Although the causes of the breakup of Yugoslavia need much more study and reflection, political leaders on all sides used long-standing ethnic animosities to gain support in their own identifiable...

Although the causes of the breakup of Yugoslavia need much more study and reflection, political leaders on all sides used long-standing ethnic animosities to gain support in their own identifiable ethnic enclaves. According to Mary Kay Galliland (1995), most of the people residing in a “midsize town” in eastern Croatia on the border with Bosnia were “relatively unconcerned about ethnonational identity” during the 1980s (p. 201), thinking of themselves primarily as citizens of the unified country of Yugoslavia.