Catchy..... full time college student.... I'm always interested in your content so i would rather have an air of mystery to your next video. Thumbs up stay Awsome and have an excellent day.
If you are ever going to travel to Macedonia and former Rumelia, you should talk about ethnic cleansing in Balkan war 1912-1913. It is very much Ottoman equivalent of Yugoslav/Bosnian war 1991-1995
"Although you inherited the Chinese Empire on horseback, you cannot rule it from that position" -Ögedei Khan. In other words, making something come into existence is the easy bit, what comes after it is the hard one.
Doubtful. Look at the previous two videos in the series - very few dislikes. This video is already trending the same. He does a good job of being unbiased but, more than that, this channels' viewership also slants such that I doubt they'd downvote storm the vids unless he really went off the rails.
@@bosanskislavonac Would you care to elaborate on that? The First World War was started on the Balkans and the Second World War was a direct result of the first.
@@arnekrug939 Only reason why WW1 started was full support Germany offered to AH Empire. Whiteout that, Serbian push for peaceful resolution which was supported by other great powers would most likely delay war for few more years.
"Nationalism doesn"t end with everybody united, it ends with the lowest common denominator of identity". This is brilliant. I'm sure it's relevant to every federation and state on the planet but as a Canadian, and I know you are too, I find it strangely relevant to Canadian politics.
This line really struck deep for me, since I've always had a love-hate relationship with my nationality as a Croat. On one hand I love my country, culture and people. On the other, I hate the social and economic stagnation, the constant digging up of Homeland War hatred, politicians abusing these tendencies left and right... It's a weird state of nation to be in. Where your identity is formed but you can't yet fully identify as part of the nation, if you ever will be able to. God damn, what would I give for some good old white-washed American nationalism xD
@@lukeh2556 yeah I saw this documentary by CBC that was called something along the lines of "The ununited states of Canada". It basically showed how absolutely no one in Canada seemed to want anything to dp with the federation. Provinces are unhappy when they pay equalization, Quebec wants out for various economic and cultural reasons, Alberta, Ontario and the maritimes all seemed to have a separatist movement growing because of economic reasons and you just thought to yourself, what does the Canadian federation actually accomplish?
I mean, Sarajevo is a European city, it shouldn't feel weird that much. Was you grandfather Slavic or did his parents move to Sarajevo for job opportunities?
I would like to add that Yugoslavia's foundations didn't only contain ethnic fault-lines but political ones too. Serbia had always treated the former Austro-Hungarian territories as colonies 'liberated' by conquest. Postwar Serbian politicians justified many of their actions due to the 'sacrifice' of half of their pre-war male population during ww1. This incipient vision of Yugoslavia could/ would never be remedied by the other sides who saw Yugoslavia as a voluntary union.
I remember hearing my best friend in high school's oldest brother, a former Green Beret Vietnam Vet, talking about Madeline Albright's policies as a guest on a local radio talk show promoting his book IIRC. Having spent some time in the Balkans, he described the place as "a very dark room full of very sharp objects". He felt certain that the policies pursued there would end badly. From a multi generational service family, Bill Jr. would be much more likely to start a fight than flee from one, so when he said it was best not to get involved, as that it would be viewed as opportunism and not soon forgotten, it stood out sharply to me. This series adds a hint of light with regards to my wondering why my grandparents would emigrate from their idyllic Dalmation island around the turn of the 20th century. Unfortunatelty, still lots of sharp objects in my family closets.
The thing is in WWI many Croats and Bosniaks avoided fighting Serbs and it wasn't uncommon to desert and go fight for Serbs as brothers It's just sad they forgot that after the war
An anecdote about the shooting in the parliament. During the argument Stjepan Radić (the leader of the Croats) said: "You keep boasting about the Serbian blood spilled for this land, give us the price per liter so we could get out." (60% of the Serbian male population died during the WW1) Puniša Račić responded: "Serbian blood is priceless.", took out the gun and started shooting. You are doing a great job with this series, as a guy with mixed ancestry from all around the Balkans, this is as unbiased as it can get. Greetings to all the viewers and the crew, I hope I will grab a beer with some of you in Belgrade or some other shithole on this blue planet.
Honestly, as a guy living in Brčko, it's so funny to see how everyone is an expert on the yugoslav war. And of course that they're right, and they're the victims and every other "ethnicity" tortured the other for years. Jesus f-ing Christ, if people wanna fight, let them, we're better off without those types of jerks. Peace brother.
The way you paint pictures, stories and emotions with just your words, and in very long takes, is really something else. Watching your videos gives me a visceral feeling about events in the past that I normally don't get from studying history. You've really made something special; please keep up the good work!
I am from Serbia. And it is true, as native Serbian I see all south Slavs as not so different than me. I am only annoyed when they claim being different. Everyone in Yugoslavia wanted equal rights for them. But first to deffine who they are. And everyone wanted to be more equal than rest. Even the Serbs from different regions hate each other. The name is issue, people need the indentity tu be united. The people know they are the same. Language across the region is big dialect continuum and people can easy understand each other. After the war in the '90, shops across the world from Yugoslav emigrants have on the entry 'Govorimo naš jezik' - 'we speak our language' withouth mentioning who are 'we' and what is the name of 'our language'. If you can read it, the place is part of home. Not perfect, but home. Be a good person, and not try to ve friend with everyone.
I'm from Montenegro and I would like to add one thing to this. Not that we really think that we are any different from Serbs, we and serbs are simply - us. I would still call myself a Montenegrin, but I believe we are same people by all parameters that can define a nation. Serbian-Montenegrin difference is only in politics. I still see Croats and Macedonians as people of same culture as mine, but honestly, I can't say same for Bosniaks.
_as native Serbian I see all south Slavs as not so different than me. I am only annoyed when they claim being different_ And that's the most annoying thing coming from Serbs. We may have similar languages and understand each other perfectly, but thousands of years of history, culture, traditions and religion are standing between us. So, we aren't the same and we'll never be. We don't give a crap for Serbia as much as for any other random nation in the world. You have your own country, your own culture and your own way of life and you're entitled to do whatever you like in your country, just stay there where you are and don't you ever think again to come here in Croatia thinking you own it. We experienced enough of your companionship and we don't appreciate it. On the other hand, we can be good friends, we can socialize and work together and you may come as tourists here whenever you want, but stay respectful. That can work both ways. If we meet somewhere in some other country, we can also be friends, but always bear on mind we don't look at you as someone we could trust with our life. I hope you'll get that... or you can stay annoyed and try to conquer our land again, but then be prepared to risk another punch in the nose, like you got in the 90s. This was a honest rant, from the bottom of my heart, and believe me when I say 90% of Croatians think the same.
@@gorgthesalty Nah, that occurred maybe few times. Yes, you could argue it was stupid, but tensions were still high after the recent war and btw many younger people who didn't live in ex Yugoslavia don't really understand all words interchangeable. Croatian and Serbian languages are very similar, but there are still some differences in many words.
@@Neldonax Netacno. Mi smo izgubili najvise ljudi u dva svetska rata i infrastruktura nam je bila sravnjena 3 puta u 20. veku. Ne kazem da smo vise propatili i da vi niste, ali nismo najmanje. Svi su propatili dosta, podjednako, nazalost.
I'd argue that such massive events would be triggered one way or another, independent of the success of the assassination. It would have had some other catalyst. The entirety of Europe was *ready* to devolve into war, and there was no turning back.
@@proudboshnyakh4190 Teenagers never support radical political movements... famously they are very conservative. They also avoid taking risks and make generally good decisions. /s
@@proudboshnyakh4190 Your hostility to "the west" (a region you probably can't identify correctly) suggests a deeply provincial mindset, which is incidentally exactly what comes to mind when I think of eastern Europe. Perhaps you should discard the language of the savage foreigners in favour of your own? Put your mouth where your mouth is, so to speak? Or you could put away childish things like nationalism and join the adult table.
Gavrilos organization was a nationalists tool of Serbian officers in Belgrade, the Archduke they killed wanted a federated Austrian Empire where the South Slavs would get their piece as well but the problem for the Serbs was that South Slav state would have its capital in Zagreb which the jingoistic fiends in Belgrade did not want.
The thing about Yugoslavia is that there is always multiple truths. I live in Brčko, the only town in ex Yugoslavia that's split equally between the nations. My classmates are Serbs and Croats, we attend the same classes, but different languages, does that make sense? We're systematically taught differences that are nothing more but a nuisance. Also we don't learn about the Yugoslavia war in the school. Top it all off with exclusive neighborhoods, and you've got a recipe for ignorance. I really hope that something will change around here, until then, I'll keep studying to get my ticker outside. Peace and love!
There's only one truth, not multiple ones. The "truths" you're referring to are only subjective opinions and I'm absolutely sick of those since they always lack common sense and arguments. We often hear that we should respect other people's opinions. I say fuck off with that. Respect the truth and evidence and not some non-argumentative opinions. Pozdrav braći u Brčkom iz Zagreba!
@@RareEarthSeries If you ever have time then read the short story "The Leader" by Radoje Domanović. Perfect description of South Slav mentality. He was a satirist, active from 1893-1903 and his short stories are a must read if you want to understand Balkans.
