Let's talk about Yugoslavia. Why did it collapse? Who was supported by which external parties...

>this
Finished reading the wikipedia article after watching the 4.5 hour documentary on youtube by the BBC and wanted to start a discussion because I've never seen this discussed on Veeky Forums, meanwhile G*rmans get 40 threads an hour.

Would you say it was worse off from the competing empires in the region, or would you say that having large powers intervening benefited them during that time?

Macedonia dindu nuffin
Economic crisis of socialism lead to discontent. However politicians from the communist party found a way to cling to power, redirecting the discontent brought about by the falling living conditions, inflation and shortages and turning it into nationalist sentiment. This happened first in Croatia and then in Serbia. The Slovenes were still mostly concerned about the economy and wanted to either get out or at least distance themselves as far as they can from the trouble.
Kosovo contributed to the formation of said sentiment in Serbia. Kosovo was and still is to Yugoslavia, what Ukraine is to Europe these past 2 decades. A region that gets hit hard with everything, has huge unemployment, poorly educated workforce (either illiterate or a humanities degree), a black hole where money goes in never to be seen again, and the population always rioting about something. On top of that it has huge cultural significance for Serbs.
I'm willing to bet that at some point said political elites (all of them really) bit off more than they intended. In that they were bluffing. Judging by how poorly both Croats and Serbs handled the situation (Croatia not being able to take relatively lightly defended chunks of land for years, and the Yugoslav/Serbian army treating Vukovar more as a Tiananmen situation than an actual battle at first, leading to massive casualties).
Backers?
Croats: Germany, Hungary
Bosnian muslims: Iran (first to help, but got nothing in return, Turkey is the big cultural player and the Saudis have more money), Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Afghan Mujahideen
Serbs: Greece
Battles: Vukovar, Corridor 92, Flash, Storm, Siege of Sarajevo, Srebrenica, if you're extending to the Kosovo war, and subsequent insurgencies, Kosare and Pristina airport incident.
Best condition?
Slovenes. Slovenia is the only country that didn't get destroyed or destroyed it's own economy.

Yugoslavia really had no rivals in the region during its existence, aside from Italy up to and during WWII. If you're talking global powers then it probably benefited from them more than not, but it depends on the period. Obviously the Nazis fucked them up something fierce and the western powers presided over its bloody dissolution.

This is a very good post, ty friend

Literally google it. Why is this conflict so hard to comprehend for non-Yugos?

I know everything about it but won't tell shit because these threads are dumb and always turn into Balkan shitflinging with foreigners watching from sidelines.

Croatia and Slovenia inherited a significant amount of development from Austria Hungary while Serbia was still feudal and Bosnia and Montenegro were still basically in the early Neolithic, the gap was never bridged by the communists despite them trying and the rest is history.

>won't tell shit
uneducated high schooler detected
how was class today?

pitaj mamu

amerikanski spijon

>4.5 hour documentary on youtube by BBC
The Death of Yugoslavia? i've wanted to give it a look but it bugs me that is too long.

Anyway, for answering your question, i think there are a few reasons for why Yugoslavia collapsed, mainly because of the premise of the state itself (Balkan people united under one flag), which was made a hard task because of cultural differences (i.e religious differences with Muslim Bosnians). All of this was less noticeable under Tito's rule, who had a cult of personality surrounding him since his victories with the Partisan's during WWII. The thing is, after Tito died, all these old differences appeared again between the Yugoslavian people, and all of this became exacerbated because of economic problems (mises.ca/the-economy-of-titos-yugoslavia-delaying-the-inevitable-collapse/).
All of this was taken advantage of by Milosevic, whom was a demagogue that took advantage of the historical differences between Serbs and Croats/Bosnians, and who relied on repression and ethnic cleansings for achieving his promises. At the end, this was the nail in the coffin for Yugoslavia, that went from a buff state supported by the West against the USSR during Cold War, to a heavily sanctioned pariah state.

>Why did it collapse?
Serb autism

somebody pill me on macedonia, i have literally no idea what went on there while the rest of the country imploded

It was the one republic (other than Montenegro in 2006) to become independent without any conflict. They did have problems with Albanians, however. There was an influx of refugees during the fighting in Kosovo but most returned as far as I know. And in 2001, an organisation of Macedonian Albanians started an armed conflict demanding more recognition for Albanians.

It started in Kosovo. Serbs and Muslims were crying that the other side is bullying them. Kosovo is historically significant to the Serbs so they loved when Milosevic met with nationalists and told protesters that he's going to protect them from Kosovar police. He wanted a bigger control for Serbia so he appointed a yes man as the president of Montenegro, supported Serbian minority leaders in Croatia and Bosnia and waged war against those countries when they rebelled.
So basically it was their autism. And no, saying that "if regions with Serb majority in Bosnia and Croatia won't join us they're going to MURDER THEM ALL" is not an argument.

Serbs and Albanians, both are scummy violent ultra nationalist mythomaniac people