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Description

Eurasia is the world’s largest landmass and includes both Europe and Asia. Europe occupies about a third of the western end of Eurasia and except for Australia, is the smallest continent. It is the most densely populated for its size and no other continent has so many separate nations. Nearly all these countries have distinctive customs and speak different languages. This does much to explain Europe’s turbulent history.
Europe is a huge peninsula, subdivided into several lesser peninsulas, caused by the oceans and inland seas which encroach upon it. Its irregular form, together with the mountain barriers, and the presence of important islands near the continent, have contributed to the growth of individual nations. Differences in language and customs have a natural tendency to arouse a strong nationalistic spirit. This keeps people apart and makes them suspicious of those with different customs, and who speak alien tongues. Among mountain people an independent spirit and love of freedom is even more pronounced.

In northwest, two peninsulas are formed by the Baltic Sea. The countries of Norway and Sweden occupy the Scandinavian peninsula, Denmark is on the Jutland Peninsula between the Baltic and North Seas. To the south, Portugal and Spain comprise by the Iberian Peninsula. The peninsular boot of Italy thrusts out into the Mediterranean, and the Balkan Peninsula is surrounded by the Black Sea and the Adriatic, Ionian, and Aegean Seas of the Mediterranean. Great Britain is prevented from being a peninsula only by the narrow English Channel and was once a part of the mainland. The entire course of history has been changed by this strip of water which made England an island. The same may be said for the Straits of Gibraltar separating Europe from Africa. But for the nine-mile passage, the Mediterranean would have had no outlet to the Atlantic. Europe may be divided into five natural regions: 1) the northwest highlands, 2) the Central Plains, 3) the Central highlands, 4) the southern Mountains and plateaus, and 5) the Southern lowlands.

Most of the British Isles, a section of France and a good part of the Scandinavian peninsula are included in the northwest Highlands. This is the coastal region with excellent harbors where men have made their living by the sea, and commerce has become more important. In those places where coal and iron are found it has led to an industrial life. This highland region enjoys a cool, temperate climate and the people are energetic.

The great Central Plains extend from the British Isles to the Ural Mountains that separate Europe from Asia. These plains range from tundra regions of the Far North to the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea of the Southeast. In the southwest they reach into southern France. Within such an extensive area there are naturally great differences in climate. There is also great diversity of vegetation and the occupations of the people.

South of the Arctic tundra belt are-extensive evergreen forests that reach westward to the Scandinavian Peninsula. In the grasslands to the south of the forests are large areas used for the growing of grains, and stock grazing is the chief occupation in the drier southeastern sections. This is the region of the dry and treeless steppes. The Central Highlands include the plateau in Central France and take in parts of Belgium southern Germany, Austria, and the Czecho-Slovakian area. It is the region of forest, waterpower, and varied mineral resources. The industrial districts of Central Europe are the outgrowth of the great deposits of coal and iron found here.

The impressive peaks of the Alps rise south of the Central Highlands, forming one of the many ranges of Southern Europe. The Apennines extend the length of Italy, and other ranges follow the eastern coast of the Adriatic through Yugoslavia and Albania to the southern tip of Greece. Spreading out to the east they include most of the Balkan Peninsula to the north the Carpathian Mountains swing east and north around the valley of the Danube and then northeast to almost circle the Plain of Hungary. Farther to the east, the Caucasus Mountains reach from the Black to the Caspian Sea. Separating France and Spain are the Pyrenees, and the Sierra Nevada’s are in southern Spain bordering the Mediterranean.

The Alps are particularly famous for their scenic grandeur. The Sierra Nevadas and Carpathia are rich in mineral resources and some of the world’s greatest oil fields are in the Caucasus. The mountains of Italy lack valuable ores and have been largely stripped of their forests. The southern lowlands of the Danube Valley and the plain of Hungary represent some of the finest farming and grazing land in the world. The extreme irregularity of the European coastline has been of great importance to the life of the people.

