2006     


In the late eighties, the Cold War between the Communist states and the western states had been going on for decades. Times of relaxation and escalation had followed each other. During the late seventies and early eighties an arms race with middle range ballistic missiles in Europe threatened to escalate matters, when the whole thing suddenly came to a grinding halt.

The inflexibility of the Communist system, and decades of economic stagnancy made the continuation of the Cold War unviable for the Soviets. A new leader, Michail Gorbachev tried to reform communism to a more open and democratic system. A deal was reached with the West to do away with all middle range ballistic missiles on both sides. As reforms swept the Soviet Union, Eastern European countries were encouraged to seek their own way, the Cold War ended. Poland and Hungary became non-communist republics and in 1989 the people of the GDR rose. The Berlin wall fell and Germany would be reunited within a year. In Czechoslovakia a peaceful revolution ended communist rule in the same year. In Romania things didn't go peacefully and the dictator Ceaucescu was executed. A reactionary coup in the Soviet Union failed and the result was that anti-communist forces came to power even there. Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia eclipsed Gorbachev. The Baltic States were the first to break away from the Union. When Gorbachev stepped down in 1991 the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Its constituent parts became independent nations. The Czechs and Slovaks ended their federation and split the country in two, thus ending the Czechoslovak state that had existed since 1918. Not only communism fell, but with it, the Pan-Slav idea, so important in the early years of the century. The events that would take place in Yugoslavia in the 1990's demonstrated that clearly.

A series of bloody civil wars ravaged Yugoslavia, beginning with the secession of Slovenia and Croatia. Those two Republics demanded democratic reforms on a federal level or else they would secede. The war was short. A second, longer and bloodier war broke out when Bosnia & Herzegovina declared independence. Its large minorities of Serbs and Croats declared their own Republics and started a bloody war against the Muslim Bosnian population. Conquered lands were ethnically cleansed there were instances of mass murder on civilians. A Peace treaty was however enforced by NATO in Dayton. The Dayton peace provided for the occupation of the country by NATO forces. The relations between the groups in that country, now a federation, are still uneasy. Atrocities by the Serbs against civilians in mostly Albanian Kosovo, provoked a third war, in which NATO occupied the province. A War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was set up in The Hague, Netherlands.

The only two Republics remaining in Yugoslavia were Serbia and Montenegro. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was renamed Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In 2003 a looser union between the two remaining Republics was established, called the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. Finally in 2006 this union was dissolved as Montenegro, and by default Serbia, became independent.

European Integration has become a very big factor. The European Communities formed a European Union in the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. Foreign policy, economy, agriculture, social affairs are fields in which the members co-operate closely. A monetary union between some of its member-states, took place in 2002, replacing the coinage of most of its members with a European currency, the Euro. In 2003 The Union was enlarged with ten countries, many of whom former Soviet satellites.