After a long break, I am again into this thread. Today, I feel like discussing something about Yugoslavia to start with. Yugoslavia was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, which resulted in the introduction of Islam and it expanded to Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 15th century. In the 16th century, Slovenia and Croatia came under the influence of Austria and Roman Catholicism was introduced. In the 19th century, Russia defeated the Turks, as a result Serbia was granted independence. But Kosovo and Macedonia remained in the control of the Turks. The Austro-Hungarian Empire got control of Bosnia-Herzegovina and retained Croatia and Slovenia. With the fall of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empire, and the end of the first World War, Yugoslavia came under the dictatorship of king Alexander, whose dictatorship included Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. The Croats established a fascist separatist movement called the Ustase to promote their independence. During the second World War, the Nazis conquered Yugoslavia and the country was partitioned. The fascist Ustase established a puppet Nazi state and exterminated large numbers of Serbian Orthodox believers, Jews and Gypsies. After the second World War, there was a civil war to which around 1 million Yugoslavs succumbed to death. During 1945 to 1980, Joseph Tito unified 6 republics into a communist dictatorship which was independent from USSR. He successfully suppressed the religious rivalry among the Roman Catholics, Serbian Orthodox and the Muslims during his lifetime. After Tito?s death in 1980, the centuries old religious rivalry began unfolding, and as a result, disintegration of Yugoslavia began. Slovenia got independence in 1990, Croatia and Macedonia in 1991 and Bosnia in 1992. A civil war among Croats, Serbs and Muslims erupted showing the horrific pictures of the situation to the world. In 1995, the Dayton Accord, brokered by the U.S. established a fragile peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina. As of 1999 April, Yugoslavia consists of only four provinces, Vojvodina, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo. Sources: www.religioustolerance.org/yugo_his.htm www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/Yugoslav_History.asp Map source: http://www.dunav.org.il/images/maps/map_yugoslavia.jpg