In 1992, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia completely collapsed.
The former big man in the socialist camp was divided into six countries: Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia was even more special, with two autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and the world-famous Kosovo.
Why is a powerful country divided? Now, decades later, which of the six brothers who are clamoring for a split is the best?
1. Why did the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia go to secession?
After World War I, a state called the "Kingdom of Yugoslavia" was established in the Balkans.
After the outbreak of World War II, the Axis forces led by Germany and Italy gathered the troops of Bulgaria and Hungary to invade, the original rulers fled in a hurry, and the puppet regimes of the Axis powers, the Independent State of Croatia and the Serbian Salvation Government, were supported one after another.
Of the two notorious puppet regimes, the Independent State of Croatia in particular has done the most heinous.
The country's leader, the Ustasha, who is deeply hostile to the Serbs, who make up the majority of the population in the country, has developed and implemented a policy of persecution against the Serb population.
One third of the Serbs in Croatia will be slaughtered, one third will be expelled, and the other third will have to convert to Catholicism and renounce their Serb identity.
(Flag of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
Thankfully, World War II ended in a crushing defeat for the Axis powers. The guerrilla resistance led by Tito, with the support of the Soviet Union, eventually established a new state called the "Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia".
After the adoption of the country's new constitution in 1963, the name of the country was officially changed to the "Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia", or "Yugoslav Federation" for short. Therefore, the Yugoslavia in the mouth of the vast majority of Chinese in the last century refers to the Yugoslav Federation.
However, the Yugoslav Federation under Tito's leadership is a country that is accustomed to openly fighting with the big brother of the Soviet Union. Western society has high hopes for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, believing that it is an important force to contain the Soviet Union and an object that can be co-opted in the entire socialist camp.
Therefore, the relations between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia have deteriorated, and the Yugoslav Federation has also received a lot of assistance from the Western bloc, and the small life is much better than the poor buddies of the same camp who are bitter!
To give a simple figure, in the first two decades of Tito's death in 1980, Yugoslavia's GDP grew at an average annual rate of more than 6%, making it a regional economic powerhouse.
With free medical care and basic free education, the life expectancy of the people is as high as 72 years, and the literacy rate has soared to 93%. The solid results of economic development have made the people of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia prosperous, thus making Tito's position more stable.
(Mikhail Gorbachev)
However, all this good life was no longer sustainable after Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union. Because Gorbachev's indiscriminate reforms satisfied the West, the Soviet Union, which he tossed and turned, had become very weak and no longer so aggressive and aggressive, and the status and role of the Yugoslav Federation in the hearts of the Western bloc had been significantly weakened.
In short, the affluent life of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia owes a considerable amount to the economic aid and large investments of the Western bloc. And this benefit was not given in vain, because they needed to use the Yugoslav Federation to counterbalance the USSR.
The more powerful the Soviet Union, the better the small life of the people of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and on the contrary, they will be like toilet paper and thrown away when the West runs out.
After the suspension of Western aid, the withdrawal of investment, and even the introduction of sanctions such as the blockade and embargo, the economic situation of the Yugoslav Federation deteriorated rapidly, and the people's living standards declined, which led to the vacillation of whether to continue to stay in the Yugoslav Federation, and the separatist sentiment of the member states began to rise.
(Tito)
There is no doubt that Tito, the founding father of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, was a charismatic strongman of the times. Tito's death is undoubtedly a heavy blow to the unity and cooperation of the member states of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Just like the departure of a respected elder in a big family, it is difficult for any of the remaining family members to become the new head of the big family, and they naturally tend to split up and stand on their own.
Therefore, the continuous deterioration of the economy, the intensification of national contradictions, and the death of Tito have become the three important reasons for the split of the Yugoslav Federation. In 1992, the West quickly recognized the status of independent sovereign states such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia.
In fact, this is not entirely the case, the two brothers Serbia and Montenegro, who tended to keep the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, formed the "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" in the form of a national union in the same year.
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia claims to be the legitimate successor of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but the international community generally denies it. Some people say that since the Yugoslav Federation has dissolved, is it not good to sell face to others? Of course, this is not a question of whether or not to give face to Serbia and Montenegro, but a question of economic interests.
