From Lonely Planet Guide Books (Australia)

At the turn of the decade Yugoslavia was a beach-haven bonanza about to happen, the next big thing, an irresistible magnet for a tide of European flesh longing to laze in the sun. Six years later the tourist market had turned its gaze elsewhere - lying face down on the ground no longer had happy associations for the Yugoslavs. Five years of civil war lost the country most of its coastline, many of its old towns and almost all of its pulling power, but the travellers began to trickle back. Then the next instalment of the war began. This time it's over the disputed territory of Kosovo (or Kosova, if you happen to be an ethnic Albanian living there). Despite a peace agreement in black and white, and millions of words traded at negotion tables from Paris to Belgrade to Pristina, Kosovo wouldn't go away. The politicians and diplomats finally ran out of words and NATO reached for its bomber jackets, claiming the Serbs had violated the ceasefire agreement. For their part, the Serbs maintained, and always have, that Kosovo was theirs anyway and they wouldn't stand for foreign troops to be stationed on their soil. The eyes of the world are now there, condemning either the Serbs or NATO or both, but only one thing's certain: there was a vicious little war in the Balkans as the 20th century opened, and there's another one there as it closes.

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The first inhabitants of Yugoslavia were the Illyrians, who were followed by the Celts in the 4th century BC and the Romans 100 years later. In the middle of the 6th century AD, Slavic tribes crossed the Danube and occupied much of the Balkan Peninsula. In 1217 the Serbian Kingdom - which included a lot of Albania and northern Greece - asserted its independence from Byzantium, but in 1389 the Ottoman Empire cut that little party short, invading Serbia and settling in for the next 500 years. Throughout the 19th century the Serbs started pushing back, and by 1878 they'd regained their independence.

No sooner had they got their autonomy than the Serbian Kingdom started stirring up trouble. In the First Balkan War (1912) they joined forces with Greece and Bulgaria to liberate Macedonia from Turkey. In the Second Balkan War (1913) they tried to take Macedonia from Bulgaria. In league with Western Europe, they also took Kosovo from Albania. In 1914 Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia and triggered WWI. When the dust cleared, Croatia, Slovenia, Vojvodina, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia joined forces to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. As this didn't fit across the bottom of an envelope, the name was changed to Yugoslavia.

In 1941 Yugoslavia signed up with the fascist Tripartite Alliance, lured by Germany's promise of a chunk of Greece. The Yugoslav people weren't impressed - they overthrew the reigning regent and pulled out of the alliance. Hitler was even less impressed and invaded, slicing the defeated country up and handing out shares to Germany, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria. Hundreds of thousands of Serbs and Jews were massacred by the newly-installed Croatian puppet regime.

Yugoslavia kept its independence after WWII, thanks to the immense wartime efforts of its partisans, and in 1945 the Communist Party, under Josip Tito, came to power. Bosnia-Hercegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia were granted republic status, the monarchy was abolished and Yugoslavia became a federal republic. During his presidency, Tito walked a fine line between the superpowers, remaining unaligned with the West or the Stalinist Soviet Union. When he died in 1980, the presidency became a collective post rotated between nine elected members - not the most effective of leadership styles. In 1986 Slobodan Milosevic - who had risen to power on the back of anti-Albanian Serb nationalist rhetoric - got his turn in the hotseat. His vision of a 'Greater Serbia', untainted by foreign blood, horrified residents of Slovenia and Croatia, who declared themselves independent in June 1991.

Milosevic would brook no dissent: the federal army was sent into Slovenia, while the EC rapidly introduced sanctions in an effort to head off civil war. Within a month the troops were out of Slovenia, but fighting had picked up pace in Croatia, where thousands died before a UN-brokered cease fire in January 1992. The EC recognised Croatian and Slovenian independence, whereupon Macedonia and Bosnia-Hercegovina also demanded recognition.

On 27 April 1992, Serbia and Montenegro dubbed themselves Yugoslavia, largely to escape blame for the bloodshed in Bosnia (which had been brought about by federal, rather than Yugoslav, forces). Although all Yugoslavian troops were withdrawn from Bosnia, the 80% Bosnian Serb component of the federal army stayed on, and the war continued. In May 1992 the UN Security Council passed a sweeping package of sanctions against Yugoslavia and warships were sent to the Adriatic to make sure the embargo was pulled off. By the end of 1996, a Yugoslav-Croat peace treaty had been signed, Bosnia had been divided between Serbs and Croat-Muslims, and Milosevic's dream of a greater Serbia was fulfilled. Tens of thousands were dead, the country's beautiful landscape and historic towns were torn to shreds, and Yugoslavia's tourist industry was all but destroyed.

