Yugoslavia - Dinosaur or Phoenix? Quiz

Answer: Land of South Slavs

The southern branch of Slavic peoples entered and settled in the Balkans in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., during the Great Migrations of the early medieval period.

Answer: 1929

The united country of South Slavs was first created in 1918, at the end of World War I under the name of the 'Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes'. It was renamed 'Yugoslavia' in 1929, in a move to create a single Yugoslav nation under a unitary form of government. This was an attempt to counterbalance growing separatism at the time.

Answer: Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire

The collapse of four great empires in 1918 - Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman, German and Russian empires after World War I, enabled the creation of many new states at the time, Yugoslavia being one. Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Vojvodina were under Austria-Hungary, while independent states of Montenegro and Serbia (which included Macedonia and Kosovo) were under Turkish rule prior to 1878. (Serbia had also succeeded in extending its territory in 1912.)

Answer: Corfu

Two groups met in Corfu, Greece (Serbia was still occupied), and signed the Corfu Declaration, which called for a single democratic South Slav state to be created and governed by a constitutional monarchy. At the same time, Croatian, Slovene and Serbian deputies to the parliaments in Vienna and Budapest of Austria-Hungary, began preparing the ground for independence through their National Council. On November 26, 1918 the National Assembly of Montenegro in Podgorica declared union with Serbia. In October, Sabor in Zagreb had declared the end of union with Hungary, and on December 1, 1918, a delegation from the National Council invited the prince regent Alexander of Serbia to proclaim the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.

Answer: Unitary constitutional monarchy

The monarchy was inherited from Kingdom of Serbia, while the unitary model of government was modeled on France. It was considered at the time that regional differences were so great that a centralized form of government was the best means to override them.

Answer: 1945

After WWII, it was considered that one of the main reasons for inner tensions of the then vanished Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and civil war during WWII, was the question of centralized vs. federal division of power. New federative government was instigated to try to overcome these problems.

In 1974 a new constitution was adopted introducing some confederal elements, thus accelerating the decomposition of the country in 90's.

Answer: three

Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929-1941), Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (1943-1963), Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1963-1992), and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (consisting of only two republics, Serbia and Montenegro) from 1992 onwards.

The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes changed its name to Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929.

Answer: Calvinism

Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Islamic followers constitute the vast majority of the religious population, besides a small number of Protestants and Jews. This was a reflection of the historical fact that the territory was for a long time ruled by empires of different religious orientation - Orthodoxy - Byzantine Empire, Islam - Ottoman Empire and Catholic Austria-Hungary.

Answer: 3

Serbo-Croat (in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro), Slovenian (in Slovenia) and Macedonian (in Macedonia). Also, other languages in local communities, like Slovak, Romanian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Hungarian etc., where they represented local majority of population.

Answer: True

By linguistic criteria, it is the same language, with slight dialectal differences. The constitution, however, recognized different names for the common language. Today every new nation calls it according to its own name - Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian - but it is still the very same language!

Answer: True

Despite the fact that they all speak the same language and that they are of the same ethnic South Slav origin, Serbs, Croats and Bosnians are now constituted as separate nations on the basis of different religions. Serbs are Orthodox, Croats are Catholic, and Bosnians are Muslim.

The religion became the basis for nation forming during the 19th century, not the language, so we are today speaking of not one, but of several nations, by contrast with, for example the Germans, who are one nation despite the fact that they belong to two different religions demoninations - Catholic and Protestant.

Answer: 1968

The phrase "Muslim in the ethnic sense" was used first time in the 1961 census, and in 1968 the Bosnian Central Committee decreed that "the Muslims are a distinct nation." The change of official policy in the 1960s that led to the acceptance of "Muslim" as a term denoting a national identity, was a consequence of orientating non-aligned Yugoslav politics more actively towards Islamic nations like Egypt and Indonesia.

However, this new use of the term Muslim was applied only to the Serbo-Croatian speaking Muslims in Bosnia, not to Macedonian or Albanian Muslims for example.

