Bosnian Conflict

Background Information Sources

- "Bosnia-HerzegovinaProfile-Timeline."
- Bosnia was an associate of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. BBCNews.BBC,24Oct.2016.Web.
- 1989, the communist parties had collapsed and the nationalist parties gained power; a tripartite 10Mar.2017.
coalition government was formed: Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia. <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-euro
- Bosnia: Independent Bosnian Country pe-17212376>.
- Croatia: Join Independent Croatian State Worldwidely famous broadcasting cooperation
- Serbia: Stay as Yugoslavian / To support the comprehension of complicated
- 1991, Serbians formed Serbian National Assembly. timeline of Bosnian Conflict / The BBC itself
- The Serbian Democratic Party had boycotted the Bosnian Presidency meetings. gives a lot of credits for the value of its
- June 25th, 1991, Slovenia and Croatia had seceded from Yugoslavia, which triggered the Croatians and information, has accurate informations, shows
the Bosnians of the Bosnia-Hercegovina to aspire freedom as well from the Yugoslav. the publisher and the date it was published /
- Minorities in each region in Bosnia Hercegovina were in terror, especially the Serbians in Does not show any sources the author had used.
Bosnia and Croatia.
- Serbians had done ethnic cleansing during the WWII to the Croatians: 700,000 dead.
- Possibility of retaliation. - Ramp,JohnR."BosnianConflict."
EncyclopdiaBritannica.Encyclopdia
- With the support provided from the Yugoslavia, Bosnia Serbians began attack on the other nations.
Britannica,Inc.,9May2016.Web.10
- Serbians did the following actions to accomplish Ethnic Cleansing to Bosnians: murder, torture,
Mar.2017.
extrajudicial executions, rape and sexual assaults, confinement of civilian population in ghetto areas, <https://global.britannica.com/event/Bo
forcible removal, displacement and deportation of civilian population, military attacks or threats on snian-conflict>.
civilians, and destruction of property. Britannica, an eminent research source
- 1995, December 14th, a peace accord is signed at Dayton. An international peacekeeping force is specially for histories/To inform specifically
deployed to the nations. about the causes and the events of Bosnian
Conflict/ It shows the updated date, authors
career and way to contact him, research sources
and references, has many links to clarify the
terminologies or certain events which the
audience may not be aware of it/The range of
information is too limited to only the war and
right before the war. More reference to the
consequences and further more background
history would be more helpful.

