[INTRO] Yugoslaviaās breakup is often overshadowed
by the breakup of the Soviet Union or the protests in the PRC, yet its effects can still
be seen in Europe: From the poverty suffered by those living in that region, to the gap
in the EU. Yugoslavia was described by its own president as 1 country with 2 alphabets,
3 languages, 4 religions, 5 nationalities, 6 republics, surrounded by 7 neighbours, with
8 ethnic minorites. And in this video we will talk about how and why Yugoslavia. Had. Been.
Divided! [HISTORY OF THE PEOPLES] But before we can
talk about how it fell apart, we need to talk about how the country was created. Yugoslavia
started out as an idea. For centuries, this region of the world had been ruled by foreign
powers, mostly the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. But most of the people
who lived here were neither Austrian, Hungarian, or Ottomanā¦ They were slavic. And slavs
saw themselves as a distinct ethnicity with its own culture, history, and traditions.
[IDEA OF NATION] And so Yugoslavia was the idea of a unified state inhabited by slavic
people and ruled by slavic people. And this idea came about around the same time countries
like Germany and Italy unified into distinct countries, with their unification also, in
part, based around the idea that Italians and Germans each had their own unique ethnic
identity. But there was a problem with this Yugoslav idea: While Serbia and Montenegro
had gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1878, most of what would become Yugoslavia
was still under Autro-Hungarian ruleā¦ and the Austro-Hungarian Empire wasnāt going
to give up a large part of its territory just so slavs could have their own nation right
across its borders. [CORFU] But then WW1 happened. {PAUSE AND
PLAY HABANERA} And in WW1 Serbia and Montenegro were occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire
and their governments fled to allied countries. And there, in 1917, leaders of montenegro,
Serbia, and representatives from the Astro-Hungarian regions of Slovenia, Croatia, Vojvodina, and
Bosnia-Herzegovina declared that they would join together to form a new nation. A nation
they called: The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.
This nation was supported by the allies, who liked the idea of breaking up the Astro-Hungarian
Empire into smaller countries. [ACTUAL FORMATION] And by the end of WW1,
Austria-Hungary started falling apart: There were revolutions in Vienna and Budapest, the
capitals of the Austrian and Hungarian parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Czechia and
Slovakia declared their own independence shortly afterā¦ And in the midst of this breakup,
the southern territories of the empire declared its own independence, Serbia and Montenegro
were liberated, and the three regions joined together to officially form the Kingdom of
Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs. Over time, a few more territories were added to the kingdom
such as 4 small Bulgarian territories, and the Monastery of St. Naum.
In 1929 they decided that the British way of naming their country wasnāt very catchy
and they became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. With ājugā meaning āsouthā and āslaveniā
meaning āslavsā. And so the country was called āthe land of the south slavsā...
and they were right to call it Yugoslavia because āsouth slavsā is too much of a
tongue twister {WHEN YOU SAY IT WRONG, KEEP THAT IN THE RECORDING}.
[WW2] But this kingdom didnāt last long because in 1941 Hungary, Germany, and Italy
came to visit for a World War. And while Yugoslaviaās army surrenderedā¦ its people did not. Instead,
Yugoslavia organised the largests resistance of all the occupied nations in Europe. By
1945, the people of Yugoslavia managed to completely kick out the axis forces from their
soil with only minor support from allied countries at the very end of the warā¦ Because Yugoslavia
was a strong independent country who needed no foreign liberation.
The faction which liberated the nation was communist. {PLAY FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE} So
after taking control over the government, they turned Yugoslavia into a socialist nation
and called itself the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. They also gave their old flag
a 1-star review, and made THAT their new flag. This new nation was founded on three basic
concepts. Firstly, it recognized various ethnicities within the country as equals through the idea
that they all helped to liberate the country from foreign occupation. The second, was that
the nationās economy would be managed through socialism. And thirdly, that the country was
governed as a federation of 6 equal republics with a large degree of autonomy. They were:
Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Croatiaā¦ And looking at Croatiaās
flag, itās no wonder why they have so many chess grandmasters for such a small country.