With the north and Baltic Seas, the Mediterranean and Black Seas, penetrating far into the interior, only Central Europe and Eastern Russia are very far from the coast. Although the combined areas of South America and Africa are nearly five times that of that of Europe, the coastline of Europe is longer. Most of the great seaports of the world are in western Europe. Its people have led the world in seafaring. Europe has generally mild, temperate climate particularly in the western areas, which are warmed by ocean currents and the winds blowing over these waters. Even the British Isles have a mild climate despite being in the same altitude as Labrador. Greater extremes of temperature exist in eastern Europe where these winds lose their moderating effect. Due to the Alps blocking of the Mediterranean, the southern shores of Europe enjoy a mild year-round climate. Excepting in easter Europe, where the rainfall is light, there is generally sufficient moisture for agriculture. An abundance of mineral resources, fine forests, rich farmlands, waterpower, and the seas plentifully supplied with fish, have encouraged Europe’s growth. An invigorating climate, waterways, harbors, and access to the oceans of the world, have contributed to its commercial importance. The climate and natural resources of each country have largely determined their individual occupations and prosperity.

Western Europe experienced a great flourishing following the end of the Second World War. The French Republic and Great Britain exhausted from the war had to deal with a rapidly collapsing empire, while the Western German Republic had a vicious legacy to face. The lowland nations lost their empires and looked inward for healing. Spain and Portugal remained Fascist holding on tightly to their empire until the mid-1970s. Without their colonial empires, the European states needed a new economic structure that provided the raw materials with their former colonies tied in Neo-Colonial relations used to provide. Italy a former Fascist state steered close to the Marxist side of the European schism, prompting the US to form NATO to provide protection against the USSR and ensure American hegemony. Meanwhile, the European states of West Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France proposed an economic community. Attracting Italy to this project and later Great Britain, post-fascist Spain, and post-Estado Novo Portugal, the European Economic Community was born. The ECC would provide a robust framework for the Scandinavian kingdoms and the mainland European states to unify their large and prosperous economic structures into one unified superstructure which allowed the general prosperity occurring because of social democracy which was making a large imprint on the continent finally.

The federation which composes the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia is a multi-ethnic nation-state. Consisting of a mountainous core, which stretches from the Dinaric Alps in the northwest to the Balkan Mountains on the Bulgarian frontier. The only valley that cuts the mountains and forms a passageway is that of the Morava River, which leads from Belgrade to Thessaloniki with that of the Vardar. Beyond the Sava-Danube, as far as the northern boundary, the land is low and swampy near the rivers with a few minor elevations. The chief concentrations of people are around the cities Zagreb and Belgrade. Yugoslavia had experienced a crisis resulting from its boycott by the Comintern countries and the Soviet Union. Forced to turn to the West, the nation has signed trade agreements with several Western European states. Its most significant problem is the lack of communication between its regions. The more highly developed coastal areas have access to outside markets. Still, the distribution of economic aid further inland is hampered by the mountains, which impose a sound barrier between the provinces. Yugoslavia would die a slow death with the demise of its dictator Josip Broz Tito. Reforming the system into what would arguably have been a parliamentary democracy, the liberalized republics of Slovenia and Croatia would drift further and further away from Belgrade. At the same time, the multi-ethnic regions of Kosovo became a hotbed of Serb nationalism. The secession of Slovenia compounded matters in 1992 and its ten-day-long war of independence. Croatia and later the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Republic of Macedonia followed suit, seceding from the dying Federal union of Yugoslavia, leaving behind a rump state ruled by the Socialist Republic of Serbia which later became the Republic of Serbia, existing in a federal union with the Republic of Montenegro. Montenegro would go its way in 2006, leaving Serbia with a rebellious Kosovo seceding in 2008, thereby ending the project of unifying Southern Slavs and abolishing Greater Serbia.

Hugging the Adriatic coast with a string of rocky and broken up Islands and shores, Croatia is the largest maritime state of the former Yugoslavia. The nation has a history of being a borderland between the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires, this role ending with the birth of Yugoslavia. Croatian aspirations for political equality within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia resulted in a province (Banovina) of Croatia being established. The Second World War saw a brief Croatian state led by the Ustase emerge, though this was soon liquidated by partisans and chetniks. Under the Yugoslav state of Tito, Croat communists would try Ustase collaborators. In 1990,Croatia adopted multi-party democracy. The newly elected government of Franjo Tuđman pushed the republic towards independence, seceding from Yugoslavia in 1991. Croatia would join the European Union and NATO in 2013 and 2009 respectively. Slovenia was one of the first few Yugoslav republics to secede fighting a Ten-Day War for independence. Mostly homogenous when compared to its sister republics, Slovenia would have the most liberal reforms of any other republic during its transition toward separation, eventually completely separating in December of 1990. Slovenia like Croatia was oriented toward Western Europe and would join the European Union in 2004 and joined NATO in 2004. Bosnia-Herzegovina is arguably one of the most diverse of the former Yugoslav Republics. Populated by Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks, the nation speaks a variety of Serbo-Croatian dialects with its own unique Bosnian dialect (influenced nominally by Turkish).