Answer: Macedonian and Montenegran

Jajce meeting of AVNOJ (Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia) made a decision to renew then partitioned Yugoslavia after the war, and to create a federal state, contrary to formerly centralized Yugoslavia. The Macedonian and Montenegran nations were formed out of Serbs, and it was decided to give them a republic each, Macedonia and Montenegro.

The goal was to decrease in size Serb entity in new Yugoslavia in order to make a more balanced overall federation. Also, it was decided to create an autonomous region of Kosovo and Metohija in southern Serbia, where substantial Serbian Albanian minority lived, and Vojvodina in northern Serbia, where substantial Serbian Hungarian minority lived.

Answer: two

Vojvodina in the north, and Kosovo in the south. Vojvodina was formerly a Serbian region in Austria- Hungary. It is constituted as autonomous province because of the fact that around 1/3 of its population is non-Serb (mostly Hungarian). Kosovo was retaken by Serbia from Turkey in First Balkan War (1912), and made an autonomous province for the big local percentage of Serbian Albanians (around 4/5 according to the 1981 census).

The Republic of Kosovo declared its independence on 17th February 2008, but it is not recognised by all members of the United Nations. It did not apply for U.N. membership.

Answer: Little Entente

Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Yugoslavia, created Little Entente 1920-21. for the purpose of containment of Hungarian revisionism and the prevention of a restoration of the Hapsburgs. On broader scale, against the efforts of Germany, Hungary, Italy and Bulgaria to have after WWI treaties (Versailles, Saint-Germain, Trianon, Neuilly) revised.

It was successful in its aims until the rise of Hitler, when French influence was displaced by German economic penetration and political pressure. It was ended when Czechoslovakia was given to Hitler by Munich pact 1938.

Answer: 1939

The Republic of Dubrovnik was an independent Renaissance state that lasted until Napoleon occupied it 1808. After his defeat, Austria-Hungary ruled Dubrovnik until 1918, when it was included into Yugoslavia (Zetska Banovina, capital Podgorica). In 1939 Dubrovnik was incorporated into autonomous region of Banovina Hrvatska, for the first time in history. During WWII it was under Italian occupation.

After WWII in 1945, it was included into Republic of Croatia.

Answer: Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania

Yugoslavia was attacked by Axis and their allies on April 6th 1941, and split apart by Germany and almost all of its neighbors, except Greece and Romania. Romania, although Nazi ally at the time, refused to play a part in Germany-led attack. Slovenia was annexed to Germany, parts of Vojvodina by Hungary, Macedonia and parts of Serbia by Bulgaria, Kosovo by Albania, Dalmatia by Italy, while mainland Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina were incorporated into German puppet state of Croatia.

Answer: Non alignment movement

Negotiations with Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Jawaharlal Nehru of India in June 1956 led to a closer cooperation among countries that were non-engaged in the Cold War. From non-engagement evolved the concept of "active nonalignment" - the promotion of alternatives to bloc politics, as opposed to mere neutrality.

The first meeting of nonaligned states took place in Belgrade under Tito's sponsorship in 1961. Mau Mau is African anticolonialist movement from the 1950s among the Kikuyu people of Kenya against the British rule.

Answer: Zabljak

After unilateral secessions of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, the two remaining republics, Serbia and Montenegro, in Montenegran town of Zabljak signed a new constitution establishing Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, declaring they are inheritors of the old federation. This fact was not recognized by seceding republics nor the West.

Answer: Ethnic divisions didn't coincide with borders of its republics

To a large extent ethnic divisions did not coincide with borders of the republics. More then 2 million Serbs (about a quarter of their total number in Yugoslavia) were left inside Bosnia-Herzegovina (making up around 1/3 of its population) and Croatia (making almost 1/5 of its population). Thus, secession of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1991/2 directly led to all out civil war for ethnic control of their respective territories.