Battles & Wars › Modern conflicts
Yugoslav Wars
1991–2001· War· Europe
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
A series of ethnic wars and insurgencies that broke up Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
Communist Yugoslavia joined six republics, held together under Josip Broz Tito until his death in 1980. As communism collapsed, nationalists rose, most prominently Serbia's Slobodan Milošević. Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in 1991, Bosnia in 1992. Wars in Croatia and Bosnia brought 'ethnic cleansing', the forced removal of other groups, carried out by all sides but most extensively by Serb forces, UN investigators found. The 1995 Dayton Agreement ended the Bosnian war; NATO bombing in 1999 ended the Kosovo war. About 130,000–140,000 people died.
Why it matters
They brought genocide back to Europe, drew NATO into its first combat operations, and produced the first international war-crimes tribunal since Nuremberg and Tokyo.
How we know
Records and verdicts of the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (1993–2017), mass-grave exhumations and DNA identification, journalists' reporting and survivor testimony.
Still debated
How much the wars stemmed from old ethnic hatreds versus leaders deliberately stoking nationalism is debated; most historians stress the leaders.
Inside this (2)
Connections (4)
▸Cold War ended, releasing tensions that fed Yugoslav WarsMostly agreed
The connection
Tito's Yugoslavia, in neither NATO nor the Warsaw Pact, received Western support as a Cold War buffer. As the Cold War ended, that outside interest faded, communist ideology lost its hold, and an economic crisis deepened. Nationalist leaders filled the gap, and the federation broke apart violently.
When and how
Yugoslavia, 1989–1991; Slovenia and Croatia declared independence on June 25, 1991.
How sure are we?
Historians widely link the timing of the breakup to the end of the Cold War, though internal causes are documented separately.
Debates and open questions
How much the Cold War's end caused the wars, versus Yugoslavia's own economic crisis and nationalist politics, is debated.
▸Srebrenica massacre was the worst massacre of Yugoslav WarsWell documented
The connection
Srebrenica was the worst single atrocity of the Yugoslav Wars. Outrage over it, and a deadly Bosnian Serb shelling of a Sarajevo market weeks later, pushed NATO into sustained bombing. Combined with Croatian and Bosnian ground offensives, this brought Serb leaders to the Dayton peace talks, which ended the Bosnian war in late 1995.
When and how
Eastern Bosnia, July 1995; NATO's Operation Deliberate Force began August 30, 1995; the Dayton Agreement was signed in Paris on December 14, 1995.
How we know
Western leaders' statements and diplomatic records link the massacre to the policy shift; ICTY rulings documented the crime.
Debates and open questions
How much Srebrenica itself, versus battlefield changes and the Sarajevo market attack, drove NATO's decision is debated.
▸Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand served a South Slav dream that ended in Yugoslav WarsMostly agreed
The connection
Princip and his group, Young Bosnia, wanted to free the South Slavs from Austria-Hungary and unite them. That dream came true in 1918 with the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later Yugoslavia. Rival national claims within it, held down under Tito's communist rule, erupted when Yugoslavia broke apart in 1991, bringing wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
When and how
Sarajevo, 1914; Yugoslavia founded December 1, 1918; its breakup began with Slovenia's and Croatia's declarations of independence in June 1991.
How sure are we?
Princip's trial testimony states his Yugoslav aims. The link to the 1990s is a long arc, mostly agreed, rather than a direct cause.
Debates and open questions
Princip is remembered very differently: a liberation hero to many Serbs, an assassin or terrorist to many others. Whether Yugoslavia was doomed from the start is debated.
▸Kosovo War and NATO bombing was the last major conflict of Yugoslav WarsWell documented
The connection
Yugoslavia broke apart in wars in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia from 1991 to 1995. Kosovo, legally a province of Serbia rather than a republic, was left out of the 1995 Dayton peace deal. That omission helped push Kosovo Albanians from peaceful resistance to armed revolt, setting up the breakup's last major war.
When and how
Kosovo, 1998–99; the Dayton agreement was negotiated in Dayton, Ohio, and signed in Paris in December 1995.
How we know
Diplomatic records of Dayton, KLA statements and histories by scholars such as Tim Judah link Dayton's silence on Kosovo to the turn to armed revolt.
Debates and open questions
Whether earlier diplomacy could have prevented the Kosovo war is debated, as is whether the 2001 Macedonia insurgency counts as part of the Yugoslav Wars.