THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE FEATURES OF NATIONALISMFEATURES OF NATIONALISM

Grade: 11Term: 3

Topic: 4 – NATIONALISMS – SOUTH AFRICA, THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

Sub-Topic: CHAPTER 6 – THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE FEATURES OF NATIONALISM: BOSNIA

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The destructive face of nationalism in Eastern Europe

• Nationalism can be a force for good.Unfortunately, it can lead toxenophobia and other evilxenophobia and other evilconsequences.

• XENOPHOBIA: dislike of or prejudiceagainst people from other countries.

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Xenophobia, war, and ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia

What was Yugoslavia?• Yugoslavia was established after World War One.

It consisted of six states and two regions. Itspopulation was very mixed and consisted of atleast seven different ethnic groups or ‘nations’,least seven different ethnic groups or ‘nations’,each with their own traditions and languages.

• To make nation-building more complicated, eachnation had a very different history, because until1918 the region had been ruled by either theTurkish Ottoman Empire or by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

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• Although Yugoslavia had been a one-partycommunist dictatorship since 1945, itscommunist dictator, Tito, had managed tokeep Yugoslavia independent of both theSoviet East and the capitalist West.

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• To keep ethnic nationalism under control,he banned and imprisoned anyone whotried to encourage nationalism andseparatism in any of Yugoslavia’s six states.

• In 1991, communist control in Yugoslavia collapsed.

• Ethnic nationalism of the most destructive kindimmediately flared up and soon virtually the wholecountry was in a state of war.

• People stopped thinking of themselves as Yugoslavsand took on their ethnic identity, demandingindependence and the exclusion of everyone else

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independence and the exclusion of everyone elsefrom their territory.

• Xenophobia swept across the whole country aspeople turned against their neighbours they hadlived in harmony with for years, but who happenedto belong to a different ethnic group.

• Today, the area which was called‘Yugoslavia’ until 1991, contains sixindependent and separate states: Slovenia,Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina,Montenegro and Macedonia.

• You do not need to know the details of all

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• You do not need to know the details of allthe wars that happened, all of which werecaused by destructive nationalism.

• We will focus on what happened in one ofthe six -states, Bosnia.

What was Bosnia?

• Bosnia had been one of the sixrepublics of communist Yugoslavia.

• Bosnia was Yugoslavia’s most multi-• Bosnia was Yugoslavia’s most multi-ethnic state.

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• Though all its inhabitants were of the same race and spoke the same language, 40 per cent of them were Bosnian Muslims.

• They are known as Bosniaks, the descendants of people who had converted to Islam during the centuries of Turkish rule over the area.

• About 30 per cent of the population was Bosnian

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• About 30 per cent of the population was Bosnian Serb, with strong links to neighbouring Serbia.

• Less than 20 per cent were Bosnian Croats with links to Croatia.

• Croats and Serbs are both Christians, though they belong to different churches.

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• We can see that Bosnia’s population was verymixed, yet its people had lived in harmony formany years, respecting each other’s differences,and often making friends and inter-marryingwith each other.

• This was particularly the case in towns,

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• This was particularly the case in towns,especially in the beautiful capital city ofSarajevo.

• In the rural areas, the different groups usuallylived in separate parts of the country.

Sarajevo

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• In March 1992, Bosniaks and Croatsvoted in a referendum forindependence from Yugoslavia.

• In April, the European Union and the

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• In April, the European Union and theUnited Nations officially recognisedBosnia’s independence.

War in Bosnia, 1992-1995• Bosnian Serbs were bitterly opposed to independence.• The powerful president of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic,

wanted to create a ‘Greater Serbia’ by grabbing most ofBosnia and adding it to his own country.

• He provided the Bosnian Serbs with weapons andsoldiers.

• They immediately surrounded Sarajevo and shot• They immediately surrounded Sarajevo and shotanything that moved, from their positions on the hills.

• Sarajevo was under siege for more than three years,bringing great danger and hardship for all itsinhabitants.

• Many people were killed.• Large parts of the city were destroyed.

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• In the three years of war whichfollowed, the worst genocide inEurope since World War Twooccurred.

• There were also widespread cases ofethnic cleansing.

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ethnic cleansing.

• The war happened right across thecountry in both towns and rural areas.

• It has left terrible scars behind.

War in Bosnia

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Ethnic cleansing in Bosnia• Ethnic cleansing (a Serbian expression) meant clearing

out non-Serbs from areas in Bosnia which Serbs wanted.

• Soldiers and armed civilians rounded up the inhabitants.

• Some were shot and the rest were told to go and liveelsewhere.

During the three years of war, some two million people• During the three years of war, some two million peopleout of a total population of four million becamerefugees.

• Many of them, especially the men, were taken prisonerand put into concentration camps.

• Their women were often raped.

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International involvement in the Bosnian war

• This terrible war took place in the heart of Europe, whichwas supposed to be too ‘civilised’ for such horrors.

• It was widely reported in the media. Everyone knew whatwas going on.

• Refugees flooded into rich West European countries likeGermany.

• Refugees flooded into rich West European countries likeGermany.

• The UN, the European Union (EU), and the North AtlanticTreaty Organisation (NATO) made many attempts to bringabout a cease-fire and get the three groups to negotiate.

• The UN stationed forces on the ground in Bosnia to trykeep the warring factions apart and prevent atrocities.

• Finally, in August 1995, NATO planes bombed BosnianSerb positions, forcing them to agree to negotiations.

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Genocide in Bosnia• The United Nations had peace-keeping forces in Bosnia as

early as 1992.• To try to keep the civilian population in the worst-affected

areas safe, they set up ‘safe havens’ in which civilianscould be protected from attack.

• Although ethnic cleansing also involved genocide, sincemany were killed because of their race, the worst case ofgenocide since World War Two happened under UNmany were killed because of their race, the worst case ofgenocide since World War Two happened under UNprotection in July 1995.

• The UN had set up a ‘safe haven’ camp outside the silvermining town of Srebrenica, east of Sarajevo.

• Here, some 8000 Bosniak men and boys were massacredby Serb soldiers.

• They were supposed to be protected by Dutch UN forces,but the Dutch did nothing to prevent the slaughter.

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The Dayton Accord• In November 1995 the US government, led by

President Bill Clinton, hosted a peace conference atDayton Ohio.

• It was attended by the leaders of all three ethnicgroups in Bosnia and also by Serbia’s president.

• It was agreed to partition (divide) Bosnia into two• It was agreed to partition (divide) Bosnia into twoparts - a Serb Republic and a Bosniak-CroatFederation, each with their own government and anational government in Sarajevo.

• International advisers were sent to help Bosniansset this arrangement up and forces from theEuropean Union were stationed there to help keeporder.

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Bosnia after the war

• Although Bosnia has been at peace since 1995,nation-building has not gone smoothly.

• There are frequent disagreements between allthree groups and the Bosnian Serbs are determinedto keep their territory as separate as possible.

• Refugees have been helped to return home, thoughmany are too frightened to do so.

• The scars left by the war are too deep and toorecent to be sure that the country will ever succeedin its present, partitioned, form. A truly unitedBosnian nation still seems far away.

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