Additionally, the regions of Vojvodina and Kosovo were granted autonomy, while still
being part of the Republic of Serbia. While there were other foundations upon which
Yugoslavia was formed, it is these three which were the most important. And it is also these
three foundations which would cause the eventual breakup of Yugoslavia. Because the fall of
nations rarely has a single cause . Rather, itās a combination of various issues which
together cause the collapse of nations and Yugoslavia is no different in this regard.
So first, letās talk about the Yugoslav political system. {PLAY FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE}
Being a communist country, Yugoslavia was a close friend of the Soviet Union and the
Yugoslav governments controlled many aspects of the nation. But in 1948 the country politically
distanced itself from the Soviet Union, after the leaders of the two countries disagreed
on what the future relationship between the two nations should be. In the 60s and 70s,
the country began reforming its political system by handing over more and more control
away from the central government towards the individual republics. These changes included,
among other things, giving the republics and autonomous regions more control over their
own economies, giving them more influence in the central government and giving the individual
republics local armed forces which were separate from the national army.
But there was one thing which barely changed during this time: the presidency. After WW2,
a man named Josip Broz Tito became president of Yugoslavia and retained this position until
his death. He personally controlled a large part of the national government and was an
important force in keeping the nation stableā¦ But there is a large problem with relying
on a single person to run essential aspects of your government, rather than relying on
an institution: If a king dies, a president loses an election, or a prime minister falls
ill, then that position will be filled by somebody else while the institution of the
monarch, president, or prime minister remainsā¦ In Yugoslavia, the country relied on a single
person: Josip Titoā¦ Until he died in 1980 and there was nobody to replace him as president.
Instead, the presidency was transformed into a collective presidency. This meant that the
6 republics and 2 autonomous regions would each get ā
of the presidency and would need
to make decisions via a majority. So while before the country relied on a single person
to make certain important decisions, it now relied on 8 different groups of people ruling
8 different regions of the country to make collective decisions. And these 8 different
regions each had a different vision for the future of Yugoslavia and their place within
it. Serbia wanted a stronger federal governmentā¦ in which they would likely have gotten a disproportionate
amount of control; Kosovo wanted more autonomy for itself, such as becoming a 7th republic
in Yugoslavia; Slovenia was the most liberal republic and wanted a more liberal Yugoslavia;
Slovenia and Croatia were the richest regions of the country and wanted more control over
their own economic policies instead of sending money to poorer regions; Bosnia-Herzegovina
wanted to become its own independent nationā¦ With all these different political forces,
each with different and often opposing political goals, the country became less and less manageable
in the 1980s. The second major factor leading to the breakup
of Yugoslavia was its economy. While in countries such as China and the Soviet Union the leadership
took decisions based on communist ideals, in Yugoslavia the government tried a lot harder
to implement policies which it believed would be an effective means at providing wealth
to its own citizens, often disregarding socialist philosophy if it proved ineffective at achieving
that goal. So while China lost millions due to avoidable famines and the USSR through
industrialisation, Yugoslavia never saw such types of destructive policies in its countryā¦
And its economy performed quite well. At first, Yugoslavia was similar to other
communist nations where the government controlled large parts of the economy directly, with
a central authority dictating how supply chains are managed, how resources are distributed,
and how businesses are run. But the Yugoslav leadership soon realized it would be more
efficient to let people manage their own workspaces, as they had greater knowledge and expertise
in their fields than distant bureaucrats do. And so Yugoslavia reformed its economy over
the coming decades, becoming the most reformed socialist economy in the world at that time.
This reformed economy would eventually consist of 4 main aspects: market mechanisms, whereby
prices are determined by supply and demand; decentralised decision-making, where businesses
would be able to make their own decisions; social ownership, where employees of a business
automatically owned a share of the business they worked at; and workerās self-management,
where those employees who owned a share in a business were the ones making the decisions
of that business, rather than shareholders who bought a part of the company without ever
having to have worked at said company. While these are generally quite good economic
policies: A healthy supply and demand generally makes sure that there are enough products
being made and that there is an incentive to find ways to make those products cheaper
and better. And businesses owned by employees are generally more profitable than businesses
owned by shareholders or the governmentā¦ But itās the implementation of this system
where things went wrong. You see, employees didnāt get to directly vote on decisions
in the business they worked at. Instead, they were run by so-called āmanagement boardsā.
