Between June 1991 and April 1992 the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia fell apart as four of its six republics declared independence. Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina left, while Serbia and Montenegro formed a smaller Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Disputes over borders and the fate of minorities left behind by the split led to the Yugoslav Wars, which lasted on and off until 2001.
Tito's federation
Communist Yugoslavia, rebuilt after the Second World War, was a federation of six republics, with two autonomous provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, inside Serbia. Under Josip Broz Tito it enjoyed strong growth and relative stability, and stood apart from both Cold War blocs. A 1974 constitution gave the republics and provinces wide powers and created a rotating collective presidency. Many Serbs resented the reduced control over their provinces, while Croats and Slovenes wanted still more autonomy. Memories of wartime massacres between Croatian fascists, Serb royalists and others had not disappeared.
Crisis in the 1980s
Tito died on 4 May 1980, leaving no strong central authority. The economy sank under heavy foreign debt, inflation, austerity demanded by the International Monetary Fund and corruption scandals, and real earnings fell by a quarter between 1979 and 1985. Richer Slovenia and Croatia objected to subsidising poorer regions. In Kosovo, where Albanians made up about 77 per cent of the population, protests from 1981 demanded full republic status, while local Serbs complained of mistreatment.
Milošević and the end of the party
Slobodan Milošević became Serbia's dominant politician in 1987 by appealing to Serb grievances in Kosovo. A wave of rallies, the so-called anti-bureaucratic revolution, installed his allies in Vojvodina, Kosovo and Montenegro, and in March 1989 Serbia amended its constitution to reassert power over the two provinces. With four of the eight votes in the federal presidency, Milošević's bloc could block decisions. At the League of Communists' congress in January 1990, the Slovene and Croatian delegations walked out, and the all-Yugoslav party collapsed. In multi-party elections that year, nationalist parties won in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia, while former communists held Serbia and Montenegro.
Independence and war
In Croatia, the victory of Franjo Tuđman's nationalists alarmed the Serb minority, and Serbs around Knin barricaded roads and set up their own autonomous region. Proposals by Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia for a looser federation were rejected by Milošević. Slovenes voted overwhelmingly for independence in December 1990 and Croats in May 1991, and both declared independence on 25 June 1991. A short war followed in Slovenia, after which the Yugoslav army withdrew. In Croatia, rebel Serbs backed by the increasingly Serb-dominated army seized large areas; Dubrovnik was shelled and Vukovar devastated. Macedonia voted for independence in September 1991 and was the only republic to leave without armed resistance.
Recognition and the final split
Germany recognised Slovenia and Croatia on Christmas Eve 1991, ahead of most of its partners, and wider international recognition followed on 15 January 1992. An arbitration commission led by Robert Badinter concluded that Yugoslavia was dissolving and that the republics' borders should become international frontiers. Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats were mixed, held a referendum in early 1992 that most Serbs boycotted; it declared independence on 3 March and was recognised on 6 April, when the Bosnian War began. On 27 April 1992 Serbia and Montenegro adopted a constitution for a new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, formally ending the breakup.
Aftermath
The Bosnian War, in which about 100,000 people died, ended with the Dayton Agreement in December 1995. Fighting later broke out in Kosovo, where the Kosovo War of 1998–1999 ended after NATO bombing, and Milošević was overthrown in October 2000. The rump federation became the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2003, and in 2006 Montenegro voted narrowly for independence. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, though Serbia still rejects it. The successor states today include Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On our maps
Our 1985 map shows Yugoslavia as a single federal state, and the 1994 map shows its successor republics in the middle of the wars that followed.
From the atlas
Breakup of Yugoslavia in time and on the map
Breakup of Yugoslavia lasted from 1991 to 1992. The nearest maps from before and after are 1985 and 1994; compare them side by side.
Living through it, among others on this site: Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006), Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997), Desmond Tutu (1931–2021), Elizabeth II (1926–2022), Fidel Castro (1926–2016), Hafez al-Assad (1930–2000), Idi Amin (1925–2003), John Rawls (1921–2002), Julius Nyerere (1922–1999) and Karl Popper (1902–1994).
Other events of the same years: Satsuma Rebellion (1877–2005), Nahda (1900–2000), Cold War (1945–1991), The Troubles (1960–1998), Guatemalan Civil War (1965–1996), Angolan Civil War (1975–2002), Salvadoran Civil War (1979–1992), Singing Revolution (1987–1991), Revolutions of 1989 (1989–1992) and Gulf War (1990–1991).
Next to it in time on this site: before, Human Genome Project (1990–2003) and Rwandan Civil War (1990–1993); after, Dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991) and Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002).
Quick answers
- When did Breakup of Yugoslavia happen?
- It began in 1991 and ended in 1992.
- How did the map change?
- Compare the atlas’s maps of 1985 and 1994 side by side.