Long - Term Causes
- Religion
Yugoslavias main religion that had
great power on its nations and
people were: Western Christianity
(derived from the Roman
Catholicism, the western Roman
Empire), Eastern Orthodox
Christianity (derived from
Byzantine Empire), and Islam
(Ottoman Empire).
Bosnians believed in Islam, Bosnia
- Croatians in Catholic and Bosnia -
Serbians believed in Orthodox. The
conflicts between the religions had
Short - Term Causes
- The secession of Slovenia
and Croatia from
Yugoslavia
After Slovenia and Croatia had
declared independence, Yugoslavia
had attacked both countries to
retreat their declaration. The wave
of war had reached Bosnia -
Herzegovina as well, inspiring
them to gain freedom as well.
As Bosnians and Croatians were
inspired, they started to make
moves to achieve their new goal: to
secede from Yugoslavia. Shortly
Trigger
- Declaration of
Independence of Bosnia
From 29th of February until 1st of
March, 1992, Bosnia - Herzegovina
opened the referendum to gain
independence from Yugoslavia,
which was greatly in favor by
Bosnians and Croatians. The
independence was gained, and the
Serbians immediately commenced
their assault to the Bosnians and
Croatians.
The situation could not be more
- Yi,Won-Bok.KaroSeroSegyesa(World
History).Vol.1.Seoul:Kimyongsa,
2006.Print
An alumni of Seoul University (one of the Top 3
university in Korea), majored in Western Art
after graduation, a prominent author of history
(published 11 books which organizes the
history of France, England, Korea, U.S.A,
Switzerland, etc) and became a steady seller /
To simplify the history of Balkan to the people
who do not know well about the region / Easy
to understand thanks to the support of clear
and direct style of writing and the drawings. /
The authors opinions could possibly be biased
because it depicts the axis powers very
negatively (but they did do a lot of incoherent
and unjustifiable actions).
Sources
"TheWarinBosnia,19921995."U.S.
DepartmentofState.U.S.DepartmentofState,
1Nov.2013.Web.14Mar.2017.
<https://history.state.gov/milestones/1993-200
0/bosnia>.
A website with many historical documents
(primary sources) and essays written by
historians / To narrate the events that
happened during the Bosnian Conflict in a
chronological order / Gives accurate
informations about how the situations were like
during the conflict / Mainly discusses about the
war itself, not the causes so it would be hard to
use it as a source for the essay. More likely to
support the writers comprehension of the
Bosnian Conflict.
existed for a long time, and it has
grown more enormously due to
the nationalism in the Balkan. The
accumulated clash of religion had
become a factor of the conflicts in
Balkan for a long time, which
includes the Bosnian Conflict as
well.
- Creation of Yugoslavia
After winning the WWI, the
serbians hoped to gain their own
independent South Slav state. They
decided to create an union for the
south slavic people, later known as
the Kingdom of Yugoslavia; Yugo
means south. Cameron Hewitt,
co-author of Rick Steves' Croatia &
Slovenia, says, But this new union
was fragile and ultimately bound
to fail (not unlike the partnership
between the Czechs and Slovaks,
formed at the same time and for
similar reason.
- Titos death
Josip Broz Tito was a revolutionary
leader of the partisans in
Yugoslavia. During the World War
II he was renowned for the most
effective resistance movement in
occupied Europe. After gaining
independence of Yugoslavia, he
had become the president (1953 ~
1980). His policy had a strong
characteristic of an authoritarian,
after making their moves, they met
their goal and had to cope with the
conflict as well.
- Serbian
Nationalism/Forming Own
Assembly / RAM Plan /
Boycott
Serbians, feeling uneasy about the
Bosnians, Croatians, and other
nations demanding freedom from
Yugoslavia, had started to form
their own power. A new assembly
was made for the Serbians,
Bosnian presidency meetings were
frequently boycotted by the
Serbians, and lastly, a RAM plan
was made. RAM plans main
purpose was to organize serbians
outside Serbia and provide ammos
and ammunition where efforts
were seen to form a state for
serbians.
As the serbians were being more
threatful to the other nations, the
conflicts grew even bigger, each
being caution of one another.
- The fall of communism
In 1980s people became
dissatisfied with their current
political system, which rendered
the Yugoslav economy to fall
drastically. Politicians changed
their current system (communism)
incendiary, and what began the
war was the declaration of
independence of Bosnia from
Yugoslavia because that made the
Serbians to begin their attack on
the Bosnians and Croatians. That is
why I categorized declaration of
independence as the trigger of the
Bosnian War.
Relationship with Nationalism
but also datas, graphs, and the original sources,
In WWI, the Slavic nations
united under the name of
nationalism. The nationalism
has grown more extremely and
has reached the level of jingoism
and made the countries unite by
themselves nonetheless of
having blood of the slavs, which
grew the conflict even more
volatile and dangerous.
references and sources of information, detailed
Kalyvas,StathisN.,andNicholasSambanis.
"BosniasCivilWarOriginsandViolence
Dynamics."BosniasCivilWar(n.d.):191-230.
Web.14Mar.2017.
<http://stathis.research.yale.edu/documents/Bo
snia.pdf>.
*Scholarly Source*
An essay (from a book) written by a professor
of Yale University / To scrutinize and organize
the causes, events, and the consequences of the
Bosnian Conflict / The career gives credit, the
essay is very detailed; has not only information,
good usage of terminology / It is fit for college
level or above students so there could be a
problem in comprehension or in speed of
reading the essay. Also, the range is too wide. If
molden into categories, then the necessary
informations could be less than what we need.
Western,William."TheEffectofNationalist
IdeologyonViolenceinYugoslaviainthe
1990s."E-InternationalRelations.N.p.,Apr.
2012.Web.14Mar.2017.
<http://www.e-ir.info/2012/05/15/the-effect-of-
nationalist-ideology-on-violence-in-yugoslavia-i
n-the-1990s/>.
Written by a student and assessed as part of a
university degree. / To allow the readers to
broaden their understanding of what is possible
when answering similar questions in their own
studies, also to let the readers comprehend the
role of nationalism on the Yugoslavian conflict
in 1990s. / Fits perfectly: role of nationalism,
Yugoslavian Conflict in 1990s, has a lot of
in more of the role of nationalism, not the
but people did not defy against this
but rather ardently advocated him.
Apart from being an intrepid
patriot and a hero, he was a well
revered leader. He had successfully
united the five disparate nations
together without any recurrence of
conflict during his presidency.
After Tito had died, the
concentrated powers were now
separated, each demanding
distinct requests from the
government for the sake of their
own country. One is that while the
central government tried to
maintain all the force to itself, the
local governments claimed their
own autonomy. The division of the
united forces became influenced
one of the short terms (forming
tripartite government), which
directly causes affect to the
Bosnian Conflict.
- Ethnic Diversion
There are two main causes in the
Balkan territorys diverse ethnic
groups: the division of the Roman
Catholic and the Byzantine Empire
and the intrusion of the Ottoman
Empire. These major events plus
other events had caused the
Balkans to divide mainly into three
ethnic groups: South (the peoples
of Yugoslavia and the Bulgarians),
and as a result, the communist
parties started to lose powers.
Soon, the nationalist parties gained
power.
This is a short term because right
after the coalition government was
formed, the referendum was
formed, and this provoked the
serbians to fight with the Bosnians
and serbians.
Relationship with Nationalism
has datas, graphs, and a lot of sources cited
- The secession of
Yugoslavia from
Slovenia and Croatia
This event is a model example of
how nationalism has become
more extreme than that of WWI.
The slavs no longer stays as a
brother with each other but
again unites themselves within
the same country. As Slovenia
and Croatia no longer wishes to
stay united with the Yugoslavia,
they secede from the union.
updated recently so the accuracy of information
- Serbian
Nationalism/Forming
Own Party / RAM Plan /
Boycott
The three events shows how
radical the Serbian nationalism
was back then. To keep things
history itself (which most of the sources did). /
Not written by a professor nor an expert but a
student so it could have less quality of
information than expected.
Krkljes,Sandro."BosnianGenocideWorld
WithoutGenocide-."BosnianGenocide
WorldWithoutGenocide-.MitchellHamline
SchoolofLaw.,Mar.2014.Web.14Mar.2017.
<http://worldwithoutgenocide.org/genocides-an
d-conflicts/bosnian-genocide>.
A webpage about how Bosnian genocide
occurred / to provide details about the topic /
which increases credibility / does not give the
updated date and the information about the
author.
"JosipBrozTito."Wikipedia.Wikimedia
Foundation,13Mar.2017.Web.14Mar.2017.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Broz_Tito>
.
A wikipedia source / To inform the community
about Titos achievements and his life. / Has a
lot of references that links to the information, a
lot of detailed information about his lifeworks,
is high / Does not identify the author's
information so that lowers the credibility of the
source.
Hewitt,Cameron."UnderstandingYugoslavia."
RickSteves'Europe.N.p.,n.d.Web.15Mar.
2017.
<https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen
West (Poles, Czechs, and Slovaks),
and East (Russians, Ukrainians,
and Belarusians). Each ethnic
group has a disparate culture,
religion, and desire which were
very unmatching in most of the
aspects.
Because each nation did not have a
very open mindset, they did not
have a good relationship. The
adversary emotions had been
accumulated for a long time and
sometimes exploded (resulting
tragedies most of the case) just
like the Bosnian Conflict.
Relationship with Nationalism
/read/understanding-yugoslavia>.
under their control, their
A co author of a book Rick Steves' Croatia &
formed own armies and own
Slovenia. / To explain about Yugoslavia: from
assemblies and hampered the
how it was made till how it fell / Explains
Bosnian politics.
thoroughly about the causes of conflicts in
Yugoslavia in both long and short terms, has a
- The fall of communism
variety of factors which led Yugoslavia to
(not related)
tragedy and each are well explained with facts
Fall of communism was due to
and sources / It explains mainly about
the governments lacking ability
Yugoslavia so some information may be
so I consider it not related to
redundant.
nationalism. But, the aftereffect,
which is the tripartite coalition
government, is related to
nationalism because there were
three parties, each in favor of
their own nations: Bosnia,
Croatia, and Serbia.

