Success is also Tito, defeat is also Tito
Yugoslavia was formerly the "Kingdom of Serbs, Croatia and Slovenes", which was established in 1918 and renamed the "Kingdom of Yugoslavia" in 1929, and there had never been a Yugoslav state in history before this.
As can be seen from the original name of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia is composed of three countries, "Serbia", "Croatia" and "Slovenia", of which Serbia is the main body of this country.
The three countries were united because they all belonged to the Slavs. The Slavs were a very large people, which originated in today's Poland, and from the fourth century AD, the Slavs began the Great Migration, and gradually formed: East Slavs, West Slavs and Yugoslavia.
East Slavic: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine
West Slavic: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia
Yugoslavia: Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Macedonia
(The remaining Slavic state today)
These ethnic groups are all Slavs, and their languages and blood are very close, for example, the languages of Serbia and Croatia can be communicated without obstacles, and the difference between the two is only in the difference in writing.
Before the 20th century, the three major branches of Slavism belonged to three countries. In fact, the East Slavs were under the rule of Tsarist Russia, while the West Slavs were mainly under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and most of Yugoslavia belonged to the Ottoman Empire.
In the 14th century, the Ottoman Empire, which arose on the peninsula of Asia Minor, began to rise. In 1389, the Ottoman Empire defeated the Kingdom of Serbia at the Battle of Kosovo, and the Turks began to land in Europe. By the 16th century, the entire Balkan Peninsula had fallen into the elbow of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkic rule in the Balkans continued until the second half of the 19th century, after which, with the support of Russia and Britain and France, The countries of Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria became independent.
After World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire disintegrated, and Slovenia and Croatia, which had been controlled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, declared their independence. Subsequently, Serbia, together with Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia, formed the "Kingdom of Serb-Croatia-Slovenes", which was renamed the "Kingdom of Yugoslavia" in 1929.
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was established on the basis of blood relations between the Yugoslav peoples, but in the long historical development, a huge cultural gap has been formed between the Serbs and Croatian peoples.
In the case of Serbia and Croatia, for example, the two peoples are not different in blood and language, but their cultures are very different. Serbia belongs to the Hellenistic cultural circle, is Orthodox, and the language is written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Croatia, on the other hand, belongs to the Latin cultural circle, is mainly Catholic, and the language is written in the Latin alphabet.
Before the 20th century, a Yugoslav who was Orthodox was a Serb, and if he was Catholic, he was a Croat, and the two peoples were entirely distinguished by religion and culture.
After the establishment of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, in order to break the barriers between the various ethnic groups, the country was divided into 33 provinces and the different nationalities were divided into one province in order to strengthen exchanges between the various nationalities.
Although the approach of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia strengthened national unity to a certain extent, it could not fundamentally eradicate ethnic contradictions.
After the outbreak of World War II, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was eventually occupied by Nazi Germany due to its diplomatic position, and then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was dismembered by Germany and Hungary. The Croats, with the support of the Nazis, formed the "Independent State of Croatia", and the Croatian fascists massacred millions of Serbs in the area under their control, and the Serbs also retaliated by killing a large number of Croats. The acts of genocide between the Two Ethnic Groups during World War II became a knot in the hearts of the two countries that will be difficult to eliminate in the future.
After the end of World War II, Yugoslavia established a socialist state under the leadership of Tito, and its territory basically inherited the territory of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
(Yugoslav political strongman Tito)
Tito was a political strongman, the only one in Eastern Europe during the Cold War who dared to confront Stalin. As one of the initiators of the Non-Aligned Movement, Tito refused to join the Warsaw Pact and also accepted Aid from the United States, maintaining relatively friendly relations with Britain and the United States and other countries.
In Yugoslavia, Tito was the same existence as the Father of the Nation. With his strong prestige, he temporarily suppressed the national contradictions in Yugoslavia. However, the majority of The Yugoslav nation was Serbs, but Tito was a Croat. After Tito came to power, he began to vigorously suppress Greater Serbianism in the country, punishing a total of 40,000 Serbian officials. In addition, in order to weaken Serbia's strength, Tito even divided Serbia into two peoples, Serbia and Bosnia.
Bosnia is no different from Serbia in blood, nor is there any difference in language and writing between the two, and the differences between the two are mainly religious.
As mentioned above, Serbia was ruled by the Ottoman Empire for four centuries. In order to assimilate the Serbs, the Turks who believe in Islam have introduced many measures, such as tax cuts, official positions, etc., to encourage the Serbs to convert to Islam.
In order to pay less tax, many Serbian peasants began to practice Islam, and these people gradually formed a group. By the 1970s, Tito divided these Islamic Serbs into the "Muslim race," which is today's Bosnians.
With the exception of a few countries in the world today that are mono-ethnic, most countries are multi-ethnic. In a multi-ethnic state, there must be a majority nation, and the majority nation must have a cultural and demographic superiority in order to ensure the unity of the country, but Tito's approach obviously dealt a heavy blow to the Yugoslav majority Serbs.
After Tito's death, the Yugoslav Federation was left untenable, and Yugoslavia disintegrated in 1992. Subsequently, the national contradictions that had been suppressed for many years broke out in an instant, and the Croats united with Bosnia and began a war with the Serbs.
The war caused so much damage to the Serb, Croat and Polish people that to this day, the hatred between the three peoples cannot be eliminated.
(At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Serbian tennis superstar Djokovic posted a support for Croatia, for which Djokovic was criticized domestically)
(Serbian tennis star Djokovic)