1.  Eastern Countries  Albania  Bosnia & Herzegovina  Bulgaria  Croatia  Czech Republic  Hungary  Macedonia  Poland  Romania  Slovakia  Slovenia  Montenegro  Serbia  Kosovo

2. Macedonia Montenegro

3.  Former Yugoslavia

4.  History  Location of Eastern Europe created a cultural crossroads of many different ethnicities.  100 AD controlled by Ancient Rome (Catholic) followed by the Byzantine Empire (Orthodox).  1300s controlled by the Ottoman Empire (Muslim).  Control by foreign rule made ethnic groups fiercely guard their identities. Nationalism  devotion and loyalty to one's own nation or people group.

5.   Basic beliefs and practices are the same and based on the Bible.  395 AD  Roman Empire split:  West was ruled from Rome (Catholic)  East was ruled by the Byzantine (Orthodox)  Major differences:  Orthodox  don’t recognize the Pope  Orthodox  Mary, mother of Jesus, born with sin and rejected it.  Orthodox  priests can get married Orthodox vs. Catholic

7.   By 1913, Balkan countries began “balkanization” which refers to the process of a region breaking up into smaller units.  After WWI, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia gained independence.  After WWII Soviet wanted to set up satellite nations of communist neighbors; crushed political reform and free trade for decades.

8.  Balkanization

9.  Satellite nations

10.   4 decades of Soviet control.  Gorbechev gave more freedoms in the late 1980s.  1989  Czechloslovakia, Poland, and Romania had free elections and ended communism.  1990  Bulgaria and Yugoslavia had free elections.  Instability and ethnic loyalties returned.

11. 

12.  Former Yugoslavia

13.   Major conflict with the Balkans is that different groups want control of the same land and the causes go back centuries.  Slavs migrated in the 500s from Russia and Poland and called themselves the South Slavs.  Croats, Slovenes, and Serbs all created different kingdoms.  Foreign intervention created differences between the South Slavs.  Example  Serbs stayed Christian, and Bosnians converted to Islam created differences within the Slavs. Former Yugoslavia

14.  South Slavs

15.   1918, Yugoslavia formed, called the “Land of the South Slavs,” but not all those South Slavs got along anymore.  1946, new Yugoslavia constitution set up 6 republics.  Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Solvenia.  2 self-governing provinces of Kosovo and Vojvochina.

16.  Former Yugoslavia

17.   From 1945-1980, President Tito controlled Yugoslavia.  Considered an authoritarian leader, yet he kept the ethnicities united and peace within the region.  Yugoslavia experienced relative economic success during his time.  After death Yugoslavia goes into chaos and ethnicities become fiercely nationalistic and want independence from Yugoslavia. President Tito

18.   1991  4 of the 6 republics voted to become separate countries and Serbia objected.  1991  Slovenia quickly gained independence.  1993  Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.  Leader of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, sent in Serbian troops to stop the others from getting independence.

19.  Milosevic

20.   Croatia and Bosnia were ethnically mixed and had a large number of Serbs.  Milosevic proposed the creation of a “Greater Serbia” and wanted to expand borders that had Serbian populations.  Alarmed, the Croats and Bosnians then declared independence in 1991.  Serbian led Yugoslavian army invaded both republics.  Croatia led to civil war and claimed thousands of lives before a UN cease fire in 1992.  Croatian independence.

21.  Ethnicities of Yugoslavia

22.   1992  Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence.  Bosnia’s Muslims and Croats backed independence but Serbs did not.  Serbia and Milosevic started a war in Bosnia.  Milosevic and Serbs used murder and violence to get rid of Bosnian’s Muslims and Croats.  Used ethnic cleansing  more than 200,000 died and 2 million became refugees.  1995  U.S. sponsored peace negotiations led to a free Bosnia.

23.   Bosniaks – 40%  Muslims  Serbs – 31 %  Orthodox  Croats- 15%  Catholic  Bosniaks were once Serbs who converted to Islam during the Ottoman Empire (1400s) Bosnia’s ethnic groups

24.  Bosnian War Crimes

25.   Milosevic tried to get control of Kosovo, which had an Albanian/Muslim majority.  Kosovo demanded independence and Serbia began ethnic cleansing.  1999  NATO started bombing Serbia to get them to stop and Milosevic withdrew.  Milosevic accused of war crimes and voted out in 2000.

26.  Kosovo

27.   2006  Montenegro (Orthodox) declared independence from Serbia  2008  Kosovo declared independence.  Former Yugoslavia:  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Serbia  Montenegro  Croatia  Macedonia  Slovenia  Kosovo

28.   Fertile plains makes it a farming region.  After 1989 moved toward a market economy.  Slow economic growth due to inflation, unemployment, old equipment, lack of raw materials, shortage of educated workers, civil war. Economy

29.   Cultural diversity makes it difficult to unify the region.  Less urban than the rest of Europe, but as industry grows so will cities.  Discrimination of minority groups, especially the Jews, leading to anti-Semitism.  To obtain true democracy, they need to overcome old hatreds and work together. Culture

30.   South Slavs migrated to the region of Eastern Europe and settled.  Conquering empires brought ethnic, cultural, and religious differences to the South Slavs (Croat, Bosniak, Serb, Slovene, etc.)  Conquering empires and the USSR created intense nationalism of each ethnicity.  USSR influence quelled ethnic tensions due to their common enemy.  1991  with independence ethnic nationalism, ethnocentrism, and ethnic cleansing began.  Main instigator of the violence was Serbian led Yugoslavia.  Yugoslavia has broken into 6 different countries. In Summary