Creation of Yugoslavia:
The Serbians, at first, had
nationalism to support all of the
slavic nations (but under their
power).

Religion:
Throughout the history there
had been many wars due to
religion. The crusades are good
example; they fought with the
Islamics to gain back Yerusalem.
Religion makes people unite,
enhances the rapport between
people within the country and
nation. Unfortunately, Bosnia,
Croatia, and Serbia each had a
separate religion which
accelerated the conflict to
happen between these three
nations.

Titos Death:
After tito had died, the
communist parties started to
lose their powers, and the
tripartite coalition government
was formed with each powers
representing their nations. Each
nations had different thoughts
and they did not compromise
with the other countries.
Nationalism had made them
fight for their own country, no
longer the same bloodlines
which was one of the
components in causing war.

Ethnic Diversion:
Even though in WWI the nations
had cooperated together to gain
freedom, the division between
each nation within the slavs had
caused the nationalism to evolve
to an even more extreme
version, which made the
Bosnians, Croatians, and the
Serbians fight each other.
Reflection:
Overall in the research, I believe I have fully met the criterions for 7-8 level. While researching, I found many resources varying from a
college student essay to a writers webpage. The problem I had was to designate which source to use and which not to. In total I had found
about 30 or more sources of information. Some informations were too broad and outdated, some didnt meet the level of credibility, and
others discussed mainly about the war itself, not the cause of the Bosnian Conflict. It took a lot of time distinguishing the necessary
informations from the others. This is why I would use the focus questions if I had another chance to research. I believe my broad
researching rendered me to suffer the problem previously mentioned (I searched the cause of bosnian conflict most of the time). In the
end, I had to specify each questions like the following ones: the origin of religions in the Balkan, the consequences of tripartite coalition
government, Titos achievements. This saved more time and gave much more specific informations. The information researched is more
than sufficient to write 1500 word essay; the research refers to all the diverse causes of Bosnian Conflict and many various way,
scrutinizing the role of nationalism as well. I was able to find 8 causes to Bosnian conflict, categorized into long, short, or trigger. Most of
which were long terms, the least was the trigger, and the rest were the short terms.