Yugoslav Wars

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

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was stared in 1918 after World War I after the collapse of Austria-Hungary, led by Charles I of Austria. In 1918, Austria-Hungary was split into Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia. In 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia during World War II. In 1944, both Tito and Stalin pushed the Gemans out of Belgrade with the help of Bulgaria. In 1948, Tito and Stalin broke up their friendship.

Relations between the Yugoslavs and the Soviets improved after 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 Soviets, led by Leonid Brezhnev.

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

Yugoslav Wars Media

The flag map of the six Yugoslav republics (without the two autonomous provinces) between 1945 and 1992
The distribution of ethnic Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia in 1981 (delineated with the Serbian tricolor)
Ambushed JNA tanks near Nova Gorica, on the border with Italy
Damage after the bombing of Dubrovnik
A JNA M-84 tank disabled by a mine laid by Croat soldiers in Vukovar, November 1991
A destroyed Serbian house in Sunja, Croatia. Most Serbs fled during Operation Storm in 1995.
People queueing to gather water during the Siege of Sarajevo, 1992
Former Yugoslavia during war front lines in 1992 - Flag map of yugoslav wars
A Tomahawk cruise missile launches from the aft missile deck of the US warship USS Gonzalez on March 31, 1999
Smoke rising in Novi Sad, Serbia after NATO bombardment in 1999