会考世界历史学习指引.doc

Major Local Conflicts (late 20th century) Worksheet 2A: Racial conflicts in the Balkans (Background Information) Introduction The second local conflict in our syllabus is “Racial conflicts in the Balkans”. We shall study the history of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was a multi-racial country. The ruling race was the Serbs. In 1945, Yugoslavia became a communist country. Although most Eastern European countries abandoned communism after 1991, the communist government in Yugoslavia survived. However, with the breakup of USSR into newly independent states, the national minorities in Yugoslavia began to declare independence one after another. The government of Yugoslavia suppressed such movements cruelly. As a result, civil wars broke out in the country. This led to foreign intervention and so the racial conflicts in Yugoslavia became an international issue. In this worksheet, we shall study the course of the conflicts and the effort of quest for peace in the Balkans. Time, People and Place Time: Though the topic uses “Balkans”, what we have to study here is the history of Yugoslavia. Let’s find out some important years in the history of Yugoslavia. ________: Yugoslavia was born. ________: Yugoslavia became a communist country. ________: Slovenia declared independence. This sparked off a series of civil wars. ________: NATO bombed Kosovo. Yugoslavia was forced to stop ethnic cleansing. Note: the focus of this topic is on the 1990s. People: The Slavs: The ruling race in Yugoslavia was the Serbs. The Serbs were one of the branches of the Slavs. The Slavs lived in Eastern Europe. The biggest branch was the Russians. Historians called the Slavic peoples living in Russia the Eastern Slavs and those living in the Balkans the Southern Slavs. The Serbs belonged to the Southern Slavs. The Southern Slavs: The Southern Slavs contain a lot of branches. Those related to our topic include the Serbs, the Slovenes, the Croats, the Bosnians, the Montenegrins and the Albanian