@In brightest day, in blackest night Unfortunately this series was meant to be about Bosnia, with the others in the periphery. But I will get there someday.
@@deleteduser87 Tito was a tyrant with a mask of a saint. The moment he died and the mask fell, everything fell apart... Even if he stayed alive, the system that was in place couldn't be sustained for much longer...
I never ceased to be amazed how much I like these videos. Well-thought and balanced and yet intense and almost thrilling, somehow. The background music is very fitting and adds an eerie and sober feeling to the random, mundane scenes. Can't wait for the next part.
I hate these comments, they are counter productive. The meme of always fighting primitive balkan people pushes the idea further that all we do is fight and it's just a haha knee slap. I see this comment way more than actual flame wars
@@DerPlusquamperfekt But you do always fight. Your people are literally incapable of solving anything without violence and you know it. Stating otherwise is just cope.
. As long as there are calm (well, maybe) well-reasoned comments, IMO it's *healthy* for all of us to understand both sides of the story. I enjoy it... Bang away, how do you expect to *learn* about the differences between "your side" and the "other side" if you blindly shoot them or bomb them? Heck, you might learn "they" aren't all that much different from you. 😲 .
@@CatalinaThePirate problem is that most of the people who don't wish to perpetuate this violent hatred filled cycle have already left for Germany, Ireland... 50000 young, educated people left last year, and that's just Croatia which isn't bottom of the barrel, all considering. They are tired of the political, economic and social stagnation that's present in all of former Yugoslav countries to an extent. The only exception might be Slovenia, even though we all love to joke how tiny they are, imho they're the most stable country of the bunch in the long term.
@@CatalinaThePirate also, the left extremist circles are starting to circulate conspiracy theories how the Serbian and Croatian governments wish to uphold the hatred filled status quo, since the hate distracts the populus from the real problems, like corruption, cronyism and nepotism... Edit, imho it is quite absurd that this is true in full, but the part about the witch hunting peasants not seeing their fields wither seems to be on the mark.
I'm splitting this off into another comment since it covers a different toppic. The main problem us South Slavs have and had is that we never properly made a common identity for us. We know now that we are similar in thinking and similar in language (in fact in recent years certain nationally influenced people had to work quite hard on MAKING differences between our languages in order to justify gazillion different "languages" we speak) Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian or whatever one wants to call it ("Montenegrin-Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian language and literature" is how the subject is called in Montenegro and our kids must be LINGUISTIC GENIUSES to learn FOUR languages in ONE subject :D). BUT we still have a lot of customs that are different and not that many celebrations that are common. Not many myths that are in common. AND there is a tripartite RELIGIOUS divide furthering the customs division. In orther to become one NEW customs and national myths would need to be created, and THAT would take TIME. That was something that was actually attempted by the King once he siezed the absolute power. He attempted to stifle the pure national movements of all three "sides" and promote the idea that all citizens of Yugoslavia should feel Yugoslavian. Unfortunately this was done in a bit hamfisted way and was a process that could not really be rushed. So in the end ALL sides were dissatisfied with it. BUT if given time to ferment properly it could have maybe worked. But Kingdom lasted barely 3 decades and then the entire civilization was upturned by going communist. Which for the idea of Yugoslavism was a good thing since by pretty much reinventing the customs and how society works they came closest to creating a Yugoslavian identity. But borders still remained. The names of republics still remained. And once communism was thrown aside the old customs went with it. People wanted something NEW, new ideas to go with the new reformed democratic capitalist society that was supposed to have us living as americans in movies (but would only, with wars and sanctions, impoverish us).And so the ideas of the "glourious past" which were suppressed or taboo before now held an attractive allure to it. Add to that PLENTY of people lost familly in WWII to nationalist militias or Nazi Allies (actual or temporary) which meant that plenty of them were having flashbacks of things that happened to their famillies or nationalities before given the new national bend of the new breed of politicians, so they were pretty desperate to make sure nothing such would happen to them again. Or that borders drawn by "commies" (by this point it was popular to point out bad things about the previous system in order to make the new state look more promissing) would separate nationalities whose fathers and grandfathers fought tooth and nail to unite... well things spiraled out of control QUICK. Oh. Now I forgot. There is ANOTHER thing keeping us apart. And this one might often be ignored and dissreguarded next to the JUICY nationalist nonsense. And that is that there is a pretty strong ECONOMIC divide between eastern and western parts of the peninsula. Croatia and Slovenia were a lot more developed by their Imperialists compared to Serbia and Montenegro which were under decrepit Ottomans or had to spend a century fighting them tooth and nail to get them off their backs. Add to that that like half of Croatia is in Panonian plains or on the coasts. Both of which by nature tend to be easier to develop and profit from. Montenegro and Serbia on the other hand tended to be significnanly more mountainous which didn't help the matter of development. AND add to that that western catholic Slavs could participate in their imperialist overlord's states and economies MUCH more freely than Orthodox could in either Muslim OR Catholic empires... It all added to the fact that an average Croatian probably contributed more to the budget of any Yugoslav state than an average inhabitant of Serbia."OH, and let's also add to that that there was more population in the east than west. Which added the usual regionalist rethoric to the mix "Why should we pay this much if we have this little representation. We should separate and only use our money for us!" So a certain drive for separation was allways going to happen no matter weatehr nationalism happened. But it would have been suppressed by the greater IDENTITY of the nation. In any case, despite all that, nations were still made with even less commonality, but THAT took TIME. CENTURIES some times. But the idea of Yugoslavism was pretty young and pretty much got reset every couple decades back to start. And each time it got reset further reasons for resentement were added to the pile.
I think I won't be wrong if I say the biggest influence for disagreement and friction in these parts of the world was division of Christianity in 1054. After that Ottomans came and contributed with Islam to add even more confusion. Differences are pretty big, so any kind of forcing "the greater identity" was wrong from the very beginning. Plus, imperialistic pretensions of the king made things even worse. And then, after some time, to quote you, each time it got reset further reasons for resentment were added to the pile. The only possible way all those nations could form a firm union would be some kind of loose confederation... maybe with joint army and nothing more. But now it's too late for that, anyway.
It is quite interesting to compare and contrast Yugoslavia to Ethiopia, as theoretically Ethiopia had even less common ground than Yugoslavia. It did not have a common language and was pretty much split in half religiously. The only thing that served Ethiopia is history. It had a longer time. Even then, Ethiopia stood, although it took a few civil wars, genocides, and Eritrean independence to get to where it is today, and a big heap of propaganda too. Still, I think it is an example that such a state is viable, given good enough political will. And that is where I think the issue lies. The peoples of Yugoslavia had their own nations in mind, and they never fully bought into this idea of a federation. Therefore, it was doomed to fail.
@@damyr Light federation would be unworkable in the long run I feel because of where we were. Politicos on all sides would resent any control the federal government has and would of course present any success in the republics as their accomplishment and present any problem as something caused by federal government. See: Serbia and Montenegro (and even before that power of federal government was next to non exitent).
@@khoiduongminh5111 Well, between the wars most people were either for or okay with the big state. Mostly the arguments seemed to center around the type of government it would have and of course a whole bunch of posturing and propaganda in order to get more votes. And it must be noted that there was no STRONG cooalition that could push the state in a coherent direction. Instead governemnts tended to fall all the time. But all that was normal for a brand new state with no real history or tradition of how things are supposed to work. If Yugoslavia was on some sort of an ISLAND, or somewhere remote outside the view of great powers, then it might have had time (half a century at least, so most people to be born and raised in it and know nothing else and the oldtimers from pre unification to no longer be there) to grow through it's pains of birth. But instead the baby was born on the MAIN EAST WEST conquest HIGHWAY. It was NEVER going to be given time to create a common founding myth to tie people together. Communists actually got DAMN close to it all only to fumble it during the final transition.
You made a good point. There was also a thing with people being discriminated in socialist Jugoslavia. My father would be a policeman if there was no unofficial policy that said Serbs have to be a vast majority of the police force in SR Croatia where they were a minority. They were also running "Croatian" companies, were given positions in universities ahead of their smarter and more hard working colleagues and were given the comparatively shorter prison sentences by Serbian judges. Parts of the country in which they lived had better infrastructure, and more planed job openings. Everyone knew it, but were scared of political prosecution because they were supposed to see themselves as Yugoslavs, instead of whatever they were. When the pendulum turned against them, things got worse for everybody. The war started. I think that we would still be living in Yugoslavia if there were no ethnic discrimination. When Yugoslavian economy started crumbling, the first companies to fail were the ones that were running in the red. In Bosnia, and in Croatia, those somehow happened to be in the majority Serbian parts of the country. People became less scared of prosecution, and started to treat Serbs badly because they became more nationalistic and many were hating all the Serbs, not just the ones that harmed them. The Serbs became scared and angry, because they were suddenly in much worse situation than they were before. So, you have people who have been discriminated their whole life, and those who were suddenly in much worse situation. That's why the war started. I just have to disagree with you on the language part. It is true that I can understand you, but the thing that we are learning in school here in Croatia still has more similarities with Serbian, than the thing that we speak at home. There is a lot of political pressure from outside the country not to change the official language from people who think it is about "being less Serbian" instead of more Croatian. There are languages that are more similar to each other than ours, but nobody is questioning whether or not they are the same language. It's all about politics.