And if you wanted to get on this management board, then you needed the votes of your colleaguesā¦
So, how do you get these votes? Well, for many it was to promise higher salaries. And
so in the 1980s the salaries of the employees went upā¦ and this might seem like a great
idea at first, afterall, more money for average people instead of rich CEOs. But a business
has a limited amount of resources which it needs to manage. And eventually the salaries
became so high that businesses were running out of money.
So what did the management boards do? Well, many decided they didnāt want to lower salaries
and instead opted to increase prices. And now all across Yugoslavia prices were going
up. But think about this for a moment: your salary was going upā¦ but so were the prices
of productsā¦ Making your wage increase completely useless. This increase in prices is called
inflation. And many businesses couldnāt keep up with this inflation and went bankruptā¦
And so the government decided to step in by providing welfare for the unemployed, giving
money to businesses to prevent bankruptcies, and trying to keep the economy from collapsing.
At first they had enough money, but then the cold war came to an end in the late 1980s.
Why is this important? Well, Yugoslavia sat right between the capitalist west and the
communist east. Both sides wanted Yugoslavia to join their side, or at the very least,
not join the other side. And they did this by giving Yugoslavia moneyā¦ This was a common
tactic during the cold war: give money to countries so they will be on your side, or
at least donāt join the enemy. But by the late 1980s the Soviet Union was breaking apart
and the cold war was coming to an end. As a result, the Soviet Union sent less money
to other countries such as Yugoslavia. But if the USSR wasnāt sending that much money
anymore, there was no reason for western countries anymore to do the same. And so all of a sudden
Yugoslavia was receiving A LOT less money from other countries.
So by now the prices were going up, businesses were being mismanaged, and the government
didnāt have enough money anymore to keep everything under controlā¦ And so they decided
they would simply borrow money to make up for thisā¦ But the problem with loans is
that people will only give you a loan if they believe you will pay those loans back with
interest. And as Yugoslaviaās economy got worse, that belief was evaporating. Soon people
were no longer willing to give Yugoslavia more money. And so how could Yugoslavia get
enough money to stabilize their economy when investors were no longer willing to give them
any loans? Well, they went to an organisation called
the International Monetary Fund, or IMF for short. This is an organisation owned by various
world governments which, among other things, sells loans to countriesā¦ But they were
only willing to give a loan to Yugoslavia if the country would reform its economy and
government finances in such a way that it could repay this loan. These reforms included
for the government to cut spending, allowing private businesses not run by workers unions
in their economy, and restructure their property market, and various other minor changes. While
this is great for a countryās ability to repay debt, it also creates large issues for
the country as a whole. The Yugoslav government provided a lot of money to people and businesses
to avoid poverty and mass bankruptciesā¦ but if the government has to spend less money,
they can no longer provide as much support. And changing your economic system is also
likely to cause severe economic issues. And this is where the politics were making
things difficult. Because Yugoslavia had 6 republics and an additional 2 autonomous regions,
it meant that they needed to figure out together how to implement the IMFās demands in order
to get that loan. And Yugoslavia had quite a bit of wealth inequality. The average person
in Slovenia was 8 times richer than the average person living in Kosovo. So while Slovenia
was on par with countries such as Israel or Ireland, Kosovo was on par with third world
countries such as Sudan or Papua New Guinea. This economic inequality caused quite a bit
of strife. Richer regions such as Slovenia and Croatia
argued that they had spent the last few decades building up a healthy economy while poorer
southern regions such as Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Montenegro spent their money on inefficient
businesses and prestige projects. And that therefore, those southern regions should take
the brunt of the reforms as they had the weakest economies with the most inefficient governments.
While on the other hand, those southern regions argued that Yugoslavia should have a unified
approach to the issue with all republics taking equal responsibility no matter how rich or
poor that region may beā¦ Suffice to say, reforms were slow and the economy of Yugoslavia
faced a long recession in the 1980ās and early 90s.
[ETHNICITY] And now we get to the third issue that was facing Yugoslavia: ethnic tensions.
