Post-Cold War · 1991-1999

The wars in Yugoslavia, 1991-1999

After Tito's death, Yugoslavia broke apart. Slovenia left after ten days; Croatia and Bosnia saw years of war, the siege of Sarajevo and the genocide at Srebrenica. Students compare the 1960 and 1994 maps and ask how neighbors became enemies and how the wars were stopped.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
13–16
On the map
3 steps, AD 1994
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

After Tito's death, Yugoslavia broke apart. Slovenia left after ten days; Croatia and Bosnia saw years of war, the siege of Sarajevo and the genocide at Srebrenica. Students compare the 1960 and 1994 maps and ask how neighbors became enemies and how the wars were stopped.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain why Yugoslavia broke apart after 1990.
  • Locate Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo on the 1994 map.
  • Describe how the war in Bosnia ended at Dayton and how the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague judged the crimes.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1994

One country, many peoples

Open the map in 1960 and find Yugoslavia. Then move to 1994. Which new countries do you see? Ask the atlas: "Which peoples lived in Yugoslavia?"

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1994

Sarajevo

Zoom in on Sarajevo in the valley of the Miljacka river, surrounded by hills. Ask the atlas: "How long did the siege of Sarajevo last?" Why did the hills matter?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1994

Judgment in The Hague

Travel to The Hague in the Netherlands, where the UN set up a tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 1993. Ask the atlas: "What did the Yugoslavia tribunal in The Hague do?"

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, Slovenes and others had lived together in Yugoslavia for decades. What made nationalism so powerful after 1990?
  2. Why did Slovenia's independence take ten days of fighting, while Bosnia's took more than three years?
  3. In Sarajevo people queued for water under sniper fire for almost four years. How did the city keep going?
  4. In July 1995 Bosnian Serb forces murdered more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys at Srebrenica, a UN "safe area" guarded by Dutch soldiers. What does it mean when the UN fails to protect?
  5. The Dayton Agreement stopped the war but left Bosnia divided into two parts. Is a peace that freezes a division a good peace?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Suleiman the Magnificent, whose Ottoman Empire ruled the Balkans for centuries and left Muslim, Orthodox and Catholic communities side by side. Then discuss: how did leaders in the 1990s use this history to divide people?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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