7:47 The Croatian party leader that has been shot and few days later died from that shot name is Stjepan Radić . I think that he deserves to be mentioned by name.
You know, after this video I felt pretty depressed Are we, humans just doomed to be enemies to each other, clinging to our groups, nations, ideologies, desires - our identities? It seems nearly impossible for us to settle down, have a consensus, work together to archive something and stop trying to get as much as we can from others
@@АлексаМладић criminally short explanation: The harsh peace deal for central nations (and the actions of German government) destroyed German finances and made the nation ready for nazis and Hitler's populist ideologies and the rest, well, the rest is history.
Can you really blame Gavrilo or those two bullets? Would Gavrilo had pulled the trigger if he knew of all the events that would follow suit? Although I view Gavrilo not as cause for the great war, but just a spark that ignited the already existing powder keg. It would've blown sooner or later.
Soviet Union attacked Afghanistan which caused America to provide Aid to Afghanistan at the same time Pakistan was. Once the War was over we could have peacefully negotiated a safer Afghanistan because we had the reputation of helping them. We ignored it until 911 then a stupid war happened.
Just wanted to say thanks for making this series. The history of the balkans and yugoslavia is too often over looked. While not yugoslavian myself my family was heavily involved with the nation from 1943 onwards, we sat on the UN mission to end the wars in the 90s. The more people know of this story the better chance we have of preventing such tragedies in the future.
Yugoslavia was and is a perfect historical lesson for the rest of the world. The world should learn from our mistakes and prevent them from repeating elsewhere.
I love this serie. I might be Dutch, but I have felt the effects of this conflict. When I was young, children from Bosnia went to my house to feel something else then the aftereffects of a brutal civil war. It has formed me by a bit. The Balkan war has been an onfortunate conflict of many generations. I can't wait until its been really settled. I'm amazed how this is represented, keep going because this is gold.
Man, if I was a History or Social Studies teacher, your UA-cam channel would be mandatory viewing for all my students. I've learned more from watching your channel then all the book learning they try to cram down our throats. (Of course, back then there was no UA-cam...lol)
I truly enjoy this series and all the work you guys share with us. I have to watch the videos twice: once to listen to the narrative and once to watch the imagery. Both as so well done and captivating.
I've been to all of the former yugoslav countries last summer and seeing all these places i've been to on youtube brings a smile on my face the story telling is awesome keep up the good work
Violence begets violence, war breeds war, & every sea spray of blood adds to the the great ocean of hate on our fragile world. To fight is to bleed on the cutting edge, to live content is to stagnate towards obsolescence, & to live is to die. What must we do to overcome these things? Our actions outlive us. Die for peace & free, high quality fact based education that fosters critical thinking skills; don't kill for it. May compassion & reason guide us, not greed & hate. We all die, get busy living.
As a Serb I think I see a point in all this that the people then and there never saw, the Bosnians, Croats, Slovenians, Montenegrins and Macedonians are as much Serb as Serb are Bosnians, Croats, Slovenians,Montenegrins and Macedonians. It goes both ways, we may have all come together at one point or another 1500 years ago, but no one group can claim dominion of it all, we came as tribes and it looks like we stayed at those tribal divisions all this time. Whatever might be the case from my perspective it seems like this is the end of an era, maybe similar to what the Byzantine’s felt back then, we are feeling now. But the Serbs won’t last for long, more and more people are leaving each year. The amount of people who left is measured in hundreds of thousands just in the last decade and it’s just getting started. There is not a single person who want’s to stay. The first thing on anyone’s mind is how to leave, the same thing you hear from a thousand mouths “Go son, there is no life for you here, try your luck in the world for you will not find it here” repeated constantly by your parents, grandparents,friends,spouses and teachers even taxi drivers and random people in the street. This is all of course hidden by the state and the media but it is the true state of things, Serbia once again divided itself in two, there is Belgrade and then there is the rest of Serbia. The divide is so strong it cannot be mended easily. The rich will stay and drain the last bits of this land payed for in blood by our ancestors and then deposit it in their off shore accounts. We sold everything there is, from factories and mines to buildings and land, everything so that the politicians can milk those extra few $ and try to deceive the people in the meantime. There is an old prophecy here that I feel is coming to fruition. “There will not be peace for Serbs until there are only those that are able to fit under a single plum tree”
The same thing happens in Croatia. But even if it looks bad, that doesn't have to be bad. One day the whole world will unite into one big family and finally we'll be ready to reach for the stars. It's either that, or we won't survive.
Thank you for this series. I love just about every single video you've done but this one is really hitting close to the home I never really thought I had, so far away from my life in America. Cheers. Can't wait to see the next episode.
For such a relatively small land mass it has been interesting why Europe has never been completely conquered by one country within Europe (unlike say China). The closest I guess will be the Roman Empire.
Have you seen the geography? Look at all that flatland around yellow river in China. That’s like 1 million square km of flatland with one big river in the middle. If you have the biggest army in that area, then you are ruling that area. And that area could support 50 million people in middle ages. So if you manage to unite that, then you are literally the biggest boy in sandbox. No other flatland that could support competing population of same size. South of you are just hills and coastal cities. When you are strong you can easily conquer single city one by one. If you are weak, isolated cities won’t be threat. Desert on the left, sea on the right. Outside of some invasion from the north, you have solid core. Now look at Europe. You have north European plain. This narrow stretch of land that goes from northern France all the way to Russia. There is no one unifying river in there. Literally all major rivers go their separate ways. And even if you get together sufficient force to conquer it all, which is pretty much impossible, even then you have everyone around you that isn’t even part of that. Spain is their own peninsula secured behind Pyrenees. Italian city states are on their own peninsula secured behind Alps. Everything from Vikings to Sweden is also on their own peninsula secured behind Baltic sea. England is just there on island. Hungary has it’s own flatland around Danube. And there are random mountains everywhere that prohibit movement. If you want big country, you need big core and small competition. Nobody was bothering Romans in their conquest of Italian peninsula. Once that was done, whole Mediterranean sea was just them and bunch of isolated cities which could be taken one by one. Everything else was just bonus taken during best of times, but not viable in the long term.
It wasn't for lack of trying. But yeah, geography was a big reason, and the fact that Non-European conquerors (Huns, Avars, Arabs, Magyars, Turks etc....) mostly tried to conquer and hilly, forested continent with cavalry armies more suited to the steppes and deserts of Asia. What is also not appreciated is that Europe was heavily urbanized. While European armies could and did traverse even the rugged wilderness, the plethora of fortified cities and castles in France, the Netherlands and Italy all to often frustrated their generals. The Byzantines suffered numerous humiliations against the Bulgars, Arabs and Turks, but their empire persisted for almost millennia after Rome fell because of the massive walls ringing Constantinople and other nearby cities in Geeece and Asia Minor.
To all of those who did not watch the Rare Earth series, you're missing a treasure guys! Evan is the best storyteller, has the most soothing voice and the stories are so captivating. Just a perfect series for when you want to get out of your routine, to sleep better and forget whatever is bothering your toughts! I highly appreciate all your team's hard work behind this amazing content. I shared your channel with my history teachers from highschool and Uni and they had already included some extra curriculum activities in class. :)
One small, but important distinction. While I don't deny the right of self-determination for Bosniaks and Montenegrins today, up until 1945 Bosniak and especially Montengrin was a geographical, NOT an ethnic distinction. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who has ever lived in Montenegro before 1945 that was a Christian Orthodox Slav that didn't consider himself a Serb that lived in the Serbian state of Montenegro. Every group has the right to chose their own way and create their own identity, but no group has the right to retroactively change historical facts. In that light, what happened between Serbia and Montenegro in the aftermath of WW1 was not ethnic oppression, but rather two Serbian royal lineages (Petrović and Karađorđević) fighting for dominance in the potentially united kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro and the one from Serbia (Karađorđević) winning out.
It is a former Turkish tram. Most trams in Sarajevo are. A big thanks to Turkey here! We have a number of those particular trams and they are really nice.
They were a donation from Konya to Sarajevo. In Konya they would have been scrapped for old metal, in Sarajevo they are the core of the public transport.
@@sebastianelioberließen "Most trams in Sarajevo are". What? This is not true in the slightest. Only 15 (out of 58) trams are from the Turkish donation. Most of the rolling stock is prewar and modernized prewar stock, with a handful of Austrian, Czech and Dutch postwar donations and purchases.
