Yugoslavian revolutionary communist), led partisan resistance movement against the Central Powers. Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia adopted a Socialist system and became ‘Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’ in 1945 under Tito’s leadership.

       

             Political Ideology and Structure:

Yugoslavia used three basic rules to govern the country:

The first rule was dedicated to ethnicity. It was decided that all the class groups in Yugoslavia were greeted equally and had equal rights and status in the society. This was because of the reason Slavs had also had some internal divisions. The main and basic ethnicities in Yugoslavia were the Serbs, Slovenes, Croats, Montenegrins, Macedonians, and Bosnian Muslims.

The second rule was that Yugoslavian economy would be organized on the basis of Socialist system. It means that the production and distributions in Yugoslavia would be over-headed centrally and it would not be left in the hands of market demands and supplies.

The third rule was dedicated to the Political System of Yugoslavia.  The country was declared Federation, which was further divided into Six Republics and Two Autonomous Regions. All these republics will have some freedom which is mentioned ahead. The Six Republics of Yugoslavia were- Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Croatia. Vojvodina and Kosovo were the Two Autonomous Regions inside Serbia. Yugoslavia gave many freedoms to every Republics and Autonomous Regions.

 

Formation and following the Non Aligned Movement:

After World War II, when the world was divided into two ideologies: Socialism led by USSR and Capitalism led by USA (considered as the two poles of power), while some countries agreed to make their independent identity and not to join either side. As a result of which five countries, including Yugoslavia pursued a policy of non-alignment (officially called non-alignment movement or NAM) during the Cold War (1945-1991), neither with the Socialism bloc nor with the Capitalism bloc. The Non-alignment movement was found and held its first conference in the year 1961, in Belgrade and hence called ‘Belgrade conference’ under the leadership of General Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia), Jawaharlal Nehru (Bharat), Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt), Sakarno (Indonesia) and Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana). The significance of NAM was that the federal states got military and economic aid from both sides i.e. Eastern and Western Powers. This alignment contributed the country’s relative prosperity. Presently, NAM has 120 countries as its members, while 17 observer countries and 10 observer organizations are also associated with it.

In 1960-70’s Yugoslavian Communism became somewhat similar to the Nehruvian Communism. She provided a place for every market Economy. Yugoslavia’s political system was gradually updated and the Political Power became decentralized, all the Six Republics which constituted Yugoslavia became stronger economically. The Republics had freedom to plan separate Army Power and even to secede Yugoslavia.

However, after a few years, slowly, the ‘Socialist Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia’ led towards decline. The simple causes for break-up of Yugoslavia were- Weaker Centralized Political Systems, Economy and Ethnic conflicts. The predicted main cause was the tension between Serbia and Croatia. In the Political Scenario, Yugoslavia got support from the Soviet Union (USSR), because Yugoslavia was born as a Communist Nation.

Despite all above, The Federation achieved a good development in the economic field as well as in the area of science and technology. It is said that after the USSR, this country had the capabilities in space technology. 

 

     Balkanization

                     The Federated states of Balkans, created in the after-math of World War l, started disintegrating in 1990s. Earlier, President- Josip Broz Tito had arguments with the Soviet Union’s President- Joseph Stalin about the future of Yugoslavia, since it was officially a communist nation, but the country did not follow the communist model of Soviet Union. J.B.Tito was a communist leader. During World War ll, he liberated Yugoslavia with axis power. Tito was a popular man among the people. His popularity made six republics and two autonomous regions live together as a federal state. After death of Josip Broz Tito in 1980, there was a lack of capable leaders to lead this union of states in right direction as General Tito failed to cultivate the second line of leadership who could act as his successors he also failed to establish political institutions to build future leaders. It was nearly impossible for the government to elect a new president. The chaotic situation developed and finally, it was decided that the position of president will be transformed from Individual Presidency to collective presidency. It means that the six republics and two autonomous regions will have equal presidency areas. Every region will have its one-eighth part. The decisions would be made on basis of majority under voting system, i.e. any decision would be made if it gets five votes out of eight regions. However, collective presidency could not solve the political crisis in the country as every region had their different expectations. Like, Serbia wanted to be the strongest by including some weak and large republics into it and create ‘Great Serbia’, Slovenia and Croatia had the strongest economy among the six republics and they wanted to keep it up, while Kosovo was trying to become an Independent Republic and so on. In this way, the federal state faced the political crisis which finally led federation toward decline. In coming years, the Political System of Yugoslavia began to fluctuate. Till 1990, three major prominent issues stood up among the republics:

·      Policy Differences 

·      Economic Differences and

·      Ethnic Tensions

 

            Eventually, Serbia and Croatia conducted a referendum to pull out themselves as a free nation on 25^th June 1991, and both the republics quit the federation. Now, only four republics two autonomous regions were left in the federal state. To counter this act, Serbia started a war against Slovenia. The European Union intervenes to stop the war and both republics sign the Peace Treaty within ten days of the war. In this war, one fourth territory of Croatia was wasted. Using Referendum, Macedonia also broke-up from Yugoslavia in September, 1991, followed by Bosnia & Herzegovina, who also broke-out on 9^thJanuary 1992. However, Serbia wanted to include Bosnia & Herzegovina to its ‘Great Serbia’ because Bosnia & Herzegovina had a large population of Serbs with it. This idea of Greater Serbia again pushed the two republics, Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina into war. This time, it was somewhat a quiet difficult for the European Union to make them both sign the Peace Treaty. Therefore, the European Union sought help from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the year 1993. By the help of NATO, Croatia’s and Bosnia & Herzegovina’s army forcefully pushed out the army of Serbia. Eventually, on 3^rdJune 2006, Montenegro quits the Yugoslavian Federation, leading to the disappearance of a country, which was once upon a time, one of the fastest developing countries in Europe. 

 

    Conclusion:

                     The Balkanization of this Balkan’s federal state is an example that shows how the ethnic conflicts could be lethal to the unity, integrity and sustainability of a country or society. Break-up of Yugoslavia played an important role in the European Politics. Poorness, migration and long term conflicts took place in the region which exists even today in form of Serbia- Kosovo issue. However, the break-up of Yugoslavia is studied and understood less than the break-up of Soviet Union.