Sample Essay on Causes and Effects of Bosnian Genocide
To understand the causes and effects of the Bosnian Genocide, it is important to consider the background of Bosnia Herzegovina. Bosnia Herzegovina comprised of three ethnic communities. These were the Bosniaks or the Sunni Muslim, the Bosnian Serbs or the Orthodox Catholic Christians, and the Bosnian Croats who were the Roman Catholic Christians.
The leader of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic started a communist movement that gathered great support in the region. This propelled him towards a leadership position after veering towards nationalism. His position gained popularity and he became even powerful with influence in the media role and among his supporters.
Slobodan dedicated himself to nationalism and he dreamed of uniting the Serbs to form a single, united country. At first, he was motivated to act in the Kosovo situation where orthodox Christians of Serb origin were mistreated by Albanian Muslims. Milosevic protection and dominion absorbed Independent Kosovo back.
Bitter fighting that was aimed at repatriating Croatian Serbs made Milosevic as well as other leaders in Croatia with similar expansionist ideas to turn attention to Bosnia Herzegovina. These leaders viewed Bosnia Herzegovina as being rightfully theirs. An agreement was made that would lead to its division. However, the high population of the Muslim Bosniaks in the region did not accept the agreement.
This group of Muslims had to be eliminated. A situation that was similar to the one Hitler had emerged. A master race had to be created so that a solution could be found for the people in the region. Basically, the main cause of the Bosnian Genocide was territorial greed as well as land grabbing to establish an empire.
Another cause of the Bosnian genocide was the dream of gathering all Serbs together to form a large and united state that is free of ethnic diversity. These causes have been hidden for years without considering the ethnic rivalry that existed at the time and later. Media propaganda was also used in fueling the genocide.
The effects of the Bosnian genocide include the death of about 100,000 people by 1995. 80 percent of these were the Bosniaks. There were also other atrocities committed during the genocide such as rape. Mass killings were experienced in Yugoslavia resulting in the massacring of Muslims in what was called ethnic cleansing. About 2.2 million individuals were displaced from their homes.
Multinational Bosnian heritage was destroyed with towns being brought down. There was also severe starvation with thousands of people being unable to leave the besieged towns.
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Online Sources:
http://dmitryev.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/bosnian-genocide-20-years-after/
http://www.history.com/topics/bosnian-genocide
http://worldwithoutgenocide.org/genocides-and-conflicts/bosnian-genocide
http://www.humanities360.com/index.php/the-causes-of-the-bosnian-genocide-45562/