@@nekocekoBiHMK I can only say what I tend to see here. I have lived here since June and while there is one former Vienese tram that drove the Ilidža-Train station route, I have not seen it since the summer. There are some Czech trams but I do not see them too often. There are 2 other models that I have seen, a 90s style ones and the really old ones. But I seem to remember seeing old Turkish signs in some of them too. As I say, I am only saying what I see on my way to and from work so I may not have the full picture. Then again, there is only one tram line of note in the city so how many can there be? ;)
The only thing that annoys me is the terminology that is used around Bosnia. We are not “Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Muslims”. Muslims are a religious group. We are an ethnic group that has a majority of muslim people in it. But the religion is not what defines us. Bosnian Serbs and Croats are of course free to define themselves whichever way they deem appropriate and I have no problems with that, but do not shove a religion down my throat when speaking of ethnicity. With all that said, regardless of all our troubles down in the Balkans, I am astutely aware that Croats and Serbs are our family. All of us possess a regional identity, but all DNA research that has been done demonstrates that there exists a high degree of genetic continuity between us whether we like it or not. Not to mention our cultural proximity and our shared South Slavic language. In my head I compare it to the British. They have their regional identities but are still British. Unfortunately for us we have been unable to find a civilised way in which to achieve this when the opportunity was there and are now stuck with the crumbling remains of what once could have been.
Good video. Just wanted to point out that 1934 is 20 years after Gavrillo shot Franz Ferdinand, not 16. Otherwise it would have happened at the end of WW1, which would have been odd.
My ancestors were ethnic Italians from Istria who left to the US to avoid Austrian military conscription when they were taken over. Many more Italians left after the formation of Yugoslavia.
ever since i was a kid, my father and uncle who both were well travelled, would always answer Yuguslavia, to my question what was your favourite country. Ever since then i developed a love and was intrigued by "Yuguslavia". i ended up visiting Slovenia 2 years ago. and after returning i laughed, because till this day Slovenia is the best country I've ever been to, and I've been to a few. I laughed because i remembered my Dad's and uncle's responses.
Excellent presentation, thanks for posting. It is worth looking closely to the troubled history of this region because Western Europe could very well, at some point in the not too distant future, play out the same way with the fast demographic changes happening now.
Never walk around or near barb wire or pickets in a country that has seen war. Where there is wire there are land mines. If an area has been cleared of mines to reclaim land, the wire is removed. Wire is never removed without clearing the mines though. Look up "Land mine contamination in Bosnia and Herzegovina"
Not all nationalism divides, It can unite just as easily look at Ghirabaldis Italian Nationalism, the truth is that Nationalism can be good or evil depending on the leadership, and people's ability to compromise. I personally think Liberal Nationalism was the best governing system the world ever had, and in some places like Japan still have as compared to the Multicultural Globalism/Liberal Democracy/Neoliberalism of today which has produced nothing but vapid consumerism, and ugly soulless out of place architecture. We will see which way things go in the future, but I don't have much hope for NATO or the EU and new alliances will form in the coming years between nations.
All nationalism divides. It divides the Italian form the French, the Irish from the British, the Native from the Foreigner. It creates the illusion that domination by a local power is preferable to that of a distant one, when in reality they're all distant despots. In the case of Garibaldi, for such a hero he certainly murdered his way through plenty of Italians who preferred their own ideas to his own. But that is often ignored because the myth of nationalism always sounds so much sweeter.
The man he killed wanted a triune kingdom and equal rights for Slavs in Austria Hungary. The man he killed stopped von Hotzendorf from starting a war against Serbia a dozen times.
@@Hruljina Biographics talks about his life, in his private life he was a known bigot and despised everyone who wasn't pure bred Austrian. He wanted control, not harmony among the people.
Janovjev I couldn’t care less what he thought personally. Everyone at the time felt the same. Actions however speak louder than words. He stopped wars and argued for equality
The narration in this one felt rushed. It might have been what you were going for, but I felt it also left less time for me to absorb what was being said.
There's an Anthony Fantano gravestone at 8:34... 'Antonio Melon' 🍈 Good video bruh a close friend of mine lived through the siege of Sarajevo, I'm glad to have this information so we'll presented to me, thanks
The more world forgets it the better. A large (not dominant, but a large one) ingredient into a LOT of our bloodletting was great power fucking with us and settling scores between them with our blood since it was always a crossroads of civilizations and so pretty much ANYONE can find someone to back.
You sure picked a difficult subject to cover. No way in hell you won't step on someone's toes, no matter how you cover it. Very informative though, as usual.
So far the series is 👍Keep 'em coming! Enthno-nationalism is going to be a problem for the foreseeable future. As long as identity defaults to the superficial, religious and tribal notions rather than broader ideas we'll see more fragmentation and conflict, fed by those who leverage it for their own power. Yeah, so no end in sight.
Yeah, we, in Bosnia, are pretty much fucked. If we want a normal life then we must get rid of nationalists but if we get rid of "our" nationalists then the other two groups of nationalists will have a field day. So, all three groups must downvote their nationalists in a single elections. Yup. No end in sight. And you are right about a leverage. Whenever there is a major scandal on one side then the one of the others rise national tensions so that scandal-affected politicians can misdirect public attention.
Bribe me to say what you want:
www.patreon.com/rareearth
Catchy..... full time college student.... I'm always interested in your content so i would rather have an air of mystery to your next video. Thumbs up stay Awsome and have an excellent day.
Fascinating episodes, and courageous subject!
Will Rare Earth visit Kosovo anytime soon?
If you are ever going to travel to Macedonia and former Rumelia, you should talk about ethnic cleansing in Balkan war 1912-1913. It is very much Ottoman equivalent of Yugoslav/Bosnian war 1991-1995
This channel is great. Well done man.
"Although you inherited the Chinese Empire on horseback, you cannot rule it from that position"
-Ögedei Khan.
In other words, making something come into existence is the easy bit, what comes after it is the hard one.
The Difficulty comes after the war. Che Guevara was great a blowing trains up, but its much harder to make them run on time
Politics has two set of rules, one for those wishing to come to power. And another set of rules for those that wish to keep their power.
That's kinda the story of almost every revolution ever.
Nationalist are a big risk.
Just like having Kids.
This series can end in three ways, all of them include giant number of dislikes
Go on...
What ways do you have in mind?
@@Zestrayswede its going to be about macedonia or former yugoslav republic of macedonia or north macedonia or whatever makes people the most angry
Doubtful. Look at the previous two videos in the series - very few dislikes. This video is already trending the same. He does a good job of being unbiased but, more than that, this channels' viewership also slants such that I doubt they'd downvote storm the vids unless he really went off the rails.
@@MrRanderas Greeks would be mostly angry about that name, not "yugoslavs"...
"If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans."
--Otto von Bismark
And it came out of Germany...
@ä
As-salaamu alaikum, my friend. May Allah grant you and your family long, peaceful lives.
@@cometmoon4485 Now that's how you do that. Congratulations on bringing the spirit of peace to a UA-cam comment section.
@@bosanskislavonac Would you care to elaborate on that? The First World War was started on the Balkans and the Second World War was a direct result of the first.
@@arnekrug939 Only reason why WW1 started was full support Germany offered to AH Empire. Whiteout that, Serbian push for peaceful resolution which was supported by other great powers would most likely delay war for few more years.
"Nationalism doesn"t end with everybody united, it ends with the lowest common denominator of identity". This is brilliant. I'm sure it's relevant to every federation and state on the planet but as a Canadian, and I know you are too, I find it strangely relevant to Canadian politics.
This line really struck deep for me, since I've always had a love-hate relationship with my nationality as a Croat. On one hand I love my country, culture and people. On the other, I hate the social and economic stagnation, the constant digging up of Homeland War hatred, politicians abusing these tendencies left and right...
It's a weird state of nation to be in. Where your identity is formed but you can't yet fully identify as part of the nation, if you ever will be able to.
God damn, what would I give for some good old white-washed American nationalism xD
Yeah, I miss Canada often, but I don't look forward to going home to western Canada while this new strain of nationalist isolation is growing
@@lukeh2556 yeah I saw this documentary by CBC that was called something along the lines of "The ununited states of Canada". It basically showed how absolutely no one in Canada seemed to want anything to dp with the federation. Provinces are unhappy when they pay equalization, Quebec wants out for various economic and cultural reasons, Alberta, Ontario and the maritimes all seemed to have a separatist movement growing because of economic reasons and you just thought to yourself, what does the Canadian federation actually accomplish?
So true nationalism is a big threat.
@@paxundpeace9970 I don't really agree with that though
It's wierd to think that my grandfather was alive in Sarajevo when the trigger to WWI happened, living in an empire that feels like distant history.
Haha, tell me about it, my (now dead) great-great-grandmother literally lived through (I believe, need to fact check) 4 empires/countries
What was he doing in Sarajevo if I may ask?
@@HK-yn3kk That's where he was born and grew up.
I mean, Sarajevo is a European city, it shouldn't feel weird that much. Was you grandfather Slavic or did his parents move to Sarajevo for job opportunities?
@@mirzaaljic He was Jewish. I meant it felt wierd having known people connected to such distant times that we read about in history books.
I would like to add that Yugoslavia's foundations didn't only contain ethnic fault-lines but political ones too. Serbia had always treated the former Austro-Hungarian territories as colonies 'liberated' by conquest. Postwar Serbian politicians justified many of their actions due to the 'sacrifice' of half of their pre-war male population during ww1. This incipient vision of Yugoslavia could/ would never be remedied by the other sides who saw Yugoslavia as a voluntary union.
Unfortunately I barely even rubbed my nail across the surface here. It's nearly impossible to do this history justice. A million moving parts.
