So many European destinations ooze history. We love it. But it’s usually the middle ages or ancient history that comes alive. Visiting Dubrovnik is different. The Old City and it’s awesome wall are ancient enough, but the history here is still fresh. Almost too fresh. You can feel it.
Standing on top of the wall surrounding Dubrovnik, I can see our big Italian cruise ship in the distance. When I look down, I see the rooftops of the Old City. Most of those buildings were hit by artillery shells not so long ago. Why?
The Rest of the Story
Let’s pick up the story where we left off last time. At the end of WW II, the “Federal Republic of Yugoslavia” was formed. Even though it didn’t work last time, (at the end of WWI), Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, and others were thrown in together again. Uh oh.
But this time, the country would be a federal republic, and a Croat would be in charge. In fact, the new leader would be the leader of the Croatian resistance during the war — Josip Tito. OK. Interesting.
To the surprise of many, Tito managed to keep a lid on hostilities for the next 40+ years. He walked a fine line. Yugoslavia was the only communist country in Europe to receive Marshall Plan money, even though he ran the country as a socialist state.
I’ll Only Send Someone Once!
Tito had strong communist ties, but he didn’t kowtow to Stalin. Stalin wasn’t used to that. Tito made Stalin so mad that Stalin tried to have him assassinated numerous times.
Eventually Tito sent Stalin a letter asking him to stop sending people to kill him, or else he’d return the favor — adding that he’d only have to send someone once!
Over time, Tito changed his policies to be more like those of the West. In the 1960’s, he opened borders. People could come and go in and out of the country, get visa’s — unheard of for a communist country.
Tito died in 1980. Once he was gone, the Serb majority party started to gain control, just as they had done before. Some very bad dudes managed to take over. The same bad things that happened in the 30’s started happening again.
Here We Go Again
By 1990, conditions in Yugoslavia were unbearable for non-Serbs. As usual, Croatians were the first ones to say, “We’re done!” They declared their independence In 1991.
The Serb leaders said, “Oh no you don’t!” The Yugoslav/Serb army started attacking Croatian villages and cities. Lots of bad things happened.
The Croatians asked NATO for help, but help didn’t come. In October 1991, Serbs set up artillery around Dubrovnik and started shelling the city.
The following year, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia. Serbs pulled troops out of Croatia to go teach the Bosnians a lesson.
When much of the Serb army moved to Bosnia, the Croats were able to chase off the rest of ’em and stop the shelling of Dubrovnik. The shelling had lasted 7 months. Seventy percent of the buildings here in Dubrovnik had taken hits.
It Gets Worse
That was bad, but Bosnia would get it worse. Remember Sarajevo? The winter Olympics were held there in 1984. Serbs surrounded, bombed, and shelled Sarajevo for four years.
The Bosnians asked NATO for help. Finally, in 1995, NATO bombers drove the Serbs out of Bosnia. But the same dirty business was going on not far down the road in Kosovo.
People in Kosovo asked NATO for help, but as usual, it took four long years for help to arrive. In 1999, NATO dropped bombs on the Yugoslav/Serb capital city of Belgrade.
NATO bombs knocked out television stations, power plants, and destroyed government buildings. The goal wasn’t to kill people, but to do so much damage that people would throw the leaders out.
The tactic ultimately worked. The Serb population threw the bad guys out. And they really WERE bad. Most were caught, tried, and convicted of crimes against humanity, including genocide.
Independent Croatia prospered. In 2013, Croatia was admitted into the European Union. They were in the EU, but they didn’t yet meet economic requirements to switch their currency to euros.
It took ten more years, but on January 1st, 2023, Croatia became fully integrated into the EU, and switched their currency from the kuna to the euro. The story to-date has a happy ending.
To be continued…
