a fragmented country
Tito did not forge lasting national unity in Yugoslavia. He held the country together with secret police and Communist ideology. Tito buried ethnic tensions by repressing religion and nationalism, and dividing the country into republics that contained numerous ethnic groups.
"Tito attempted to curb nationalism in Yugoslavia by drawing the regional borders to include a mix of ethnic groups in each republic, meaning that Catholic Croats and Slovenes might find themselves living side by side with Muslim Bosnians in a region dominated by Orthodox Christian Serbs."
-"Yugoslavia Breaks Apart: 1991-1995" from Global Events (2014)
Tito made no effort to integrate Yugoslavia's six republics and two autonomous provinces. If Yugoslavia was economically and politically divided, there could be no unified opposition to his rule. In 1974, he increased the power of the regional governments as a political compromise to maintain his own power. Finally, Tito appointed an ineffective and weak collective presidency to rule after his death.
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"Not allowing religious freedom is what actually prepared the ground for the conflict... It was a good ground for nationalism because whatever was repressed had to be expressed." |