I remember hearing my best friend in high school's oldest brother, a former Green Beret Vietnam Vet, talking about Madeline Albright's policies as a guest on a local radio talk show promoting his book IIRC.
Having spent some time in the Balkans, he described the place as "a very dark room full of very sharp objects". He felt certain that the policies pursued there would end badly.
From a multi generational service family, Bill Jr. would be much more likely to start a fight than flee from one, so when he said it was best not to get involved, as that it would be viewed as opportunism and not soon forgotten, it stood out sharply to me.
This series adds a hint of light with regards to my wondering why my grandparents would emigrate from their idyllic Dalmation island around the turn of the 20th century. Unfortunatelty, still lots of sharp objects in my family closets.
The thing is in WWI many Croats and Bosniaks avoided fighting Serbs and it wasn't uncommon to desert and go fight for Serbs as brothers
It's just sad they forgot that after the war
@@TheScooby455 lol?
@@HK-yn3kk 👎
Who needs Morgan Freemans voice any more.
@Chris Monticello kunt
I'm sure Morgan Freeman still needs it, at the minimum
True
Greetings from Bosnia!
This brought me to tears, remembering what my family went through in Sarajevo during the 90s. Keep up the good work!
This series has been incredible, your storytelling ability is honestly the best on youtube
It's on par with extra history!
I don't speak enough languages nor do I have enough time to watch each and every video on UA-cam, but it's certainly up there.
An anecdote about the shooting in the parliament.
During the argument Stjepan Radić (the leader of the Croats) said: "You keep boasting about the Serbian blood spilled for this land, give us the price per liter so we could get out." (60% of the Serbian male population died during the WW1)
Puniša Račić responded: "Serbian blood is priceless.", took out the gun and started shooting.
You are doing a great job with this series, as a guy with mixed ancestry from all around the Balkans, this is as unbiased as it can get.
Greetings to all the viewers and the crew, I hope I will grab a beer with some of you in Belgrade or some other shithole on this blue planet.
@@proudboshnyakh4190 maj Inglis sehr gud
Honestly, as a guy living in Brčko, it's so funny to see how everyone is an expert on the yugoslav war. And of course that they're right, and they're the victims and every other "ethnicity" tortured the other for years. Jesus f-ing Christ, if people wanna fight, let them, we're better off without those types of jerks. Peace brother.
@@temistogen aj ne seri i ti ahahaha
@@temistogen zar je bitno koliko je koga? Čovječe ljudi smo
@@proudboshnyakh4190 I don't want to have anything with the Balkans, and it's germanized because I'm too.
The way you paint pictures, stories and emotions with just your words, and in very long takes, is really something else. Watching your videos gives me a visceral feeling about events in the past that I normally don't get from studying history. You've really made something special; please keep up the good work!
I am from Serbia.
And it is true, as native Serbian I see all south Slavs as not so different than me.
I am only annoyed when they claim being different.
Everyone in Yugoslavia wanted equal rights for them. But first to deffine who they are. And everyone wanted to be more equal than rest. Even the Serbs from different regions hate each other.
The name is issue, people need the indentity tu be united.
The people know they are the same. Language across the region is big dialect continuum and people can easy understand each other.
After the war in the '90, shops across the world from Yugoslav emigrants have on the entry 'Govorimo naš jezik' - 'we speak our language' withouth mentioning who are 'we' and what is the name of 'our language'. If you can read it, the place is part of home. Not perfect, but home.
Be a good person, and not try to ve friend with everyone.
Lako vama u srbiji vi ste najmanje patili
I'm from Montenegro and I would like to add one thing to this. Not that we really think that we are any different from Serbs, we and serbs are simply - us. I would still call myself a Montenegrin, but I believe we are same people by all parameters that can define a nation.
Serbian-Montenegrin difference is only in politics. I still see Croats and Macedonians as people of same culture as mine, but honestly, I can't say same for Bosniaks.
_as native Serbian I see all south Slavs as not so different than me.
I am only annoyed when they claim being different_
And that's the most annoying thing coming from Serbs. We may have similar languages and understand each other perfectly, but thousands of years of history, culture, traditions and religion are standing between us. So, we aren't the same and we'll never be. We don't give a crap for Serbia as much as for any other random nation in the world. You have your own country, your own culture and your own way of life and you're entitled to do whatever you like in your country, just stay there where you are and don't you ever think again to come here in Croatia thinking you own it. We experienced enough of your companionship and we don't appreciate it.
On the other hand, we can be good friends, we can socialize and work together and you may come as tourists here whenever you want, but stay respectful. That can work both ways.
If we meet somewhere in some other country, we can also be friends, but always bear on mind we don't look at you as someone we could trust with our life.
I hope you'll get that... or you can stay annoyed and try to conquer our land again, but then be prepared to risk another punch in the nose, like you got in the 90s.
This was a honest rant, from the bottom of my heart, and believe me when I say 90% of Croatians think the same.
@@gorgthesalty Nah, that occurred maybe few times. Yes, you could argue it was stupid, but tensions were still high after the recent war and btw many younger people who didn't live in ex Yugoslavia don't really understand all words interchangeable. Croatian and Serbian languages are very similar, but there are still some differences in many words.
@@Neldonax Netacno. Mi smo izgubili najvise ljudi u dva svetska rata i infrastruktura nam je bila sravnjena 3 puta u 20. veku. Ne kazem da smo vise propatili i da vi niste, ali nismo najmanje.
Svi su propatili dosta, podjednako, nazalost.
To think that one teenager in a small European city would kickstart the whole goddamn 20th century.
I'd argue that such massive events would be triggered one way or another, independent of the success of the assassination. It would have had some other catalyst. The entirety of Europe was *ready* to devolve into war, and there was no turning back.
I'm not an expert on calendars but I think they go forward no matter what the map looks like.
@@proudboshnyakh4190 Pretty sure 19 is a teenager even if you commit murder. Not a criminologist.
@@proudboshnyakh4190 Teenagers never support radical political movements... famously they are very conservative. They also avoid taking risks and make generally good decisions. /s
@@proudboshnyakh4190 Your hostility to "the west" (a region you probably can't identify correctly) suggests a deeply provincial mindset, which is incidentally exactly what comes to mind when I think of eastern Europe. Perhaps you should discard the language of the savage foreigners in favour of your own? Put your mouth where your mouth is, so to speak?
Or you could put away childish things like nationalism and join the adult table.
Gavrilos organization was a nationalists tool of Serbian officers in Belgrade, the Archduke they killed wanted a federated Austrian Empire where the South Slavs would get their piece as well but the problem for the Serbs was that South Slav state would have its capital in Zagreb which the jingoistic fiends in Belgrade did not want.
The thing about Yugoslavia is that there is always multiple truths. I live in Brčko, the only town in ex Yugoslavia that's split equally between the nations. My classmates are Serbs and Croats, we attend the same classes, but different languages, does that make sense? We're systematically taught differences that are nothing more but a nuisance. Also we don't learn about the Yugoslavia war in the school. Top it all off with exclusive neighborhoods, and you've got a recipe for ignorance. I really hope that something will change around here, until then, I'll keep studying to get my ticker outside. Peace and love!
There's only one truth, not multiple ones. The "truths" you're referring to are only subjective opinions and I'm absolutely sick of those since they always lack common sense and arguments. We often hear that we should respect other people's opinions. I say fuck off with that. Respect the truth and evidence and not some non-argumentative opinions.
Pozdrav braći u Brčkom iz Zagreba!
How's your English so good? I left Brčko in 93.
Roses are red and the sky is blue...and there are drugs which makes you a fool
You misspelled Millions
You saw nothing. We were always at war with Eurasia.
@@RareEarthSeries i didnt see anything 🙈
@@RareEarthSeries No we are at war with eastasia, we are allied with eurasia
@@endo4137 Eurasian propoganda
Let’s stop talking politics. Victory Gin, anyone?
Oh, is it Tito, Chetnik and Ustashe time next?
Tito specifically, yes. From here on out the stories all start the same, centred on one idealist to filter (force?) the narrative through.
@@RareEarthSeries If you ever have time then read the short story "The Leader" by Radoje Domanović. Perfect description of South Slav mentality. He was a satirist, active from 1893-1903 and his short stories are a must read if you want to understand Balkans.
@In brightest day, in blackest night Unfortunately this series was meant to be about Bosnia, with the others in the periphery. But I will get there someday.
Tito was god
@@deleteduser87 Tito was a tyrant with a mask of a saint. The moment he died and the mask fell, everything fell apart... Even if he stayed alive, the system that was in place couldn't be sustained for much longer...
I never ceased to be amazed how much I like these videos. Well-thought and balanced and yet intense and almost thrilling, somehow. The background music is very fitting and adds an eerie and sober feeling to the random, mundane scenes. Can't wait for the next part.
I like how the Bulgarians were offered to join Yugoslavia and they were like .."meeeeh .. pass"
Your chanel is a gem. Totaly worth watching
Easily my favourite channel, such high production quality and editing
Talking about the Balkans oh boy the comments are going to have a fields day.
I hate these comments, they are counter productive. The meme of always fighting primitive balkan people pushes the idea further that all we do is fight and it's just a haha knee slap.
