Yugoslav Wars

The Yugoslav Wars were a series of conflicts fought in the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001. They were a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that ended the Cold War. The wars in the Yugoslavia Wars are the Slovenian War (1991), the Croatian War (1991-1995), the Bosnian War (1992-1995) and the Kosovo War (1998-1999) .

clockwise from the top: Slovenian National Police Force members taking captured JNA soldiers back to their unit during the 1991 Slovenian war of independence. A destroyed M-84 tank. Anti-tank rockets being installed. Srebrenica massacre victims being reburied in 1995. UN vehicle driving on the streets of Sarajevo.

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was stared in 1918 after World War I when Austria-Hungary, led by Charles I of Austria, collapsed. In 1918, The Austro-Hungarian Empire split into Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia. In 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia during World War 2. In 1944, both Tito and Stalin pushed the Nazis out of Belgrade with the help of Bulgaria. In 1948, Josip Broz Tito and Joseph Stalin broke up their friendship. This lasted until the death of Stalin in 1953. When the invading Warsaw Pact powers ended the Prague Spring in 1968, Romania,Yugoslavia and Albania supported the Czechoslovaks led by Alexander Dubček against the USSR led by Leonid Brezhnev.

Tito died in 1980. Between 1991 and 1992, Yugoslavia started to collapse. This lead to many wars. It is also some of the most brutal conflicts since World War 2. It had one of the most brutal massacres since the Holocaust. This happened when General Ratko Mladić of the Bosnian-Serb Army massacred people in Bosnia in 1995. It is known as the Srebrenica massacre.