In March 1998, trouble flared again in Kosovo. The province's Albanian majority began agitating for independence, and Yugoslavia responded to what it described as Albanian terrorism with its old standby, ethnic cleansing. Villages have been terrorised, hundreds of ethnic Albanians killed and thousands more have been forced to flee. Fearful of 'another Bosnia', the Contact Group (USA, Britain, Russia, Germany, France and Italy), introduced a new arms embargo on Yugoslavia, but to little avail - Serbian repression continued, the Kosovo Liberation Army responded, and in early 1999 NATO bombs started falling.

  Quick Facts

Full country name: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Area: 102,173 sq km
Population: 10.4 million
Capital city: Belgrade (population 1.5 million)
People: Serb 63%, Montenegran 6%, Albanian, Croat, Gypsy, Magyar Language: Serbian (Cyrillic alphabet)
Religion: Serbian Orthodox, Islam, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism
Government: Republic
President: Slobodan Milosevic

  Ecomomics

GDP: US$20.6 billion GDP per head: US$2000 Annual growth: 4% Inflation: 20% Major industries: Machine building, metallurgy, mining

  Culture

Modern art has had plenty to feed off in Yugoslavia. The vibrant art scene produces works which use folk motifs, political symbols and provocative text to pull apart and interpret Yugoslavia's tumultuous recent history. Surrealist posters bring political messages out of the gallery and onto the streets; some groups hold installations, or 'Phobjects', in bombed out parts of Belgrade. Writers, too, have mined the rich vein of tragedy in their country's history - Ivo Andric won a Nobel Prize for his book Na Drini Cuprija, about the gap between religions.

Yugoslav music and dance is built on a strong folk tradition, similar to that of neighbouring Bulgaria. The gajde, which looks like a large set of bagpipes, is the wailing mainstay of Yugoslav song, and has probably been in the country since the Celts invaded in the 4th century. The Albanian minority in Kosovo tap their feet to a more Turkish tune and play on Arab instruments, while around Guca, gypsy dancers swing their thing to the brassy tones of blehmuzika, Serbia's national brass-band sound. Modern musos such as Momcilo Bajagic and Dorde Balasevic have taken folk themes and added street poetry and jazz.

Yugoslavia's official language is Serbian. This language was developed by philologist and language reformer, Vuk Stefanovich Karadzich, who polished and codified the language of Serbian peasants. Almost the same language as Croatian, Serbian differs in that it is written in Cyrillic rather than Latin script. The Cyrillic alphabet is entirely phonetic, with one symbol for each of the language's 30 sounds - there's no such thing as a silent letter in Serbian. Although most Yugoslavs speak German, and many speak French or English, learning a few Serbian phrases will open doors and create smiles.

Yugoslavia blurs culinary borders, with a cuisine that takes tastes from Turkey, Hungary and Greece. However they spice it, though, the Yugoslavs love their meat: Serbian kebabs, hamburger steaks, vegetables stuffed with meat and mixed grills of pork, liver, sausage and rissoles. Montenegrins, who do a good line in dairy cows, serve their meat with cream and cheese. Even breakfast is meaty - the traditional Balkan burek is a greasy layered pie of cheese and meat. Fruit grows everywhere, and the Yugoslavs like to enjoy their harvest year round by fermenting grapes, apples, or stone fruit into a brandy called rakija. Montenegrin beer is also a tasty tipple.

  Recommended Reading

Black Lamb & Grey Falcon, by Rebecca West, is a classic portrait of Yugoslavia before the break up.

Remaking the Balkans, by Christopher Cvilic, is a precise, succinct summary of the region's political upheaval.

Beacons in the Night is Franklin Lindsay's account of fighting with the Partisans in WWII.

Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighbourhood describes the day-to-day lives of Muslim, Christian, Serb and Croat families during the civil war.

Balkan Blues: Writing out of Yugoslavia, edited by Joanna Labon, is a collection of stories from Yugoslavian authors.