Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia (Jugoslavia in the Latin alphabet, Југославија in Cyrillic; English: the land of South Slavs) describes a new artificial state that was first established in 1919 on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, and remained intact for 72 years. The six countries that were once part of Jugoslavia are Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia.

Foundation

Jugoslavia was effectively a Greater Serbia under the Serbian monarchy (who quickly dethroned the Montenegro Royal Family), and was first formed as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1919, following The Great War when the plutocratic Western Allies dismembered the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Apart from the Serbs, the constituent peoples had no say in the matter. (Unlike Bohemia, Poland, etc., there was no offer of self-determination here.) It was re-named as the Kingdom of Jugoslavia on 6 January 1929 by the soon to be assassinated Serbian King Alexander I of Yugoslavia.

World War II

Following a Serbian Palace coup against the Regent, Prince Paul, Jugoslavia was invaded on 6 April 1941 by the Axis powers and capitulated eleven days later. The 'Royal' Family fled into exile. During this period Germany awarded Croatia independence from Jugoslavia, to great jubilation.

Communism

File:Yugoslavia under communism.gif

Yugoslavia under Communism.

Following World War Two the communist terrorist and dictator Tito, patronised by the Allies, established the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (declared by him on 29 November 1943; broken up on 25 June 1991), a communist successor state to the Kingdom of Jugoslavia. During the war Tito's communists had fought the Royal Jugoslavian Army as well as the Germans and Croats, taking no prisoners. At the end of the war they exterminated vast numbers of Croats and other "traitors" in mass executions and burials. Tito's new state existed under various names, including the "Democratic Federation of Yugoslavia (DFY)" (1943), the "Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRY)" (1946), and the "Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)" (1963).

Collapse

Starting in 1991, the SFRY disintegrated as the Yugoslav Wars of liberation commenced: the formerly oppressed and suppressed peoples of the various states the Serbs had incorporated into their 'Greater Serbia', without their consent, now fought for their freedom. Secession followed for most of the republic's constituent elements.

Serbia and Montenegro hold out

Refusing to give up, the Serbs established a Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) (April 27, 1992 – February 4, 2003), a quasi-federation on the territory of the two remaining republics of Serbia (including the autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo and Metohija) and Montenegro. The monarchy, however, was not restored.

Finally, the Union of Serbia and Montenegro was formed on February 4, 2003, and the name "Yugoslavia" formally abolished. This too did not last long and on June 3 and 5, 2006, Montenegro and Serbia respectively declared their independence from this Union, thereby ending the last remnants of the former bogus Yugoslav federation.