Bridge on the Sava: Ethnicity in Eastern Croatia, 1981-1991

Abstract

The war in the former Yugoslav territories is represented in popular sources as primarily an ethnic one. Originally it was referred to by some as a civil war and by others as a war of aggression of one nation or people (Serbs) against other newly independent countries (first Slovenia, then Croatia and now Bosnia and Hercegovina). The clash among Serbs, Croats and Muslims is portrayed as a nationalist revival, a consequence of deep-seated historically-constructed enmities brewing beneath the surface of forty-five years of relative political calm. This paper presents a different view. It argues that nationalism and hatred expressed by members of nationality groups towards members of other such groups are not revivals but transformations, new expressions of economic and political competition and discontent. Political leaders and other elites made use of available cultural symbols associated with nationality or ethnicity in order to gain backing for political agendas which were not primarily ethnically motivated.

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