The 19th century was filled with a lot of issues related to conflicts, reformations, and wars. Most of them were caused by the desire for people to free themselves from the predicaments of injustice and inequality. Yugoslavia was one such region. The conflict in Yugoslavia is a huge point of interest since it was ethnic-based and much complex than mere internal conflict. Yugoslavia was a socialist state comprising of several ethnic groups including the Serbs, Bosnian Muslims, Croats, Slovenes, and Albanians among a few more. The Yugoslavian war was fought between 1991 and 2001 in the former Yugoslavia. This was a war between the ethnic groups named above.
The Basis of Ethnic Tensions
Each of the ethnic groups in Yugoslavia its own identity. However, they bonded and were well loyal to each other because of some shared national identities. These shared identities were both political and organic. This means that the ethnic groups shared similar political and social concepts such as salutes, songs, and support for the national teams. On the other hand, there existed mistrust, injustice, and inequality marked by the differences between these groups. The ability to tolerate each other was what made coexistence possible. However, it also formed a recipe for crystallized differences.
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The conflict started brewing in 1802 when the Serbs wanted their independence from Ottoman Turks. After Tito’s death, other ethnic groups such as the Croats and Slovenes also started seeking their independence. The Croats and Serbs started being denied nationality. The Muslims also began being considered historical traitors. Bosnia, in 1804, also started pushing for their own independence. This worsened the conflict which was mostly centered on internal affairs that concerned ethnic groups and religion. The Croats, Slovenes, and a few more were seeking to be powerful on their own in Yugoslavia. In the long run, the eight nations who had shared the same territory for seventy years wanted to go separate ways. The Serbs did not want this to happen and hence another conflict of liberation arose.
The conflict became worse when the United Nations among various other international bodies got involved. The UN is said to have deliberately destroyed Yugoslavia as they failed to put the war and violence under control as a result of wrong analysis of the situation making them approach the situation with wrong tactics.
How Politicians Fomented these Tensions
The Yugoslavia war was not only instigated by ethnic issues but also political reasons (Burg, 2014) . With the groups wanting their individual independence, the political class in the society was one of the institutions that were going to benefit from this. This is because, with Yugoslavia splitting, new countries were going to be formed and this meant that new leadership structures with new leaders from the respective communities were to be put in place. This was one of the reasons that catapulted the Yugoslavian war. Leaders, in their own ways, incited their communities to fight for their independence. Some did so for the well-being of their communities while others for their selfish reasons. All in all, this is among the many reasons raged people into fighting for their communities’ independence.
Broader Global Implications when Ethnic Tensions Turn Violent
While ethnic tensions within boundaries tend to affect the communities and people living within the borders of the affected place socially, economically, and politically, it also causes a negative global impact (Blagojevic, 2010) . This is because every country tends to benefit others in one way or another. For instance, a country can be the main source of food products for another country. Major ethnic clashes within the former will definitely result in a dip in food production within the said country. This means that food imports in the latter country will dip too creating a food shortage.
Can Ethnic Tensions be Dealt with in a Peaceful Manner?
Ethnic Tensions can, in fact, be dealt with in other peaceful means other than war. Ethnic tension is a conflict. Just like any other conflicts, there are several conflict resolution methods that can be applied to help mitigate situations that may lead to war.
How the Yugoslavian Case can be a Glimpse into the Future
The biggest lesson that can be drawn from the Yugoslavian conflict is that it is important to solve conflicts in other different ways other than staging a war. This is because there are no benefits of war except that the winner gets few bragging rights. Nations seem to have learned from this in the 21 st century. Countries with mixed ethnic communities have learned to anticipate ethnic conflicts and, from the Yugoslavian case, learned how to promptly deal with them before they turn to wars.
How Non-ethnic Issues can Cause Conflicts of Ethnic Nature.
Ethnic issues are not necessarily ignited by ethnic issues such as hate towards one ethnic group. There are a lot of situations in which non-ethnic issues brew ethnic conflicts. These are issues such as environmental problems, state failure and economic decline among many more. For instance, one state in a country made of two states may feel like the other state is causing to grow slowly economically. This economic issue can be made ethnic if the two states host communities of different ethnic backgrounds. The economic issues can hence be made ethnic with communities pointing fingers at each other. In the long run, if not handled well, the matter may cause ethnic tension and different communities may want to part ways with the ‘lazy’ communities.
The Yugoslavian ethnic conflict went down in history as one of the deadliest having brought with it long term effects in central Europe (Dyker & Vejvoda, 2014) . While the desire for people to gain their own independence is important, it is important to mention that there are many other methods to go about it rather than going to war. The fact that the 20 th century was a reformation period in which most people went to war to gain their independence does not justify the fact that one should opt for other conflict resolution methods.
References
Blagojevic, B. (2010). Causes of Ethnic Conflict: A Conceptual Framework. Journal of Global Change & Governance , 3 (1).
Burg, S. L. (2014). Conflict and cohesion in Socialist Yugoslavia: political decision making since 1966 (Vol. 510). Princeton University Press.
Dyker, D. A., & Vejvoda, I. (2014). Yugoslavia and after a study in fragmentation, despair and rebirth . Routledge.