Bosnia is the patrimony of the Muslim community formed as result of the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans and prompted toward ethnic distinction by the 19th century, one of the originators of the Bosnian national identity was Catholic, Fra Ivan Franjo Jukić who considered himself Bosniak and called for the preservation of a unified Bosniak nation across all denominations in Bosnia. The nation declared independence in 1992, but was wracked by a vicious civil war which resulted in the Serb population committing genocide and ethnic cleansing. Atrocities by Bosniaks and Croats would be retaliatory, but nowhere near the scale or having the same state-backing as the Serb Republic (Republika Srpska). Bosnia's civil war ended with NATO intervention and the formation of what amounts to an International Viceroyalty, in which a UN appointed Commissioner oversees the political landscape of the nation and holds veto power to ensure balance and stability. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the rump state left behind by the collapse of Yugoslavia. Later transitioning to the Bi-National State of Serbia-Montenegro, the nation was wracked by economic crisis and political turmoil. Civil War with Kosovo locked Serbia-Montenegro in perpetual conflict with the International Community and especially NATO which did not approve of the police-state utilized by Serbia to run the province of Kosovo. By 2006 a referendum was held by Montenegro in which a majority voted to secede from the union marked Serbia's reduction to its core territory and autonomous provinces. The newly born Republic of Serbia two years later would be subject to an intervention by NATO at the height of Serbia's ethnic suppression of Kosovo, the conflict ended with a decisive air campaign and Kosovo emerging as an independent state. Serbia remains the only vestige of the Former Yugoslavia to keep its distance away from NATO and the European Union.

Montenegro was the first South Slav nation to remain fully independent of the Ottoman and Habsburg empires. Ruled as a tiny Orthodox Christian theocracy, the nation transitioned toward the status of a principality when prince Danilo I Petrović-Njegoš, formerly known as Vladika Danilo II, ended his position as a religious leader and married beginning Montenegro's brief history as a tiny kingdom. Under Yugoslavia Montenegro was little more than another province, though briefly occupied and colonized by Italy during the Second World War. Under Communist Yugoslavia, Montenegro progressed at the same pace as other Yugoslav regions with lowered industrial capacity. Montenegro's role within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and later the State Union of Serbia-Montenegro was that of a colony, serving as a means of Serbia justifying greater territorial expansion. In 2006, Montenegro held an independence referendum. Some 55% voted in favour of independence, but this was only a narrow victory for independence. Montenegro officially declared independence in June 2006, causing Serbia to become independent, ending Yugoslavia and Serbian expansionism. Montenegro would join NATO in 2017, an action which remains controversial. Kosovo is a former province of Serbia. Subjected to intensive Serbian colonization from 1912-2008, the Albanian majority in Kosovo desired union or independence from Serbia and Yugoslavia. A de facto colony during the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Kosovo thanks to NATO intervention managed to dislodge and end Serb rule, becoming an independent nation-state. Macedonia's struggle for independence begun within the Ottoman Empire, under Serbian rule in 1913-1914 it was subject to intensive colonization, though this mostly veered toward the neighboring lands of Kosovo. By the time of Yugoslavia Macedonia was more a periphery than a proper a nation-state, though Macedonian spoke their own distinctive dialect of Southern Slavic the Serbian government pursued a policy of forced Serbianisation and colonization in the region, which included systematic suppression of Bulgarian activists, altering names, and engaging in land settlement. The IMRO (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization) would advocate for an independent Macedonia, though it wasn't until the Bulgarian conquest of the region and later its liberation by Communist forces that a Macedonia was made a distinctive nation-state within the Yugoslav federation. It would declare independence on 8 September, 1991 peacefully removing itself from the collapsing Yugoslav project. A brief insurgency in 2001 saw a flare up of Albanian insurgents, eventually put down, Macedonia's greatest conflict emerged from its neighbor Greece which claimed that Macedonia had appropriated its name. Going by FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), though in reality the nation simply goes by Macedonia.