Yugoslavia had many different ethnic groups living within its borders. An ethnic group
is a group of people which share a common cultural or national tradition. Such as, for
example, the Zulu people of Southern Africa, African Americans of the USA, or the Han Chinese
of East Asia. Yugoslavia had several officially recognized
ethnic groups. They were the Serbs, Slovenes, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, and later
recognized Bosnian Muslims as well. And being recognized as an official ethnicity came with
certain rights: you were allowed to openly express your religion, you would receive free
education in the dominant language of your ethnicity, and they were given their own ethnic
republic. When the borders of the Yugoslav republics and autonomous regions were drawn
after WW2, they closely corresponded to where the different ethnicities livedā¦ But this
system failed over time because people tend to move to other places and by the 1980s the
ethnicities were a lot more spread out. At the same time, there were ethnicities which
werenāt officially recognized. A prominent example were the Albanians who lived in Kosovo.
They were a larger ethnic group than the Macedonians or Montenegrinsā¦ yet werenāt recognized
as an official ethnic group. And so they often felt like second-class citizens in their own
country, resulting in protests by the 1980s which were put down by the military.
And by the late 1980ās politicians exploited the ever-growing ethnic tension for their
own gain. Because in 1989 Serbia got a new leader, a man named Slobodan Miosevic. And
under this new leadership Serbiaās government envisioned a Greater Serbia. In this ānewā
Serbia, the regions with ethnic Serbian majorities would be added to the Serbian Republic. Ethnic-Serbs
accounted for about ā
of all the people living in Yugoslavia, meaning there were many
regions outside of Serbia which had an ethnic-Serbian majority. The goal was for Yugoslavia to become
a Serbian-controlled country. One of the ways it sought to control Yugoslavia
was through the presidency: there were 8 seats, one for each of the republics and autonomous
regionsā¦ but both of these autonomous regions were within Serbia. So the first thing it
did was to control these two regions and thus control their seats of the presidency. Then
it installed a pro-serbian government in Montenegro, thus controlling 4 out of the 8 seats of the
Yugoslav Presidency. Therefore, any policy that wasnāt explicitly in Serbiaās interest
wouldnāt have the majority vote and therefore no major policies could be passed without
the approval of the Serbian republic. And so by now itās 1990 and Yugoslavia is
facing a combination of 3 issues: the republics and autonomous regions couldnāt agree on
how to govern the country, itās economy was in a recession without clear solutions,
and ethnic tensions were being exploited. And so Croatia and Slovenia decided that they
did not want to be part of a government controlled by ethnic Serbians, didnāt want to pay for
the economic crises in the other regions, and didnāt want to be part of a country
whose government couldnāt agree on major policy issues. The Yugoslav constitution gave
each republic the right to independence if a majority of that republic voted in favour.
And so they each held such a referendum on independence in 1990, each passed said referendum,
and each decided to secede from Yugoslavia on June 25th, 1991. And so the people of Croatia
and Slovenia decided that Yugolsavia. Will. Be. Divided.
But as often happens when you break up with someone: they might not let you go so easilyā¦
and Yugoslavia was no different. Without Croatia and Slovenia, it meant that Serbia had substantial
influence over 4 of the 6 remaining republics and autonomous regions. So what did the Serbian
government do with this influence? Well, they still wanted to create a āGreater Serbiaā
and 12% of Croatiaās population were ethnic Serb. So while Croatia was trying to become
independent, Serbia was going to finance a counter-revolution by the ethnic-Serbs by
trying to convince them that the Croatian would persecute ethnic Serbs living in Croatia.
And so, almost immediately after declaring independence, Serbs started blockading roads
and train tracks, armed Serbs attacked Croatian targets, and the Yugoslav army provided air
support while invading Croatiaā¦ And so the Yugoslav Wars began.
Slovenia, however, was a bit further away. While Yugoslavia tried subduing Slovenia,
they ended hostilities after only 10 day of fighting when the European Community, a precursor
to the EU, helped negotiate a peace treaty. But Croatia was not so lucky. And so it managed
to use the regional army each of the republics had control over to hold off the Yugoslav
army in 1991ā¦ even though it still lost about a quarter of its territory.
