Yugoslavia

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A book for which we should be really appreciative - Rated
The history of the area known as Yugoslavia is so complicated that the average person will throw up his hands in trying to understand the reasons for Milosevic's ethnic cleansing, NATO's 1999 air strikes against Kosovo and Serbia and the uneasy peace today. As the Ottoman Empire began to crumble, various elements saw their opportunity to hasten the Ottoman withdrawal and grab land and power. The turning point came in October 1912 when Montenegro declared war on Turkey, with the Serbs crushing an Ottoman army in a massed battle at Kumanovo in Northern Macedonia and taking Kosovo. A policy of terror designed to alter the ethnic composition of Kosovo and strengthen Serbia's claims to the province followed, leading to the massacre of about 20,000 Kosovar Albanians followed by torture, maiming, and forced conversions. In May 1913 Serbia and Greece, supported by Montenegro and Romania defeated Bulgaria; Serbian nationalist fervor boiled over as Old Serbia had been recovered, the battle of Kosovo was avenged and the Turk routed. On 28 June 1914 the Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo by a Bosnian Serb; Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia triggering World War I in which 40% of the Serb armed forces and 25% of the total Serb population perished. Serbia was too weak to claim a seat at the diplomatic table when the secret 1915 Treaty of London gave Serbia Bosnia-Herzegovina and a portion of southern Dalmatia where there was a concentration of Orthodox Christians. The abdication of the Russian Tzar in February 1917 robbed Serbia of its most powerful support. Following the war, seven treaties settled various territorial claims, Albania became an Italian protectorate, the Kosova Albanians revolted against Serbian rule, the Yugoslav Communist Party was formed, Tito returned from Russia where he had been a prisoner of war exposed to ideas and methods of the October Revolution, intrigue abounded everywhere jousting for power or justice, anarchy and murder ruled, people profiteered while others went hungry. Drained of blood and treasure, Serbia struggled to make good its claims against hostile Italian diplomacy while trying to integrate minorities none of which welcomed rule from Belgrade. The communists gained power in local elections and 16 parties were represented in the 1920 elections to choose a constituent assembly. The electoral success of the Communist party with an appeal well beyond the numerically tiny working class, exceeded the worst fears in government circles. "The kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes could hardly have got off to a worse start. Of the three founder-peoples, two were recalcitrant joiners. Now a rump 'Serbia' Assembly had passed a law giving apparently limitless power to the executive. The scene was set for two decades of political paralysis, which ended (when it was too late to make any difference) with the partitioning of the state and the outbreak of Hitler's war in the Balkans."

Hitler's plans entailed picking off one by one the states created by the Versailles Treaty and Yugoslavia drifted into the Axis sphere of influence. It was the Kosovar Albanians who caught the full force of racial bigotry that surfaced during the 1930s, resulting in murder, dispossession of lands and cultural oppression with the intention of removing them altogether. In 1935 Turkey offered to accept 200,000 Muslims from Kosovo. The communists, many of whom were revolutionaries in the Lenin mould, veterans of the civil war in Spain and with experience of prison and police brutality had their chance to form a formidable clandestine organization. The government was overthrown by a coup in April 1941and in retaliation, the Luftwaffe reduce Belgrade to rubble. In the turmoil of World War II, guerilla war and civil war, the communists gained power, but Tito's regional ambitions had no place in Moscow's plans, leading to the 1948 expulsion of the Yugoslavian Communist Party. Tito's death in May 1980 unleashed inflation, the party's hold on a discontented population weakened and old enmities reemerged. In 1987 Milosevic became effectively ruler of the republic, setting in motion an ugly tide of anti-Muslim sentiments on the 600th anniversary of Kosovo Field in June 1989.

The final chapter 'Back to Kumanovo' tells how the second Yugoslavia slowly expired following the fall of communism, the Milosevic years of ethnic cleansing, the 78 days of NATO bombing and Milosevic's arrest in April 2001 and warns that: "It does not seem even remotely possible that the Kosovars will accept for ever their present found constitutional status as an integral part of Serbia" and "Finally, but by no means least, the settlement in Bosnia-Herzegovina is coming apart at the seams, as most people always thought it would" and " However, the domestic politics of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia may be entering another phase of turmoil" and "In Macedonia, Bosnia and Kosovo the Balkan crisis continues."

Huntington tells us in 'The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order' that clashes between civilizations are the greatest threat to world peace; that since the end of the Cold War people define themselves by blood, belief, faith and family - ancestry, language, religion, history, values, institutions, tribes, ethnic groups and customs - rather than by nation, ideologies and economics; that the hotspots are on the fault lines between civilizations; that Bosnia was a war of civilizations with Russia providing diplomatic support to the Serbs while Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran and Libya provided funds and arms to the Bosnians; that the philosophical assumptions, underlying values, social relations, customs and overall outlooks on life differ significantly among civilizations, reinforced by the revitalization of religion. The problems in this area of the world are extremely complicated but they will not just go away. Understanding the history of Yugoslavia is the first step and Benson has done an outstanding job in presenting the facts in an unbiased manner for which we should be very appreciative.

A good, well researched, in depth look at a troubled Nation. - Rated
This book is the most up to date in depth look at
a deeply troubled part of Europe. The book is well mapped out and easy to follow and comprehend. It lays in front of you the stark reality of what occured, how this was brought about when old hatreds would erupt again after the end of communist rule. The death of the strong man, Marshall Tito, with no one able to replace him and the move towards a dangerous and ultimatly deaddly outbreak of Nationalism. Any one interested in the way Yugoslavia would cope with the ending of communist rule or just in history in general would be well advised to add this book to their list of items to attain.