The Bakan Peninsula Essays - Southeastern Europe, Yugoslavia

The Bakan Peninsula The Balkan Peniunsula is comprised of the countries of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and European Turkey. Balkan history is characterized by military and political strife. Because of it's crusial location between Asia and Europe it has been conquered and re-conquered by countless nations. Seeking trade routes to the middle east, many eastern European countries have set up ports there. Within the past ten years Yugoslavia has undergone major political changes. In 1991 and 1992 four Yugoslav republics, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, declared their independence from Yugoslavia. Serbia and Montenegro then formed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After Yugoslavia began skirmishing with ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo at the end of 1998, NATO forces began airstrikes in late March, 1999. Caoncluding eleven weeks of bombing, the Yugoslav government allowed a NATO peacekeeping force into Kososvo. Social Issues