And then on September the 8th of that same year, Macedonia, now called North Macedonia,
held its own independence referendum, passed it, and seceded from Yugoslavia 2.5 weeks
later, on September the 25th. It managed to remain at peace with Yugoslavia and did not
join the Yugoslav Warsā¦ so now 3 republics had seceded.
Things escalated when Bosnia-Herzegovina held its own referendum, also voted in favour,
and declared its independence on March 3rd, 1992. But they also had a large Serbian populationā¦
so Yugoslav forces invaded the new country while Croatian forces came to support the
new country. With only 2 republics and 2 autonomous regions
left of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro decided to create their own Yugoslavia, removing
the āsocialistā in their name, and called itself the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
But from 1992 until 1995, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia would be the major battlegrounds
of the Yugoslav Wars. In these wars people committed genocide, filled mass graves, and
comitted a wide range of warcrimes for three years. The death toll is estimated to be around
100.000-200.000 with another 4 million people becoming refugees.
And itās at this point that other countries started to get seriously involved in the Yugoslav
Wars. Particularly, the European Community. Even early on, it was predicted that the Yugoslav
Wars would likely bring millions of refugees, something those European countries werenāt
fond of. It might bring naval conflict in a sea shared with Italy, a prominent member
of the European community, which wanted to keep the region stableā¦ And it might destabilize
more of Europe, in a time when Eastern and Central Europe was going through a major social,
political, and economic change. So the European Community at first tried peace negotiationsā¦
While this worked with Slovenia, it failed with Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. And so
by 1993 they asked NATO for help. NATO was a military alliance between primarily
North American countries and Western European countries at the time. Many countries who
were a member of the European Community were also a member of NATO. With a resolution from
the United Nations, they set up safe havens where civilians would be protected from the
war, while also establishing a no fly zone to prevent the Yugoslav air force from bombing
Bosnian and Croatian targets. This war eventually ended in 1995, when NATO
began bombing Serbian-held positions, Croat and Bosnian forces managed to kick the Serbian
troops out of their territories, and Serbia sued for peace. In November 1995, the war
came to an end with the Dayton Peace Accords. This peace accord included letting 60.000
NATO troops maintain the peace, Bosnia-Herzegovina would become a federation consisting of a
Muslim-Croat and Serbian republic, and Serbia would get to keep Kosovoā¦ Although Kosovo
would later declare independence in 2008. Butā¦ the country still hadnāt completely
broken up because Serbia and Montenegro were still united. But over the next decade separatism
grew in Montenegro after the wars had ended and decided in 2006 to hold a referendum on
Montenegrin independence. With 55% of the votes in favour, Serbia and Montenegro officially
became separate countries on June 3rd, 2006. And there was one final matter to address:
the war crimes. Many countries did not want to let the atrocities go unpunished, and so
the United Nations established a tribunal to put various people on trial who were suspected
of committing or ordering war crimes. This Tribunal was called the... {AUDIBLE BREATH
IN A LOT} āInternational Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious
Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia
since 1991ā {INHALE} or simply the āInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslaviaā.
The people indicted ranged from presidents and prime ministers to common soldiers and
generals. In total, 161 people were indicted for various
types of war crimes, of which 18 were acquitted, 91 were convicted, 13 cases were transferred
to the national courts of former Yugoslav countries, 20 indictments were withdrawn,
and 17 died before they were sentenced. If youād like me to do a video on these trials
then youāll need to wait, because 1 person is currently appealing their conviction, but
once thatās over Iāll let you guys vote on whether I should cover these trials. The
last of these hearings occurred in 2017, after which the institution ceased to exist.
And this is how Yugoslavia broke apart. [OUTRO] If you liked this video then please
give it a like and subscribe for more content. Next video will be about North and South Korea.
And there is a poll on what video I should make after that, link in the description.
I am a bit sick of covering European topics half the time, so this time NO EUROPEANS ALLOWED!
This is the clearest explanation of Yugoslavian market socialism I've heard. Sounds like a major reason for its failure is that the companies didn't operate on a one-worker-one-vote structure. I'm sure that's an oversimplification, but something to keep in mind as market socialists.