The Disintegration of Yugoslavia - Essay Example

 The disintegration of Yugoslavia Yugoslavia disintegrated because of several factors. In addition, the disintegration was ascribed to the constituent parties and associations to protect their interests.

Serbia a State of peasants maintained nuclear families as a measure to defend their interests. This was based on the absence of an effective social and legal framework that resulted in distrust within the family settings, anxiety among ever-smaller divisions, and divisions among heirs over landholdings. Despite gaining independence from the Ottomans, Serbia has continued to suffer agricultural crises until today (Silber & Little, 1996). Despite the theological argument over the use of Cyrillic contrary to the Latin alphabet or adherence to the pope as the authority of the bishop, Slovenes, Serbs, and Croat's differences involved a great deal.

Croats were considered traitors to hereditary Habsburg because they declined to surrender their local traditions and Catholicism. Similarly, Bosnian Muslims were considered servants to old Ottoman oppressors because of their cleavage from Islam. Therefore, the disintegration of Yugoslavia was ascribed to the perceptions of Muslims and Catholics as demons by the dominant Serbian Orthodox theology (Cohen, 1995). In regards to Serbs, conflicts emerged among landlords or family members over property ownership due to the conversion of landlords to the Islamic religion.

Market haggling and peddling characterized entrepreneurship in Yugoslavia. The development of the Serbian bourgeoisie into class was belated despite its late arrival on the historical scene. However, the Croats and Slovenes were prepared for the arrival of capitalism in the Balkans (Schwartz, 1999). This was exemplified by the embedded attitudes that were held towards the property. Serbian was symbolized by the burning of property registers as a means to protest against Muslim domination in Yugoslavia and deep ambivalence about the broader legal; and social reality beyond the nuclear family settings.

Disintegration was aggravated by the existence of mistrust towards laws outside the family in addition to Ottoman land records due to their implication of foreign governance (Silber & Little, 1996). However, the differences which contributed to the breakage of the Yugoslavian union could have been avoided if all nations would have adopted the “Serbs All and Everywhere” slogan. This is because Croats and Slovenes were Serbs who had been Germanized and Catholicized; Macedonians were verbified despite speaking a Bulgarian idiom that was distinct from Serbian (Cohen, 1995).

Similarly, Bosnian Muslims were Serbians that had been forced into the Islamic religion. This is evidenced by Montenegrin accommodation of the theory although from a linguistic and cultural perspective. They perceived Serbianism as an indistinguishable culture from all other Serbs everywhere.