Why did Yugoslavia break apart and descend into civil war during the 1990s?
In 1945, a new Yugoslavia emerged from the ruins of the Second World War. Led by the wartime Partisan commander Josip Broz better known as Tito the communist government introduced a federal system that granted considerable autonomy to the six republics of Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Macedonia. Three years later, Tito showed his determination to follow a distinctively Yugoslav path by refusing to bow to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin s attempts to impose his version of communism on the country. Instead, Tito followed an independent foreign policy that soon brought him support from the United States, despite his communist beliefs. During the 1950s and 60s, Tito s regime succeeded in rebuilding the country and improving relations among its once-hostile peoples. Impoverished areas like Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and eastern Serbia witnessed major improvements in their local economies through large-scale public investments. At the same time, living stan
