Second and third year undergraduate courses

Yugoslavia: History and Disintegration

HT52101A / HT53101A

The main aim of this course is to examine the history of Yugoslavia and former Yugoslav peoples and place the recent wars in a historical context. Study of an area with a turbulent past and national ideologies allegedly engaged in a perennial conflict presents an excellent opportunity for students to engage with different, often competing interpretations of the past and problems of studying a society just emerging from conflict. This is essentially a political history course, with elements of cultural and social history, and non-history disciplines such as sociology and politics. Former Yugoslavia has been at the centre of some of the main developments in modern history, from the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo which triggered the First World War to the recent wars of Yugoslav succession, which led to wider debates such as 'return of the past' in post-Cold War Europe, viability of multinational federations, ethnic conflict and international intervention. By studying a European periphery, students will be encouraged to rethink their notions about Europe.