If the Yugoslav Federation created by the two of them is recognized as the legitimate successor of the original Yugoslav Federation, it will be tantamount to acknowledging that the treaties, trade, debts, and other relations signed by various countries with the Yugoslav Federation, as well as the overseas assets of the Yugoslav Federation, will be inherited by the Yugoslav Federation. Of course, Western countries did not do it, and even Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries expressed their opposition.
After experiencing local conflicts such as the Kosovo War, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was unable to continue in 2003 and changed its name to "Serbia and Montenegro". In the past three years, Montenegro has officially become independent in a referendum. Since then, Serbia and Montenegro have ceased to exist, and Serbia has become a landlocked country completely.
After experiencing the twists and turns of the "Great Yugoslav Division", which of the six Yugoslav children who have set up their own doors is "the most promising"?
2. Who is the best in the six countries?
The country with the most successful economic transition is Slovenia
Slovenia, which was separated from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, has a population of just over 2 million square kilometers since independence. In 2004, Slovenia was admitted to both NATO and the European Union, and was fully integrated into the Western camp in terms of economic and military security.
According to statistics, Slovenia's per capita GDP is not only second to none among the original six Yugoslav Union countries, but also proud of the entire Eastern European countries that have transitioned from a planned economy to a market economy.
In 1991 Slovenia had a national literacy rate of 99.3 per cent, and this tradition of attaching importance to education had not only been preserved, but also had been enhanced by economic development.
According to the Programme for International Student Aptitude Assessment, Slovenia is ranked 12th in the world and 4th in the European Union, with 12% of the country's population having a university education.
At present, Slovenia ranks 93rd in the world in terms of total GDP, and 36th in per capita data. Less than 10 percent of the country's employed population is engaged in agriculture, while 30 percent are engaged in industry, and the rest are mainly engaged in the service sector.
Slovenia is endowed with excellent resources and has many natural and historical tourism resources that are famous in Eastern Europe.
Compared to the stellar economic figures, Slovenia's military strength is very average. Military spending is less than 1% of the country's GDP, and the system of professional soldiers is practiced, which has little presence in international military news.
Perhaps, as mentioned earlier, joining the NATO bloc has given us considerable confidence in security, and it is no longer necessary to maintain an excessively large army.
In short, if economic data and living standards are used to judge success or failure, Slovenia is clearly the most mixed among the buddies.
Croatia, a country with an outstanding military industry
Croatia's total population is almost twice that of Slovenia, which is rapidly approaching 4 million, and its land area is 2.5 times that of Slovenia, so Croatia's total GDP ranks 80th in the world, but it is still inferior to Slovenia per capita.
Like Slovenia, Croatia seeks deeper integration into the Western system. Since 2003, Croatia has applied to join the European Union, and this "love confession" was not accepted by the European Union until ten years later, officially agreeing to Croatia's accession to the European Union. NATO, on the other hand, was more cheerful, admitting Croatia as a full member in 2009.
Compared with Slovenia, which is unknown militarily, Croatia has a good military industry, specializing in the production of armored vehicles, and its military products such as infantry fighting vehicles, military clothing and tactical helmets sell well in Europe and the United States. In 2010 alone, the military industry generated $120 million in foreign exchange for Croatia.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, a poor country that is slowly recovering from the civil war
Bosnia and Herzegovina, known simply as "Bosnia and Herzegovina". Compared to the name of the country, which is unfamiliar to many people, its capital is much more well-known – Sarajevo. More than 100 years ago, it was in this place that Archduke Ferdinand, the crown prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated, triggering World War I.
(Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand)
During the Yugoslav period, Bosnia and Herzegovina was a poor and weak region. Although the land area is as high as 50,000 square kilometers like Croatia, ninety percent of the territory is rugged and mountainous, so it can be said that there is no resource endowment.
During the years of Bosnia and Herzegovina's march to independence, civil war broke out, destroying much of the infrastructure and displacing large numbers of people.
The severely damaged economic situation has taken a long time for Bosnia and Herzegovina to recover, and it is dwarfed by the two former buddies of regional economic powerhouses like Slovenia and Croatia.
At present, the armed forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina are only 8,000 people, and although they have fought in civil wars, like Slovenia, they have basically no military presence in the world.