I see this comment way more than actual flame wars
@@DerPlusquamperfekt But you do always fight. Your people are literally incapable of solving anything without violence and you know it. Stating otherwise is just cope.
.
As long as there are calm (well, maybe) well-reasoned comments, IMO it's *healthy* for all of us to understand both sides of the story. I enjoy it... Bang away, how do you expect to *learn* about the differences between "your side" and the "other side" if you blindly shoot them or bomb them?
Heck, you might learn "they" aren't all that much different from you. 😲
.
@@CatalinaThePirate problem is that most of the people who don't wish to perpetuate this violent hatred filled cycle have already left for Germany, Ireland... 50000 young, educated people left last year, and that's just Croatia which isn't bottom of the barrel, all considering. They are tired of the political, economic and social stagnation that's present in all of former Yugoslav countries to an extent. The only exception might be Slovenia, even though we all love to joke how tiny they are, imho they're the most stable country of the bunch in the long term.
@@CatalinaThePirate also, the left extremist circles are starting to circulate conspiracy theories how the Serbian and Croatian governments wish to uphold the hatred filled status quo, since the hate distracts the populus from the real problems, like corruption, cronyism and nepotism...
Edit, imho it is quite absurd that this is true in full, but the part about the witch hunting peasants not seeing their fields wither seems to be on the mark.
Hey Evan. I spotted a small mistake. Sorry, I just wanted to point that out.
8:46 The assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand was in 1914, not 1918.
@@veltom2875
"... in 1934, sixteen years after Gavrilo shot..."
he should have said twenty years after
@@TeslaLegend I meant after he died. Sometimes I say the wrong thing and don't notice. Whoooooops. :)
@@RareEarthSeries
No biggie. Thanks for the series, excellent work.
I'm splitting this off into another comment since it covers a different toppic.
The main problem us South Slavs have and had is that we never properly made a common identity for us. We know now that we are similar in thinking and similar in language (in fact in recent years certain nationally influenced people had to work quite hard on MAKING differences between our languages in order to justify gazillion different "languages" we speak) Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian or whatever one wants to call it ("Montenegrin-Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian language and literature" is how the subject is called in Montenegro and our kids must be LINGUISTIC GENIUSES to learn FOUR languages in ONE subject :D). BUT we still have a lot of customs that are different and not that many celebrations that are common. Not many myths that are in common. AND there is a tripartite RELIGIOUS divide furthering the customs division. In orther to become one NEW customs and national myths would need to be created, and THAT would take TIME. That was something that was actually attempted by the King once he siezed the absolute power. He attempted to stifle the pure national movements of all three "sides" and promote the idea that all citizens of Yugoslavia should feel Yugoslavian. Unfortunately this was done in a bit hamfisted way and was a process that could not really be rushed. So in the end ALL sides were dissatisfied with it.
BUT if given time to ferment properly it could have maybe worked. But Kingdom lasted barely 3 decades and then the entire civilization was upturned by going communist. Which for the idea of Yugoslavism was a good thing since by pretty much reinventing the customs and how society works they came closest to creating a Yugoslavian identity. But borders still remained. The names of republics still remained. And once communism was thrown aside the old customs went with it. People wanted something NEW, new ideas to go with the new reformed democratic capitalist society that was supposed to have us living as americans in movies (but would only, with wars and sanctions, impoverish us).And so the ideas of the "glourious past" which were suppressed or taboo before now held an attractive allure to it. Add to that PLENTY of people lost familly in WWII to nationalist militias or Nazi Allies (actual or temporary) which meant that plenty of them were having flashbacks of things that happened to their famillies or nationalities before given the new national bend of the new breed of politicians, so they were pretty desperate to make sure nothing such would happen to them again. Or that borders drawn by "commies" (by this point it was popular to point out bad things about the previous system in order to make the new state look more promissing) would separate nationalities whose fathers and grandfathers fought tooth and nail to unite... well things spiraled out of control QUICK.
Oh. Now I forgot. There is ANOTHER thing keeping us apart. And this one might often be ignored and dissreguarded next to the JUICY nationalist nonsense. And that is that there is a pretty strong ECONOMIC divide between eastern and western parts of the peninsula. Croatia and Slovenia were a lot more developed by their Imperialists compared to Serbia and Montenegro which were under decrepit Ottomans or had to spend a century fighting them tooth and nail to get them off their backs. Add to that that like half of Croatia is in Panonian plains or on the coasts. Both of which by nature tend to be easier to develop and profit from. Montenegro and Serbia on the other hand tended to be significnanly more mountainous which didn't help the matter of development. AND add to that that western catholic Slavs could participate in their imperialist overlord's states and economies MUCH more freely than Orthodox could in either Muslim OR Catholic empires...
It all added to the fact that an average Croatian probably contributed more to the budget of any Yugoslav state than an average inhabitant of Serbia."OH, and let's also add to that that there was more population in the east than west. Which added the usual regionalist rethoric to the mix "Why should we pay this much if we have this little representation. We should separate and only use our money for us!" So a certain drive for separation was allways going to happen no matter weatehr nationalism happened. But it would have been suppressed by the greater IDENTITY of the nation.
In any case, despite all that, nations were still made with even less commonality, but THAT took TIME. CENTURIES some times. But the idea of Yugoslavism was pretty young and pretty much got reset every couple decades back to start. And each time it got reset further reasons for resentement were added to the pile.
I think I won't be wrong if I say the biggest influence for disagreement and friction in these parts of the world was division of Christianity in 1054. After that Ottomans came and contributed with Islam to add even more confusion. Differences are pretty big, so any kind of forcing "the greater identity" was wrong from the very beginning.
Plus, imperialistic pretensions of the king made things even worse. And then, after some time, to quote you, each time it got reset further reasons for resentment were added to the pile.
The only possible way all those nations could form a firm union would be some kind of loose confederation... maybe with joint army and nothing more. But now it's too late for that, anyway.
It is quite interesting to compare and contrast Yugoslavia to Ethiopia, as theoretically Ethiopia had even less common ground than Yugoslavia. It did not have a common language and was pretty much split in half religiously. The only thing that served Ethiopia is history. It had a longer time.
Even then, Ethiopia stood, although it took a few civil wars, genocides, and Eritrean independence to get to where it is today, and a big heap of propaganda too. Still, I think it is an example that such a state is viable, given good enough political will.
And that is where I think the issue lies. The peoples of Yugoslavia had their own nations in mind, and they never fully bought into this idea of a federation. Therefore, it was doomed to fail.
@@damyr Light federation would be unworkable in the long run I feel because of where we were. Politicos on all sides would resent any control the federal government has and would of course present any success in the republics as their accomplishment and present any problem as something caused by federal government. See: Serbia and Montenegro (and even before that power of federal government was next to non exitent).
@@khoiduongminh5111 Well, between the wars most people were either for or okay with the big state. Mostly the arguments seemed to center around the type of government it would have and of course a whole bunch of posturing and propaganda in order to get more votes. And it must be noted that there was no STRONG cooalition that could push the state in a coherent direction. Instead governemnts tended to fall all the time. But all that was normal for a brand new state with no real history or tradition of how things are supposed to work. If Yugoslavia was on some sort of an ISLAND, or somewhere remote outside the view of great powers, then it might have had time (half a century at least, so most people to be born and raised in it and know nothing else and the oldtimers from pre unification to no longer be there) to grow through it's pains of birth. But instead the baby was born on the MAIN EAST WEST conquest HIGHWAY. It was NEVER going to be given time to create a common founding myth to tie people together.
Communists actually got DAMN close to it all only to fumble it during the final transition.
You made a good point. There was also a thing with people being discriminated in socialist Jugoslavia. My father would be a policeman if there was no unofficial policy that said Serbs have to be a vast majority of the police force in SR Croatia where they were a minority. They were also running "Croatian" companies, were given positions in universities ahead of their smarter and more hard working colleagues and were given the comparatively shorter prison sentences by Serbian judges. Parts of the country in which they lived had better infrastructure, and more planed job openings.
Everyone knew it, but were scared of political prosecution because they were supposed to see themselves as Yugoslavs, instead of whatever they were.
When the pendulum turned against them, things got worse for everybody. The war started. I think that we would still be living in Yugoslavia if there were no ethnic discrimination.
When Yugoslavian economy started crumbling, the first companies to fail were the ones that were running in the red. In Bosnia, and in Croatia, those somehow happened to be in the majority Serbian parts of the country. People became less scared of prosecution, and started to treat Serbs badly because they became more nationalistic and many were hating all the Serbs, not just the ones that harmed them.
The Serbs became scared and angry, because they were suddenly in much worse situation than they were before.
So, you have people who have been discriminated their whole life, and those who were suddenly in much worse situation. That's why the war started.
I just have to disagree with you on the language part. It is true that I can understand you, but the thing that we are learning in school here in Croatia still has more similarities with Serbian, than the thing that we speak at home. There is a lot of political pressure from outside the country not to change the official language from people who think it is about "being less Serbian" instead of more Croatian. There are languages that are more similar to each other than ours, but nobody is questioning whether or not they are the same language. It's all about politics.
