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Serbia occupies Kosovo and Macedonia. When Franz Ferdinand of the Austria-Hungarian arrives to promote peace in Sarajevo, he is assassinated by a Serbian nationalist. Thus, World War I begins and Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
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The Kingdom of Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia is founded; the name is later changed to Yugoslavia. The Greco-Turkish War is fought over promises made to Greece of former lands of the Ottoman Empire, made by the Allies who wanted Greek support in World War I.
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Representatives decide to divide Albania among Greece, Italy, and Yugoslavia. The Albanians reject the plan and Albania is recognized as an independent state with its admission to the League of Nations.
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The Italian forces are forced to retreat by local armies but are soon replaced by the Germans.
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Adolf Hitler attacks Yugoslavia and Greece during World War II. Yugoslavia is divided when Germany proclaims a “Greater Croatia,” to which it annexes most of Bosnia and western Serbia. The government, attempting to create a Catholic, all-Croat republic, sends hundreds of thousands of Jews and Serbs to death camps.
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The Warsaw Pact is signed by Eastern European Soviet countries, including Albania and Bulgaria. The organization is intended to balance the NATO alliance, within which the United States is a major force.
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Bulgarian troops participate in the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, while Albania withdraws from the Warsaw Pact in protest.
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In Yugoslavia, as the country descends into economic crisis, a campaign for greater freedom of expression is launched by university professors.
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Greece joins the European Union, the only member of the state from the Balkan Peninsula.
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Thousands of peace demonstrators are attacked by gunmen; for the next three years, the city is relentlessly bombarded by the Bosnian Serb Army. NATO enters the conflict in 1994 with the first air strikes in its history, targeted at Bosnian Serbs. The bloody wars continue until 1995.
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The new nation of Serbia and Montenegro replaces the old one of Yugoslavia. When Milosevic does not accept his defeat in the elections, he is forced out by mass protests. In 2003, he is handed over to the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague.