Description

Eurasia is the world’s largest landmass and includes both Europe and Asia. Europe occupies about a third of the western end of Eurasia and except for Australia, is the smallest continent. It is the most densely populated for its size and no other continent has so many separate nations. Nearly all these countries have distinctive customs and speak different languages. This does much to explain Europe’s turbulent history.
Europe is a huge peninsula, subdivided into several lesser peninsulas, caused by the oceans and inland seas which encroach upon it. Its irregular form, together with the mountain barriers, and the presence of important islands near the continent, have contributed to the growth of individual nations. Differences in language and customs have a natural tendency to arouse a strong nationalistic spirit. This keeps people apart and makes them suspicious of those with different customs, and who speak alien tongues. Among mountain people an independent spirit and love of freedom is even more pronounced.

In northwest, two peninsulas are formed by the Baltic Sea. The countries of Norway and Sweden occupy the Scandinavian peninsula, Denmark is on the Jutland Peninsula between the Baltic and North Seas. To the south, Portugal and Spain comprise by the Iberian Peninsula. The peninsular boot of Italy thrusts out into the Mediterranean, and the Balkan Peninsula is surrounded by the Black Sea and the Adriatic, Ionian, and Aegean Seas of the Mediterranean. Great Britain is prevented from being a peninsula only by the narrow English Channel and was once a part of the mainland. The entire course of history has been changed by this strip of water which made England an island. The same may be said for the Straits of Gibraltar separating Europe from Africa. But for the nine-mile passage, the Mediterranean would have had no outlet to the Atlantic. Europe may be divided into five natural regions: 1) the northwest highlands, 2) the Central Plains, 3) the Central highlands, 4) the southern Mountains and plateaus, and 5) the Southern lowlands.

Most of the British Isles, a section of France and a good part of the Scandinavian peninsula are included in the northwest Highlands. This is the coastal region with excellent harbors where men have made their living by the sea, and commerce has become more important. In those places where coal and iron are found it has led to an industrial life. This highland region enjoys a cool, temperate climate and the people are energetic.

The great Central Plains extend from the British Isles to the Ural Mountains that separate Europe from Asia. These plains range from tundra regions of the Far North to the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea of the Southeast. In the southwest they reach into southern France. Within such an extensive area there are naturally great differences in climate. There is also great diversity of vegetation and the occupations of the people.

South of the Arctic tundra belt are-extensive evergreen forests that reach westward to the Scandinavian Peninsula. In the grasslands to the south of the forests are large areas used for the growing of grains, and stock grazing is the chief occupation in the drier southeastern sections. This is the region of the dry and treeless steppes. The Central Highlands include the plateau in Central France and take in parts of Belgium southern Germany, Austria, and the Czecho-Slovakian area. It is the region of forest, waterpower, and varied mineral resources. The industrial districts of Central Europe are the outgrowth of the great deposits of coal and iron found here.

The impressive peaks of the Alps rise south of the Central Highlands, forming one of the many ranges of Southern Europe. The Apennines extend the length of Italy, and other ranges follow the eastern coast of the Adriatic through Yugoslavia and Albania to the southern tip of Greece. Spreading out to the east they include most of the Balkan Peninsula to the north the Carpathian Mountains swing east and north around the valley of the Danube and then northeast to almost circle the Plain of Hungary. Farther to the east, the Caucasus Mountains reach from the Black to the Caspian Sea. Separating France and Spain are the Pyrenees, and the Sierra Nevada’s are in southern Spain bordering the Mediterranean.

The Alps are particularly famous for their scenic grandeur. The Sierra Nevadas and Carpathia are rich in mineral resources and some of the world’s greatest oil fields are in the Caucasus. The mountains of Italy lack valuable ores and have been largely stripped of their forests. The southern lowlands of the Danube Valley and the plain of Hungary represent some of the finest farming and grazing land in the world. The extreme irregularity of the European coastline has been of great importance to the life of the people.

