TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Modern Conflicts Divide Nations
Modern Conflicts Divide Nations
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Civil wars and regional conflicts have complexcauses.
Rivalries among ethnic, religious, and nationalistgroups have often led to these conflicts.
Why have ethnic and religious conflictsdivided some nations?
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
New nationswere createdwith culturallydiversepopulations.Often oneethnic groupdominated.
The Europeanpowers thatdrew theirborders hadlittle concern forethnic, religious,or regionaldifferences.
Many newnationswerecreatedafter WorldWar II.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
In Sri Lanka, Hindu Tamilsfelt excluded fromgovernment; their languageand religion were notrecognized. A bloody civilwar resulted.
By contrast, minority French speakers in Quebec,Canada, have been able to work within the politicalsystem.
Conflicts mayoccur whenmembers of agroup feel theyhave beentreated unfairly.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Years of violence plagued Northern Ireland.
When Ireland won independence in 1922, six countiesof Northern Ireland remained part of Britain.
Catholics in Northern Ireland wanted civil rights andreunion with Ireland. Majority Protestants rejectedCatholic rights and wanted to remain part of Britain.
In the 1960s, extremists on both sides turned toviolence and terrorism.
Both sides signed a peace accord known as theGood Friday Agreement in 1998. In 2007, apower-sharing government was set up.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
•Muslim Chechens were one of many minoritygroups in Russia.
•When Chechnya tried to declare independence,Russian troops invaded, killing many civilians.
•Chechens responded with terrorist attacks inMoscow and elsewhere.
Ethnic and religious tensions fueled conflictin Chechnya, a province in Russia.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
•Minority Armenians in Azerbaijan have clashedwith majority Azeris in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, where Armenians outnumber Azeris.When they declared independence, fightingbroke out.
•In 2008, Georgia attacked separatists in theregion of South Ossetia. Tensions remained highafter the conflict.
Other former Soviet republics have hadongoing conflicts.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Ethnic,nationalistic,and religioustensions toreapart Yugoslaviain the 1990s.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Before 1991,Yugoslavia wasa multiethnic
nation madeup of manyreligious andethnic groups.
•Serbs, Montenegrins,and Macedonians wereOrthodox Christian.
•Croats and Sloveneswere Roman Catholic.
•Bosnians and Albanianswere mainly Muslim.
The nation was held together by a communist government.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
In Bosnia, fightingerupted among Bosniaks,Croats, and Serbs.
This led to fightingbetween Serbs andCroats in Croatia.
After the fall of communism, individualregions began to break away, starting withSlovenia and Croatia in 1991.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
As the fightingspread, Serbianleader SlobodanMilosevic aided
and encouragedBosnian Serbs.
With his aid, Serbs engaged inethnic cleansing, removingor killing Croats and MuslimBosniaks, to create ethnically“pure” Serbian regions.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
During the Bosnian War, which lasted from 1992to 1995, both sides committed terrible atrocities.
•Sarajevo, the Bosniancapital, lay in ruins.
•NATO air strikes againstthe Bosnian Serb militaryforced both sides tonegotiate.
•The Dayton Accords,sponsored by the UnitedStates, ended the war.
People in Sarajevo view therubble of their home.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
In 1999 NATO launched air strikes at Serbia.
When a small guerrilla force of Kosovo Albaniansemerged, Milosevic rejected international peace effortsand increased his ethnic cleansing campaign.
Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic began oppressingKosovo Albanians in 1989.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Kosovo Albanianscelebratedindependencein 2008.
Serbs protested,believing that Kosovowas a historic part oftheir country.
Kosovo moved toward independence.
A small NATO force remains to keep the peace.