1. Unit 5: Europe Balkanization and Eastern Europe
Wed/Thurs, October 22-23, 2014

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

3. 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.

4. 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

5. Balkanization
Balkanization - process of a region breaking up into small, mutually hostile units

6. War After War
Balkan nations of Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia had broken free of Ottoman Empire
Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia go to war against the Ottomans and take the land
Balkans fight over who should own that territory taken from the Ottomans

7. Balkanization Leads To WWI
Serbia wanted to free Slavs in Austria-Hungary
Serb assassinates Austrian noble (Archduke Franz Ferdinand)
Austria-Hungary pulls in their Allies
Serbia pulls in their Allies
WWI begins ( )!
Austria and Hungary split apart
Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia gain independence
Ottoman Empire ends and is replaced by Turkey

8. WWII
In Nazi Germany invaded Poland and much of Eastern Europe and sparked the Second World War ( ).
By 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 Josip Broz Tito became dictator of Yugoslavia.

9. 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”

10. 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.

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

12. Former Yugoslavia Ethnic Groups

13. 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
– 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
– 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

14. The Wars of the 1990s
Many civil wars followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia
War in Slovenia (1991)‏
Croatian War of Independence ( )‏
Bosnian War ( )‏
Kosovar War ( )‏
Southern Serbian Conflict ( )‏
Macedonian Conflict (2001)‏

15. 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.

16. Fall of Communism
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