With the north and Baltic Seas, the Mediterranean and Black Seas, penetrating far into the interior, only Central Europe and Eastern Russia are very far from the coast. Although the combined areas of South America and Africa are nearly five times that of that of Europe, the coastline of Europe is longer. Most of the great seaports of the world are in western Europe. Its people have led the world in seafaring. Europe has generally mild, temperate climate particularly in the western areas, which are warmed by ocean currents and the winds blowing over these waters. Even the British Isles have a mild climate despite being in the same altitude as Labrador. Greater extremes of temperature exist in eastern Europe where these winds lose their moderating effect. Due to the Alps blocking of the Mediterranean, the southern shores of Europe enjoy a mild year-round climate. Excepting in easter Europe, where the rainfall is light, there is generally sufficient moisture for agriculture. An abundance of mineral resources, fine forests, rich farmlands, waterpower, and the seas plentifully supplied with fish, have encouraged Europe’s growth. An invigorating climate, waterways, harbors, and access to the oceans of the world, have contributed to its commercial importance. The climate and natural resources of each country have largely determined their individual occupations and prosperity.

Western Europe experienced a great flourishing following the end of the Second World War. The French Republic and Great Britain exhausted from the war had to deal with a rapidly collapsing empire, while the Western German Republic had a vicious legacy to face. The lowland nations lost their empires and looked inward for healing. Spain and Portugal remained Fascist holding on tightly to their empire until the mid-1970s. Without their colonial empires, the European states needed a new economic structure that provided the raw materials with their former colonies tied in Neo-Colonial relations used to provide. Italy a former Fascist state steered close to the Marxist side of the European schism, prompting the US to form NATO to provide protection against the USSR and ensure American hegemony. Meanwhile, the European states of West Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France proposed an economic community. Attracting Italy to this project and later Great Britain, post-fascist Spain, and post-Estado Novo Portugal, the European Economic Community was born. The ECC would provide a robust framework for the Scandinavian kingdoms and the mainland European states to unify their large and prosperous economic structures into one unified superstructure which allowed the general prosperity occurring because of social democracy which was making a large imprint on the continent finally.

The federation which composes the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia is a multi-ethnic nation-state. Consisting of a mountainous core, which stretches from the Dinaric Alps in the northwest to the Balkan Mountains on the Bulgarian frontier. The only valley that cuts the mountains and forms a passageway is that of the Morava River, which leads from Belgrade to Thessaloniki with that of the Vardar. Beyond the Sava-Danube, as far as the northern boundary, the land is low and swampy near the rivers with a few minor elevations. The chief concentrations of people are around the cities Zagreb and Belgrade. Yugoslavia had experienced a crisis resulting from its boycott by the Comintern countries and the Soviet Union. Forced to turn to the West, the nation has signed trade agreements with several Western European states. Its most significant problem is the lack of communication between its regions. The more highly developed coastal areas have access to outside markets. Still, the distribution of economic aid further inland is hampered by the mountains, which impose a sound barrier between the provinces. Yugoslavia would die a slow death with the demise of its dictator Josip Broz Tito. Reforming the system into what would arguably have been a parliamentary democracy, the liberalized republics of Slovenia and Croatia would drift further and further away from Belgrade. At the same time, the multi-ethnic regions of Kosovo became a hotbed of Serb nationalism. The secession of Slovenia compounded matters in 1992 and its ten-day-long war of independence. Croatia and later the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Republic of Macedonia followed suit, seceding from the dying Federal union of Yugoslavia, leaving behind a rump state ruled by the Socialist Republic of Serbia which later became the Republic of Serbia, existing in a federal union with the Republic of Montenegro. Montenegro would go its way in 2006, leaving Serbia with a rebellious Kosovo seceding in 2008, thereby ending the project of unifying Southern Slavs and abolishing Greater Serbia.

Hugging the Adriatic coast with a string of rocky and broken up Islands and shores, Croatia is the largest maritime state of the former Yugoslavia. The nation has a history of being a borderland between the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires, this role ending with the birth of Yugoslavia. Croatian aspirations for political equality within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia resulted in a province (Banovina) of Croatia being established. The Second World War saw a brief Croatian state led by the Ustase emerge, though this was soon liquidated by partisans and chetniks. Under the Yugoslav state of Tito, Croat communists would try Ustase collaborators. In 1990,Croatia adopted multi-party democracy. The newly elected government of Franjo Tuđman pushed the republic towards independence, seceding from Yugoslavia in 1991. Croatia would join the European Union and NATO in 2013 and 2009 respectively. Slovenia was one of the first few Yugoslav republics to secede fighting a Ten-Day War for independence. Mostly homogenous when compared to its sister republics, Slovenia would have the most liberal reforms of any other republic during its transition toward separation, eventually completely separating in December of 1990. Slovenia like Croatia was oriented toward Western Europe and would join the European Union in 2004 and joined NATO in 2004. Bosnia-Herzegovina is arguably one of the most diverse of the former Yugoslav Republics. Populated by Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks, the nation speaks a variety of Serbo-Croatian dialects with its own unique Bosnian dialect (influenced nominally by Turkish).

