Unit 5: Europe

Balkanization and Eastern Europe

Wed/Thurs, October 22-23, 2014

Countries of Eastern Europe TODAY• Poland• Czech Republic• Slovakia• Hungary• Romania• Slovenia• Croatia• Bosnia-Herzegovina• Serbia• Montenegro• Kosovo• Bulgaria• Albania• Macedonia

Slavs• The ethnic term for many of the people of Eastern

Europe is the Slavs. They are called this because of the hundreds of years they were enslaved by various empires. They eventually just became known as Slavs, which means Slaves.

• When you hear the term Slavs, or Slavic countries, you know the history of these people is one of slavery.

Cultural Crossroads

• Cultural Crossroads: A place where cultures cross paths• People moving between Western Europe and Asia passed

through the region of Eastern Europe• Many world powers have tried to control this region

– Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Ottoman Empire, Kingdoms like Poland and Serbia, Austria

• Ethnic groups guarded their cultural identity because of the centuries of foreign rule– Many wanted their own nation-states even though they had

never had self-rule– Desire to become nation-states sparked many conflicts

Balkanization• Balkanization - process of a region

breaking up into small, mutually hostile units

War After War

• 1908 - Balkan nations of Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia had broken free of Ottoman Empire

• 1912 - Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia go to war against the Ottomans and take the land

• 1913 - Balkans fight over who should own that territory taken from the Ottomans

Balkanization Leads To WWI

• Serbia wanted to free Slavs in Austria-Hungary• 1914 - Serb assassinates Austrian noble

(Archduke Franz Ferdinand)– Austria-Hungary pulls in their Allies– Serbia pulls in their Allies– WWI begins (1914-1919)!

• Austria and Hungary split apart• Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia

gain independence• Ottoman Empire ends and is replaced by Turkey

WWII• In 1939 - Nazi Germany invaded Poland and much of Eastern Europe

and sparked the Second World War (1939-1945).• By 1945 - Soviet Union was attacking Nazi Germany from both sides

and occupied many Eastern European countries to form satellite nations

• Satellite Nations - nations dominated by another country• Countries taken over by the Soviet Union became a part of the Iron

Curtain.• In 1945 - Josip Broz Tito became dictator of Yugoslavia.

WWII Leads To Communism• Soviet Union ruled under Communism for

FOUR decades

• Communism – government makes all economic decisions: they decide what and how much will be produced and who gets what; state owns all farms, factories, stores, and utilities; government decides the role everyone will play (personal lives); everyone is equal

• Also called “Command or Planned Economy”

1980s and 1990s

• Communist governments taught people to be loyal to the Communist government.

• Mikhail Gorbachev (late 1980s) began reform giving Eastern Europe more freedom.

• After communism fell in the early 1990s, nations demanded more reforms and people returned to their ethnic loyalties (rather than loyalty to government).

• Instability followed and it resulted in the creation of more nation-states.

Civil War

• This was especially true in Yugoslavia, a nation consisting of six republics trying to break into independent nations caused civil war.

Former Yugoslavia Ethnic Groups

http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/bosnia.htm

Break Up of Yugoslavia• 1918 – Yugoslavia kingdom created after WWI by Western Allies• 1945 – Yugoslavia invaded by Nazis and recreated as a Socialist state afterward WWII by Josip Tito• 1980s – Tito died, Yugoslavia plunged into chaos, Slobodan Milosevic rose to power• 1991-1992 – Disintegration

– Slovenia and Croatia first to break away and declare independence from Yugoslavia– Croatia in conflict with minority Serbs– Bosnia (mostly Muslim) declared independence – Serb minority wanted to remain within Yugoslavia (build better Serbia) – Bosnian Muslims government was besieged and Muslims were driven out in “ethnic cleansing” – scenes very similar to Nazi s during

WWII (mass shooting, forces repopulation of towns, confinement in “concentration” like camps, used rape as a weapon against women/girls, etc.

• 1993 – United Nations imposed economic sanctions against Serbia, deployed troops to protect distribution of food/medicine to Muslims, but prohibited troops from interfering militarily (US and European Union didn’t get involved)

• 1994 – Sarajevo bombed (many dead/wounded) and got international attention, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) demanded Serbs withdraw from Sarajevo, they complied, and NATO imposed cease-fire in Sarajevo declared

• 1995 – Dayton Peace Deal– Two Self Governing Entities within Bosnia – Bosnian Serb Republic and Muslim (Bosnjak)-Croat Federation– Called for democratic elections and war criminals be handed over for prosecution– Reintegrate Bosnia and protect human rights– 60,000 NATO Peacekeeping force charged with implementing military aspects of peace agreement– 200,000 Muslims civilians were killed in “genocide,” more than 20,000 missing, and 2,000,000 refugees

• 1999 – Kosovo Intervention– Kosovo Liberation Army (ethnic Albanians) openly rebelled against Serbia

• 2000-2003 – Milosevic Ousted– Slobodan Milosevic lost presidential election in 2000 but refused to accept results so was forced out– Handed over to United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague and put on trial for crimes against humanity

• 2006 – Death of Milosevic – Milosevic found dead in his cell in The Hague on March 11, 2006 – heart attack

The Wars of the 1990s

• Many civil wars followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia

• War in Slovenia (1991)• Croatian War of Independence (1991-1995)• Bosnian War (1992-1995)• Kosovar War (1996-1999)• Southern Serbian Conflict (2000-2001)• Macedonian Conflict (2001)

Eastern Europe rests upon “cultural fault lines” making it a “shatter belt:” A culturally and politically fragmented region, shaped by the collisions of aggressive, stronger external powers, whose clashes have ‘shattered’ the region’s earlier cultural uniformity. Recovering from Communism of Soviet Union.

Fall of Communism

• http://www.learn360.com/ShowVideo.aspx?ID=640149&SearchText=eastern+europe+communism&lid=4926053