History 

1. Prior to 6th century: Kosovo and the surrounding area were occupied by the Illyrian people, who became present-day Albanians.

2. 6th & 7th centuries: The Serbs arrived in Kosovo and the surrounding area.

3. 12 & 13th century: Rastko created the first Serbian national church.

4. 14th century: The Ottoman Turks conquered what is now Yugoslavia at the Battle of Kosovo in the Field of Blackbirds in 1389.

5. 16th century: Slovenia and Croatia came under the influence of Austria.

6. 19th century: After Russia defeated the Turks, Serbia was granted independence. But Kosovo and Macedonia remained under the control of the Turks. The Austro-Hungarians got control of Bosnia-Herzegovina and retained Croatia and Slovenia.

7. Pre-World War II: With the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian empire, the collapse of the Ottoman empire, and the conclusion of World War I, Yugoslavia became a kingdom under King Alexander, consisting of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. A fascist separatist movement, the Ustase, was established by the Croats to promote their independence.

8. World War II: The Nazis over-ran Yugoslavia and partitioned the country. The fascist Ustashe (Croatians; primarily Roman Catholics) established a puppet Nazi state, which included Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Large numbers of Serbian Orthodox believers, Jews and Roma (Gypsies) were exterminated. A civil war followed World War II; as many as 1 million Yugoslavs were killed.

9. 1945 to 1980: Joseph Tito unified the 6 republics into a communist dictatorship, independent of Russia. Tito angered the Serbs by granting autonomy to the north-eastern province of Vojvodina and the southern province of Kosovo in 1974.

10. 1980's: Tito died in 1980. Milosevic became a Serbian hero, and terminated the autonomous status of the provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo. The Albanians in Kosovo became a majority with few rights in their own country. Leading Kosovo intellectual, Ibrahim Rogova, promoted a nonviolent approach to resolve the system of Apartheid under which they were persecuted.

11. 1990's:

• 1990: The north-west province of Slovenia won its independence from the rest of Yugoslavia in 1991.

• 1991: Croatia made a bid for independence. Croats and Serbs started a civil war. The U.N. assisted in establishing a cease-fire, starting in 1992.

• 1991: Macedonia declared independence.

• 1992: Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence. A civil war among the Croats, Serbs and Muslims erupted.

• 1995: The Dayton Accord, brokered by the U.S., established a fragile peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

• 1996-7: Following the Dayton Accord, many ethnic Albanians in Kosovo decided that their nonviolent approach was getting nowhere. The Kosovo Liberation Army began a guerrilla campaign.

• 1998: The Serb army destroyed several villages in Kosovo and the West responded with "rhetoric and...meetings," but no credible threats. The Yugoslavian government then escalated the conflict. By 1999-APR, Yugoslavia consists of only four provinces: Vojvodina, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo. Montenegro had a large degree of local autonomy. The government and Serbian people of Yugoslavia are totally opposed to losing any more territory to independence or autonomy movements. This led to a massive civil war in Kosovo, and a lower-scale program of ethnic cleansing in Vojvadina (an autonomous province in Serbia). NATO became involved in 1999 in an extensive bombing campaign summed up as: "Serbs out, peacekeepters in, refugees back."

• 1999/6/12: A ceasefire was arranged and KFOR (Kosovo Force) peacekeepers entered Kosovo. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia charged Milosevic with crimes against humanity, violating the laws or customs of war, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and genocide for his role during the wars in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo.

• 2006: On the basis of a referendum held on 21 May 2006, Montenegro declared independence on 3 June of that year.