Bosnia is the patrimony of the Muslim community formed as result of the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans and prompted toward ethnic distinction by the 19th century, one of the originators of the Bosnian national identity was Catholic, Fra Ivan Franjo Jukić who considered himself Bosniak and called for the preservation of a unified Bosniak nation across all denominations in Bosnia. The nation declared independence in 1992, but was wracked by a vicious civil war which resulted in the Serb population committing genocide and ethnic cleansing. Atrocities by Bosniaks and Croats would be retaliatory, but nowhere near the scale or having the same state-backing as the Serb Republic (Republika Srpska). Bosnia's civil war ended with NATO intervention and the formation of what amounts to an International Viceroyalty, in which a UN appointed Commissioner oversees the political landscape of the nation and holds veto power to ensure balance and stability. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the rump state left behind by the collapse of Yugoslavia. Later transitioning to the Bi-National State of Serbia-Montenegro, the nation was wracked by economic crisis and political turmoil. Civil War with Kosovo locked Serbia-Montenegro in perpetual conflict with the International Community and especially NATO which did not approve of the police-state utilized by Serbia to run the province of Kosovo. By 2006 a referendum was held by Montenegro in which a majority voted to secede from the union marked Serbia's reduction to its core territory and autonomous provinces. The newly born Republic of Serbia two years later would be subject to an intervention by NATO at the height of Serbia's ethnic suppression of Kosovo, the conflict ended with a decisive air campaign and Kosovo emerging as an independent state. Serbia remains the only vestige of the Former Yugoslavia to keep its distance away from NATO and the European Union.

Montenegro was the first South Slav nation to remain fully independent of the Ottoman and Habsburg empires. Ruled as a tiny Orthodox Christian theocracy, the nation transitioned toward the status of a principality when prince Danilo I Petrović-Njegoš, formerly known as Vladika Danilo II, ended his position as a religious leader and married beginning Montenegro's brief history as a tiny kingdom. Under Yugoslavia Montenegro was little more than another province, though briefly occupied and colonized by Italy during the Second World War. Under Communist Yugoslavia, Montenegro progressed at the same pace as other Yugoslav regions with lowered industrial capacity. Montenegro's role within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and later the State Union of Serbia-Montenegro was that of a colony, serving as a means of Serbia justifying greater territorial expansion. In 2006, Montenegro held an independence referendum. Some 55% voted in favour of independence, but this was only a narrow victory for independence. Montenegro officially declared independence in June 2006, causing Serbia to become independent, ending Yugoslavia and Serbian expansionism. Montenegro would join NATO in 2017, an action which remains controversial. Kosovo is a former province of Serbia. Subjected to intensive Serbian colonization from 1912-2008, the Albanian majority in Kosovo desired union or independence from Serbia and Yugoslavia. A de facto colony during the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Kosovo thanks to NATO intervention managed to dislodge and end Serb rule, becoming an independent nation-state. Macedonia's struggle for independence begun within the Ottoman Empire, under Serbian rule in 1913-1914 it was subject to intensive colonization, though this mostly veered toward the neighboring lands of Kosovo. By the time of Yugoslavia Macedonia was more a periphery than a proper a nation-state, though Macedonian spoke their own distinctive dialect of Southern Slavic the Serbian government pursued a policy of forced Serbianisation and colonization in the region, which included systematic suppression of Bulgarian activists, altering names, and engaging in land settlement. The IMRO (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization) would advocate for an independent Macedonia, though it wasn't until the Bulgarian conquest of the region and later its liberation by Communist forces that a Macedonia was made a distinctive nation-state within the Yugoslav federation. It would declare independence on 8 September, 1991 peacefully removing itself from the collapsing Yugoslav project. A brief insurgency in 2001 saw a flare up of Albanian insurgents, eventually put down, Macedonia's greatest conflict emerged from its neighbor Greece which claimed that Macedonia had appropriated its name. Going by FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), though in reality the nation simply goes by Macedonia.