In the late 20th century, as the Iron Curtain fell, the nations that made up the country of Yugoslavia began re-evaluating their relationship to one another and opening some old wounds. Bosnia, a nation within Yugoslavia, with a long, complex history became a continuation of the atrocities of World War II, with the rest of the world watching impotently. Part 1 of the series examines Bosnian history and how it relates to its neighbours.
Please join me as I delve into the relationship between the nations that make up the former Yugoslavia and give historical context for how those nations have been manipulated by other powers over the decades. The second episode starts in the late 1800’s with the results of the Great Eastern Crisis and ends 100 years later in the 1980s, just prior to where we will start episode 3 on what unfolded in the Balkans in the 1990s. Can we learn from what happened?
Yugoslavia is breaking apart in 1991 and there is growing tension between the different Yugoslav republics. The politicians have started to prey on their citizens’ worst fears about each other. Hundreds of thousands of people will have to live through the worst European war since the end of World War II.
And international diplomacy will be challenged to rise to the call, and fail over and over again. It is in Bosnia that we will learn the term ‘ethnic cleansing’ and relearn the word genocide, and learn that despite the promise to never let that happen again, when put to the test, we are more than willing to watch from the sidelines.
You can find the books that I used for this series in the links below.