ABSTRACT
The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, as it was initially called before the name of Yugoslavia was adopted in 1929, lasted from 1918 to 1941. When Adolf Hitler attacked Yugoslavia in April 1941, the Croats, for the most part, welcomed the Nazi troops, while in Belgrade the Germans were received with icy stares. During Tito's presidency, the Yugoslavization of the country progressed further, with different nationalities moving to other parts of the country for various reasons like business, family, or climate. With Josip Broz Tito's death in 1980, the strong unifying force disappeared, and economic difficulties, long shoved under the rug, arose. In politics as in life, the relationship between action and reaction is often complex and unclear and so it is in the case of Yugoslavia's disintegration. European and American policy should have clearly stated that unilateral secessions would not be recognized; that while people were not opposed to the self-determination of the different Yugoslav nationalities.