I have to be honest... you got big balls. No one is willingly jumping into our shit show and trying to make some sense of it.
Good job!
@@Languslangus And here we go with the blame game again... yawn*
Again, very powerfully made, well balanced and very well narrated.
7:47 The Croatian party leader that has been shot and few days later died from that shot name is Stjepan Radić . I think that he deserves to be mentioned by name.
“They’d have to do so like everyone else, ... ᵂⁱᵗʰ ᵃ ᵍᵘⁿ “
You know, after this video I felt pretty depressed
Are we, humans just doomed to be enemies to each other, clinging to our groups, nations, ideologies, desires - our identities?
It seems nearly impossible for us to settle down, have a consensus, work together to archive something and stop trying to get as much as we can from others
Im amazed that killing one person led the world into insanity.
Wrong u guys tricked by devil
The two bullets which caused two world wars and a cold war...
@@АлексаМладић criminally short explanation: The harsh peace deal for central nations (and the actions of German government) destroyed German finances and made the nation ready for nazis and Hitler's populist ideologies and the rest, well, the rest is history.
Can you really blame Gavrilo or those two bullets? Would Gavrilo had pulled the trigger if he knew of all the events that would follow suit?
Although I view Gavrilo not as cause for the great war, but just a spark that ignited the already existing powder keg. It would've blown sooner or later.
God dam Balkans
Soviet Union attacked Afghanistan which caused America to provide Aid to Afghanistan at the same time Pakistan was. Once the War was over we could have peacefully negotiated a safer Afghanistan because we had the reputation of helping them. We ignored it until 911 then a stupid war happened.
Just wanted to say thanks for making this series. The history of the balkans and yugoslavia is too often over looked. While not yugoslavian myself my family was heavily involved with the nation from 1943 onwards, we sat on the UN mission to end the wars in the 90s. The more people know of this story the better chance we have of preventing such tragedies in the future.
Yugoslavia was and is a perfect historical lesson for the rest of the world. The world should learn from our mistakes and prevent them from repeating elsewhere.
In hindsight, Ferdinand had the worst security entourage in Sarajevo..
After the first assassination attempt failed, he was like yeah, it's safe now, we can continue.
I love this serie. I might be Dutch, but I have felt the effects of this conflict. When I was young, children from Bosnia went to my house to feel something else then the aftereffects of a brutal civil war. It has formed me by a bit. The Balkan war has been an onfortunate conflict of many generations. I can't wait until its been really settled. I'm amazed how this is represented, keep going because this is gold.
Am I the only one who misread the title as "When Two Bullets Killed Minions"?
If only!
BLAM-nana!?
Man, if I was a History or Social Studies teacher, your UA-cam channel would be mandatory viewing for all my students.
I've learned more from watching your channel then all the book learning they try to cram down our throats.
(Of course, back then there was no UA-cam...lol)
Before watching the video i thought "Damn, those two bullets must have been really big"
Al Croats and Muslims from Bosnia consider it best time in history of Bosnia when Austria ruled it.
I'd love to see a "season" in Ireland, covering things like the potato famine and the IRA
Me too!
@@RareEarthSeries
Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!
The Ottmans got involved in that Famine which upset the Queen of England
@@fouadmas5413 God bless the Turk! God bless the Turk! God bless the Turk for his Christian work!
I truly enjoy this series and all the work you guys share with us. I have to watch the videos twice: once to listen to the narrative and once to watch the imagery. Both as so well done and captivating.
I've been to all of the former yugoslav countries last summer and seeing all these places i've been to on youtube brings a smile on my face the story telling is awesome keep up the good work
This video, This series and this channel and also this part of the world deserves alot more views than what it has.
What a beautiful way of presenting history, you are truly talented.
Violence begets violence, war breeds war, & every sea spray of blood adds to the the great ocean of hate on our fragile world. To fight is to bleed on the cutting edge, to live content is to stagnate towards obsolescence, & to live is to die.
What must we do to overcome these things?
Our actions outlive us. Die for peace & free, high quality fact based education that fosters critical thinking skills; don't kill for it. May compassion & reason guide us, not greed & hate.
We all die, get busy living.
As a Serb I think I see a point in all this that the people then and there never saw, the Bosnians, Croats, Slovenians, Montenegrins and Macedonians are as much Serb as Serb are Bosnians, Croats, Slovenians,Montenegrins and Macedonians. It goes both ways, we may have all come together at one point or another 1500 years ago, but no one group can claim dominion of it all, we came as tribes and it looks like we stayed at those tribal divisions all this time.
Whatever might be the case from my perspective it seems like this is the end of an era, maybe similar to what the Byzantine’s felt back then, we are feeling now. But the Serbs won’t last for long, more and more people are leaving each year. The amount of people who left is measured in hundreds of thousands just in the last decade and it’s just getting started. There is not a single person who want’s to stay. The first thing on anyone’s mind is how to leave, the same thing you hear from a thousand mouths “Go son, there is no life for you here, try your luck in the world for you will not find it here” repeated constantly by your parents, grandparents,friends,spouses and teachers even taxi drivers and random people in the street.
This is all of course hidden by the state and the media but it is the true state of things, Serbia once again divided itself in two, there is Belgrade and then there is the rest of Serbia. The divide is so strong it cannot be mended easily. The rich will stay and drain the last bits of this land payed for in blood by our ancestors and then deposit it in their off shore accounts. We sold everything there is, from factories and mines to buildings and land, everything so that the politicians can milk those extra few $ and try to deceive the people in the meantime.
There is an old prophecy here that I feel is coming to fruition.
“There will not be peace for Serbs until there are only those that are able to fit under a single plum tree”
Interesting proverb.
The same thing happens in Croatia. But even if it looks bad, that doesn't have to be bad. One day the whole world will unite into one big family and finally we'll be ready to reach for the stars. It's either that, or we won't survive.
All of them are humans.
If I could go back in time once, I'd show Gavrilo Princip this video
dude these videos are amazing
Your choice of words is pure poetry.
3:17 and the Serbian king was dumb enoug to take this deal instead of leaving Croats to the Italians
Why should he have left fellow Slavs?
@Logos Yes, he was stupid enough to save Croats and Slovenians. They thanked him killing him.
Thank you for this series. I love just about every single video you've done but this one is really hitting close to the home I never really thought I had, so far away from my life in America. Cheers. Can't wait to see the next episode.
U make amazing videos, my friend. Keep up the good work.
Another great video. Looking forward to the next one!
The current European identitarian right wing movement makes me worried for this exact reason.
PS: And so does the American version...
Joao Zamite And the English in the “United” Kingdom.
FINLAND DEMOCRATIC GOVERMENT,
SPAIN DEMOCRATIC GOVERMENT
ITALY Right wing Goverment dropped down.
I am more concerned with conservative who call themself centrist and embrace right wing politics.
Joao Zamite stop defending Islam for no reason
Telling about bosnia.. has a backround of slovenia
shouting out from PEI - great stuff & good job all around eh..
For such a relatively small land mass it has been interesting why Europe has never been completely conquered by one country within Europe (unlike say China). The closest I guess will be the Roman Empire.
Have you seen the geography? Look at all that flatland around yellow river in China. That’s like 1 million square km of flatland with one big river in the middle. If you have the biggest army in that area, then you are ruling that area. And that area could support 50 million people in middle ages. So if you manage to unite that, then you are literally the biggest boy in sandbox. No other flatland that could support competing population of same size. South of you are just hills and coastal cities. When you are strong you can easily conquer single city one by one. If you are weak, isolated cities won’t be threat. Desert on the left, sea on the right. Outside of some invasion from the north, you have solid core.
Now look at Europe. You have north European plain. This narrow stretch of land that goes from northern France all the way to Russia. There is no one unifying river in there. Literally all major rivers go their separate ways. And even if you get together sufficient force to conquer it all, which is pretty much impossible, even then you have everyone around you that isn’t even part of that. Spain is their own peninsula secured behind Pyrenees. Italian city states are on their own peninsula secured behind Alps. Everything from Vikings to Sweden is also on their own peninsula secured behind Baltic sea. England is just there on island. Hungary has it’s own flatland around Danube. And there are random mountains everywhere that prohibit movement.
If you want big country, you need big core and small competition. Nobody was bothering Romans in their conquest of Italian peninsula. Once that was done, whole Mediterranean sea was just them and bunch of isolated cities which could be taken one by one. Everything else was just bonus taken during best of times, but not viable in the long term.
It wasn't for lack of trying. But yeah, geography was a big reason, and the fact that Non-European conquerors (Huns, Avars, Arabs, Magyars, Turks etc....) mostly tried to conquer and hilly, forested continent with cavalry armies more suited to the steppes and deserts of Asia.
What is also not appreciated is that Europe was heavily urbanized. While European armies could and did traverse even the rugged wilderness, the plethora of fortified cities and castles in France, the Netherlands and Italy all to often frustrated their generals. The Byzantines suffered numerous humiliations against the Bulgars, Arabs and Turks, but their empire persisted for almost millennia after Rome fell because of the massive walls ringing Constantinople and other nearby cities in Geeece and Asia Minor.
Reading the title I was thinking Franz Ferdinand. shows how much i know
I'm so thankful you're doing this series...