North Macedonia, a country that was forced to change its name because of Greece
Among the former member states of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, there is Macedonia. After independence, it has always been called Macedonia and has been recognized by most countries around the world, but there is only one country that has bitten the bite and refused to recognize it, and that is Greece.
The northern region of Greece bordering Macedonia was historically the Macedonian region of Greece. Therefore, Greece thinks that the Macedonian people, who are full of malice, do not imply that they have any idea of our northern territories?
Macedonia naturally shook its head again and again, but Greece was against Macedonia continuing to call it that name. If you want to talk about a country, what is its name, how can other countries interfere left and right? Not to mention, Greece can really force Macedonia to compromise and change its name.
Why? Because Greece is a full member of NATO and the European Union. And Macedonia, after independence, also sought to join NATO and the European Union. But Greece vehemently opposed Macedonia's accession under this name, and Macedonia's repeated application efforts were in vain. In this way, Greece and Macedonia quarreled for 27 years because of the name of the country, and finally in 2019, the Republic of Macedonia officially changed its name to the "Republic of North Macedonia".
In exchange, Greece has since given up blocking the country's application to join NATO and the European Union.
North Macedonia is currently one of the poorest countries in Europe, and it has experienced civil war since independence, so it is unknown how many years will be left for economic recovery. Because of economic difficulties, North Macedonia's defense military investment is obviously insufficient, and the country's air force, for example, can only afford to equip a small number of helicopters, not even a single fighter jet.
The country that "peacefully parted" with Serbia - Montenegro
In 2006, Montenegro held an independence referendum, which finally made the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia a historical name. After independence, Montenegro has a land area of 13,000 square kilometers and a total population of barely over 600,000.
Although Montenegro has also experienced the civil war after its departure from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, its current economic construction has been quite effective, and its per capita GDP is as high as 8,000 euros. After breaking up with Serbia, Serbia has completely become a veritable landlocked country, because the port of access to the sea belongs to Montenegro.
The Air Force of Bosnia and Herzegovina only has helicopters, but he didn't expect Montenegro to be even more shabby than him. At present, the size of Montenegro's army is maintained at the level of less than 2,000 people, the air force is also dominated by a small number of helicopters, and the navy is two dilapidated Soviet-made frigates, and the army is even more outrageous, it is said to have only one main battle tank.
For Montenegro, the relatively smooth thing is that it successfully joined NATO in 2017 and received a certain level of security commitment, so it is so inattentive to its own national defense. However, Montenegro's defection to NATO seems to have stimulated Russia a lot.
The country most familiar to the Chinese - Serbia
In 1999, NATO launched a military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The "bombing of the embassy" incident has made China and Cyprus indignant and deepened the international friendship between the two countries against hegemonism.
Serbia is the big brother of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, with a land area of 88,000 square kilometers and a total population of more than 8 million. Data for 2022 shows that its GDP reached $130 billion, of which $1.1 billion was spent on military spending.
Due to its large land area, friendly relations with Russia, and still not a member of NATO and the European Union, and a history of war aggression, Serbia attaches more importance to the construction of national defense and the army. The current military strength is the strongest of the original six member states, with 25,000 standing troops, 10,000 reservists, and 5,000 paramilitary personnel.
In the early years, the tall Serbian President Vučić, because of his clear friendly stance toward China, was ceremoniously received when he visited China and became a foreign politician familiar to the Chinese people.
Because of Serbia's pro-Chinese, pro-Russian, and anti-American stance, as well as the fact that it has two provinces with autonomous status, one of which is the well-known Kosovo, which has become a de facto independent state, and has been recognized by many countries, Serbia's domestic political and economic crises have erupted one after another.
For Serbia, the road to great power rejuvenation is long, although its national life may be far less than that of Slovenia and Croatia under the protection of the European Union and NATO, but Serbia has a strong sense of presence in the international community, as if it is a regional power, if it can strive for a peaceful and stable environment at home and abroad, the future development potential is still immeasurable.
The disintegration of Yugoslavia was a tragic song of war and smoke in the Balkans, and for the former republics, when the contradictions intensified and could no longer be reconciled, separation seemed to be the only option.
Today, each of the six republics has its own path and level of development, with some countries being content to live a small life and having a sweet life after separation, while others are not as good as before after separation, and still aspire to regain the glory of the unity of the Yugoslavs in the Balkans.