Eastern Europe Chapter 13 Section 3

A. Revolutions in Eastern Europe  Many Eastern European countries were discontented with their Soviet- style rule  No freedom of speech, consumer goods, housing, etc.  Gorbachev’s announcement to stop support caused a revolution

B. Poland  Worker’s protests led to demands for reform  One worker, Lech Walesa, organized a trade union known as Solidarity  This union supported by workers and Roman Catholic Church  In the 1980s, Walesa was arrested, but the movement continued  1988, they had free elections  1990, Walesa was chosen as president  There was still high unemployment

C. Czechoslovakia  Writers and intellectuals opposed the communist gov’ts  1989, the communist gov’t in Czech collapsed  Vaclav Havel, a writer became president  In Czech, there were two conflicting ethnic groups: The Czechs and Slovaks  In 1993, they peacefully divided their country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia  Havel was elected first president of the Czech Republic

D. Romania  In 1965 the communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu a ruthless dictator  His policies led to poverty, food shortages, and poor living standards  In December 1989, Ceausescu and the secret police murdered thousands of peaceful protestors  The army refused to fight for him anymore and captured him and his wife  They were executed on Christmas Day 1989

E. German Reunification  In 1971, Erich Honecker was the head of the communist party in East Berlin  In 1989, East Germans began to leave their country due to Honecker’s harsh regime  Mass demonstrations broke out across East Germany  On November 9, 1989, The communist gov’t opened its western borders  Thousands of people swarmed into West Berlin and people began tearing down the wall  The gov’t then ordered the rest of the wall torn down  October 3, 1990, Germany was reunified

F. The Disintegration of Yugoslavia  Yugoslavia was divided into 4 different republics:  Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia- Herzegovenia, and Macedonia  Slobodan Milosevic became leader of Serbian Yugoslavia  Tried to keep the four from gaining independence  Milosevic would only allow indp. If a Serbian country created  After negotiations failed, Croatia and Slovenia declared independence  Milosevic used the Yugoslav army to attack Croatia  Milosevic next turned to Bosnia-Herzegovina  Many Bosnians were Muslims and the Serbs began ethnic cleansing, of the Muslims

 250,000 Bosnians were killed  In 1995, the U.S. under Bill Clinton carried out bombing strikes on Serbia  This forced the Serbs to sign a peace treaty  A new war erupted in 1998 over Kosovo  Milosevic tried to establish rule in Kosovo, but they raised an army to fight the Serbs  The Serbs then tried to massacre ethnic Albanians, the main inhabitants of Kosovo  When Milosevic refused peace, again, the U.S. bombed them into submission  Milosevic was taken out of power in 200