To all of those who did not watch the Rare Earth series, you're missing a treasure guys! Evan is the best storyteller, has the most soothing voice and the stories are so captivating. Just a perfect series for when you want to get out of your routine, to sleep better and forget whatever is bothering your toughts!
I highly appreciate all your team's hard work behind this amazing content. I shared your channel with my history teachers from highschool and Uni and they had already included some extra curriculum activities in class. :)
Awesome series, very good work!
One small, but important distinction. While I don't deny the right of self-determination for Bosniaks and Montenegrins today, up until 1945 Bosniak and especially Montengrin was a geographical, NOT an ethnic distinction. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who has ever lived in Montenegro before 1945 that was a Christian Orthodox Slav that didn't consider himself a Serb that lived in the Serbian state of Montenegro. Every group has the right to chose their own way and create their own identity, but no group has the right to retroactively change historical facts.
In that light, what happened between Serbia and Montenegro in the aftermath of WW1 was not ethnic oppression, but rather two Serbian royal lineages (Petrović and Karađorđević) fighting for dominance in the potentially united kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro and the one from Serbia (Karađorđević) winning out.
I love your videos. Please keep them coming.
Also, yeah WW1 trenches were insane. Hard to believe people fought a war like that.
He teaches you history and puts your heart at peace.
9:03 advertising Konya city with the tulip logo on a tramway in another country really surprised me.
It is a former Turkish tram. Most trams in Sarajevo are. A big thanks to Turkey here! We have a number of those particular trams and they are really nice.
They were a donation from Konya to Sarajevo. In Konya they would have been scrapped for old metal, in Sarajevo they are the core of the public transport.
@@sebastianelioberließen "Most trams in Sarajevo are". What? This is not true in the slightest. Only 15 (out of 58) trams are from the Turkish donation. Most of the rolling stock is prewar and modernized prewar stock, with a handful of Austrian, Czech and Dutch postwar donations and purchases.
@@nekocekoBiHMK I can only say what I tend to see here. I have lived here since June and while there is one former Vienese tram that drove the Ilidža-Train station route, I have not seen it since the summer. There are some Czech trams but I do not see them too often. There are 2 other models that I have seen, a 90s style ones and the really old ones. But I seem to remember seeing old Turkish signs in some of them too. As I say, I am only saying what I see on my way to and from work so I may not have the full picture. Then again, there is only one tram line of note in the city so how many can there be? ;)
Two bombs killed millions too
Hello from Serbia! :)
Hello from Toronto!
@@RareEarthSeries See you in Canada then later this year, and if you're ever near Novi Sad, you can expect a welcome from me personally. :)
I can’t wait to hear about Tito.
The only thing that annoys me is the terminology that is used around Bosnia. We are not “Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Muslims”. Muslims are a religious group.
We are an ethnic group that has a majority of muslim people in it. But the religion is not what defines us. Bosnian Serbs and Croats are of course free to define themselves whichever way they deem appropriate and I have no problems with that, but do not shove a religion down my throat when speaking of ethnicity.
With all that said, regardless of all our troubles down in the Balkans, I am astutely aware that Croats and Serbs are our family. All of us possess a regional identity, but all DNA research that has been done demonstrates that there exists a high degree of genetic continuity between us whether we like it or not. Not to mention our cultural proximity and our shared South Slavic language. In my head I compare it to the British. They have their regional identities but are still British. Unfortunately for us we have been unable to find a civilised way in which to achieve this when the opportunity was there and are now stuck with the crumbling remains of what once could have been.
Good video.
Just wanted to point out that 1934 is 20 years after Gavrillo shot Franz Ferdinand, not 16. Otherwise it would have happened at the end of WW1, which would have been odd.
I'd meant to say after he died. That's what I wrote in the script. Thanks!
20 years after, not 16
Love your content!
You might be interested in looking up some Brazilian popular revolts, such as Cabanagem and Canudos.
My ancestors were ethnic Italians from Istria who left to the US to avoid Austrian military conscription when they were taken over. Many more Italians left after the formation of Yugoslavia.
And that's your best video until this moment congratulation
ever since i was a kid, my father and uncle who both were well travelled, would always answer Yuguslavia, to my question what was your favourite country. Ever since then i developed a love and was intrigued by "Yuguslavia". i ended up visiting Slovenia 2 years ago. and after returning i laughed, because till this day Slovenia is the best country I've ever been to, and I've been to a few. I laughed because i remembered my Dad's and uncle's responses.
Excellent presentation, thanks for posting. It is worth looking closely to the troubled history of this region because Western Europe could very well, at some point in the not too distant future, play out the same way with the fast demographic changes happening now.
Never walk around or near barb wire or pickets in a country that has seen war. Where there is wire there are land mines. If an area has been cleared of mines to reclaim land, the wire is removed. Wire is never removed without clearing the mines though. Look up "Land mine contamination in Bosnia and Herzegovina"
This is an Italian war park. It's perfectly safe, thanks.
Been there, done that, got 10 cevapi.
Not all nationalism divides, It can unite just as easily look at Ghirabaldis Italian Nationalism, the truth is that Nationalism can be good or evil depending on the leadership, and people's ability to compromise. I personally think Liberal Nationalism was the best governing system the world ever had, and in some places like Japan still have as compared to the Multicultural Globalism/Liberal Democracy/Neoliberalism of today which has produced nothing but vapid consumerism, and ugly soulless out of place architecture. We will see which way things go in the future, but I don't have much hope for NATO or the EU and new alliances will form in the coming years between nations.
Unfortunately this guy and most of his audience only acknowledge the negative sides, in a way even misrepresenting it.
All nationalism divides. It divides the Italian form the French, the Irish from the British, the Native from the Foreigner. It creates the illusion that domination by a local power is preferable to that of a distant one, when in reality they're all distant despots. In the case of Garibaldi, for such a hero he certainly murdered his way through plenty of Italians who preferred their own ideas to his own. But that is often ignored because the myth of nationalism always sounds so much sweeter.
Good one. I was expecting to complain, but I had no reason to.
Amazing production quality, amazing script and great narrator!
Is that Hitler baby ? 1:40
Yes it is.
The next question is why?
Aoderic book promotion on WW2 book festival.
@@Hruljina Yes, that makes sense.
He's a guest star in the first season and is a main in the second
The only thing you seemed to ignore is that the man he killed despised him and his people.
The man he killed wanted a triune kingdom and equal rights for Slavs in Austria Hungary. The man he killed stopped von Hotzendorf from starting a war against Serbia a dozen times.
@@Hruljina Biographics talks about his life, in his private life he was a known bigot and despised everyone who wasn't pure bred Austrian. He wanted control, not harmony among the people.
Janovjev I couldn’t care less what he thought personally. Everyone at the time felt the same. Actions however speak louder than words. He stopped wars and argued for equality
@@Hruljina Intentions matter, shit like that only works on the short term. History has proven that.
The narration in this one felt rushed. It might have been what you were going for, but I felt it also left less time for me to absorb what was being said.
There's an Anthony Fantano gravestone at 8:34... 'Antonio Melon' 🍈
Good video bruh a close friend of mine lived through the siege of Sarajevo, I'm glad to have this information so we'll presented to me, thanks
Getting ever closer to the 1 000 000 mark.
This might be your best video yet!
If the World forgets the Balkans, it will happen over and over again.
The more world forgets it the better. A large (not dominant, but a large one) ingredient into a LOT of our bloodletting was great power fucking with us and settling scores between them with our blood since it was always a crossroads of civilizations and so pretty much ANYONE can find someone to back.
@@Languslangus Those are famous last words.
I would like to add,Place where many snipers killed so many Bosnians between 1992 -1995.
God damn do i love this page and this guy!
great melancholic music for such a melancholic tragedy, i.e.Yuguslavia.
I’m sorry if this is a dumb question. What’s the difference between a slav, Croatian, Bosnian, Serb, ect?
Excellent subject, excellent video. As usual!
I'm sure others have pointed it out but there's an error in the video. 1934 would've been 20 after the death of Franz Ferdinand.
You sure picked a difficult subject to cover. No way in hell you won't step on someone's toes, no matter how you cover it. Very informative though, as usual.
Dude I fucking love your content
Changing who holds the whip never ends well.
So far the series is 👍Keep 'em coming! Enthno-nationalism is going to be a problem for the foreseeable future. As long as identity defaults to the superficial, religious and tribal notions rather than broader ideas we'll see more fragmentation and conflict, fed by those who leverage it for their own power. Yeah, so no end in sight.
Yeah, we, in Bosnia, are pretty much fucked. If we want a normal life then we must get rid of nationalists but if we get rid of "our" nationalists then the other two groups of nationalists will have a field day. So, all three groups must downvote their nationalists in a single elections. Yup. No end in sight.
And you are right about a leverage. Whenever there is a major scandal on one side then the one of the others rise national tensions so that scandal-affected politicians can misdirect public attention.
Where I learned history...
School < Rare Earth
*Sees bridge*
oh god oh fuck
And this is now happening in the US... except that the tribes are not geographically separate.
Don't worry folks. Uruguay is going to make Yugoslavia look like a cake walk.