The Yugoslavian Conflict

Yugoslavia is a country burdened by feuding sides in a war that cannot

soon be resolved. The United Nations are attempting to help the situation,

but until the people of Yugoslavia can come to an agreement continued warfare

and heartache is inevitable.

The problems in Yugoslavia began because the country is separated into

two distinct parts. The north and west parts of the country were once under

the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the south and the east were

controlled by the Ottoman Empire. This had extreme effects on the ethnic,

cultural and economic differences between the two sides. The three major

religions in Yugoslavia were Greek Orthodox, Christianity, Roman Catholicism,

and Islam. The population in the north and west parts of the country were

mostly Catholic and the further south and east you went the population

became more Orthodox.

Though these are all important factors contributing to the current

problems in Yugoslavia, perhaps the most relevant issue is the issue of

Yugoslavia 1988

Yugoslavia Grunge Flag

Yugoslavia 1988

language. It wouldn't really be proper to say that Serbian, Croatian,

Slovenian, and Macedonian are the four major languages because some of the

languages are so similar they could be considered the same one. For example

Serbian and Croatian are so similar that government policy was to promote

through the educational system the idea of a single Serbo-Croatian language.

However both the Serbians and the Croatians challenged this idea and went

through great pains to identify vocabulary that would highlight the

differences rather than the similarities.

War finally broke out in Yugoslavia on June 25 1991, when Slovenia and

Croatia proclaimed their independence and sovereignty, suspending the

constitution of Yugoslavia and federal legislation on their territories.

The first thing that Slovenian state did was to take over control of their

borders, removing Yugoslavian border...